


When starting any online business, you inevitably face a choice. Hire an in-house development team? Or choose programming outsourcing? Like any choice in business, there are always costs—time, money, etc. The first option seems clear. However, the second option—choosing the outsourcing mode—leaves you with more choices to make and
questions needing answers.
What does outsourcing mean? Basically, when companies outsource programming, they transfer selected responsibilities to a third-party contractor. An outside company or an individual with specific programming expertise works for them.
You can outsource programming partially or completely. If you choose partial outsourcing, you assign some tasks to a subcontractor. If you opt for complete outsourcing, the selected development team takes over the entire scope of a project.
You went with option two and decided to hire an outsourcing development company.
Where should you start? How do you choose the best provider? It will take time to have your questions answered. This short scenario might help you.
First, determine which region your future offshore partner works. North America, Latin America, EU, Eastern Europe, and Asia—all these regions offer a range of outsourcing software development companies.
For example, IT Craft’s development center is in Ukraine. Why? Because Ukrainian providers have already proven their professionalism. With their employees’ strong engineering backgrounds, Ukrainian companies can meet different clients’ needs in programming outsourcing. This can be fresh-baked startups, established businesses, and large enterprises.
Second, after you have chosen the outsourcing destination, continue your search in several ways:
Clutch is a rating platform listing IT companies experienced in programming outsourcing. The rating of each company is reflected on a scale from 0 to 5. The rating is based on detailed feedback from former or current customers. You can read descriptions of the projects and scope of work a contractor worked on. You can also find a lot of insights on programming outsourcing. Use these to determine strengths and weaknesses of selected outsourcing development companies.
Programming outsourcing’s high popularity proves it is beneficial.
Software developers located outside North America and EU countries charge considerably less than their US/EU counterparts. Their qualifications tend to meet the same high standards as those of developers in the US/EU countries. Thus, programming outsourcing allows you to save money without compromising quality.
The picture below presents the hourly rates of the technical experts worldwide:
It is important to note that a low price does not mean the least-expensive option. Price is a fundamental factor in choosing a provider, but it shouldn’t be the deciding factor. When you compare risks and value of an offer built purely on the lowest price, the picture changes dramatically.
Choose programming outsourcing when you need to quickly onboard a development team, organize a project implementation process, and get your product launched on time. However, we recommend allocating time to screen potential providers. Otherwise, time saved when choosing and working with the “wrong” contractor could be time and money lost. It might turn into a disaster—both for your bank account and your reputation. Check out our detailed guide on how to choose a provider: How to Find Programmers for Your Start-Up in 2021.
According to our observations, freeing up company resources is especially relevant for start-up companies. For example, the CEO or co-Founder wears several hats. They need to focus on strategy and marketing, while the selected outsourcing company focuses on project programming.
Without a good manager, a project could go out of control. You need a leader who constantly communicates with the outsourcing team. The product owner. The product owner understands the requirements and ensures the outsourcing supplier also understands. The product owner’s essential daily tasks include monitoring compliance with standards, reviewing source code, checking latest builds, examining error tracker. If the product owner is too busy, a designated project manager must be assigned.
Lack of constant management usually means the project could go out of control. Every outsourcing development company has horror stories about that. Customers hand off their list of requirements to assess and think their job is done—all they need to do is pay and the outsourcing company will do the rest. Development is not a can of Coke in a vending machine. Outsourcing programming is a process during which both the product owner and project manager at the outsourcing company must be actively involved.
Anything less than your elevated expectations will be a disappointment for you. Of course, you can successfully outsource coding and finish different tasks with the help of an outsourcing company. But you need to clearly state the expected quality in advance. To understand the level of clients’ expectations, outsourcing companies should always invest time in communicating with the client during the pre-sale stage. They pay special attention to the analysis of business requirements. Mutual understanding turns into fruitful cooperation.
At IT Craft, we know successful project completion is not simply doing coding. Well-thought-out company processes mean assigning the right people with the right skills to the right projects at the right time.
Programmers develop software for people. Clear communication between designers, engineers, stakeholders, business, and product owners is crucial for success.
People who develop, maintain, and update a system need to understand how everything works. If this is server-side code of a complex system, other developers will read this code.
Source code must be well documented. Business analysts prepare documentation because it is important for other team members.
