DEV Community: JayDevs

Flutter vs. React Native in 2022: Which is Best for Your App?

JayDevs — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 10:54:14 +0000

So you have finalized your app idea and are ready to get started with the development process of your next app or project. What confuses you now is how to choose between Flutter and React Native, two of the market leaders for developing cross-platform applications.

You know that both Flutter and React Native are compelling cross-platform app development tools. Alternatively, there are also some advantages if you choose native app development instead of cross-platform framework(s).

A detailed analysis of the capabilities, pros, and cons of Flutter vs React Native will help you make an informed decision with your app development project. Let’s take a deep dive and compare the two tools.

Why we created this article

At JayDevs, we can connect you with the right developer for your cross-platform apps development project depending on your project type, feature-list and business need to help you form the best team for your cross-platform mobile development task. However, how would you decide on the skills to include in your team?

According to Statista, 42 percent of developers prefer Flutter when it comes to cross-platform mobile frameworks as of 2021, which is closely followed by React Native’s 38% developer preference.

We have found that our clients often reach out to us with the following questions:

How can I compare Flutter vs React Native?
What factors should I prioritize to compare Flutter and React Native?
How should I consider Flutter vs React Native trends in the industry to ensure optimal future community support for my app?
Should I go ahead with native app development using native platforms or choose cross-platform application development instead?
How to evaluate the difference between Flutter and React Native?

The main purpose of this article is to give you a complete idea when you evaluate the suitability of Flutter vs React Native for your cross-platform development project.

Let’s get started with our comparison between React Native and Flutter.

What is Flutter?

Flutter is a popular app development framework based on dart language and is currently the global market leader for cross-platform app development. The tool was created and marketed by Google back in 2017 with several advantages over the native app development process. Flutter lets you use a single codebase to create apps for multiple environments, including web development, desktop apps development, and mobile development.

When you compare Flutter vs React Native, Flutter offers great support for designing UI components with a friendly user interface and a fast development process.

Famous Apps Created with Flutter

Many large companies worldwide have utilized Flutter to create ground-breaking mobile apps. Flutter’s official Medium channel reported that over 500,000 apps have used Flutter for app development and deployment as of May 2022.

Let’s quickly go through a few of them.

1. Alibaba

With over 100 million downloads in the Google Play Store and over 500,000 ratings on Apple’s App Store, Alibaba is one of the most versatile apps for B2B shopping and trading experience. The app developers relied on Flutter and the dart programming language to achieve great graphics and quick load speed.

2. Hookle

Hookle is a great social media management app for small businesses, and the developer team used Flutter to create the app. Hookle achieved a 4.3-star rating on Google Play and 4.7-star on Apple’s app store. Several news and technology outlets have featured Hookle as one of the best Flutter apps that used a single codebase for building mobile apps on multiple platforms.

3. Google Ads

Google Ads is another prominent example of Flutter app, which has been developed and marketed by Google, the creator of Flutter itself. Over 10 million users globally have downloaded the Android version of Google Ads, and the app maintains a rating of 4.3-star indicating excellence in terms of performance, functionality, and stability. The iOS version also possesses a solid 4.5-star rating.

Some other prominent companies that have used Flutter for app development include BMW, Beike, Google Pay, ByteDance, CrowdSource, eBay, Hamilton, Nubank, Push, Supernova, Tencent, and others.

Flutter: Pros and Cons

Although many developers globally have trusted Flutter with their mobile app development projects, the platform has its pros and cons. Let’s explore those now.

Pros of Flutter

Here are some reasons for you to rely on the Flutter framework.

1. Hot Reload for Smooth Development Process

Flutter lets you make any changes in the source code and populate the Dart Virtual Machine (VM) with the new version of code without having to stop it and reload the entire code. The Flutter hot reload results in a significantly faster app development experience and shortened lead time.

2. Single Codebase for Multiple Platforms**

Flutter supports both iOS and Android, letting you use only one codebase to create mobile apps for both platforms. You can create custom widgets and designs on Flutter, which you can make appear the same across different platforms. As a developer or team manager, you will find it highly convenient.

3. Half the Testing

Quality assurance is an integral part of your software development process. When you use native components, you will have to run the same test for all of the platforms. However, using a single codebase with Flutter helps you reduce the number of testing at least by half.

4. Native 2D Graphics Library

Instead of relying on third party libraries, Flutter lets you use its own Graphics Library known as Skia. Skia takes advantage of the GPU to deliver great speed and smoothness up to 60 frames per second. You can specifically program the redrawing process of elements during the coding and development phase.

5. Creating Great Designs

Flutter developers can create and manage custom widgets and designs using their own graphics engine without using native modules. For this reason, Flutter offers a more user-friendly UI, giving it an edge in the React Native debate. Apart from creating custom Flutter widgets from scratch, you can also customize existing widgets from the widgets catalog.

6. Same UI Across All Versions

Flutter works seamlessly across multiple platforms and multiple versions, including the older ones. Thus, you won’t typically worry about how your app would perform or look in the older OS variants.

7. Suitability for MVPs

As Flutter allows faster app development and deployment, it is a great option when you want to create an MVP or minimum viable product to showcase to the stakeholders.

Before starting cross-platform development project, check out the official Flutter Gallery app to learn more about Flutter features, app behaviors, designs, and widgets.

Cons of Flutter

Despite having many great features, Flutter is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Depending on your project nature, there are some cons you should consider as well. Such as:

1. Smaller Development Community (is that so?)

When you debate Flutter vs React Native popularity, many users will tell you about Flutter’s possibly smaller developer community. The main reason behind this argument is that Flutter came to the market two years after React Native.

In addition, JavaScript code is more popular compared to Dart. However, the situation has changed significantly in the past couple of years, as there are over half a million Flutter apps on the market. So the developer community is also snowballing.

2. Fewer Libraries and Support

Google has been working relentlessly to build a robust database of library, support, and documentation for Flutter; however, it still falls behind native documentation in many areas. Developers would typically find greater and richer resources during native development.

3. Lack of CI/CD Support

Flutter cannot natively support all of the CI/CD or continuous integration and deployment tools. So the developers may sometimes need to use custom scripts while testing and implementing any changes.

4. Platform Dependency

Like every other third-party platform, Flutter is vulnerable to platform dependency risk. If Google decides to abandon the Flutter project, it will be very problematic for the developers. That said, the chances of such occurrence are minimal at this moment because Google has always been actively releasing new updates for the Flutter framework instead of undermining it in any way.

5. App’s Size

Typically, Flutter apps take up a more significant size compared to native apps. Although these are not night-and-day differences, developers often prefer their apps to be lightweight so that it has a lower footprint on the storage, system, and bandwidth.

Now that we know the basics about the Flutter framework along with its pros and cons let’s check out the same for React Native, as it will help us decide between Flutter vs React Native.

What Is React Native?

Similar to Flutter, React Native is also an open-source mobile application development framework based on JavaScript as its programming language. React Native is highly scalable, meaning you can use it for any size of app project. The cross-platform app development framework has been developed and released by Meta (formerly, Facebook). The first stable version of React Native arrived in 2015.

React Native supports multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, macOS, tvOS, Windows, Web, UWP, and VR. As JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages, anyone with knowledge of JavaScript finds it reasonably easy to develop applications with React Native, which gives React Native an edge when we do Flutter vs React Native comparison.

Famous Apps Created with React Native

Regardless of the app’s size and scale, React Native is a popular framework for app developers. Facebook App is possibly one of the most widely-used apps that are built on the React Native architecture. Here are a few more:

1. Instagram

The world’s most popular photo-based social network, Instagram, used React Native to take advantage of features like hot reload and live reload and to achieve higher iteration speed. More than a billion users have downloaded Instagram from the Google Play store.

2. Walmart

Walmart, the widely-used retail shopping app, has used React Native framework to develop its mobile application to take advantage of the single shared codebase. Another advantage of React Native is its superb animation capabilities, which convert the source codes to platform-specific views before rendering.

3. Tesla

The world’s leading electronic car manufacturer, Tesla Inc., has developed its iOS and Android apps using React Native. More than a million users have downloaded the Tesla React Native app from the Google Play store.

The user base of React Native includes many fast-growing startups to several Fortune 500 companies.

Pros and Cons of React Native

Before we compare React Native vs Flutter having a clear idea about the pros and cons of React Native apps would be beneficial. Let’s explore those now.

Pros of React Native

Here are some compelling reasons to use React Native cross-platform application development instead of native applications.

1. Fast Refresh

React Native’s fast refresh is quite similar to the hot reload of Flutter. So the feature is not a stark difference between React Native and Flutter. The fast refresh feature, introduced with React’s 0.61 version, basically combines live and hot reload, making it easy for a React Native developer to edit the source code and view the result instantly. You can also overcome the limitations of the lazy load native modules.

2. Single Codebase

Regarding Flutter and React Native comparison, React Native also offers a single shared codebase, which React Native developers can use across both iOS and Android platforms. In addition, React Native’s JavaScript language is well compatible with web applications too.

3. JavaScript’s Wide Compatibility

JavaScript is one of the most common programming languages available and using it is an advantage for React Native in terms of Flutter vs React Native popularity. On the other hand, Flutter’s Dart still has miles to go as a programming language.

4. Developer Can Decide

A React Native developer enjoys complete freedom over the app’s development. They can choose what components to use within React Native and what they should develop within the native environment.

5. Relative maturity

If we compare React Native with Flutter, React Native is older than Flutter. The platform has become more mature over the years. The React Native team and Meta have released several stable updates and fixes to improve React Native. Developers can now build more efficient and lightweight apps using the platform.

6. Strong Community

There is a sea of videos, React Native documentation, libraries, and UI designs that you can use while developing cross-platform applications with React Native. You can also integrate the development and coding process with many third-party libraries.

For instance, when you need to integrate with AWS apps or features, you may efficiently utilize AWS Amplify, which brings advanced storage, analytics, and data management solutions.

7. Flat Learning Curve

React developers, who already have good knowledge in web application development, can learn and start using React Native in no time. In addition, using JavaScript as the primary programming language also put it to an advantage in the React Native vs Flutter debate. The developers can also use the same components from any existing React solutions, including libraries and designs.

8. Half the Testing

As React Native is platform-independent, you won’t need to run tests for all platforms. Instead, a single test would identify problems for any platform, a common characteristic for both Flutter and React Native.

Although there are many advantages of using React Native, it may not be the perfect solution for every situation. Let’s explore some limitations of React Native as well.

Cons of React Native

1. Native Feeling instead of being Native

You can simulate a native experience by using React Native. However, it is not the same as developing it using complete native components and platforms. Although the simulation will be close to the original, there will still be differences and some inefficiencies in termination size, speed, and processing power requirements.

2. Necessity for Customization

When you use the native components and framework, you may find a few UI elements such as buttons, notification prompts, and indicators out of the box. However, React Native gives you only the most basic ones. You will need to design and customize the remaining ones yourself.

3. Requires a Decision

As a React Native developer, you have options to either use React Native or stick with native components. You will have to assess the pros, cons, and performance for every situation to generate the most efficient output. So it will require additional time and effort to find the business logic and React Native performance comparison for every scenario.

4. Too Many Outdated Resources

React Native has indeed accumulated a large number of resource libraries over the years. However, it is like a double-edged sword, as you will find many outdated libraries within the sea of resources. Those libraries, repositories, and packages may waste your time and efforts.

5. Unstable UI

When the OS manufacturer rolls the stem update, the individual app components will reload. This sometimes causes the React Native components to break, and the app becomes unusable. However, in a Flutter vs React Native comparison, Flutter enjoys an advantage in this aspect because it rebuilds the app components independently in case of a system update.

6. Apps are bigger than Native ones

When you build a cross-platform mobile application using React Native, it will run from the JavaScript VM, which will load from the application itself. On the other hand, native applications won’t need JavaScript VM to run. Thus, the React Native applications will put a higher footprint on the device storage compared to native apps.

Now that we have covered the pros and cons for both Flutter and React Native, let’s move on to see how they compete head-to-head.

Flutter vs React Native: Head-to-Head Comparison

Flutter and React Native have many overlapping advantages and limitations of features. So a head-to-head comparison will help us pick a winner from Flutter vs React Native.

Flutter vs. React Native: Demand

Let’s begin our Flutter vs React Native comparison with their industry demand or outlook. As of May 2021, in terms of popularity and usage, Flutter was on its way to overtaking React Native. Let’s look at the statistics.

Industry data from Statista suggest that the developer preference for Flutter has increased from 30% in 2019 to 42% in 2021. In contrast, React Native lost 4% of the preference within the same period. So in terms of Flutter vs React Native debate, we can see that Flutter has more promising market demand.

Flutter vs. React Native: Performance

If you analyze React Native vs Flutter performance, there are two primary aspects to consider – speed and size of the app. Flutter enjoys an advantage in terms of Flutter vs React Native speed, and the apps are slightly faster to load.

As React Native has to use a JavaScript bridge to run the apps, it hampers the performance to an extent, although very marginally. On the other hand, Flutter has a default smoothness setting at 60 fps, contributing further to the app’s performance.

That said, a Flutter vs React Native comparison in terms of performance does not let you pick Flutter as the winner because Flutter apps typically take a larger space than React Native.

Flutter vs. React Native: Programming Language

React Native uses JavaScript, whereas Flutter uses Dart as its programming language. Here’s how they defer.

Dart as the Programming Language

Dart is comparatively more difficult to learn compared to JavaScript, and also, there are fewer developers available who are fluent with Dart. Thus, in a Flutter vs React Native comparison in terms of programming language, React Native stays ahead. That said, you also need to remember that it usually takes less time to write codes with Dart due to its object-oriented concept.

JavaScript as the Programming Language

JavaScript is easy to learn, and more importantly, developers will find tons of resources to learn and practice JavaScript. For any problems, you can also find help from the rich developer community in no time. The pre-built modules, frameworks, and libraries of JavaScript will make programming more convenient. Thus, JavaScript helps React Native lead the Flutter vs React Native language comparison.

Flutter vs. React Native: Architecture

Flutter uses the Skia architecture, and React Native uses the Flux architecture. Here’s how you compare them.

Flutter’s Skia

You can rely on Flutter’s Skia architecture and pre-built 2D graphics rendering library to run the source code. Skia architecture can generate native codes out of the source code you have written in Dart. Thus, it does not require any program bridges.

React Native: Flux

Flux requires JavaScript as a programming bridge to run the codes. Thus, it inherently lowers the app rendering time, which is a drawback of Flux if you compare Flutter and React Native’s architectures.

Flutter vs. React Native: Installation

Due to inherent architectural differences, the installation speeds vary in Flutter and React Native.

Flutter: Slower Installation

As Flutter does not use any program bridges, you need to download the full binary for the particular platform from its GitHub repository. You will also need an extra .zip file for macOS installation to use a PATH variable. Thus, the Flutter installation process is slower and requires more steps.

React Native’s Node Package Manager

If you know JavaScript, you can simply use the node package manager and install React Native quickly with minimal effort. So, you can easily pick React Native in a React Native vs Flutter debate based on installation difficulties.

Flutter vs. React Native: UI and Development API

Flutter has customized UI development toolkits, which are fully compatible with Apple’s Cupertino and Google’s Material Design. Besides, it is also natively compatible with Google. In contrast, when you use React Native, you may have to adjust and create components using JavaScript and use patches in your code to make the component work. Thus, if you ask which one would lead the Flutter vs React Native battle in terms of UI convenience, Flutter is our answer.

