Outsourcing your software development project can be a game changer for business as it enables the organization to gain access to specialized skills, cost savings and a faster turnaround time. However, ensuring that your project maintains the right quality can be a challenging task.
As someone who has successfully managed several outsourced projects, I often get this question:
While the answer might differ depending on the project, I usually rely on a core checklist that applies to almost every scenario. Below I’ll share my tried-and-tested strategy to ensure quality and building trust in an outsourced software development project.
Before talking about the strategies let us know a little about what is an outsourced software development project.
Outsourcing software development means to contract a third party vendor, often from another country, to have software or applications developed for a business or organization.
This is with a view to reducing expenses, to acquire certain specialized competencies, or to release resources within the firm for other utilization.
Outsourced software development can involve activities such as designing, coding, integrating, and implementing software and applications.
Here, the interaction between the client and the outsourcing company is bipartite, which is characterized by proper communication and proper project management to cater for the whole project.
Now, further let us talk about the 6 strategy checklist to achieve a quality software delivery.
Part of the foundation of any outsourced project can be founded on the goals of the project in question. Lack of clarity however creates confusion and low standards become the norm.
Define Scope: Enumerate requirements or need, prescriptive requirements or wanted characteristics and goals.
Timelines: Describe due dates for completion of project phases as well as project completion.
Deliverables: Simplify the tasks and focus on results that are fairly easy to achieve.
KPIs: One should ensure that there are specific efficacy benchmarks that ensure success is measured.
The basic reason for stating these expectations is that you point to how things are likely to go, helping to avoid failure due to misunderstandings.
It is important to state that there are plenty of vendors or freelancer out there, however, there are different. It is very important to select a partner for carrying out quality and reliable work.
Portfolio Review: Refer to the previous work to determine relevance and quality of the work produced.
Client Testimonials: Obviously, it is advisable to seek references to previous consumers.
Experience: Choose partners for a particular bid or project type which has specialization in your specific industry.
Interviews: Have some conversations in order to evaluate their knowledge, professionalism, and way how they communicate.
Time spent choosing partners is time well spent because wrong choices are costly in the long run.
Fund management is important to ensure that there is no tension and misunderstanding in the course of the project.
Agree on Terms Upfront: There should be a clear definition of what the budget is to be covering and when payments are to be made, and what the benchmarks are.
Account for Contingencies: Savings should also allow for an extra margin of expense just in case.
Use Contracts: To safeguard the both parties it is advisable that the agreement is written down clearly.
For self-interest to result in a positive working relationship, the business stakeholders’ financial transactions must be clear to exhibit real and complete trust.
A lack of clear communication is one of the biggest culprits behind a failed project. Regular updates keep all the stakeholders aligned and ensure progress.
Set expectations: Decide the frequency and channels for updates.
Use collaboration tools: Use project management tools like Slack, Trello, Microsoft Teams or Asana for task tracking and communication.
Provide feedback: Be prompt and constructive in your feedback to keep the project on track.
Encourage Questions: Create an open environment where your outsourced partner feels comfortable seeking clarification.
Regular communication helps stop minor problems from becoming bigger ones.
In any case, no matter how good the vendor is, performing testing on the deliverables is mandatory. Testing confirms the quality standards that are set by the end user.
Conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Perform evaluation on the deliverables in real settings, to determine how efficient the deliverables are in the organization.
Review Iteratively: Review deliverables at the end of each of these milestones with the intent of uncovering potential problems.
Involve Stakeholders: Seek feedback from the leaders of main project stakeholders to overview that the proposed solution will meet business requirements.
Document Bugs: Pert identified issues should be best logged to maximize their tracking and resolution.
This means that testing helps to unveil any issue that if not detected early can be very expensive later.
A data breach or theft of an organization’s intellectual property could occur when outsourcing, and cannot be taken lightly.
Sign NDAs: Non-disclosure agreements should be used in order to guard particular data and facts.
Set Access Controls: Provide authorization to only the extent needed in the project.
Encrypt Data: This is because there are various ways of sharing information and several of these methods should only be used to share secure information and this include;
Clarify Ownership: Ensure that the ownership of the project’s Intellectual Property (IP) is defined in your contract.
Implementing a secure means of handling the data you share not only safeguards your own business but also the business you outsource to.
I can be at your rescue, my efficient project management skills can help you achieve a quality outsourced software development delivery.
Outsourcing can be a win-win situation when managed effectively. By setting clear goals, selecting the right partner, sticking to budgets, communicating regularly, testing thoroughly, and securing your data, you can ensure quality and efficiency in your projects.
These steps have consistently helped me deliver successful outcomes in outsourced collaborations while fostering long-term partnerships.
Outsourcing software development means that the business awards the project to a third party developer who may be in a different country. It is intended for decreasing expenses, obtaining unique competencies and releasing organization’s capitals for another usage.
With respect to goals: list the requirements that define the project’s boundaries, organize project phases and time frames, define tangible deliverables which emphasize results and identify KPIs that must be achieved to assess project success.
If you are considering a company for partnership then, borrow a leaf from the following process when vetting them; When considering a particular company for partnership, what one should do is thereby review their portfolio to look for a sampled work somewhere within the filed and ask for a reference from other clients they have worked for.
They maintain everyone to a common understanding, keep everyone informed of the status, help avoid confusion and enable quick resolution of problems where necessary. Clear communication expectations about how often different people or groups need to speak can also improve this process as can the use of other collaborative technologies.
To safeguard your data, execute NDAs, ensure restricted visibility of data, encrypt your data while sharing it and define ownership of IP in contracts.
I am Sanjay Parjapati, a developer at heart and a Head of business by work. My journey started with coding and helped me grow towards becoming a head of business which led me to focus on dual skills, i.e. technical know-hows and the business know-hows. My journey of 10+ years has helped me grow immensely from a professional viewpoint.
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