With increasing software demands, the competition in the IT industry is on the rise. High quality results are expected as well as demanded by most customers at a cost that can be as low as possible. However, most often there are shortages of highly skilled and good quality programmers. To handle such issues one way that has been discovered is combining the work of remotely located as well as locally based project developers. Project developers are hired who can focus on the tasks that need direct interactions with people on site. The rest of development team members located remotely can handle the other tasks.
The trend of offshore web development is booming since the last decade. Majority of the businesses around the globe are outsourcing the section of web development to various offshore centres located at Brazil, China, India, etc. Both big as well as small companies have benefitted a lot from this by leveraging themselves. While planning to outsource software projects to such centres there are a few things that must be kept in mind- some of the challenges that the model has. These must be overcome otherwise they might prove to be a hamper for your success.
Quality of communication- The amount as well as quality needed for management of offshore projects along with relationships is underestimated by most companies. Resource availability and timing are major issues; the relationship can work only by proper commitment as well as their ability of being available when the need arises. Sometimes there are language barriers as well. Plenty of communication as well as coordination skills are required otherwise it might lead to wastage of money as well as valuable time.
Project details- Some of the companies simply want to complete the job without going into the depth of the matter; sometimes the projects details are not even grasped. This results in them underestimating the time that will take for completion of the projects; it will lead to simply increased costs. The deadlines are not met as well.
Lacking advanced programming skills- Often at some particular centres the focus is on mass production. As a consequence there are very few truly advanced programmers. Thus advanced coding often becomes heavy, sloppy and not really functioning in the manner it should be. For example codes which should ideally be implemented within 20 lines, are done in 100.
No or limited legal recourse- Since the location of both the parties are in different countries there is limited control over the data or information that you have given to the offshore company; it may be repurposed or resold without your knowledge. Since the legal system is completely different, the understanding is lacking. There is no sense in doing anything legally due to the associated costs and distance.
More difficult testing- In a general case, the testing phase of outsourced projects is really more difficult when compared to an in-house project. If a problem is found during in-house testing of a software piece developed offshore, then communication needs to be done with offshore vendors. There might be problems with that since the problem may not be reproduced with the offshore vendor. The problem may be fixed easily by looking at the machine where it happened. Or perhaps the problem has not been communicated properly.
Time difference- Generally, there is quite a time difference between offshore vendors and clients, making communication difficult. A question asked on a day gets answered on the next day only. However, this may be solved through scheduling of weekly meetings. Extra meetings may be scheduled to discuss more difficult problems.
Hiring efficient offshore development companies which know what they are doing is a really critical business decision to be undertaken. If the correct partner can be found then some of the problems mentioned here can actually be avoided. The correct partner allows you to capitalize on the multiple benefits that come when you work with offshore companies. To get maximum benefits of web development, you may consider hiring services of a certified software development company India.