How To Effectively Manage Outsourced Software Development Teams
There are several benefits to collaborating with an outsourcing partner during the software development process, including lower costs, quicker project completion times, and access to specialized knowledge. However, you could find it difficult to give up control of your project. How can oversight be preserved while avoiding micromanagement of contracted teams?
It is feasible to manage a development team without becoming overly involved in the process, however it is a fine balance. This is your manual for effectively outsourcing software development so you can lead your team without becoming too involved.
Understanding Various Outsourcing Models
· IT Staff Augmentation
· Dedicated Teams
· Outsourced Development Services
Every model has a variety of advantages and disadvantages, and there are some circumstances in which one is better suited than the other. In certain circumstances, you may choose to employ a hybrid strategy that makes use of multiple outsourcing models. Let’s examine each one’s contents and appropriate usage scenarios.
IT Staff Augmentation
Under the IT staff augmentation strategy, the business’s internal team works with software developers and tech professionals from the outsourced development team to finish the project. One of its main advantages is that it’s a highly scalable model that provides flexibility and the skill sets you need when you need them.
A cultural and organizational fit with your external team is crucial when selecting the staff augmentation model to prevent conflicts with your internal team. The specialists from the outsourced team will become part of your internal team, and they must be able to collaborate to achieve shared objectives.
To support its operations, Forcepoint teamed with Optisol and made use of its staff augmentation methodology. We recruited frontend, PHP, Drupal, and manual QA engineers to supplement the company’s internal team and assist them achieve their exacting standards.
In a different strategy, Consumer Affairs likewise used staff augmentation via Optisol to find seasoned individuals. We brought in senior talent to work on maintenance development, infrastructure, site, and side applications connected to its website and brand’s app since they needed assistance with their frontend UX/UI and quality assurance (QA) sectors. With the help of an IT outsourcing partner, these firms were able to advance their objectives in both cases.
Dedicated Teams
Under the dedicated team model, a Scrum Master and the client’s internal product owner oversee autonomous expert teams that are often made up of a PM, software engineers, QA engineers, and additional roles as required for the project. Even though the team will be working independently, they will stay in touch with the company and send regular status reports, so you always know how your project is progressing.
Because the committed team employs Agile approaches, your input is always valued and greatly influences the final output. This method is essentially the best of both worlds: you will still have control over the project’s development and outcome, but your outsourced team will do the work autonomously in accordance with your criteria and specifications.
However, because you already have a team together, this is a little less flexible than the staff augmentation strategy. It works well when you need a project completed without your expertise or internal talent, or when you don’t have a development staff at all, so you can concentrate on your main company.
Let’s examine how this appears in the actual world: To expand its offers and move its programming from satellite broadcast to internet and mobile platforms, SiriusXM needs a fully operational crew. The team Optisol assembled used design-thinking to construct a large-scale project that was successful.
Outsourced Development Services
Outsourced development services are an option for companies with well-defined project requirements and goals. These services provide their partner organizations with specialized skills and extensive experience, functioning as a cohesive team with all the necessary qualifications to accomplish any project, including cybersecurity, UX design, and software engineering.
This technique works well for smaller teams that lack the internal talent to accomplish their goals and need assistance. It’s a long-term fix that enables companies to grow their offerings and provide dependable, tailored software to match their particular requirements.
The team at Optisol collaborated with Univision to create several products, one of which was a Sports Metadata Service that used Spring Boot and complied with the SportsMl open standard. Additionally, we have contributed to streamlining and enhancing the user experience (UX) of the Univision News mobile application, the updated news hub for the US Hispanic community.
Establishing Strong Expectations
Establishing clear expectations early on with the development team is crucial. This sets guidelines at the outset of the procedure. Let’s dissect this a little more.
Specifying the Needs and Scope of the Project
The parameters of the project, including the schedule, specifications, and necessary materials, make up the project scope. Wireframes, user stories, and documentation are all crucial. This is an important phase because you will need to follow requirements and have a plan for the duration of your project.
Establishing Deadlines and Milestones
Setting reasonable deadlines, objectives, and benchmarks is a key component of a successful outsourcing partnership. You should schedule and plan for several project milestones and phrases as part of this process. These act as checkpoints to make sure the project is moving along according to schedule.
Unifying on Protocols for Communication
It goes without saying that having efficient channels and procedures for communication is essential to reaching your partnership’s objectives. To ensure that everyone is informed and in agreement, the stages include scheduling frequent meetings, deciding on your preferred communication routes, and establishing expectations for response times.
Handling the Outsourced Development Team
A range of platforms and tools for project management, cooperation, and communication are necessary while overseeing an offshore development team. It also entails maintaining control without going overboard. Here are some crucial actions you should take in particular to strengthen your management techniques.
Tracking Development and Outcomes
You will have to keep an eye on both your own development and the team’s performance during the project. To make sure that everything continues course, this is crucial. You don’t want to find out that issues have been happening without your knowledge. Additionally, you want to monitor each member of your team’s performance as well as the group’s overall performance.
Project management platforms and tools must be used to track development and performance. For instance, there are several easy-to-use technologies available, such as signboard boards, that let you see how you’re doing on each task and who is in charge of what. To stay informed at every stage, you should use these tools in addition to doing frequent status updates, meetings, and check-ins.
Giving Input and Assistance
Taking care of issues when they arise is only one aspect of managing teams that are outsourced. It also depends on providing your in-house staff and the outsourced team with prompt, insightful feedback and assistance.
Giving each team member feedback should be done proactively. Professionals learn and develop through receiving both constructive criticism and encouraging remarks. It’s also how you’ll forge closer ties inside the team and successfully finish the job. You ought to provide suggestions as well as be completely accessible for assistance. Make it known that you are available to answer questions and address problems.
By creating an environment that values candid criticism and encouragement, you’ll also inspire others to act in this way. Your team will be strengthened as a result, and everyone will feel encouraged to be open and honest with their manager or leader as well as with one another.
Providing Security and Quality
Finally, but just as importantly, you should always have strict requirements in place for quality and security when managing teams and projects that are outsourced. You are already aware of how crucial quality control and cybersecurity are. However, how are these norms really applied in real life?
Establishing systems for quality assurance (QA) is one of the most crucial steps. Software development outsourcing may involve the use of QA engineers that are either internal to your organization or provided by your partner’s team. Either way, they should work closely with the developers and other experts to ensure that the final product is as secure and free of defects as possible by conducting a lot of tests and being as active in the process as feasible.