Flutter vs. React Native: Development Time

When considering the development time, one drawback of using Flutter would come up. Flutter falls behind in a Flutter vs React Native contest mainly due to the lack of available supporting and training resources.

As Flutter is a comparatively newer framework, you will have to spend more time assembling your development team. In contrast, React Native developers can use plenty of available resources, libraries, and designs from a variety of sources. In addition, React developers may also use any JavaScript-based IDE or text editor.

Flutter vs. React Native: Code Reusability

Flutter’s codebase is more reusable than React Native, making Flutter win the contest between Flutter and React Native in terms of code reusability. Flutter lets you change a single line in your codebase, define a new logic and reuse your codebase for another purpose. The highly intuitive and graphical coding interface contributes to easy reusability.

Flutter vs. React Native: Quality Assurance

Regarding quality assurance and testing, it’s challenging to pick a clear winner for the React Native vs Flutter debate. Google has included tons of testing and integration features within Flutter, although it has fewer third-party testing tools. On the other hand, React Native will allow you to use many third-party testing tools like Detox or Jest to overcome any limitations.

Flutter vs. React Native: Release

Google has made the app release process of Flutter a breeze, making it a better choice between Flutter and React Native considering the difficulty of the release process. From fast lane deployment to automated release, Flutter’s release process offers you lots of flexibility. In contrast, React Native’s release protocols are relatively standard and manual.

Flutter vs. React Native: Hiring Developers

Hiring a developer is one of the key challenges you would face when developing an app. Let’s see which one poses the tougher challenge in a React Native vs Flutter contest.

Flutter Developers vs React Native Developers: Rates

According to Glassdoor, the world’s leading salary information website, you will have to spend roughly $100,000 per year on average to hire a Flutter developer. However, a React Native developer would likely charge around $108,000 per year on average. Thus, in a Flutter vs React Native comparison, the cost of hiring a developer is higher for the React Native framework.

Flutter Developers vs React Native Developers: Pool

Traditionally, as JavaScript is a more popular programming language compared to Dart, you will find more developers who are familiar with React Native. That said, keep in mind that Flutter is now leading the cross-platform application development tool market and the pool of developers is quickly catching up.

Flutter vs. React Native: Device Compatibility

Apple currently supports Flutter apps for iOS 9 or above, whereas it is iOS 11 or above for React Native apps. Similarly, for Android, you will need Android 4.1 or above for Flutter and Android 6.0 or above to run React Native apps. Therefore, you can pick Flutter as the more compatible one if there is a comparison between Flutter and React Native.

Flutter vs. React Native: Documentation

Flutter is a newer framework, and from the beginning, it focused on building comprehensive documentation with well-planned how-to videos and resources. It is easy to find relevant resources from the support website. On the other hand, despite a lot of third-party documentation and guidelines, it is sometimes difficult to find the React Native resources you are looking for. So, React Natives loses the Flutter vs React Native battle here. Thus, this aspect makes it difficult to pick a winner in the React Native vs Flutter debate.

Regardless of what framework you would use between Flutter and React Native, JayDevs is a great place to connect with industry-leading developers and solution architects.

The Future of Flutter and React Native

If we compare React Native vs Flutter concerning their futures, the recent trends of the frameworks will give us some interesting insights. Within the most recent three years from 2019 to 2021, Flutter has surpassed React Native to become the most preferred cross platform mobile application framework by the developers.

Google is fostering an enthusiastic community to support Flutter and has been regularly releasing stable updates to the platform. With the release of Flutter 3, the total number of Flutter-based apps has surpassed the 500,000 mark.

Some of the major improvements of Flutter 3 include:

Support for desktop platforms
Support for international text inputs
Universal binaries on macOS
Support for foldable phones
Variable refresh rate for iOS
Faster image decoding on Web version

On the other hand, recent improvements with React Native 0.69 include:

Enhanced compatibility with M1 users
New .xcode.env configuration file
Newest status bar API
Hotkeys on iOS debug menu
Compatibility with C++17

The Meta community has been working round-the-clock to bring large-scale changes and improvements to React Native as well. So it is unlikely for React Native to fall behind in the Flutter vs React Native race anytime soon.

Flutter vs React: Which one to choose for your app?

Your preferences to Flutter and React Native would most likely depend on your app type and size. Here are some points to help you choose from React Native vs Flutter:

When to Use Flutter

App is larger and requires performance
You want to reduce the time to market
App requires a lot of customization or specific tasks

When to Use React Native

Project requires 3D rendering
App requires more interactions with the OS
App has to be lightweight

These are just a few factors you will have to consider when choosing Flutter vs React Native, which is definitely not an easy task. The seasoned developers at JayDevs can always help you out.

Summing Up

Both Flutter and React Native are excellent frameworks for building cross-platform mobile apps, and it is difficult to choose any of those as superior in the Flutter vs React Native contest in 2022. Flutter has the advantage of being developed by Google and having excellent documentation. However, React Native is more popular with developers and has a larger community.

They both have pros and cons depending on the use case, and app types, which you should consider carefully before choosing Flutter vs React Native. Reach out to JayDevs to connect with highly skilled Flutter and React Native developers.

Hire Remote Developers vs On-Site: Pros and Cons

JayDevs — Thu, 05 May 2022 08:23:37 +0000

Global pandemic made remote work a new norm for the IT-sphere. Some employees like it, others are were looking forward or are still waiting to get back to the office.

The new reality has come, and many employers have a number of questions to answer. What should be done next? How to avoid an efficiency drop or there is no room for growth? Which employees are better to work with at the office, which – remotely?

This article is an attempt to find the answers to these and other questions. To get the answers, we learned about the attitude of our employees and managers. Asked how they went through the transition to self-isolation, what were the pros and cons of working from home and at the office, as well as which way of collaboration they considered to be most effective in their opinion.

Onsite work: pros and cons

Onsite work – a kind of work when an employee works at the office.

Now I work at the office, but I have experience of remote work. Honestly, I feel more comfortable working at the office because of being together with the team.

Pros: No one messenger can replace live communication. Collaboration results in new ideas. It is way easier to solve working issues in the team simply by having asked the colleagues for help. In addition to this success of other teammates motivates for own achievements.

Cons: Speaking about cons, I can only mention “home assignments”. For instance, when it becomes necessary to fix an urgent bug that appears on production unexpectedly. However, it doesn’t happen often.

I work at the office. I’d spent a couple of months working from home when the whole COVID thing began, however realized that I would like to get back to the office. The home atmosphere was too relaxing and I sometimes couldn’t do everything on time. Sometimes due to a flexible schedule, my working day could be over closer to 9pm.

Pros: Office work is more convenient for me because of a more productive atmosphere and disciplined schedule.

Cons: It would be great if I could spend less time commuting. Sometimes it is difficult to focus on work because someone is talking next to me. However, the same situation can happen at home.

In my previous job I worked from the office but for a couple of years prefer to work at home. I can get more things done since I spend less time commuting.

Pros: It is always a pleasure to communicate with colleagues in person and I miss it sometimes. Sometimes I go to the office to restore the balance.

Cons: I couldn’t focus on the assignments while working in the office as someone would always distract me from work. Now, with the advent of covid due to the high density of people in the room, the danger of being infected is quite high.

I always try to be in the office since my position obliges me to keep things under control. Moreover, I like live communication with colleagues.

Pros: In my opinion working in a team is always more productive and faster. It is easier to make changes, create tasks and make suggestions on their accomplishment. It is easier to monitor team members being in the office. Everyone follows a certain work schedule. It is also easier to ensure corporate data confidentiality in the office. For example, having installed software prohibiting copying certain information.

Cons: As a manager, I would like to first of all mention the high cost of providing working space, premises rent, utility bills, etc.

Remote work: pros and cons

Remote work means that an employee is a part of your company, fulfills the same task an office developer would do, follows the corporate culture and working schedule. The remote working place location is the only different thing.

I mainly work from home. One or two times a week I come to the office to sync on the current tasks.

Pros: Freedom is what I most value in remote work. I like having an opportunity to arrange my working place the way I like it. In addition to this, no office discussions and hum distract from work. I can adjust my work schedule the way I want.

Cons: Sometimes the feeling that you are the boss makes it difficult to pull yourself together and start working. But this is an acquired skill. Sometimes I face technical issues when the laptop/desktop computer may fail and you need to address this issue as soon as possible by purchasing/repairing the broken piece. And what if the deadline is today? No one is immune to such coincidences.

Summing up, I’ll say that in my opinion, not everyone can work remotely. This is all individual and depends on a person’s self-organization.

I spent much time working in the office, but when covid came, I switched to working remotely. At first, I was a bit cautious about remote work, but soon discovered plenty of advantages.

Pros: Saving time and money for communing, independence of a working place. More time to spend with the family.

Cons: Lack of live communication became the main concern for me.

The main goal of the company – is high efficiency. Sometimes in the office, it’s very difficult to be efficient due to continuous interruptions by colleagues. I

Pros: When you work remotely, it’s easier to ensure yourself the ideal conditions for productive work. In addition, there is no need to take sick leave or take time off. The only thing that matters is completing the project work on time.

Cons: The only disadvantage of working from home is pretty much the same as in the office – you can’t always avoid all the distracting factors. However, in the case of working from home, you have to agree with fewer people.

I have also noticed home and work fusion. Sometimes I lose the sense of time and can work from dust till dawn. I would surely not be able to do so working in the office.

To organize remote work it is necessary to come up with a clear development process, assign straightforward tasks, and write documentation. You will need a system to track the project status. It is also very important to get daily progress reports. This allows you to stay on top of things and correct tasks in due time.

Pros: Among advantages, I would list smaller office maintenance costs and reduced staff turnover caused by employees’ commuting, family problems, etc.

Cons: The main disadvantage of remote work is the issue of personnel management, since remote workers require more control. Separately, I would like to highlight the problems of security and confidentiality. The potential security loopholes for the company are widening with the use of antivirus software, firewalls, and VPN configurations for employees’ home Internet connections. Employees’ decisions to work from cafes or other places with free Wi-Fi connecting personal devices to corporate networks make things even more complicated. Therefore, it is reasonable to minimize cybersecurity risks before switching employees to remote work. Organizations should also address issues of the probability of confidentiality breaches. This could include eavesdropping on a confidential conversation or viewing documents on an employee’s computer.

Which is a better option

As we can see from the feedback, it depends on individual preferences. Some people feel comfortable working in the office where they are more efficient in terms of fulfilling their work and thus are more pleased. Some people like working remotely, noticing that their efficiency remains the same and even increases sometimes.

There is no single opinion on where developers are more efficient – working remotely or in the office. However, based on our experience, there are typical cases when the efficiency of this or that model decreases.

When is it better for an employee to work in the office

If this is a personal wish. The first thing we should pay attention to is the wishes of an employee. In case a person wants to work in the office all you need to do is to create comfortable conditions.

Quite often people want to work from the office but can’t do it for certain reasons. They can be distracted by their colleagues, commuting can take too much time, etc. Talk to your employees about what might be the reason for discomfort and address the issue if it can be solved.

If we deal with a Middle or a Junior developer. In the context of remote work experience of a developer is what matters more than qualification.

Junior vs senior developer

Experience helps to fulfill tasks with minimal effort. Therefore, it’s the experience that makes Senior developers different from Junior and Middle developers. The latter will spend a tremendous amount of their personal and someone else’s time solving the tasks they face for the first time. This happens because they need help and the office is a better place to provide it more efficiently.

In case this is a developer mentoring Junior and Middle developers. A person mentoring and managing Junior and Middle developers should be also present at the office since otherwise, it makes no sense at all.

Working with Junior and Middle developers is mainly about their development and growth. The office is a better place for this as it is easier to control the process of education in the same location. In case several people are working on the project it is way easier to discuss everything in person rather than having a separate call with every team member.

If this developer is a newcomer or has recently joined the team. Personal communication with colleagues has a positive effect on relations and the team atmosphere in general. Besides this, developer’s adaptation to company-specific processes will run faster, less time will be spent to figure things out, ask necessary questions and start working efficiently. Learn more about how to arrange the adaptation process for your developers right in our article Developer onboarding checklist.

When can an employee be efficient working remotely?

If it is a person’s wish to work remotely. And yes, again, a personal wish is the first thing you should pay attention to. Remote work means a high level of self-organization and discipline, and if a person understands that he can handle it, you can meet halfway.

To understand at the beginning how organized a person is, you can ask him a couple of questions about why he would like to work remotely:

If a person gives you good reasons in favor of working remotely, like spending too much time commuting, for instance. Or, if a person has a certain schedule according to which working from home is more convenient, most likely that this person knows how to manage and plan time. The self-organization this person already has will let him increase efficiency, as he will simply not waste time commuting.
In case the wish to work from home is just for the sake of the wish itself, most likely additional time slots in the developer’s working day won’t increase his efficiency and may even decrease it. It will be difficult for a person to organize his working day independently just because he does not have such a habit.

In case a person accurately accomplishes assignments. It matters how a person works with assigned tasks. If he asks additional questions when receiving the task. How he informs about work progress and issues faced. How reports when the task is accomplished. Read more about what you should pay attention to and how to check these things in advance in our article How to hire remote developers successfully.

How a developer works with assigned tasks

If this is a senior developer who can accomplish tasks independently. A developer needs experience in solving certain tasks to arrange remote work efficiently. As a rule, senior developers possess such experience.

However, not all senior developers can solve all the tasks independently. It occurs that the general level of a senior developer is high enough, but he lacks experience in terms of planning application architecture. Or he might lack experience in a certain specific field. The office would be a better place for him when addressing such tasks, since efficiency would be higher working with the team.

Sometimes Middle and Junior developers can be efficient working remotely. Theoretically, Middle and Junior developers can work remotely. To do this, the tasks they perform have to be familiar and routine, as well as not require permanent discussions. It is also important to have an opportunity to assess the results of their work without an efficiency drop.

There is no need to radically decide in favor of either remote or office work, since there is always room for compromise decisions. For example, agree that a developer should work in the office once a week to touch base within the course of the project.

Of course, all rules have exceptions. Sometimes, middle developers are being able to successfully do their work while working remotely. Some teams succeed when working remotely. However, if we speak about efficiency, the above rules are applicable for 90% of projects you might work on.

Remote vs On-site: 3 things you should pay attention to

The choice between remote and office work is very individual. It depends on many factors that can be distilled to 3 basics: experience, self-organization, and independence.

3 basics of remote work

Experience implies that a developer has experienced similar tasks and can efficiently fulfill them.

Self-organization means a person can manage time independently. The home environment doesn’t result in slacking, and all the tasks are accomplished in due time.

Independence assumes that a developer doesn’t spend much time on communication within the team. The task is accepted, initial questions are asked, and the final result is given.

If at least one of these basics is missing development should better be done in the office.

Tips to help you make the right decision

Talk to a developer. Learn where he wants to work and what are the reasons standing behind this. Developers’ wishes are the first thing you should pay attention to.
Evaluate the project a developer is involved in. If it requires team collaboration and regular discussions – office work is a better option.
Assess the level of the developer and his ability to work remotely. Only senior developers can be efficient in working remotely. Junior and Middle developers should better work in the office.
In the case of a senior developer, check if he supervises Junior and Middle developers. If he does, he should better join his mentees in the office.
For Junior and Middle developers check what tasks they accomplish. If these are the routine familiar assignments that don’t require frequent discussions developers can also work remotely.
Developers that have recently joined the company should better take some time to work and get accustomed in the office before switching to remote work.

