Offshoring your outsourced software product development may seem like an easy choice based on cost but the decision is really much more nuanced than just straight dollars and cents.
#1: Don’t underestimate the value of face-to-face meetings between the technical team and your business users.
This is crucial to project success. Make sure your product team not just literally speaks your language but can speak the language of your business. Requirements documentation is essential for the success of any software project. No one wants to hear or say “that’s not what I had in mind” at the end of a project when you’re supposed to be done. Additionally, ongoing communication will be required over the life of the project. Are you sure that you will know what the offshore project team is going? Will the offshore project team ask the right questions and in a timely manner? Entrance consultants are happy to meet face-to-face when needed to make sure nothing is lost in translation.
#2: You will get what you pay for.
While you may be able to leverage exchange rates to improve your project economics, all software developers are not created equal. Some are just smarter than others and there is a wide range of experience levels across any candidate pool. Furthermore, someone may be strong in certain technical domains but are they the relevant ones for your project? How will you know? Entrance recruits and retains top talent at all levels and when you work with us you get the combined knowledge of our experienced team.
#3: Project management is doubly important for project teams that are in different physical locations.
You must manage an offshore team even more closely because someone is always behind due to time zone differences. Entrance uses Agile Scrum methodology to manage projects in a more flexibly way while remaining focused on delivery. Is your offshore team actively managed? Even if they are, who is managing them from your business and will they dedicate the requisite time to it?
In summary, make sure you understand what is involved in offshoring software product development beyond just the dollars and cents. When you start your analysis, you may realize that the risks outweigh the rewards.