[Software] Why It’s Time To Consider Outsourcing For Software Development

[_Happy boy]

 

 

 

For close to eight years now, a 100% virtual model has worked for Ascendle better than I could have imagined. Most of our U.S.-based team members live within two hours of one another, which has allowed for regular meetups—before the pandemic, that is—for teambuilding and staying connected. Web conferencing platforms support daily interactions between team members and have kept everyone feeling included and accountable. Recently, everyone received a fleece onesie with the corporate logo, and our virtual office was united over Zoom with each of us in the most comfortable of uniforms.

Since March of 2020, we have watched colleagues and clients learn on the fly how to accommodate a new situation where everyone’s working remotely. We have team members across nine time zones, and they deliver working software more effectively than my teams from the past who sat within feet of one another. If you can learn to manage outside teams, they will feel like an extension of your own business. 

Where and when you work has become much more variable as we respect the diverse needs and concerns of others. In the software development world, we are mostly fortunate enough to be able to work from anywhere as long as our computers have power and can get online.

Outsourcing software development always had its place as a go-to solution for speeding up development, but with everyone working remotely, the playing field has been leveled. Incorporating outside development teams is now just as viable of an option. Here’s how to think through it.

MORE FOR YOU
Why You Should Stop Texting From Your Android Messages App
Apple Confirms Serious New Problems For iPhone 12 Users
WhatsApp Soundly Beaten As Stunning New Messenger Alternative Goes Live
Leveraging Software Development Outsourcing To Manage Growth

Having more business than you can handle is the best possible problem to have, but it’s still a problem. You’ve got a windfall of customers—new and old—and you’re feeling on top of the world. You want to make them all happy, but you’re also mesmerized by the potential earnings of new ideas. You remind yourself to be careful about counting your chickens before they’ve hatched because you still have to serve the needs of your current users.

These days, a business must pivot in all practical and effective ways to maintain reputation, quality and market traction. Letting outside teams work on customer-facing parts of your software development strategy might be disconcerting at first, but missing out on new opportunities should be much scarier.

How to address the wonderful problem of quick or sudden growth is an important question for any business, but it’s even more critical for software development. Due to the expense and time constraints of adding new internal developers or training the internal teams you already have, it can be convenient, expedient, and fiscally responsible to loop in an outside team to help with the heavy lifting. Training new internal hires can take up valuable time and getting existing in-house teams up to speed on the latest technology and architecture could take even longer. In contrast, a software development partner can ramp up an outside team in as little as two to four weeks.

The first question becomes, is my current team (or teams) ready to drive my innovative ideas? Especially in software development, results can’t be rushed, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Outsourcing domestically and leveraging resources outside the U.S. (near and far), are individually useful, but in our experience, they can work best in tandem. I call this the “hybrid” model. This model of strategic development combines U.S.-based product and technical experts with offshore/nearshore developers and testers, and can not only produce strong results, but also yield highly competitive costs.

For Low-Growth Companies

Low-growth companies face a daily challenge of finding capacity to pursue opportunities tied to increasing revenue. An approach here is Google’s 70/20/10 model, which is broken down into 70% sustaining work (a great target for an offshore/nearshore team you manage yourself); 20% exploring growth with internal resources; and 10% innovating, a great fit for a hybrid strategic development partner.

For Mid-Growth Companies

Mid-growth companies are challenged by split focus, distractions, and capacity drains. Here, a three-pronged strategy can work:

1. Avoid having your team doing routine professional services work for customers by directly leveraging offshore/nearshore teams instead.

2. Focus on core products by paying down technical debt, and scaling architecture to avoid bottlenecks. This is a great target for internal teams.

3. Innovate. Make the effort to explore new complementary products, and focus on revenue-driving opportunities. This is a great target for a hybrid strategic development partner.

For High-Growth Companies

Finally, for high-growth companies, the challenge is keeping pace with sales and customer demand. The answer here is to build high-velocity teams and optimize architecture in parallel. This means that internal resources should transform the current situation through attacking low-hanging fruit and de-risking key bottlenecks to scaling. Incorporating a strategic partner can help with building contemporary architecture that lays the foundation for scale, and paves the road to revenue behind it.

In software development, like with everything else, time is money. With outsourcing, time is what you’re buying. These days, time is precious, but so is reliable and predictable software development capacity.