Software Development Offshore Outsourcing Contract: Key Aspects

JayDevs — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 13:03:06 +0000

Offshore IT outsourcing or hiring developers abroad had considerably grown due to the pandemic, remote work popularity growth, and other trends in business. Offshore IT Outsourcing takes place when Company А fully or partly delegates product development to Company B. Company B is located in a different country outside local governmental regulations. It makes the mechanisms of work more complicated rather than when two parties are located in the same country.

Such collaboration raises several legal questions for both vendors of IT services and a client. The contracting party should understand that their activities are subject to many regulations of the foreign state: employment and labor, taxation, intellectual property, etc.

What clients are saying about legal issues when hiring overseas developers

To avoid costly and continuous disputes, you should prepare a robust agreement with an IT contractor. It is important to understand that agreement between the parties should meet the legal requirements of the countries in which these parties are registered. What is legal and true in one country might be unacceptable in another country. In case your dispute ends up in court, agreement will be considered as the most important factor.

1. Taxation aspects: foreign independent contractor or an employee

When hiring a foreign developer you have two options: hire this person as an “employee” or as an “independent contractor”.

Foreign developer with an “employee” status

Employee – is a person hired by the employer to work full time for a fixed salary. On the regular basis, you pay the fixed sum, provide working equipment, control employees’ time and methods of work.

Foreign developer with an “employee” status

If you want to hire a foreign developer as an “employee” you should apply for certification to the Ministry of Labor of your country. The Ministry aims at protecting the citizens’ employment rights and possibilities, therefore you will have to provide evidence that there is a shortage of qualified employees that can do the required work at the existing rates in your country. To do this you should:

Provide evidence of the necessity to hire a foreign developer for your vacancy.
Fill out and sign the corresponding form enabling you to request the permanent labor certification for a potential employee.
Provide evidence of your ability to pay the candidate’s salary.
Familiarize yourself with all the tax regulations that might be applicable to your company and your foreign employee. For instance, in the USA foreign developers need a social security number. Thus developers will pay taxes on their salaries.

There is a misperception that foreign developers can be paid less compared to local developers. However, no matter where the developer is from you should provide this person with a competitive salary despite the location. The employment of a foreign developer should not have a negative impact on the salary and working conditions of similar developers in your country.

Foreign developer with a “Foreign independent contractor” status

Independent contractor – is a private entity or a company (legal entity) representing and providing services of another organization. The payer has the right to control and direct only the results of work, but now the approach of how things should be done. (source: IRS – the revenue service for the United States federal government)

Foreign developer with a “Foreign independent contractor” status

For most countries specification of the contractor in the agreement won’t be enough. Judges around the world consider facts and not written agreement.

The court or tax institution in your country may determine that the person you hired as an “independent contractor” is in fact an “employee”. In such a situation, you will end up being accused of non-compliance with employment requirements. Therefore, it is important that the facts also prove the independence of the contractor.

Although labor relations verification standards vary for different countries they look almost the same. The goal of these standards is to investigate the level of control over the independent contractor by the hiring company. We decided to help and distinguish the core elements to avoid when hiring a foreign developer:

don’t specify fixed working hours;
don’t provide any training courses;
don’t provide any employment benefits (retirement plan, insurance, and vacation compensation) apart from the agreed work compensation;
don’t provide any office equipment;
don’t ask a contractor to work in your office.

If the court finds out the client-employee status of your relations instead of client-independent contractor, you can get into serious trouble. You might have to cover unpaid employee taxes on health care, social security, employee bonuses, unemployment tax, unpaid benefits, as well as penalties related to these payments. Below are the examples of possible outcomes of incorrect classification of a foreign IT contractor:

For EU countries you will have to pay for at least four weeks of vacation a year plus salary taxes.
In France and Argentina – employer penalties and imprisonment for up to three years.
In Mexico you will have to pay additional benefits (annual bonus equal to salary for at least 15 days, a vacation bonus comprising 25% of salary, and paid vacations), share 10% of your income with the employee, and cover employer penalties.

Rule of thumb: decide on the kind of employment: an employee or an independent contractor. Learn how labor legislation defines “contractors” and “employees” in the contractor’s and your home country.

2. Services aspects

It is important for you to express your expectations from the IT product as detailed and concisely as possible. Foreign employee obligations are specified not only in the agreement but in a statement of work (SOW) as well.

A statement of work describes the required services and outcomes, process, payment schedule, and any specific provisions applied to a certain SOW. A foreign developer accomplishes work in compliance with an agreement and a statement of work. He also provides services, results, supplementary materials stipulated in every SOW.

Try to forecast changes in the services (for instance, change in the scope of services or demand for new services). Make sure that the agreement contains necessary conditions considering such changes.

Rule of thumb: specify your expectations in a statement of work. Should conflicts between the parties arise, or any discrepancies in expectations and obtained results the statement of work will have primacy over the agreement.

3. Force Majeure

The Black’s Law Dictionary is a reliable source in the field of law that defines force majeure as an event or effect that can be neither anticipated nor controlled.

Force majeure circumstances are included in the agreement to release the contractor from liability if unforeseen events interfere with the performance of his obligations. As a rule, these are natural disasters, epidemics, wars, international sanctions, fires, and other circumstances beyond the control of the parties.

Traditionally disruption of work caused by force majeure lasts from 30 to 60 days.

Rule to follow: make sure that the related clause stipulates certain examples of force majeure circumstances: war, fire, acts of elements and other events are clearly beyond the control of the party.

4. Property aspects

In most cases working with developers is by default considered as “works made for hire” which means that intellectual property (hereinafter IP) rights juridically belong to the employer. However, the situation is different in the case of a foreign developer. To ensure your project is your property only specify the terms of ownership in the agreement.

There are several approaches to apply proprietary rights to IP in Offshore IT Outsourcing:

The client owns all IP and the service provider has the right to use IP under the terms of a license agreement.
The provider fully owns the IP and the client gets a license for it.
Distribution of ownership of various IP assets.
Joint IP ownership.

Risks of cooperation with a foreign IT service provider include:

Data leakage. Parts of your code can be either directly or indirectly used in a different project or for a different client (maybe even your competitor);
Confidentiality. Insufficient developer awareness about customer IP protection.

2 Ways To Protect Intellectual Property While Hiring Developers Overseas

1. Do Your Due Diligence. IP Due Diligence – verification process enabling you to reveal any IP-related risks and potential issues.

The table below provides some of the core aspects you should consider while evaluating IP.

IP Due Diligence

2. Physical, technology, and legal protection.

Physical, technology, and legal protection

Rule of thumb: the agreement should concisely state who is the owner of any work results obtained within the course of the project. This should include the source code and all the intellectual property.

5. Confidentiality aspects

After you specify the ownership rights, make sure a developer doesn’t save the license for doing the same work for other clients. Ideally, anything created for your project should be registered for your use only.

What clients are saying about legal issues when hiring overseas developers

To be on the safe side, sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). The NDA is signed by both parties having access to the code/technology. Every employee working on your project should know about your classified areas as well as about precaution measures stipulated and demanded by the NDA. By signing a non-disclosure agreement, the parties agree to protect confidential information being shared by the other party.

Rule of thumb: draw up a Non-Disclosure Agreement. The Agreement should state that the client reserves the property rights for all the data being shared with the IT provider. This data must be kept strictly confidential. If publicly disclosed the agreement will serve as legal grounds to claim the damage.

6. Legal aspects

The procedure of dispute resolution is one of the most important provisions of any development agreement. Traditionally, the parties try informal dispute resolution before embarking on the formal procedure – lawsuit or arbitral procedure (the parties address the third party – an arbitrator).

When several countries are engaged in working relationships, it is important to define dispute settlement approaches in advance. This will help you save time and resources should a lawsuit occur.

The agreement should state the following aspects of choosing the jurisdiction – the right to hear and decide on the case in terms of:

Which party should have the jurisdiction in case of disputes.
Substantive law (legal provisions and obligations) of which country will be applicable to disputes.

For obvious reasons, it is difficult to come to a consensus on these aspects. Each party prefers the jurisdiction of its own region to prevail and local laws to be applied. Nevertheless, the parties most often agree upon the jurisdiction and substantive laws of the country where breaches occur.

Arbitral procedure often becomes an alternative way to settle a dispute replacing long and costly court trials. Examples of Permanent Courts of Arbitration include:

ICC — International Chamber of Commerce (France).
SCC — Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (Sweeden).
VIAC — Vienna International Arbitral Centre (Austria).
SIAC — Singapore International Arbitration Centre (Singapore).
LCIA — London Court of International Arbitration (Great Britain).
Vilnius Court of Commercial Arbitration (Lithuania).
The International Commercial Arbitration Court (Russian Federation).
The International Arbitration Court of the BelCCI (Republic of Belarus).

Rule of thumb: learn if the developer’s country of residence requires application of local laws and courts in working agreements. Choose the dispute resolution method and the laws of which country will apply in disputes.

7. Termination aspects

Agreement termination determines what happens if you and a foreign developer decide to finalize a certain project.

Termination clauses are extremely important, since it stipulate conditions under which a client can quit IT Outsourcing. Common reasons why a client might want to use the right to terminate the agreement are:

1. Convenience. A client also wants to keep the right to cancel an agreement if it is convenient for him. The issue here is that a contractor also insists on having the same privilege.
2. Major breach. This may trigger continuous negotiations, since the parties dispute on what is on the list of “major” breaches. The danger of this approach lays in risk of overlooking some “major breach” circumstances in the agreement.
3. Financial insolvency.
4. Developer’s competence mismatch.

Rules to follow: stipulate certain conditions for termination of business relations between the parties in the agreement.

8. Pricing and payment aspects

One of the commonly encountered problems clients face is international money transfers. Key aspects to pay attention to include:

Payment method

Consider the following factors when choosing the international payment method:

Currency. What currencies are supported?
Money transfer fee. What are the associated fees form sending and receiving money?
Conversion fee (currency exchange). Quite often it is included in the conversion rate, therefore it might become problematic to separate this cost.
Easy to use for a sender. Is the chosen method of sending money convenient for you?
Usability for a recipient. Are payments made directly to the contractor’s account or other balance or account that might cause issues when withdrawing money?

Nowadays, there a couple of option to arrange international payments. They all have pros and cons. Commonly used are:

PayPal. Starting from December 2016 PayPal is available in 202 countries. The fee for receiving payments is 2.9% + $0.30 USD. 3.9% + currency conversion fee for international payments.
TransferMate. No charges from a sender for international payments. Currently available in the USA, Canada, and several European countries.
Some other well-known payment service providers – Payoneer, Bitwage, Skrill, BrainTree, Alipay, Xoom, etc.
International bank transfer (SWIFT). One of the most frequently used methods of payment for the services of foreign developers. High bank fees and different exchange rates are the main disadvantages of these payments. Since sending and receiving banks charge high fees for international money transfers, this way is considered not very economical, however reliable.

Payment model

Once a foreign contractor and a client agree on the developer’s rates, both parties should consider payment distribution. Payment model – agreement forming the cost of services, timeline, and scope of project development work.

Software development company should be transparent in terms of costs. Therefore, you should choose a payment model (Fixed Price, Time and Material, or Dedicated Team) before signing an agreement.

Fixed-price agreement – a fixed amount is paid by a client to a developer for the whole project scope of work.
Time and materials agreement – a client pays the vendor for spent time and actual software development-related costs.
Dedicated team agreement – a client pays to all the hired developers on monthly or hourly basis.

Rule of thumb: make sure to specify the suitable payment model (fixed price, time and materials, dedicated team, etc.), payment method (SWIFT, PayPal, etc. bank transfers), payment timeline, transaction costs, etc. in the agreement.

9. Supplemental provisions

When drawing up an agreement with a foreign developer, consider including some important supplemental provisions. These might be:

Software testing and code review at various stages of this process. The least you expect is to get the final product and find that it has a lot of bugs. Therefore, it is important to protect yourself from extra costs for fixing errors.
The Final Payment. This provision secures the client from paying the final installment unless all the agreement obligations are accomplished in full.
Invoices and payments. These reports provide due supervision over the financial reports of foreign developers.
Right to approve and request dismission or replacement of developers providing a reasonable cause. List the reasons for dismission in advance.
Software maintenance and support: software renewal and updates obligations (for instance, to be compatible with new OS).
Charges or costs. In the case of fixed costs, the “Sum of agreement” clause should state that the sum of the agreement should not exceed the specified fixed contractural cost.

Summing Up

Hiring foreign developers can help you significantly save time and resources. However, as discussed above, there are many legal issues you should consider before and while working with foreign developers. It is important for you as a client to be familiar with at least the basics of legal issues you might face.

In this article, we covered the legal peculiarities of hiring an independent foreign contractor. To summarize, we will list the aspects to consider:

Draw up a robust agreement with your contractor, taking into consideration the legal systems of both countries.
When hiring a foreign developer, meet the “employee” and “independent contractors” requirements for your and contractor’s countries. Learn if there are any taxation, reporting, etc. obligations.
Be concise in describing the required services in the Statement of Work document.
Specify certain examples of the force majeure events (war, epidemy, fire, the Act of God, traffic accidents, changes in legislation, etc.) in the corresponding provision of the agreement.
The agreement must clearly state the client’s ownership of any intellectual property created and resulting from the course of the project.
Draw up and sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. This will keep your technical data and know-how strictly confidential.
Define the governing law of the agreement as well as the procedure of dispute settlement: court, arbitration, etc.
Make sure you don’t become an affected party when terminating an agreement. State all the possible reasons for termination, including a description of certain cases.
Stipulate payment model and methods, payment timeline, etc.
Add supplemental provisions if you want to feel secure or this is required by your business project.

Follow the advice provided in these practical guidelines. This will help you minimize the probability of legal issues arising from collaboration with foreign developers.

13 Reasons to Hire Dedicated Software Developers in Lithuania: The Best New Home For Your Project

JayDevs — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 09:22:02 +0000

Outsourcing in general and hiring a dedicated team in particular is a strategic decision. Therefore, it is worth focusing on the factors impacting the choice of the country IT service providers are located in. Both qualitative and quantitative factors should be considered when choosing a vendor.

These factors include location, culture, language, business environment, economical aspects, politics, etc. In this article, we will study these aspects by taking Lithuania as an example and help you avoid doubts on whether to hire Lithuanian developers.

Factors impacting the choice of the country’s IT service

Reason #1. Location and NATO/EU membership

Lithuania is located in the northeast of Europe and is one of the three Baltic States. This region is very close to many European countries such as Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Belarus, Germany, Norway, etc.

Lithuania has a population of 2.8 million and is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, NATO, the European Union, etc.

Membership of the state in EU and NATO means:

following the same banking regulations, employee rights, tax, and other legislation aspects as other EU members;
fewer regulatory and legal issue to address;
easier and more seamless payment for the services of a dedicated development team due to Euro as a unified currency;
compliance with the GDPR and making other data security and intellectual property (IP) concerns less important.

Lithuania's geographic position

Reason #2. No fuss with time zones in Lithuania

Coordination of time zones is another important aspect to consider when working with dedicated development teams. Effective workflow might be at risk when time difference is significant.

Eastern Europe is in a convenient time zone. For instance, there is almost no time difference with European countries (1 to 3 hours). The difference with the East Coast constitutes 6-7 hours.

Timeanddate service can help you learn more about the time difference between Lithuania and your country. You can also learn best practices for working with a dedicated software development team in our article 10 Best Practices for Achieving Success with a Dedicated Software Development Team from Inspiring Leaders.

