Guide to Programming Outsourcing: Everything You Should Know
Updated – August 6, 2024
Nowadays, outsourcing programming has become immensely popular among companies worldwide. It is not just a way to build top-quality software solutions but also to save business resources, including budget costs.
IT outsourcing brings significant benefits to your business, but managing outsourcing partnerships can present challenges and issues. This article will help you evaluate whether software development outsourcing is right for your company.
What is Programming Outsourcing?
Programming outsourcing is a process of delegating programming activities to independent software or app development vendors such as IT outsourcing companies or offshore development companies. The whole idea of programming outsourcing always means a third-party entity.
Companies trust a service to a third party to save time, budget costs, and dedicate more resources to product development.
Programming Outsourcing Types
Onshore Type of Outsourcing
Onshore outsourcing involves hiring a service provider located in the same country as the client company. This facilitates interactions between teams and coordination of workload. However, these are available at higher costs!
Onshore outsourcing addresses the following issues:
- Protection of intellectual property;
- Avoiding communication problems;
- Easier search for labor;
- A wider network to choose the right provider.
Nearshore Programming Outsourcing
Nearshore programming outsourcing consists of renting a nearshore service provider situated in a neighboring or border country. The service is delivered in the same time zone and has similar cultural, historical, and linguistic features.
This form of outsourcing is aimed at companies looking for a solution for fast productivity, but above all, closer in terms of geography and meeting the following criteria:
- Reduced costs, but similar quality;
- Project management conditions similar to that of the company ;
- Same time zone;
- A perfect cultural understanding.
Offshore Type of Outsourcing
Offshore form of outsourcing consists of hiring the services of a provider that is geographically distant but with offshoring, the distance isn’t considered a factor. You don’t care if your specialist lives on the other side of the globe and you might not be able to ever communicate in a synchronous manner — a person’s expertise is all that matters. This approach can increase the execution speed and productivity of all your projects. In a competitive industry where every minute counts and/or the loss of time is a failure, offshore outsourcing offers services that are according to your expectations:
- A time difference of + 2 hours in summer/ + 3 hours in winter;
- Outsourcing Services: prospecting, back office, customer relations, etc.;
- Digital Services: web and digital outsourcing ;
- Business Solutions: seat leasing;
- Professional Services: business incorporation, accounting, etc.
Models of Programming Outsourcing
Regarding cooperation models, they are quite flexible and fit most of the projects. There are 2 main models that you should research before hiring a team:
Building Digital Solution From Scratch
This is a typical model of IT outsourcing services. First, the client has an idea and requirements, and an outsourcing company offers a solution. Then, the client’s request goes through certain stages, which help determine the project scoop and when they need to deliver it.
First, it starts with a discovery phase. This phase is essential to clear unknowns in the project. During this phase, the project requirements are collected, including platforms, business goals, main features, and much more.
The specification is a document with product features and a tech description of how they should work. It greatly simplifies the communication between team members and helps them deliver the customer’s product vision.
Next, a schematic representation of each screen with UI elements and user flow between all screens. Finally, user flow shows the navigation between screens. Then, wireframes and specifications are checked by QA engineers for logical errors.
Finally, a detailed estimate of the development time and cost is constituted. By the end of this phase, customers get specifications, wireframes, and an exact estimate.
Now the company can calculate the complexity and development time to move to the next stage. When all app mockups are ready, the project’s development begins. Finally, when all is set and done, a finished product goes through the release stage and is finally handed over to the customer.
Hiring a Dedicated Team
A dedicated team is a great decision when a client already has a product but needs more hands to continue its development. Members of a dedicated team are selected according to customer wishes and requirements, as they will be engaged only in this project.
You cooperate with highly skilled professionals; you relatively save time on training. In addition, developers quickly adjust to your projects and work full-time, this will work the best for long-term projects.
Price Per Unit
The service specifies the cost, and the customer pays to use it. For example, if you require support and maintenance for a web-based or mobile application, code review, or server management, you either pay for a fixed number of hours on demand or a set sum each month.
Famous Companies that Outsource Programming
What percent of us companies outsource programming? According to the 2020 study by Deloitte, 70% of US companies who choose outsourcing programming services to their software development projects, do so to save money. For the past few years, the same research has shown that cost reduction has been considered important but not the main reason why tech companies would choose to outsource. These renowned brands are outsourcing programming and other IT-related services to 3rd-party vendors:
Does Google outsource programming work? The answer is YES. While Google has always given priority to its in-house California staff, it has also strategically deployed programming outsourcing more on projects that require continuous, cost-effective deployment. This allows Google staff to do a better job developing and managing their many following projects.
During the early years, Whatsapp outsourced programming to create most of its apps so that the startup could focus on core business activities.