Give them what they need.
The most talented technicians always thirst for knowledge. Even during breaks, they enthusiastically discuss new trends and technologies. They read a lot—online and offline. They often try something new and learn from their experience.
IT Craft offers a specific set of services to our potential clients as part of our outsourcing software development services. However, most of our experts are not afraid of trying new coding languages or new platforms. For this reason, IT Craft opened an IT Research and Development Laboratory, a place where anybody interested can realize their idea at the company’s expense.
Practicing opportunities help our specialists keep their skills sharp. Our clients are happy we are at the top of our game, so they can be, too, when they outsource programming to our company. This approach makes us different from our competitors and allows us to offer effective implementation paths.
Programming outsourcing is a process, not a finished product. Thus, it is difficult to almost impossible to give a straightforward answer. The costs of IT Craft’s services depend on the cooperation model selected:
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Cooperation with IT Craft started from a pilot task and expanded soon. Development team helped add missing features to the project and apply complex business logic for smooth order processing.
Apart from direct costs, project outsourcing can bear indirect or hidden costs. Costs depend not only on development team’s engineering background but also on soft skills and managerial style.
Hence, every client needs to keep in mind the following factors when forecasting future costs of programming outsourcing:
Successful outsourcing strategy depends on the criteria you use to select the outsourcing programming company and how you manage the processes. You need a clear, detailed plan for managing the contract and ensuring quality control.
With proper management, outsourcing programming services are a great way to gain a competitive advantage by adding missing skills and experience.
Choosing an outsourcing programming company is a business decision that requires a detailed assessment and careful planning before making the leap.
Here is a short checklist to help you design your best scenario on programming outsourcing:
Write down your answers. Use them to refine your search criteria.
Contact us and get it for free!
Are you curious about what other people think about using outsourcing programming services? Check out IT Craft’s customer sharing their experience. This is how programming outsourcing made their lives easier:
more testimonials
Hi, thanks for the post. I think this is a problem for many non-tech companies. They do not have enough workload or budget for an in-house team.
When a company wants to hire local engineers, it faces competition for IT specialists. Top talents work for startups or tech giants like Google or Amazon. Moreover, it costs much to retain expensive developers. What if there is not much work for everyone? The entire IT department is unlikely to pay off.
However, here is another pitfall, now with outsourcing. If a company’s management does not possess software development expertise, it will have no clue how to outsource programming to another company.
Adrien, indeed. Thanks for your commentary. However, this is not impossible too. In our practice, we work successfully with managers who do not have engineering background. It all depends on a person’s commitment and result orientation.
Of course, it is easier for an engineer to be aware of what is happening on the project. But if a manager is not sure about the numbers he or she gets in reports, he or she can initiate an independent code inspection and project audit.
The only advice for non-engineers: find a reliable partner who you can trust.
Hi, how does outsourcing programming help a startup project?
Hi Emil. Thanks for asking. Here is the answer:
Direct costs are 2 – 3 lower when you outsource programming to Ukraine.
There are also many indirect benefits. You work with a team. You do not have to look for a specialist each time you need e.g., design for an icon or API maintenance. You do not look for hiring new specialists when the workload increases or cut off team members when it decreases. You benefit from an established workflow and team’s previous experience of launching startup projects. The team can advise you on how to implement functionality faster and for less.
All in all, you launch faster, for less, and with lower risks.
Antonina, what a great post! Thanks for sharing. I would argue that the following cannot be stressed enough: fast access to IT competences is crucial for businesses of all sizes.
Outsourcing makes this possible. An expert-level development team saves company’s resources substantially. It can:
– start a project straight away,
– has experience of previous projects knowing how to implement features,
– has an established workflow and use best practices on project management.
Yes, this is true. When a company hires an outsourcing software development team, it can manage resources more flexibly. It is often possible that the workload is big but it decreases rapidly when the team launches a project and starts its maintenance. In case if there is a large in-house team, the company must find another project rapidly. In case of project outsourcing, this is an outsourcing company’s burden.
Hence, it makes sense for companies that do not focus on digital solutions as their primary business to consider programming outsourcing. They can keep a little in-house team that possesses critical knowledge. This team is expanded with an outsourcing development team when needed. In my opinion, this is a ‘win-win’ strategy.