Reason #3. Stable economic and political situation

Lower costs are one of the main reasons to hire a dedicated development team. However, the political and general economic stability of the vendor’s country is something you should also consider. Threats of terrorism, political relations between the countries, international boycotts, sanctions, etc., can interrupt collaboration with development teams.

Economic situation in Lithuania

Stable economy – controlled growth of gross domestic product (GDP). Managed growth means that the economy has continuous growth without causing inflation leading to higher prices and negatively affects the profits of companies.

The economic sustainability of the country to hire a dedicated development team is vital for the success of your business. If the country is not economically stable, then the economic benefit is rapidly reduced due to inflation and subsequent increase in developer salaries. In the case of Lithuania, there is nothing to worry about. Lithuania’s economic growth remains stable.

According to Country Economy, Lithuanian GDP grew by 4.9% in 2021 compared to 2020. Lithuania ranks 77th in terms of GDP out of 196 countries, and 42nd in terms of GDP per capita. Lithuania’s GDP per capita in 2021 was $23,442. This is $3,467 more than in 2020. These data indicate that the Lithuanian economy is stable and recovering quickly from the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Evaluation of GDP in Lithuania

Lithuania ranks 17th in the list of countries with the highest index of economic freedom out of 161 countries. Additionally, the chart below presents criteria compiled by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD). The criteria highlight the biggest improvements and declines in the overall performance of the economy in Lithuania.

Improvements and declines in the overall performance of the economy in Lithuania

Political situation in Lithuania

The state stability index is an indicator that characterizes the ability of the authorities to control the integrity of their territory and neutralize negative external impacts. Negative impacts might include international terrorism, sanctions, political pressure, misinformation, threat of force, etc. Such negative impacts can bring the political system into a state of extreme instability and even destroy it.

Often, outsourcing countries are located in regions with not very high security. Therefore, a security assessment and political stability in particular is essential to avoid unforeseen circumstances. If the dedicated team provider is located in a country with significant instability and conflict, the progress of your project can move slowly or stop completely.

According to the World Bank, Lithuania is quite stable politically and is improving its indices. Additionally, check other interesting indicators speaking in favor of stability in Lithuania.

Lithuania’s World Bank Worldwide Governance Rankings

Reason #4. High ease of doing business

Business success is determined not only by its leader and the team, but also by the context and environment of the country’s business and investment climate. To assess the ease of doing business and the overall level of the business climate, study the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index.

The latest Ease of Doing Business in Lithuania report was published in October 2019 and covered 190 countries. According to the World Bank, Lithuania ranks 11th in the world in terms of ease of doing business and is considered a developed country.

Ease of doing business index for Lithuania

Business environment safety is confirmed by the success stories of companies having successfully relocated or expanded their business in Lithuania. There are more than 450 start-ups and offices of 13 of the 20 largest multinational companies in the country: Google, Western Union, IBM, Nasdaq, etc. Over 2,500 technical professionals are engaged in more than 2,500 technicians. Many IT companies in Lithuania develop software and provide services for large European countries.

The IT market is quite mature. Many successful startups entrust Lithuania to develop their own software and get the best results from the long-term perspective.

Lithuania has been already chosen by

Reason #5. High level of innovation

The main reason why so many tech and IT startups are flocking to Lithuania is partly due to its high-quality infrastructure and the favorable business environment. Lithuania is a technology hub with access to the EU and neighboring countries.

In terms of innovation, Lithuania is among European leaders in information technology:

Lithuania's innovation activities

Therefore, outsourcing application development to Lithuania, will ensure your project being handled in a highly developed environment with advanced IT infrastructure.

Reason #6. High level of english proficiency

Since English is the language of international communication, fluency in it is crucial. This is especially true in software development. Almost all the terminology for senior software developers is based on English syntax: libraries, repositories, tutorials, manuals, etc.

Insufficient English can result in communication issues between a client and a dedicated development team. Team leaders, project managers, and all developers should have advanced knowledge of English.

According to the EF English Proficiency Index, Lithuania ranks 24th with high English proficiency among 100 countries and regions. In addition, almost 50% of the population in Lithuania speaks at least two foreign languages.

Reason #7. High-quality education

Lithuania is one of the most educated countries with the highest proportion of university graduates among people aged 25-34. 56% percent of the population has higher education. This percentage guarantees hiring not only highly qualified, but also educated developers.

Population with tertiary education

Reason #8. Strong technical education

Developers from Lithuania possess core skills and expertise for leading projects in the field of artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality, virtual reality, websites, mobile applications, internet of things, and many more. Tech-savvy developers make Lithuania a new hub for software development solutions.

The Lithuanian government aims at STEM education development. Lithuania is the leading country in the Central and Eastern Europe region in terms of research and development collaboration between universities and business. It also ranks 2nd in the world for “higher education performance” according to Bloomberg.

Lithuania’s education system

The Ministry of Economy and Innovation of Lithuania puts much effort into expanding the local IT professionals pool. The post-graduate retraining program aims at the graduation of 2,000 software developers and other IT professionals by the middle of 2023. As a result of this program, software developers highly proficient in cybersecurity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, etc., will become available on the market.

Lithuania's pool of high quality IT talent

Reason #9. Extensive talent pool

It is challenging to find highly skilled developers in the labor market, since they rarely stay unemployed for a long while. Additionally, their rates are high, which doesn’t really align well with the objective to cut costs through IT outsourcing.

State of the Developer Nation report ascertains that there were 26.8 million software developers worldwide at the end of 2021. Experts predict growth in the number of developers, reaching 45 million by 2030. Lithuania has an expansive talent pool of IT specialists:

42K IT specialists in Lithuania (Source: Government Strategic Analysis Center, 2020)
10,100 IT students in the pipeline (Source: Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, 2021-2022)
Lithuanian programmers can develop web and mobile projects, support new and existing projects, test software, design, etc. Invest Lithuania presented the most popular categories of developers in Lithuania. They include:

Most wanted software developers for development jobs in Lithuania

Reason #10. Variety of expertise

Most applied programming languages in Lithuania demonstrate overall global trends and customer demand for development. Top six most popular technologies in Lithuania list Java, SQL, JavaScript, .NET, C#, and Python.

Most popular programming languages in Lithuania

Reason #11. Cultural compatibility

Although cultural impact is not obvious, it has a lot to do with business in general and employment of dedicated teams in particular. Cultural orientations are vital to understand the country and people inhabiting it. It is the culture of the country that shapes the beliefs, norms, and life perceptions in general.

People sharing the same cultural understanding find common language way easier and faster. Unlike people having different mental archetypes.

Lithuania has roots in European culture and shares common traditions, behavior, and work ethic. This cultural similarity results in affection among European countries. Therefore, communication between Lithuanian developers and customers from other European countries is quite natural and smooth.

The diagram below illustrates Lithuanian culture. The data provided is based on analysis of major studies: ESS, Hof, SVS, WHR, and WVS.

A portrait of lithuanian cultural values

Reason #12. Low rates – High skills

Of course, cutting costs is the core, but not the main advantage of hiring remote developers. Many clients think that all countries and software development outsourcing companies provide the same services, just at different rates. This is not true. Every country has a different education system, and companies differ in their resources and expertise. Which means that the quality of dedicated development services provided in different countries varies. Your job is to find the best value for money ratio.

Compared to North America or Western and Northern Europe, the rates of developers from Lithuania are much lower, and the talent pool of specialists is large.

The average hourly rate for software development in Lithuania ranges from 22 to 45 euros, while the average software developer monthly income is around 2700 euros.

Surely, there are countries with even lower rates (Vietnam, India, Africa), however, developers at coastal prices will not provide the same array of IT skills and expertise. The cost of living in Lithuania is considerably low, while the level of education is high. In addition, you get great access to the latest technology stack.

Monthly salaries for Lithuania developers

Reason #13. Lithuanian IT industry in numbers

Some more facts to prove that hiring a dedicated development team in Lithuania is the right choice:

Lithuanian IT industry in numbers

To recap

Analysis of the above-mentioned factors worth considering while choosing a country to hire a dedicated development team from, results in conclusion that Lithuania provides a favorable context for cooperation.

The model of hiring a dedicated team is a business strategy, not a miracle. Business strategy is related to all aspects of life: cultural, social, economic, political, etc. Having analyzed all these aspects and provided you with research data, statistics, and reports, our article has proven that hiring dedicated developers from Lithuania might become a successful strategic decision.

Developer Onboarding Checklist: Get to Know the Unknown

JayDevs — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:20:51 +0000

Congratulations on having a new developer! The first working day with a lot of emotions and doubts about him. Long search behind and hope for future successful work together for you.

Talented specialists are the main resource of any IT company.

A decent salary is not enough to retain and motivate top specialists. A developer should feel comfortable in all aspects. The absence of this comfort and understanding of own place in the team often results in inefficient work or even worse – leaving the company and going to competitors.

You need an elaborate adaptation process in order to gain the credibility of a new employee and make him a part of the team without stress.

What is developer onboarding

Developer onboarding – is a process of familiarization of a new employee with a new job and environment: what tasks are to be solved, who is sitting at the next desk, what working processes are like, and where a coffee machine is at last.

From the first glance, everything can be covered within the first day on the job. But it is not so easy. Successful developer onboarding requires a deep and individual approach. Ideally, this should be a clear algorithm starting before the first working day and lasting within the first three months of work.

Why developer onboarding is important

Data from Aberdeen Group states that 70% of new workers decide whether to stay or leave the company within the first six months on the job.

Some employers don’t pay enough attention to new workers and get into a neverending cycle of hiring and firing people. Costs increase while efficiency drops.

Newcomers need your support

A streamlined adaptation process helps to avoid these issues. An employee makes fewer mistakes, starts feeling like a part of the team soon, and becomes confident. It reduces stress and facilitates faster work commitment. And a committed worker – is a motivated worker. As the result, a person works better and most likely plans to stay for a linger while.

What stands behind developer onboarding

It is not enough to show a newcomer his work desk and introduce this person to the team. Onboarding includes a set of aspects:

Preparation of the required documents;
Setup of tools for work and communication;
Involvement in work processes;
Familiarization with corporate culture;
Establishing communication within the team;
Organization of education;
The motivation of an employee.

In this article, we will only focus on the involvement of a developer in the working processes and the team. This is the foundation of developer onboarding without which other aspects will not make much sense.

All the above-mentioned processes are quite time-consuming. Let’s sequentially study them from the moment of inviting a developer till the end of the first three months of work.

Days before a developer goes to work (pre-onboarding)

So you found a required developer and shook hands. The process of his adaptation starts from this very moment. No need to wait until the first working day since this period can last up to several weeks. Make good use of this time and start pre-onboarding.

Pre-onboarding unites solutions of organizational moments and primary familiarization with the company.

Send a welcome letter

Greet the new team member, confirm the date of the first working day, describe what awaits him in the nearest future, make an appointment before starting work. Attach an agreement so that a person has enough time to study it before signing.

If there is plenty of time before the first working day send additional emails once every 5-7 days. These can contain photos of the future workspace, a welcome message from the team lead, etc.

Arrange a personal meeting

Agenda can contain several action items:

Sign all the necessary documents. This will help to avoid bureaucracy when meeting the team and diving into work;
Answer the questions of a newcomer or explain yourself about the nuances a person can face;
Take an office tour. A new person can take a look at the working environment in a relaxed atmosphere and will have a clear picture of where he is going on the first working day;
Choose a mentor and make an introduction. From now on a developer will personally know someone from the team and will be able to ask this person for assistance;
Provide access to the building. Prepare everything a person might need to get free access to the territory of the company: keys, keycard, parking permit, etc.

Add an employee to chats and project management system

On the first working day, a developer will simply open all the necessary software and (Slack, GitHub, Trello) and will not spend time on the authorization. It is also reasonable to create a corporate email address in advance.

Send an email to prepare for the first day on the job

Usually, such letters contain applied information: the beginning of the working day, route to the office, parking slot, time of the welcome meeting, dress code, snacks/beverages offered by the company, etc. You can also list the perks and discounts for employees here (gym membership, promo codes to order food, etc.).

Write about everything you find awkward to ask an employee in person

Do not underestimate the pre-onboarding phase. It helps to settle bureaucratic moments and takes a lot of questions and concerns off the table for a newcomer. This will certainly cultivate the loyalty of a new employee.

Developer onboarding: day one

Day Х has come – your new worker opens the office door. Onboarding starts from this moment.

Several people are responsible for the coordination of adaptation:

HR – responsible for socialization, familiarization with corporate culture, organizational moments;
Team lead – sets personal goals for a newcomer and observes involvement into the project and the team;
Mentor – supervises the technical part: introduces workflows, assigns project tasks, reviews the code.

On average every new worker passes through 50 adaptation processes. The simultaneous start of all of them is a big mistake. There is a high risk of overwhelming a newcomer with too much information and instead of assistance in adaptation to a new context a person will get even more confused.

On the first day focus on getting acquainted with the team, setting up the workplace, working with a mentor, a welcome meeting, and nice bonuses for a new employee. Let’s talk about each stage separately.

Getting acquainted with the team

Most likely when you ask your friend why he likes his job one of the first reasons sounds like “great team atmosphere”. After all, groundworks are done from the first day:

Introduce the members of your team. Define the areas of responsibility for each worker (if they exist) so that a newcomer has a clear understanding of whom he can address with certain questions. Do not overcomplicate things, present everything in a simple and clear way.

Ask a new team member to make a brief self-introduction. This shouldn’t necessarily be done in front of the whole department, a short email or a message in the group chat should be good enough.

It is important for teammates to know the human side of their colleagues

Invite a new person to join a daily meeting. This is a good way to start getting familiarized with the course of work, achievements and issues faced. It will also give an understanding of communication habits in the team (if jokes are acceptable for instance).

Schedule lunch for the whole team. Communication in a relaxed atmosphere will reduce the stress of meeting new people and additionally such a format allows discussing topics not related to work.

Working place setup

In case you haven’t provided all the access and credentials, created email and accounts before the first working day, this part might take some time. The main thing you should do is to tell how you work with software and which chats are used for work and which for communication.

Fundamental rule: everything should be set up beforehand so that a new worker could simply turn on the computer and start working.

Work with mentor

Working with a mentor – is one of the pillars of developer onboarding. However, even if you have a tight-knit team and a motivated newcomer it doesn’t mean that mentorship will go smoothly. Therefore, pay extra attention when choosing a mentor.

The mentor shouldn’t necessarily be the most experienced developer. You should let less savvy team members try themselves in this role. They will appreciate the company’s trust and will be happy to demonstrate their competence.

Much to learn you still have

Working with a mentor is multifaceted, we will talk about this down the road. On the first day a mentor should:

Introduce a new person to the team (is team lead hasn’t done it so far);
Tell about the daily routine and week schedule;
Tell me about the first project. Share project goals, current stage, and the tasks to be assigned to a newcomer. - Don’t go into details at this stage as you will have plenty of time for this. If there is no specific project at the moment simply describe the approximate tasks a person will work with;
Answer questions a developer might have.

The worst thing a mentor can do on the first day is to leave a newcomer alone with all these aspects. Even experienced workers need assistance in the beginning since every company has its own rules and standards to follow.

Welcome meeting

A welcome meeting traditionally is a one-to-one meeting with a team lead. Schedule it for the second half of the day to let an employee get accustomed to the new environment and accrue some questions.