- Alibaba
China’s e-commerce giant’s fast growth is caused primarily by the skills of its outsourced developers from a different country. The company outsourced its development to a firm in the USA.
- Slack
Slack was in its early stages when it hired a programming outsourcing company to develop its product. MetaLab worked on the company’s website and app, as well as designing its logo, creating most of what consumers see when they work with the messaging service today. While MetaLab has designed a big amo of successful products over the years, businesses across all industries contact the design firm, hoping to duplicate Slack’s success.
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Benefits of Outsourcing Programming
What are the benefits of outsourcing programming? Programming outsourcing saves your time and budget, you get access to an unlimited talent pool, and this model is very flexible.
- Cost-efficient
Cost is one of the main benefits of programming outsourcing that is taken into account during the decision-making process. Compared to creating software in-house, software programming outsourcing can cut development costs by nearly 50%. In addition, the outsourcing partner fully covers salary taxes, work equipment, office spaces, and other expenses.
- Saving your Time
Programming outsourcing not only saves your budget but also the essential time of your in-house team or building one from scratch and leading the project yourself. You don’t need to put any effort into training sessions, interviewing, recruiting, etc., which gives you more time to focus on your projects.
- Flexibility
When you outsource programming projects, you do not have to spend time and resources on managing the team. Most outsourcing companies like Qubit Labs offer high flexibility, allowing you to scale your team up and down as the project requires. This also allows you to save budget costs.
- Get Access to the Unlimited Talent Pool
Global talents have never been in bigger demand than now. Business owners don’t hesitate to outsource programming on purpose to improve their business and get closer to their goals by hiring and retaining solid talent. Rather than relying on limited inner resources and familiar technologies outsourcing programming services with corresponding talents for particular tasks can inbreathe new perspectives into current projects, as well as provide important benefits for development and business improvements.
Tech Task to Outsource
Don’t think that the term ‘programming outsourcing’ requires only hiring remote coders, there are different tasks involved in building an app or software that you can outsource. The list includes, but not limited to:
- User research;
- Feasibility study;
- UI/UX design
- Backend development;
- Agile DevOps services;
- Software QA & Testing;
- Post-deployment support.
As you can see, you can hire not only coders but a whole team of professionals that are responsible for different tasks and will focus on your product in all stages of its development.
How to Outsource Programming? Step By Step Guide
Make your requirements clear
First, you should discuss your in-depth plan before using outsourcing programming services. Along with your business standards, make sure to include all the details and skills required, how you would prefer to pay, whether it is one project or a longer-term partnership, the desired developer experience level, skills, project visibility, and any other relevant details.
Decide Where to Outsource Programming
The next step is to research specific countries that have good outsourcing developers. The top destination where outsourcing programming are in Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Moldova) and Caucasus region countries like Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. Pay particular note to how much do software developers charge in those countries per hour and the time difference between where your company is and where the agency or developer is located to ensure smooth communication.
Research about Best Programming Outsourcing Companies
Make a list of several agencies that you think meet your requirements on a quick site. Then, do even more research on each of the ones you select and see their portfolios, past experience, reviews, feedback, and referrals. It’s also a good idea to contact any of their past clients and inquire about their relationship with the outsourcing programming development company you are vetting. Ask them about their experience with that company, whether they were satisfied with the work provided, and if they would work with them in the future.
Verify The Expertise
To outsource programming projects, you need more than just facts and information. The only way to do that is to go to the source itself. Contact the development agencies you’ve chosen in the previous step. At this stage, it is essential to explain your goals and requirements for the project clearly to ensure that you are on the same page as the outsourcing programming development agency.
Ask them about their work process, conditions, the technology they are using, the IT solutions they are employing, management experience, and, most importantly, if they have any projects similar to yours. If yes, that will be a plus.
Don’t Forget to Test
In this stage, test analysts will provide a number of validation checks on the software, such as performance testing and exploratory manual testing. The main objective is to ensure that the quality of the work in the build phase is sufficiently robust to meet the demands that will be placed on the system during normal operating conditions.
Hire Company
As soon as you choose to outsource programming services, you’re ready to officiate the hire. Work out the terms of collaboration on a contract and make sure both parties are satisfied and agree with it. Make sure that items like deadlines, working models, requirements, and payment terms are clearly specified. And finally, make a hire!
Qubit Labs – Your Provider of Outsourcing Programming Services
Qubit Labs has a long-standing reputation for empowering startups with programming outsourcing solutions. Our company is powered by a team of highly skilled, driven, and well-educated IT experts from different countries, giving you access to a huge talent pool. Based on your requirements and budget, we find the best developers who fit your project individually.
Over the years, we have become the preferred IT outsourcing programming solution for startups. We guide projects and businesses in various industries in building their apps through proven strategies, processes, and a skilled programming workforce. We are proud when we build long-term cooperation with companies and brands.
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