The software outsourcing process commences when a business is facing certain limitations and decides to employ a third party to carry out the work on its behalf. Outsourcing software development projects to a trusted development partner enables you to get acquainted with top-notch web, mobile, and other software products.

Not only that, outsourcing offers several benefits and other positives that enterprises and individual software developers can experience. So, if employing trusted third-party software developers resonates with you, here’s a step by step procedure for outsourcing software development projects:

Software Development Outsourcing Process

The following guide helps you navigate through your outsourcing journey for hiring a reliable outsourcing partner.

1. Defining Your Expectations and Goals

Without clear and concise goals and expectations, the outsourcing team would find it difficult to comprehend the software development project. Thus, the first step before you do anything is to prepare a detailed project outline, what features to include, technology to use, and a timeline for completion.

Include your internal team or even the people you know from your business relations if possible for a brainstorming session. This would help you ensure your software development projects sound interesting and achievable.

2. Devise Scope of Work

Preparing the scope of work is the next step in the process of outsourcing software development. It does not make sense to reach out to a software outsourcing partner without any documentation that clearly outlines the objective and scope of work.

Devising such documents would require things such as product specification documents, plans, budget estimates, system admin documents, and other reports. These are just the tip of the iceberg, there’s a whole bunch of things needed depending on the type of the project.

3. Research & Find Reliable Software Development Partner

Finding a trusted and reliable software outsourcing partner is a tough nut to crack. The right software development agency is decided based on the project requirements, goals, and scope of work.

The first thing you should do is get references from your team, colleagues, business partners, or just google it. Also, there are various company comparisons and review sites such as clutch to find a reliable outsourcing company.

Shortlist some of the agencies and filter out to find the best and reliable one to do the job. To shortlist companies, you’d have to do a bit of research first, which can be a tedious task but have huge implications on your software development project.

There are certain ways to research and find the best outsourcing agencies such as checking out their portfolio, reviews/testimonials from past clients, years of experience, etc.

4. Contacting the Outsourcing Partner

The first interaction with the agency of your choice is going to be crucial. You can approach more than one agency with similar interests and conduct an interview with them to get an idea if they are experts in their field or not.

Schedule a video interview or a phone call to establish a personal relationship. Here are a few things you should discuss while on a call with the outsourcing agency:

• Ask about their process, past experience, and technical skills for completing the project.
• Set out your goals and expectations from the start.
• Discuss about their prior projects, what problems they had, and how they resolved them.
• Find out the team size and who’ll work on your project, who will be the point of contact, etc.
• Discuss the budget, time scale, and other important aspects of the project.

Invite the outsourcing partners of your choice and get to know them for better understanding and relationship.

Models for Software Outsourcing Project

Most sophisticated software development agencies have their own standards which they follow for efficient work. Knowing such standards and models of work during the interview process would be imperative.

Also, it’s a subtle way to let others know and look more professional while explaining the outsourcing models. Here are the software outsourcing models mostly in use:

1. Staff Augmentation Model

One of the simplest models of outsourcing, the staff augmentation model is where the software development tasks are carried out by the outsourcing team. In simple terms, it’s like leasing a team of experts from other agencies, be it onshore or offshore, and providing them tasks to work upon and complete the project.

It sounds similar to an offshore development center where you set up a whole team of experts to carry out your software development project.

Also known as team augmentation, this outsourcing model enables your in-house team to maximize development efficiency while retaining control over the project. Aspects like defining the work process, managing the project to work on, etc. are controlled by the client.

2. Dedicated/Managed Team Model

A dedicated or managed team outsourcing model is where you outsource your software development project to a dedicated team of experts. Here. you’ll get a team of developers to work and complete certain tasks and project delivery pipeline.

Also, you’ll have direct access to the team leaders and project managers that take care of the software delivery schedule to ensure the project stays on track.

The client is still in control of making software development decisions and can control projects individually. However, they can pass on a great deal of decision-making to the outsourcing providers in cases where a software product is required to be maintained.

3. Project-Based Outsourcing Model

In the project-based outsourcing model, your only concern is the result which is the software product and not the means behind it. Here, your development partner looks after and manages the entire software development process as per the specifications and requirements provided prior to project commencement.

The client hands off the requirements to the outsourcing partner, who is responsible for developing and delivering the final product. Although the client has the least amount of control, they still can have some oversight to ensure that the product quality remains intact.

Software Outsourcing for Successful Project Completion

Software outsourcing models help you get started with your journey to software development. Once you have established who’ll have more control over project decisions, you must tick off the following things for successful completion.

• Straighten out who’s gonna provide the technical support when and if there arise any out-of-scope issues.
• Know yours as well as the outsourcing provider’s limitations of doing certain things. And since you have mutually understood who’s in control, distribute and assign tasks to particular team members. Figure out what they are best at and what needs improvement.
• The last thing is to have some faith and trust in the outsourcing team of your choice. You don’t always have to lean on their shoulders considering they know what they are doing and that’s why they have been recruited.

Final Words

Outsourcing software development has countless positive outcomes for your business. It saves money and time and also enables you to get high-quality solutions from a team of experts. Now the only thing between you and an outsourcing software project is choosing the model that suits your requirements best.

Also, through the steps listed in the outsourcing process above, you must first define your goals, requirements, the scope of work, etc. before finding and reaching out to a reliable outsourcing partner.