Key moments to announce during a welcome meeting:

Share the goals of your company and the department, forecasted growth, bonus and stimulation system, cultural code of the company. All this should motivate and encourage;
Tell about your expectations from a developer’s work in a simple and clear way;
Tell about the personnel management processes: who to address regarding sick leave, vacation, etc.;
Explain how often you are going to have one-to-one meetings and what is their purpose;
Answer questions of a new employee.

Nice bonuses

Let your new worker remember his first day on the job. When the formal part is over, make a small surprise and present a welcome gift with branded company things. It can contain a bag, water bottle, T-shirt, notepad, stickers, etc.

A gift will become a great end of the first working day

Try to personalize a gift based on the interests of a person (if you know about them).

Developer onboarding: week one

The first working week is usually rich in events. A new project, meetings with the team, intense work with the mentor … Hold it, let’s discuss everything step by step.

Familiarization with work processes

One of the primary goals of onboarding is to help a developer to cope with his work well. To do this a person should know all the details of the work processes. Usually, a mentor is the one to help.

Things to do:

Suggest a new person study your internal documentation, for instance, corporate SOP – a set of algorithms applied to do certain actions. The newcomer should know what development tools are used (Visual Studio, Xcode), how code is checked, how typical tasks are solved, etc;
Create clear code check criteria and let a newcomer familiarize with them before fulfilling the first task;
Show the order code repository. Let a new employee start to explore the codebase and understand the internal coding rules.

The first practical activity

It’s time to do some practical things! It is important for a developer to start taking part in day to day work of the team. Start from simple tasks, like fixing bugs for instance (in case of junior or middle seniority level of the developer).

Bug-fixing will let the developer gradually jump into work

On a regular basis, the mentor should talk to the developer and give feedback on the accomplished assignments.

Work with mentor

In addition to the curation of the new employee in terms of development, there are more onboarding nuances worth remembering.

Schedule daily meetings at the end of the working day. Focus on the written code in detail, answer the questions, provide instructions and advice. It is important for meetings to happen in a friendly environment;
Create an adaptation plan for the month ahead. Specify the educational materials a person should study and what tasks are to be accomplished. Make sure to set milestones and KPIs to track progress;
Involve a new person in team meetings.

Summing up the first week

The first week – is an important milestone. The new employee has concentrated first impressions and emotions from his work, and in addition to this, he has a fresh look at the established processes in the company. Therefore it is important to have a one-to-one meeting between a new employee and a team lead at the end of the first week.

Chat about the first impressions of work, learn about successes and problems faced, set goals for the nearest future. Ask a person if he is comfortable working with a mentor. Be sure to praise the new developer since this meeting should be a positive moment during an intense working week.

Developer onboarding: the first month

Usually, the first month of the new job is quite intense but interesting: various tasks, communication with colleagues, new knowledge. Onboarding should support the newcomer’s interest but should not be overwhelming.

Pair Programming

Close work with mentor continues. It is time to add pair programming to this game. A mentor and a mentee write the code together sitting at the same computer. Pair programming sessions facilitate getting used to workflows, development tools, and help to avoid unnecessary questions.

There are different styles of pair programming and the choice depends on the level of your new colleague:

Driver-Navigator – one person works at the keyboard, the second one observes, shares his opinion, provides directions. This style proves to be effective when roles are traded continuously. It works well both for novice-expert and expert-expert scenarios.

Pair programming increases the novice's knowledge and builds trust in colleagues

Tour Guide – a developer writes code and explains everything he’s doing. The style works best with a trainee or a junior developer.

Ping-Pong Pairing – development through testing. Most ofter this style is used by experts.

Pair programming with strong interdependence. In this style, the navigator is always an experienced developer and the novice is the driver. The main idea here is that the driver fully trusts the navigator even if he doesn’t fully understand the code he is writing. All questions can be asked at the end of the session. The style is ideal for juniors and novices in a certain technology.

Usually, it is a mentor who runs the pair programming sessions with newcomers, however, other developers from the team can be involved to lead this process. Refer to the article On Pair Programming to learn more about pair programming, the styles, and usage.

Moving on

We have touched on many elements of developer onboarding in the previous sections. During the first month, regularly continue to:

Hold review meetings with mentor 1-2 times a week. Evaluate progress based on the tasks accomplished, discuss the written code, ask questions to each other;
Summarize the previously planned milestones;
Arrange meetings with the team lead once a month;
Bring a new employee into group discussions. If necessary, ask to prepare for the meeting in advance to better present their ideas, comments, optional ways to solve the problem, etc.

Performance assessment and the course of developer onboarding

Schedule a big meeting with the developer at the end of the first month. Traditionally, the team-lead hosts this meeting. The main goal – is to provide feedback about the progress of a new employee. The person should be able to take a detached view of his progress and understand what to aim at.

Tell what you expect from an employee within the next stages. Allocate time for the developer’s feedback about all the work steps and collaboration with the team. Prior to the meeting think about questions you need to get answers from your new colleague.

Developer onboarding: first three months

The onboarding phase ends approximately three months after hiring a new person. Usually, it coincides with the length of the trial period. These 90 days should be used to decide if an employee is a good match for an employee and vice versa. Therefore, it is important to maximally encourage and motivate the developer so that he wants to stay in the team.

Working with motivation

The first three months are just the beginning of work with motivation, and the main aspects include

Learning and ability to apply gained knowledge. Organize training and master classes with gurus of programming. Support applying new knowledge on the project, let the developer fulfill himself;

Well-knit team. For many people atmosphere in the team is one of the key motivating factors;

Ability to realize one’s ideas. It is important to hear the thoughts of the developer and bring them to life. This helps to make a person feel important on the project;

Demonstrate that there is something more than just code. Remind about the global goals of the project, why it is needed, whom it will help, and what problems it will help to solve.

Manage processes, not people. Don’t constantly tell developers what to do. It is better to delegate a task, give them some time, tools, and step back.

Colleagues’ feedback

For three months colleagues had enough time to form their opinion about the new teammate and it’s time to get their feedback. You can ask them personally. Or you can unify the process and send a questionnaire to colleagues who communicated with the new developer. If needed you can make it anonymous if you consider this necessary.

Learn from your colleagues how a new person joined the team, whether communication with this person is comfortable, about strong and weak sides, how easy is this person to deal with in work, etc.

Get peers’ opinions about their new teammate

Summing up developer onboarding results

It is time to sum up the developer onboarding outcomes. The final meeting is held by the team lead as a rule. Here are the main things to discuss:

Evaluate developer’s work – efficiency, goal achievement, work cadence. Give your feedback;
Share the results of peers’ questionnaires (don’t quote, just highlight the most important), discuss pros and cons that were revealed;
Ask a developer about his impressions about work, team, management. Learn about his concerns regarding work processes and what should be changed. Ask if he is ready to continue working together;
If you get a positive answer to the previous question, discuss the developer’s career growth, create a development plan for the next six to twelve months.

Wrapping up

The organization of developer onboarding processes can differ from company to company. The sequence of steps and approaches can be changed, you can also come up with your own ideas. Nevertheless, successful developer onboarding within the first three months requires:

Familiarize a newcomer with work processes;
Arrange collaboration with a tutor;
Work on new developer’s motivation;
Make a newcomer a part of the team.

Premium onboarding always pays off. For the company it is a great chance to build a team of talented developers, improve work efficiency, and avoid staff turnover. For the developer – comfort in the company of workmates, clear understanding of what should be done at present and where to develop in the future. In addition to that, you’ll see the bright eyes of your employee as he is really interested in his work. Isn’t this the ideal situation?

Top 8 Best Coding Interview Platforms in 2021

JayDevs — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 09:37:33 +0000

A coding interview – is a technical assessment aimed at the evaluation of a potential candidate’s professional efficiency. Professional efficiency is determined by how well a candidate can solve tasks connected directly with software development creation.

Usually, the assessment covers a wide range of knowledge areas, for example:

Algorithms;
Artificial Intelligence;
Distributed Systems;
Databases;
Mathematics;
Cryptography and Security;
Language Specific Domains: Java, React, Angular, C++, Ruby, Python, Linux shell, SQL.

Nowadays, there is a great variety of coding interview platforms where you can find tasks to check the level of the developer. Choosing the platform, you should pay attention to:

Fast and intuitive interface. Even if you are a CTO, it is very unlikely that you would like to spend your time to set up and control every selection process. Therefore, choose a platform anyone can easily get along with.
Clear and reasonable pricing. At some coding interview platforms, prices can be as high as $5000, while being as low as $150 at other coding interview platforms at the same time. You need a platform that will enable interviewing enough candidates at a reasonable cost. Otherwise, the hiring process can become quite costly.
Large task library. You need to make sure that the chosen platform suits you: provides tasks for the position of candidates you hire. And also providing a possibility to upload your tasks if necessary.

There are also important functions like fraud detection, API integration, etc. They are also important but depend on your project, working processes, and the pool of candidates.

Below, we listed the most popular coding interview platforms in compliance with the following criteria:

The level of developer a platform is appropriate for: junior, middle, senior;
Pricing;
Programming languages and technologies;
Main features;
Real users reviews.

1.Coderbyte

Level of developers: beginner-to-advanced

Pricing:
Starting price: $199/month
Free trial version: Available for 14 days
Coderbyte also offers a pricing plan for $10/candidate. 50 candidates at $500

Task Library: 400+ tasks, 30+ programming languages

Coderbyte task library

Coderbyte key features:

Whiteboarding. Allows users to draw flowcharts and diagrams during a session. When opening a board, a user has two options: create a new board or download the existing board from the Miro account.
Coding video recording. Allows getting an understanding of the way candidates thinking while writing the code.
Video/audio chat and time limit for a coding task.
Using own tests. Use this function if you are technically savvy and you don’t need assistance in creating estimates, choosing tasks, and setting up parameters.
Anti-plagiarism functions: – Google search: tells how often a candidate Googles, as well as reports on all copy-pastes. – In Settings, you will find an option that enables masking of task titles to avoid further fraud. – There is a special plagiarism ranking: frequency of copy-pasting, using search, and leaving the task tab.
Free access to Candidate reports.

Reviews:

Coderbyte reviews

Find more reviews on G2.

2.HackerRank

Level of developers: beginner-to-advanced

Pricing:
Starting price: $25/month
Free trial version: Available for 14 days

Task library: 80+ Technical Roles, 40+ languages, and 8 frameworks

HackerRank task library

HackerRank key features:

Large library. You can import questions from a library or create your questions.
Developer-friendly IDE. A developer-friendly environment with support for Docker containers, debugging, autofill, git integration, etc.
Audio/Video chat. One-to-one or group interviews.
Plagiarism and proctoring controls. Detects when a candidate closes a task tab.
Creating tests via API
Automatic interview recording.

Reviews:

HackerRank reviews

Find more reviews on G2.

3.CoderPad

Level of developers: intermediate-to-advanced

Pricing:
Starting price: $50/month – 5 interviews
Free trial version: Available for 7 days
If you register for a trial version but don’t renew it, you will automatically be registered for a Free plan. This version provides two free pads (a pad – is an interview session at which a candidate writes his code).

Task library: 30 + supported programming languages

CoderPad task library

CoderPad key features:

Drawing Mode. The function of the virtual board, letting visualization of a technical chat: draw a diagram or describe technical architecture.
Focus Time. Five minutes of pause for a candidate. This lets a candidate the possibility to focus and reflect on the challenge. Having this option, a candidate doesn’t feel the pressure of being estimated.
Customizable environments. Allow you to create the list of questions in addition to the bank of questions available on the platform. Questions can be written in any programming language, or markdown can be used to write a non-language-related question. You can attach user files or databases to make the task more complicated.
The platform is integrated with popular recruiting tools such as Greenhouse, Lever, and Good Time.
Single Sign-On (SSO). The authentication process allows a user to get access to several third-party applications with the same set of credentials. Single sign-on helps to easily manage the team members in your account.

Reviews:

CoderPad reviews

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4.Codility

Level of developers: intermediate

Pricing:
No trial version.
Prices are not fixed. Prices depend on your demand.
Pricing details: Provided by Vendor

Task Library: over 40 languages and technologies

Codility task library

Codility key features:

High-scale plagiarism detection. This function detects when a candidate wants to cheat, for instance, to close the tab with the task.
The product Code Live, allows candidates and an employer to organize online interviews using real tasks in a common development environment.
The platform is equipped with built-in audio/video recording.
Whiteboard – Canvas. Allows users to draw flowcharts and diagrams during sessions.
Flexible interview settings (based on user tasks, previously selected templates, and previous materials).
Time scale. The function showing how much time it took a user to accomplish a particular task and the whole coding process.
Live pair programming in the shared editor. Allows candidates to show their skill in real-time: the process of writing code, communication skills, etc.

Reviews:

Codility reviews

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5.CodeSignal

Level of developers: intermediate-to-advanced

Pricing:
Prices not specified. Code Signal recommends an individual package that will meet your needs in the best possible way. Go get an understanding about pricing a demo-version request should be sent.

Task Library: 4000 tasks, 70+ programming languages, libraries, etc.

CodeSignal task library

CodeSignal key features:

Monaco-powered IDE that brings the familiar environment of Visual Studio Code to the cloud.
Virtual whiteboard for system design interviews. The function enables drawing on flowcharts and diagrams during sessions.
Real-time mode communication between a candidate and an interviewer including built-in video conferencing.
ATS Integration + Chrome Extension.
Coding assessment in CodeSignal can help you compare qualification of your candidate to skills of developers around the world.
Online Proctoring. The feature allows you to improve the reliability of assessments using online proctoring and identity verification.

Reviews:

CodeSignal reviews

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6.Qualified

Level of developers: intermediate

Pricing:
Free trial version: Available for 14 days
For more detailed information on pricing models, you should contact Qualified directly.

Task Library: the number of languages and tasks is not specified

Qualified task library

Qualified key features:

Use your own External IDE. The library contains many tasks that can be customized for use with all or some of the Qualified supported languages. You can create your tasks and add textual examples for every language.
Test-driven scoring (TDD). Qualified use unit (module) testing to check the sent code. The main goal is to check that every unit of the program code works in a due manner.
Detailed statistics. You can compare the results of candidates work with your team or all other developers across the corresponding platform. You can also check how well every coding task is performed.
Code similarity and risk detection. This function compares similar solutions to define the potential plagiarism of code. This guarantees that the presented code is an original work.
Blind evaluation. The feature deletes identifying information from the sent code. Thus, you can find talents based on the merits and demonstrated skills, rather than an outstanding CV.
Automated evaluation. This code assessment tool in Qualified makes the toughest part of work for you, answering the question: “Can a developer fulfill this work?”.
Live pair programming. With this feature, developers can tell you in real-time about every step in their code.
Code reproduction. This function allows reproducing any segment of coding, revealing the thinking process of any developer and his potential to solve problems.
Integration with API, Webhooks or Zapier

Reviews:

Qualified reviews

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7.iMocha

Level of developers: beginner-to-intermediate

Pricing:
Starting price: $150/Month
Availability of trial version

Task Library: 25 programming languages, 1500+ tasks

iMocha task library

iMocha key features:

Live interviews. You can assess developers’ programming, analytical, and communication skills in real-time mode.
AI-enabled proctoring. The platform has built-in functions for capturing images, audio, and video in real-time. Any suspicious activity or behavior will be noted on the assessment report. It also provides such control measures, blocking windows and tracking IP addresses.
AI-LogicBox(assessment of digital skills: Salesforce, UiPath, AWS, Azure, SAP, BluePrism, etc.) and AI-EnglishPro (assessment of candidates’ communication skills).
Customizable assessment method. You can add your questions, links to tests, set time-bound assessments, etc.
Automatic assessment of candidates. If you don’t want to assess a candidate personally, you can start an automatic candidate assessment with the help of DIY integration. Experts provide an assessment within just 48 hours.

