Product Development Outsourcing: Top Recommendations For Successful Outsourcing

These are some recommendations that should be taken into consideration to avoid any negative probabilities.

Have a look at your project’s scale, If you conduct any moderate and modest projects, you might want to skip big vendors since they will push their most talented employees to other big names. 

Conduct thorough research. Well, of course, we shouldn’t judge the book by its cover. But sometimes it is the truth. Nobody goes to a bookstore and chooses the book with the ugliest cover to ensure that it has the best content.
Therefore, always make sure that you have done quite a research to reinforce the trust you put in one vendor. Asking for more information or sometimes a portfolio of case studies never hurts, you might find some brilliant companies at an affordable price. 

Communication capabilities are indispensable. When choosing a vendor to get involved in your project, communication should always be the main factor.

Without agile and effective communication, a clear plan will not be set in place. This will affect the future collaboration process. Depending on your project and your intention that you should go with onshore or offshore, small or big vendors.

Large IT and/or software development outsourcing vendors are more likely to deliver products faster as they have a vast pool of specialists, offer established processes, and an automated delivery pipeline - especially when it comes to emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, Big Data, and Blockchain, etc. where the skills shortage is of prominent.

Looking for broad tech expertise and experience if you’re working on a large and complicated scale project. Medium to large-sized enterprises often employs a wide range of IT developers with different skill sets compatible with your needs while smaller enterprises offer a certain technical focus. 

Transparency is as important as international standards. No one wants to work with some uncanny vendors. Before starting to work with them, and let them access all confidential information, looking for a vendor who operates in a way that creates openness, daily communication, and weekly reports, is a must.

Additionally, outsourcing teams can share your product mindset, and be crucially productive but because they are almost outsiders, there is a possibility of deficient communication among all parties due to their working location, company culture, principles, and core value. 

Here are some recommendations to prevent ineffective communication flow and feedback:

• Choose an outsourcing vendor with seasoned developers in your business field and your projects’ purposes. To make sure of a smooth process, business analysts and developers should always have a proper understanding of the specific requirements in your industry. You should always ask for previous work and case studies to ensure that they are in alignment with you.
• Having a business analyst is essential for your project, as they are a bridge between your company and your strategic partner. They will elicit your requirements, watch out for gaps, and deliver them to the software outsourcing company.

Working closely with another stakeholder is risky to some extent since your company’s privacy is being put under surveillance; however, there are some working methods that can warrant security to some levels.

• A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is designed to legally protect your product idea, pricing policy, strategy, tech data, and other sensitive information. You can ask your stakeholders to sign an NDA before you reveal your product vision before you actually cooperate with them.
• Have a look at intellectual property rights to know more about ownership of the project artifacts.
• Cybersecurity assessment and review are crucial to ensure the protection of your business and users’ data against hacking and other malicious threats. A reliable outsourcing vendor should have all the needed security measures in place and applied across the company.

Before entrusting your vendors with a full-scale project, you may want to know how they work and later on upgrade or extend your project to another level by beginning with a proof of concept and limiting the contract to MVP development. 

If you have done everything right, IT outsourcing can be an extremely powerful method to fully support your business to get a competitive advantage in your business field.

Get in touch with our specialists today to discuss your product development requirements.