Reviews:

iMocha reviews

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8.DevSkiller

Level of developers: beginner-to-intermediate

Pricing:
Starting price: $499.00 /month
Free trial version: Available for 7 days.

Task Library: 24 programming languages and frameworks

DevSkiller task library

DevSkiller key features:

Ready and user tasks. Use ready tests created by experts (almost 4000 tasks) or create your own solutions, for instance: – Code gaps. You can download a code snippet with gaps that are to be filled by a candidate. – Choice questions. You can create a question with multiple or single variant of answers.
Natural programming environment. An opportunity to let candidates work in their integrated development environment (IDE) to see their real skills. Candidates can choose how they want to edit the code (process like CI / CD based on Git repositories).
Features letting you check if a candidate cheats on you: – IP-address of a candidate will inform you about the approximate location of the test. – Similarity check. Will show you the similarity level of the candidate’s answer compared to the most similar answers for the same task on the platform (the whole system). – Session recording. You will be able to rewatch the candidate’s test. This means you can see the keystrokes (where they pressed and what they typed) in real time. – Static camera input. Will let you ask the candidate to make a photo of himself at any stage of the test. – Code pair. It enables watching the candidate live with video on. This way you can see exactly who is taking the test. You can also code with the candidate – if there are any problems, you can edit his code and give a hint if necessary. – Social monitoring tools. Devskiller constantly monitors the Internet to find out where and by whom they are mentioned. This means that you or the candidate won’t be able to find on Google the questions and answers from the platform’s database.

Reviews:

DevSkiller reviews

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What coding interview platform to choose

We provided the list of the most popular coding interview platforms to assess the coding skills of a candidate. The platforms listed above will allow you to run a real-time assessment of potential candidates’ knowledge and skills using previously prepared or tailored tasks.

Each coding interview platforms offer a different set of features. You should choose the ones that best suits your company’s needs.

What coding interview platform to choose

Why Soft Skills Matter When Hiring a Software Developer

JayDevs — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 08:50:52 +0000

At least once, any director faced this problem. The potential candidate demonstrated well during the interview, answered all the technical questions, fulfilled the practical task perfectly well. However, after a couple of months of his work, you realize that this person doesn’t suit you.

There are many reasons why people make mistakes assessing a candidate in the interview. But, perhaps, the most important of them is underestimating the candidate’s soft skills.

Of course, professional skills are important to accomplish practical tasks. However, work is not only about technical assignments. A person should continuously communicate with other people, manage time correctly, prioritize work, learn and develop continuously. Soft skills are important for all of these. That’s why underestimating them while choosing a potential candidate is a big mistake.

What are soft and hard skills

Any person should possess certain skills in order to fulfill any job. We can figuratively divide all soft skills into 2 categories:

Soft skills – personal qualities of a person. This includes communication skills, ability to learn, creativity, the skill of working in a team, etc.

Hard skills – professional skills. For instance, for a developer, it is knowledge of programming languages and security standards.

Soft Skills vs Hard Skills

Hiring a potential candidate, you should pay thorough attention to both categories. However many people overlook this and here is why.

Not enough attention is paid to soft skills

Bottom line is that Hard Skills can be assessed. People have created many ways how to assess knowledge in programming language or mathematics.

There are plenty of certificates and diplomas confirming the Hard Skills of a developer. There are many questions answers to which will give you an understanding of the level of a developer.

It is way easier to assess hard skills compared to soft skills

At the same time, things are a bit more challenging with Soft Skills. No one institution gives a certificate that a person is nice and can arrange and manage time. Even “the right” answer to a question about a character doesn’t mean stress resistance. He could simply tell you what you wanted to hear.

Many candidates write in their CV that they are stress-resistant, learn fast, open-minded, etc. just because an employee wants to see all these features. Not because they are so in real life.

Because Hard Skills are easier to assess, in the interview people focus on them in particular. And on the contrary, are very superficial in terms of assessing candidates’ Soft Skills.

In this article, we will show you that it is unnecessary to hire a person and job shadow his work in order to assess Soft Skills. It is possible to do this in the interview and save ton of time for both yourself and the candidate.

Top 9 soft skills a software developer must have

In their study, Emerald Insight revealed top-9 soft skills for a software developer from the employer’s standpoint.

To do this, they analyzed over 500 developers’ vacancies in different regions of the world and checked how often this or that skill is mentioned in the vacancy description.

Demand for software developer skills in different regions of the world

The study revealed that some soft skills are in higher demand than others. For instance, the demand for a developer’s communication skills is at a fairly high level, while the ability to learn quickly is practically not mentioned.

Further on, we will try to figure out how each of the listed skills impacts the developer’s work. And is it fair that some of them are overlooked?

Communication skills

Demand: > 85%
Required for:
Ability to effectively deliver one’s thoughts, listen and hear, and interlocutor.

Impact on developer’s work:
Communication skills play a key role in the developer’s work and deserve its high demand among employers.

The work of a developer is always connected with communication with other colleagues. Whether it is chatting, sending emails, or writing documentation. Coordinated teamwork is determined by how concisely a person can deliver his thoughts.

How to check:
Watch the candidate’s behavior during the interview.
Assess verbal and non-verbal communication: check if the candidate can listen to the end of the statement, how short and concise are the given answers, if a person is under stress, etc.

Use cases to assess communication skills.
Propose a candidate a modeled situation not necessarily related to his position directly.

It is necessary to analyze this situation, describe a model of behavior, and outline an effective solution.

Answering this question, a candidate can start telling about not exactly what he would do in such a situation. And there is nothing surprising here, since he wants to get this job.

If a developer gives answers that are too ideal, pretend you disagree: «Why would you need to help someone? You spend your working time to back up a careless worker. Moreover, no one will learn about this and all your effort will not be appreciated”.

The essence of this move is to understand whether the candidate sticks to his original opinion or changes it and adapts to your suggestion.

Use questionnaires to determine a type of personality.
For example, the Myers-Briggs test is frequently used while selecting candidates. The test result will give you a brief description of the person, an idea of his abilities, including his communication skills.

Interpersonal Skills

Demand: 60-80%
Required for:
The ability of an employee to get along well in a team, negotiate, solve conflicts and share knowledge.

Impact on developer’s work:
As mentioned before, every developer works in a team and a team is about people above all.

Every person has their own mood, problems, and fears. The overall atmosphere in a team depends on how well interpersonal skills are developed.

A negative atmosphere predisposes to stagnation and destruction of the team, a good one, on the contrary, to its growth and development.

How to check:
Use projective questions.
The essence of the projective questions is to offer a candidate to assess another person or a persona rather than assessing oneself. It is common for people to transfer own life experience and understandings to other people or cases. Therefore, the given answer characterizes the person and not the abstract person.

The answer will help to find out if a candidate treats peers as a resource for achieving his own goals or as a source of new knowledge. There are many possible answers to this question: commercial benefit, obtaining new opportunities, the ability of knowledge exchange, etc.

Organizational skills

Demand: 30-50%
Required for:
The ability of a person to prioritize work, accomplish tasks in due time, and close projects.

Impact on developer’s work:
Quite often developers work on several tasks simultaneously. Organizational skills help to prioritize work to have everything done within timelines.

The developer’s work speed is also important, as in most cases the work of other people is determined by it. A new task can’t be started unless the previous one is finished.

How to check:
Use questionnaires.
For instance, the How Organized Are You test can help you check a candidate’s organizational skills.

Learn how your candidate organizes his work.

Giving an answer, a candidate is supposed to tell about the methods of work organization and also explain why the chosen methods are used in particular.

It is important for a developer to mention several ways of organization. It will speak in favor of his flexibility. After all, one method might work for one project but might be inappropriate for another one.

For example, a developer can use a couple of online or desktop tools to keep organized, define the core tasks from the extensive list, set reminders, create to-do lists and step-by-step manuals to reach the goal.

Analytical thinking and problem solving

Demand: 40-60%
Required for:
Ability to decompose the task into integral parts, estimate them and plan the stages of the solution that would meet the customer’s needs.

Impact on developer’s work:
Within the course of work, a developer permanently faces certain tasks to solve.

Ability to think analytically and solve these tasks in the most efficient way determine the level of a developer to a great extent.

How to check:
Behavioral interview following the STAR method (situation-task-action-results).

The core of the method is that questions are to be related to real-life situations.

Ask a developer to tell about the real examples when he managed a complicated task. The candidate should start by describing the situation, then determine the tasks to be solved, and specify certain actions leading to the definite result. The answer will demonstrate the level of the soft skill.

The answer will help you understand the candidate’s analytical thinking, honesty and frankness, as well as ability to make conclusions and learn from own mistakes. Anyone can make a mistake, most important is to make the right conclusions.

By the candidate’s conclusions, we can judge if a person understands the reason for the mistake and if he blames someone else. Give preference to those who are willing to frankly talk about the failures.

Ability to learn quickly

Demand: 0-10%
Required for:
People who are constantly developing, growing and using new strategies to solve more and more complex tasks as well as learn on own mistakes and mistakes made by other people.

Impact on developer’s work:
Often a new task of a developer differs from the previous ones. They might have general contours, solution principles, but will differ in some details.

The ability of a developer to quickly get around an unfamiliar environment directly influences the speed and quality of a performed task. Therefore, we can say that overlooking ability to learn can have negative consequences for employers.

How to check:
Study certificates of education, diplomas, etc.
Anxiety for knowledge is a primary sign of the ability to learn. Before an interview check how many courses the candidate has recently taken and passed. Check what technologies he masters, how deep his knowledge of them is, and how often he switches to new technologies.

Ask to tell more about work experience.
Discussing episodes of previous work with the candidate, wonder what was tough and what achievements is he proud of. It’s worth thinking about if difficulty to comprehend new information (“it was difficult to transfer to new projects”, “it took me long to dive into…”, etc.) are listed among the issues.

Team play

Demand: 50-80%
Required for:
Determination if a person is a team player or not. Reveals how a person interacts with other people, how sensitive to others’ problems this person is.

Impact on developer’s work:
As we have mentioned before, it is a rare case when a developer works alone. The ability to hearken to peers, support other team members, help them is an integral part of their work.

How to check:
Use questionnaire tests to reveal a team player.
The 3 Types of Employees test is a good example that can help find out if a person is a team player or is more inclined to work alone.

Pay attention to what a candidate says.
If in the interview a person often uses words and expressions “we”, “our team”, “together” most likely he is a team player and not a loner.

Situational interview.

Teamwork has its challenges. After all, not every team member fulfills duties efficiently and in a timely manner. Let a candidate suggest a solution to such a situation. This will help to figure out if a person knows how to work in a team or is an individualist.

Independence

Demand: 30-50%
Required for:
The ability of a worker to plan and successfully fulfill the tasks independently.

Impact on developer’s work:
Everything should be balanced. Teamwork is good only when it improves the efficacy of the whole team.

Experienced developers should be able to work independently. Only by being able to make effective decisions independently, a person can manage other parts of the team.

Independence is a key factor that distinguishes seniors from middle developers. Learn more about the difference between the levels of developers in our article 5 software developer levels: whom to choose.

How to check:
STAR method behavioral interview.
Question: Have you made decisions without all the necessary information?

The answer to this question helps to better evaluate the independence skills of candidates. The situation will show how the candidate coped with the task. Pay attention to whether he talked about the impact of his decision on the project and the company as a whole, how and where solutions were found, and whether a creative approach was used.

Innovation and Creative Thinking

Demand: 20-25%
Required for:
Awareness of the current technological trends, ability to create and suggest new creative and practical solutions to fulfill work tasks.

Impact on developer’s work:
Software development is constantly evolving, and what was considered normal five years ago is obsolete now.

Knowledge of new programming languages, frameworks, and their best practices influences the speed and quality of done work. Creative thinking and finding out-of-the-box solutions independently can be added here as well.

How to check:
Use the “brainstorming” technique.
Give a pen and some paper to your candidate. Give him 10-15 minutes to come up with all the solutions to the task, even the most incredible and unreal ones.

When evaluating the answer, take the following into consideration:

Note if a person started disassembling or breaking a chair to give more options;
Most of the solutions should be applicable in real life (approximate ratio 80% to 20%);
An ideal situation is if a candidate not only suggests his ideas, but also tells how they can be realized.

Frankness and quick adaptation

Demand: 0-10%
Required for:
Ability to effectively adapt to new tasks, roles and challenges.

Impact on developer’s work:
The context a developer is in can often change within the course of development: new project requirements, team members, responsibilities of a programmer, etc.

Being open and flexible to all these changes greatly impacts workers’ motivation and the general atmosphere in a team.

How to check:
Change the course of an interview on the go.
Example: ask a developer to switch roles. In the case of an experienced developer, asked him to interview another developer.

The reaction of a developer will demonstrate his “openness” to something new and his ability to quickly adapt to a changing environment. It is important to understand whether a person accepts the new rules of the game with interest, or looks overwhelmed.

Don’t overlook soft skills

Developers’ work is aligned with soft skills to the same, and sometimes even greater extent, than with hard skills.

These are namely the soft skills that determine how a person works in a team, is he capable of analytical thinking, learning fast, and adapting to new conditions.

To evaluate the candidate’s soft skills in the interview:

Observe his behavior;
Ask questions about his previous work experience;
Use questions about real candidate’s experience;
Model extraordinary work situations;
Ask projective questions;
Use psychological tests.

A combination of various techniques will help you know the “human” side of your candidate better.

Good luck!

How to Hook Software Developers Right From The Start: Mistakes to Avoid

JayDevs — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 13:13:48 +0000

Scenario while hiring a software developer in most cases is almost the same: search, filtration, an invitation to an interview, and choosing the best of the interviewed candidates. Sounds pretty simple, right? However, when bringing into action it becomes quite a complicated and costly initiative.

In the words of Akito Morita, a co-founder of Sony corporation “Your business and its future are in the hands of the people you hire”. The success of your company and the project you are working on fully depends on the staff members you employ.

Since we hire developers ourselves, we decided to share some of our experience, probable mistakes, and ways to avoid them.

1. You are not prepared

You have decided to hire a developer. Now it is important to prepare to create a vacancy and hiring in general. If you think that you need no preparation this is your first mistake.

Developers are in high demand. Professionals can receive up to several job offers daily and don’t stay unemployed for a long while on the labor market.

Hiring a software developer can be compared to hunting. The hunting ground surely depends on who you are chasing. If you don’t think about it other “hunters” will. Guess who is going to get the prey.

Not knowing who exactly you need is one of the factors why you fail to hunt a developer. It leads to permanent doubts that result in excessive deliberation while hiring a developer.

To avoid this create a persona of your best candidate.

Key aspects to think about before you start hiring:

1. Tech skills. What duties do you want a future developer to carry out? Define what technical skills are required in your work. Specify them in your vacancy description. If you struggle to define the core skills for your project you should ask a CTO for assistance. Learn how to hire a CTO in our blog if you don’t have one.

2. Soft skills. What are the must-have soft skills a developer working on your project should possess? Can these skills be developed if a candidate doesn’t possess them at the moment? Our blog covers required developers’ soft skills in greater detail.

3. Domain experience. Consider if a candidate needs experience in some specific domain area. For instance, eCommerce, video streaming service, or fintech. It will help weed out candidates faster.

4. Collaboration model. Which model of collaboration suits you best? Remote or InHouse? Offshore or Nearshore? This can shorten or lengthen the search range.

Rule to follow: There is no fuss – just speed in hiring.

2. You give preference to Elite

Imagine you receive an email with a CV: the candidate was raised in a foster family, finished only one semester at the university and then dropped out, spent a year living in India and adopted Buddhism, didn’t stay for long at any job, suffers from dyslexia.

If you decide to throw away the CV and not to give a chance for an interview you have a great chance to let another Steve Jobs go.

A CV tells a story. Say you have two CVs in front of you. Both candidates are evenly qualified in the tech stack you need for your project.

In the first one, you see that the candidate graduated from Oxford. Ideal CV with good references. It can speak in favor of the huge effort the developer had made to enter and moreover to graduate from an elite university.

In the second case, the developer graduated from an average state university, changed a couple of jobs in different companies, had his first job as a waiter in a neighboring restaurant to pay for studies. It can either mean aimlessness and unpredictability or that a person is struggling against circumstances from birth, doesn’t give up, and even succeeds. Such people have a sense of goal. Therefore, such a person at least deserves to be interviewed.

As you learn more about the stories and characters of successful people, you’ll find something they all have in common. Not all, but many of them faced hardships from an early age. If a person went through poverty, violence in the family, or something similar, it is very unlikely that bugs and production issues can frighten such a person.

Stop and think before you reject a candidate with a “non-perfect” CV. Give this person a chance. Who knows, maybe he is Dr. House in the software development world.

Rule to follow: Labels are for clothes, not for people.

3. You ask useless questions

You might have years of hiring experience or have no experience at all. Before an interview, it is worth spending time to understand why you are going to ask questions you want to ask and what value should they have.

You might have heard such questions to software developers from Google and Microsoft, like “How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?”. In 2013 senior vice president for people operations at Google gave an interview to The New York Times where he clearly expressed his opinion about such questions: “We found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time. How many golf balls can you fit into an airplane? How many gas stations are in Manhattan? A complete waste of time. They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.”

It’s 2021 but still, companies are asking such mind teasing questions. In fact, such questions bring no value to an interview.

An interview is a respectful dialog when both sides get to know each other better and the ultimate goal is to understand if they can work well together and bring value to each other in the nearest future.

Questions at an interview form understanding about each other: what your goals and objectives are, what competencies and wishes of a candidate are.

Instead of brainteasers ask questions about a candidate. Let a person provide more personal information. Listen. Lead a conversation in a way when a candidate tells about own wishes and areas to be engaged in, previous projects and preferable projects for the future, difficulties faced, etc. By doing so, you’ll:

See how a developer interacted with projects in real-life situations.
Get an understanding of what a candidate considers challenging in projects.
Understand what hard and soft skills a developer possesses.

Rule to follow: Asking hypothetical questions you’ll get hypothetical answers.

4. You are struggling

Sometimes confrontation between a developer and a hiring party can occur. Reasons can vary, starting from a wish to create a stressful situation and ending up with the willingness of an employer to raise self-esteem.

Interviews are not Mortal Combat fights. The goal is not to make a cool fatality and defeat the opponent. You want to hire an experienced developer and a candidate who aims at working for your company. You are on the same side. Help him win, and this is how you win yourself. Win-Win.

Many developers are introverts by nature having issues with self-presentation skills. There are two ways out. First – create a stressful situation when you further oppress a person. Second – make a friendly environment, draw a developer into the conversation and let him present himself in the best possible manner.

Candidate’s success by default means the success of your project. Help the candidate demonstrate the best sides during the interview and then conclude if he suits you. Don’t pressure candidate. Joke and try to create trusting relationships.

Rule to follow: Turn up the developer’s self-esteem, not your nose.

5. You are trying to do everything alone

The first part of an interview is a theoretical test. The issue of technical questions is that a developer might answer a question but change the theme and avoid specifics, thus saying a lot but not much sticking to the point.

If you lose track, a wrong person can be hired and a less talkative candidate can be overlooked. For instance, when you ask about the difference between an attribute and a property in Java Script you should hear a concise answer: attributes are determined in HTML and properties in DOM.

If a developer provides concise answers and examples of cases from his previous experience – this is a professional. Hire this person. If on the contrary, a candidate changes subjects, waffles on, and good with sweet-talking – this person is bad at development. Subjects are changed just because a clear answer to the question can’t be provided.

You can avoid this mistake in two ways:

Your experience. You’ll spot out insignificant talking as interviewing experience grows. If you don’t hear a clear answer, repeat a question once again or reword it. No straight answer means a lack of knowledge of the subject.
Ask one more person to join an interview to follow up on the answering process in terms of correspondence to a subject of asked questions. It can be a team member, manager, recruitment consultant, or any other concerned party.

Rule to follow: Four eyes see more than two.

6. Wrong coding task approach

The coding task is the second part of an interview. You give a technical or logic task to a developer. The goal is to vividly see how a developer is writing code and contemplates the issue. Unlike theoretical questions, the practical task doesn’t provide room for long, wordy and vapid talking. However, other mistakes can be left unattended:

You didn’t think about the level of complexity. It is worth noting that coding task is not appropriate for juniors. Candidates who can explain the solution are middle or senior developers in most cases. As an employer, you should prepare a technical task conforming to the seniority level of a candidate.

You take too much of the developer’s time. You give a developer a task or a mini-project (for instance – take-home tests) to be done at home. As a rule, it takes a weekend or the same amount of time to fulfill it. Such tasks are reasonable only if a developer has serious intentions to join your team. Mature developers don’t want to spend so much time on a test task, since tomorrow they will be invited to another interview.

Your coding tasks have nothing in common with real project coding. Many tests taken from such resources as hackerrank, codify, etc., are not related to real projects. There is no much use of these resources if you need to test whether a developer can practically design a class property or structure an object-oriented program.

Task complexity should correspond to the developer’s level. It shouldn’t take too much time, ideally no more than 2-3 hours, and be as close to real project work as possible. This will help you to evaluate practical knowledge in the best possible way.

3 crucial points when preparing a coding task

Rule to follow: Real Coding Task – a real result.

7. Too many interviews on the same day

When you urgently need a developer, there is a temptation to arrange as many interviews as possible within a given time frame. As a result, hiring process turns into a nightmare with 14 interviews a day. Making quality decisions is out of the question with such an approach.

While interviewing candidates, you have to be sure that your decision will be right. You won’t be able to make such a decision if you have several interviews during the day.

The dependence of the quality of decisions and the number of daily interviews

The diagram demonstrates the dependence of the quality of decisions and the number of daily interviews. Say you aim at 8 interviews a day. However, the optimal number is 4 which means you’ll reach the critical point X. After the X point the quality of made decisions drops, and you get into the trap of false-negative decisions. This means that developers 5-8 might be strong candidates, but you will say no to them.

Think about how many interviews you can hold a day to avoid reaching the X point. Spread candidates evenly among weekdays instead of stuffing all the interviews into one day. When creating an interview schedule, consider the position, seniority, and geographic location

Rule to follow: Festina lente – make hustle slowly.

8. You search for developers in your region only

Talented developers are spread globally, not just 2 blocks away from you. Don’t set bounds to the local labor market only. There is another great option to consider – a dedicated development team.

You can:

Find a developer with the required qualification.
Quickly scale your development team.
Focus on the project but not on HR processes.
Save on salary, taxes, and allowances.
Avoid being involved in matters of working conditions, social security, etc.

A dedicated team – is a team of developers or a developer provided by another company for the period of your project execution.

You won’t be able to meet a developer in person, but having an online interview is as easy as shelling peas in our digital world.

Don’t be afraid to look outside your region, especially if you work in a region with a shortage of talented developers. The broader the search, the more talents you can find and choose the best match accordingly.

Rule to follow: Broaden angle of view – get more talents.

Goodbye to all that

We learn how to do things right by making mistakes. Most likely you’ll hire and fire dozens of developers that won’t be efficient. But as your knowledge grows, you’ll be able to find better professionals. We hope that our experience will help you avoid mistakes.

Don’t ignore the need to prepare yourself for job interviews . Especially concerning technical aspects, soft skills, and motivation.
Avoid bias, give a chance to people with “non-exemplary” CVs but having the right stack.
Don’t ask useless questions. Wonder more about a developer and what he plans to do with his knowledge.
Don’t stand in opposition to a developer. On the contrary, help him win and show himself in the best possible way.
Don’t believe in beautiful words, believe in direct answers to your questions. Ask peers for assistance.
Don’t give coding tasks taking much time to accomplish. Ideally, they should be relevant to real projects and the developer’s level of seniority.
Don’t forget about the quality of made decisions. Find the optimal number of interviews to be arranged daily to avoid false negative decisions.
Don’t frame yourself within the local region or a single country. You can hire a developer from worldwide. Just try different models of cooperation, such as a dedicated team for instance.

How to Hire Offshore Developers: Perfect Formula

JayDevs — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 07:22:44 +0000

Previously we defined differences between OnShore, NearShore, and OffShore Software Development. In this post, we’ll focus on how to go ahead with hiring Offshore developers and what to consider in the process.

Before we start, let’s figure out what is an Offshore software development team.

It is a developer or a team of developers located far abroad.

Distinguishing features of such collaboration format might include:

Considerable time zone difference;
Different cultural heritage and mentality;
Greater variety of available candidates;
Lower hourly rates.

It is important to understand what team can be considered offshore for you. Traditionally Eastern Europe-based teams are offshore for the USA while teams from Latin America are nearshore. In the case of Western Europe, developers from Latin America are certainly offshore while teams from Eastern Europe are nearshore.

Therefore any region can become offshore depending on the customer’s location. This article will be structured keeping this in mind.

What region to choose for offshore software development

The main objective of Offshoring is to optimize costs or to scale a development team when the company is limited by the local labor market. In this connection most frequently preferred regions for offshore software development are the ones having a great number of developers at low hourly rates: Eastern and Central Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa.

Eastern and Central Europe

Region industry. The remote development market is developing fast here: many qualified specialists graduate from higher educational institutions and educational centers and offshore development companies thrive correspondingly. By various estimates about 900 000 developers currently work in the region. The professional level is quite high. As rated by Coursera Global Skills Index 2020 Belarus, Ukraine, Czech Republic, and Poland became leading world countries in learning Web Development, User Experience Design, Cloud Computing, etc.

Cultural context. Most countries of Eastern and Central Europe are considered as high-context cultures, however, some countries (for instance Poland, Belarus, Ukraine) become more low-context due to Western Europe’s impact. People are concise and clear when delivering their thoughts, avoid ambiguity, but don’t always show their attitude to the situation clearly. Employees are task-oriented, fulfill their duties in a timely manner, are ready for changes, and act out of logic.

Countries: Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Russia, Romania, Hungary, Estonia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, etc.

Review

Eastern and Central Europe review

Ideal for: Projects with tasks of medium and high complexity. European customers who need close project communication. North America and Australia if one daily status check meeting is enough. Projects seeking an optimal price for the quality ratio and are ready to invest time in search of candidates.

Asia

Region Industry. India is an Asian leader in offshore development. Tholons Releases 2021 Global Innovation Index lists it in the second position of top digital nations after the USA. Millions of developers are available in the Indian labor market. The fusion of a large competitive environment and low living standards resulted in one more peculiarity – low rates. The combination of these factors makes India one of the most attractive regions for offshore development. However level of education is still very low and India is in the 137th position among other countries according to Education Index 2020. The region is primarily attractive to offshore low-skilled labor.

There is a similar situation in neighboring countries like the Philippines and Pakistan for instance. China is primarily focused on the domestic market due to mentality and poor knowledge of English in the population.

Cultural context. Asia is referred to as a high-context culture. Such features as emotionality, and complaisance make communication quite complicated. Vague and ambiguous wording and avoidance of directly saying ‘no’ to a customer are common for negotiations.

Countries: India, China, Philippines, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Shi-Lanka, etc.

Review

Asia review

Ideal for: Simple and routine tasks and projects requiring fast scaling. Projects requiring cutting costs.

Latin America

Region industry. The IT industry in Latin America is growing fast. Internet became available for the general public and 78% of the population actively use it nowadays. The number of people engaged in the IT-sphere is growing and only Brasil has about 2 million. High demand for software development coming from the USA is one of determining factors for fast growth. Attention from companies in other countries to the Latin American region is also increasing.

It is worth considering the shortage in the technology stack. Coursera Global Skills Index 2020 research states that Latin America is in the last position among world IT regions in terms of mastering Computer Networking, Databases, Human-Computer Interaction, Software Engineering, Security Engineering, etc. The problem is locally understood and in Colombia, for instance, the government covers up to 80% of educational costs for students of IT professions. However, the problem is still actual.

Cultural context. Latin America is considered to have high-context culture. Several activities can be performed simultaneously, quite often deadlines are missed. Premises and commitments are covert, tone of voice, gestures, and pauses made within the conversion matter.

Countries: Mexico, Brasil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, etc.

Latin America review

Ideal for: Projects from North America where communication during the day is important and customers are willing to pay extra for it.

Africa

Region industry. Recently Africa appeared on the map of offshore development. The active growth of the IT sector is primarily happening in South Africa. Country government invests a lot into the development of IT sector. Foreign partners can take advantage of tax privileges. In addition, a currency exchange rate (USD/ZAR 1:14) helps to reduce costs for the external development team. A high level of English being one of the state languages is another benefit that attracts foreign companies.

The technological development of other African countries is still in progress however experienced developers can be already hired in Egypt and Kenya. French customers often work with Morocco and Tunisia due to their good knowledge of French.

Cultural context. Africa is also a culture of high context. Communicating keep in mind that developers might not always clearly answer your questions and suggest their ideas.

Countries: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, etc.

Africa review

Ideal for: Small and middle-size projects of low complexity. Customers that need a high level of English and French.

Offshore regions pivot table

Where to find an offshore developers

After choosing the region it’s time to understand where to find offshore software developers.

First and foremost define the hiring format that suits you best. There are three options:

InHouse Developer;
Freelance Developer;
Dedicated (On-demand) Developer.

You can learn more in our article In-house vs Freelance vs Dedicated Software Developers if you are not familiar with the classification.

The format determines where you are going to search for offshore software developers.

InHouse Developer. LinkedIn can become the main source for this format. This social network has been designed to facilitate professional contacts. Here you can find and filter companies and developers by geographical location, work experience, position, technology, projects, etc.

Freelance Developer. Freelance platforms are the main web spaces to find freelancers. Here you can study CVs of developers, their rating, feedbacks, and rates (hourly and fixed). Most platforms require paid accounts to leave task fulfillment requests and get access to full candidate information. Examples: UpWork, Toptal

Dedicated (On-demand) Developer. There are specialized ratings and reviews platforms listing companies that offer services of on-demand developers for your project. Platform catalogs enable categorization of vendors, provide reviews, accomplishment records, approximate hourly rates, information about company size, tech stack, etc. Examples: Clutch.co , Goodfirms.co

Read our blog article How and Where to Find Software Developers who Meet your Needs to learn more about where to search for required professions.

What to consider when hiring offshore developers
Say you have found a contractor. Now is the right time to study legal and economic peculiarities in that country. After that peculiarities of the contractor company or a developer. And only after that start drawing up a contract.

Country level

Taxation. The specificity of tax regulations can considerably impact the final cost of the project. Much depends on the workflow and if it is a software development contract or a license agreement. The absence or presence of a double tax treaty between the contracting parties also matters.

When hiring an offshore developer find out what kind of agreement should be signed – employment or independent contractor agreement as tax rates depend on it. When drawing up a contract it might be reasonable to note that services are performed outside of the country. By doing so you don’t become a revenue agent and are not subject to insurance payments.

Money transfer. Foreign money transfer costs depend on the type of payment – a wire transfer to a bank account or online payment (PayPal, Payeer, etc.). Transfer fees are different and depend on the recipient country and the amount of transfer. Keep in mind that for international transfers double conversion can occur quite often: when the money is wired off the funds it is converted at VISA/Mastercard payment system rates first and then is converted to the local currency of the beneficiary’s bank. For instance, GBP – USD – RUB.

Jurisdiction. In the case of international cooperation, disputes between the customer and the contractor can be adjudged in the court of the country of one of the parties as well as in international commercial arbitration. Usually, the contract specifies which court will resolve the disagreement if they arise. Keep in mind that the legal and judicial systems differ depending on the country and, therefore, a thorough study of the legislation of the contractor’s country is required if the agreement states local court for litigation.

Contractor level

Operational guidelines in agreement. When drawing up a contract with an offshore team several crucial points should be considered. First of all terms of payment: principles of payment (hourly rates, fixed price, monthly payments, etc.), how money is paid (bank account, PayPal, etc.), when payment is made, who and how pays taxes and transfer fees. Secondly terms of work acceptance: who and when is responsible for acceptance and hand-over of work, deadlines for hand-over, measures of performance, trial period availability.

Confidentiality. Don’t forget to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to avoid confidential information leaks. It is better to sign it at the negotiations as you will share the idea and details of your project at this stage.

Technical security. It is crucial to set IT infrastructure security – protection of information from viruses, hacker attacks, spyware. It should include protection of cloud environment, end devices, applications, Internet security, etc. Such a system is needed to keep data integrity and confidentiality. Make sure that the company works in compliance with international security standards (ISO, ITIL, ITSM).

Code access. It is important to have access to the latest code version so that in case of a conflict or other emergencies developers couldn’t refuse to provide it. You should necessarily discuss mandatory access to the latest updated code version of your project before you sign an agreement.

Intellectual property. It is important to understand what kind of intellectual property (trade secret, copyright, patent, trademark) you are dealing with and how you are going to handle its transfer. In the case of assignment of rights you are given a previously created code and in the case of work-for-hire a customer has rights for the code once it is created or paid for. Either way, an author of the code can’t share it with a third party or use it at sole discretion. Sometimes IT rights can remain belonging to an author when it is about personal creation integrated into a project. However, this should necessarily be written in the agreement.

Early agreement termination. It is better to draw up the contract in a way providing a chance of early termination for both parties with prior notice preferably. Often, upon the termination of the agreement, the contractor is paid for the accomplished work (if stater in the agreement). Terms violation is usually followed by penalties and in the worst case, they go to court.

Cheatsheet

We understand that a lot of information was provided, and, therefore, the most important things to remember when searching and hiring offshore developers will be listed below.

In most cases working with an offshore team means:

Considerable time diference;
A large pool of candidates;
Lower hourly rates;
Cultural differences.

Main offshore regions and their peculiarities:

Eastern Europe – optimal cost-quality ratio, high professional level.
Asia (India primarily) – millions of developers, the lowest rates but potentially the lowest quality of done work and difference in mentality.
Latin America – plenty of developers, currently limited tech stack, the highest rates compared to other offshore regions.
Africa (SAR primarily) – emerging offshore region, limited tech stack, average rates, good level of English and French.

Places to search for software developers depend on the hiring format. InHouse Developer can be found in LinkedIn, Freelance Developer on freelance platforms, а Dedicated (On-demand) Developer are hired from providers.

When choosing an offshore partner except hourly rates consider the time difference. Study legal aspects of the offshore country and internal principles of the contractor including:

Taxation, wire transfer specifics, and settlement of legal arguments on the country level;
Data privacy, intellectual property rights, operational guidelines, and cooperation termination terms on the company level.

This is it. You are armed and ready now. The end.

Onshore vs Nearshore vs Offshore Software Development

JayDevs — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 07:23:08 +0000

More and more software is developed every year and it keeps on growing. Such volumes lead to a shortage of local developers. Global salaries differ significantly. For instance rates of developers from the USA can be four times higher compared to developers from India. Naturally, Indian developers will have a smaller salary delta.

Therefore, companies more often hire external development teams from neighboring or far abroad countries. IT sphere is ideal for such remote cooperation – programming languages are the same all over the world and only a laptop is required to make the job done. However, it is not always that simple.

Reasons to search for an external development team

Having an in-house development team is still the most convenient way to work on a project. It is much easier for a customer to control and guideline development and employees solve common tasks much faster as the whole team is next door. Moreover, daily personal communication improves the involvement and motivation of developers which boosts your project.

However, in the real world building an in-house team is not always a feasible option. It costs a lot, requires serious organizational and legal background, and sometimes lacks people to hire on the local market. The absence of required developers in the region is one of the bottlenecks while building your team.

Hiring an external development team can help address many business issues in such cases. Below are the main reasons why companies choose this pattern.

Reasons to Search for an External Development Team

Easier scaling. Say you need to scale a team due to different reasons like lack of resources for current tasks, need to launch a new project, or considerably increase the existing team. Hiring an external team of developers can help you do this without office rent, buying hardware, spending on employee benefits, etc. Of course, this is not applicable for a branch office, but this is a different story.
Cutting costs. Salaries of developers are the main expenditure on the project. Hiring an external development team can help to save the project budget. Costs will depend on the chosen format – offshore, nearshore, or onshore. More information about each model is presented below.
Manpower shortage. Sooner or later any company faces a lack of experienced professionals in the local market. The way to address this issue is either to dive into a continuous search and hunting of developers which is time-consuming and expensive or searching for professionals abroad. The second approach provides plenty of talents experienced in international work. It is all about the understanding of where to search, salary level, and skill set required.
Short-term projects. Suppose you have a small project and it is not cost-effective to have an in-house development team. It is easier and cheaper to hire an external team of software developers who will work with you as long as needed. At the same time you are not burdened with long-term employment contracts, save on office rent and extra costs.
Taking workload off the team. Sometimes, while having an in-house development team, extra tasks appear. Resources of the existing team are not enough to cope will the increased amount of work and this is when external specialists can back up your team. This is the fastest and in most cases, more cost-effective solution compared to hiring more full-time workers.

These are the common prerequisites to hire an external development team and it’s time to find out where to find one.

There are 3 main models: offshore, nearshore and onshore. Let’s dive into the nuts and bolts of every model.

OffShore software development

How it works

You hire a development team located in a different country and quite often on a different continent with a considerable time lag, assuming hourly rates are lower and more job applicants are available in these regions. For instance, for the US market teams from CIS countries, India and Asia are considered to be offshore while teams located in Mexico, Brasil, Indonesia, and India are such for European countries.

Example of Offshore Software Development

When it works

An offshore development team is a good match for a company whose core activity is not connected with software development but needs to create and support a website, application, etc. Often is quite costly to employ software developers on the local market as well as it is way easier to find an offshore team.

IT companies also hire offshore companies for their purposes. They do it to cut costs, scale fast and search for “new blood”.

Model specifics

Global talent pool. It is not only about quantity but quality as well. Eastern Europe is known for professionals with solid backgrounds. These developers most likely have experience of work on offshore projects from different domains.
Low team maintenance costs. Most notably it is about salaries of developers as they can be 3-4 times less compared to your country. Office rent and services (if needed), legal services, and other associated costs are also considerably lower. The lower living standard in the country a team is located in is the main reason for more reasonable costs.
Different time zones. To make work efficient time of online meetings should be reduced or time suitable for both parties should be found. However, some companies are ready to adapt their working schedule to customers.
Language barrier. You should be ready that at the initial phase of the project certain understanding gaps can be faced. Of course, the level of English in software developers is getting better every year, however, minor details can be lost within the communication. All this adds a certain complexity to communication.
Cultural differences. The way of talking, understanding of professional communications, and ethics may differ greatly for remote locations. It is important not to impose one’s vision but to find a balance between two cultures.
Chance to sign a contract with unscrupulous team. The risk is especially high when you look for a team with the lowest hourly rates. Choose a team thoroughly, consider all the factors, not only the price.

NearShore software development

How it works

You hire a team of developers located in the neighboring country in the same time zone and often the same language for communication. Real-life example: a customer is in Germany and a nearshore team is in Belarus. The time difference between Berlin and Minsk is one hour, both countries are in Europe but the hourly rates of Belarusian developers are considerably lower compared to Germany.

Example of Nearshore Software Development

When it works

The model works well for companies and startups requiring easy communication between the team members especially in the case of big development teams when they should be in touch all the time. Same or close time zones make this requirement more feasible. It is also worth mentioning that people living in the same cultural context understand each other better.

Cooperation specifics

Geographic proximity and similar culture. It is easier to arrange one-to-one meetings, business trips, and team buildings for a nearshore team, which results in deeper external team involvement in working processes. In addition, people have much in common – same context, values, work ethics perception, etc.
Same time zone (or menial difference). It enables making the work of people more comfortable, without compromises and stress caused by messages or calls in awkward times. Higher hourly rates compared to the offshore model. Rates may not be as high as in your country, however, most likely there is no room for considerable saving. Average rates and living standards of the country should be taken into consideration when planning. Bear in mind that models of work with remote teams are firstly about distances and only then about money. For instance, for Europe nearshore cooperation with Belarus is cheaper than offshore with Australia.
Fewer providers than in OffShore. Everything depends on the region where you are. Generally, you will have to spend more time searching and select the required developers. OnShore software development

OnShore software development

How it works

With an onshore model, you hand over software development to a team of professionals working in your country but in a different city. Quite often capital-based companies hire development teams from other regions.

Example of Onshore Software Development

When it works

The onshore model works for companies that need frequent meetings in person and unambiguous communication. Such companies might have huge budgets or support the economics of their home country as a matter of principle.

Cooperation specifics

Communication in person and control. Meeting in person is the best solution to take a strategic decision. Getting to a contractor’s office is way easier within the same country as travel times are shorter and no visa and passport-related issues. Under the pandemic restrictions, there are no problems with quarantine and PCR tests.
Easy communication. We benefit from the synthesis of several factors: same time zone, culture, language, values, news context, etc. As result, remote workers have a deeper understanding of goals, communicate more efficiently, feel themselves a part of a bigger team all in all leading to a higher quality of work.
Uniform laws, taxation, and privacy policy. Cooperation is simple and transparent.
High labor costs. Onshore can become an expensive way of development especially for countries with high living standards. If you are located in a big city or a capital city costs can be reduced by hiring teams from regions of the country. However, there are countries where the onshore model can be more efficient compared to nearshore and offshore. Everything depends on the living standard average hourly rates of developers.
Tight labor market. Finding a local team can become a fundamental task for a company in particular. It is not only about the number of available specialists but quality as well. Almost all experienced senior professionals in the USA work for large corporations and in the realities of CIS countries, they work for offshore projects on the contrary. The limited talent pipeline is the main reason why local companies hire offshore development teams.
Backdoor offshoring. There are companies that without noticу delegate part of work to offshore companies. As a result quality of work can be lower and a reasonable question arises – what is the point of hiring local developers if an offshore team can be contracted without intermediaries?

To sum up

Instead of long conclusions, we created a summary table about peculiarities of onshore, nearshore, and offshore models. You should simply make your choice.

Peculiarities of Onshore, Nearshore, and Offshore Models

In-house vs Freelance vs Dedicated Software Developers

JayDevs — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 12:09:13 +0000

Within our series of articles devoted to “How to Hire Software Developers” we covered all hiring aspects. This article will focus on types of employment as this factor determines the time and financial costs, risks, working process, and search channels.

The goal of this post is to help you find the most appropriate employment type, therefore we will analyze them, list their pros and cons, and define the most appropriate context for this or that type.

InHouse developer

An inHouse developer is a full-time software developer working for your company. This person is on your company’s staff, works in the office, goes on vacation, and enjoys cookies in the kitchen.

This employment form has its advantages and disadvantages.

PROS

Face-to-face communication

Research by Albert Mehrabian the Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles states that as much as 55% of communication consists of body language, 38% of a message is delivered with the tone of voice, and only 7% with the words you use.

Every year advances in technologies diminish the difference between face-to-face and remote communication. However, communication in person remains to be the most effective way. Simpler and faster information exchange, making decisions, and setting goals are just a few advantages of face-to-face communication.

Ultimate project immersion

As a rule, a person working in the office with the rest of the team is more involved in the working process, better understands the project objectives and gets deeper into the company culture. Employees’ loyalty and motivation increase as a result.

Complete working process control

Controlling the working process is much easier when all the team is at hand. You can observe workers and see how they communicate inside the team. You work simultaneously, which makes it easier to schedule meetings, set milestones, and make corrections.

Developers can share their knowledge and educate each other

Raising and training an employee is another great opportunity of having an in-house team. Being part of a team a person learns from teammates and can get feedback fast. It is quite a feasible option to hire a junior and make a savvy senior when this person is an InHouse developer.

CONS

High costs

Salary is not the only expense of having a full-time staff member. You also need to consider a paid vacation, seek leaves, insurance, taxes, workstation, and other costs to create the required working conditions.

The compensation rate in your region can be much higher compared to other locations. Learn more about factors forming costs to hire a developer in our article How Much Does It Cost to Hire an App Developer in 2021.

Time-consuming employment process

Employing an InHouse developer is not such a quick process as it may seem at first glance. Creating and posting a vacancy, interviewing and sieving candidates, repeated interviews, hiring the best candidate, project onboarding are the main time-consuming steps generally taking from 1.5 to 3 months to finalize the process.

You are lucky if everything goes smoothly and you don’t have to run the process repeatedly. There is a risk that a hired developer might not get adopted, appear to be less professional than expected or an appropriate candidate might not be found at all.

It makes instantaneous scaling of an InHouse development team a pretty complicated and time-consuming process.

Limited choice

Planning to hire a new staff member in most cases means choosing from the local labor market. It significantly limits choice and is conditioned by two factors: demography and competition.

Demography. Choosing among candidates of your city, state, or country the choice is originally reduced.
Competition. The presence of huge corporations in any region complicates the contest for good specialists. These factors hurt chances to find a really good and appropriate specialist.

Best match

In-house developer

Freelance developer

These software developers are self-employed and work without intermediaries. They can be found on freelance platforms or by referral. In certain cases, it can be an optimal solution. Let’s dig deeper into it.

PROS

Low costs

The costs are less not just because rates of freelancers are lower but because associated costs including employment costs, taxes, workstation maintenance, etc. are avoided.

For instance, a program automatically creating a card with potential customer information should be created. To do this data from the mailbox should be transferred to the system. The scope of work can be accomplished within several weeks. Once set doesn’t require further support.

Is this task worth employing a full-time developer? Most likely not as not financially reasonable for one-off jobs. Even if hour rates are higher compared to a full-time employee, the total cost will be less due to the economy on hiring and firing procedures.

Plenty of professionals to choose from

Freelance platforms offer specialists for any job, even the most specific. A great variety of candidates enables choosing the best match.

CONS

Poor quality

Freelancers can work without any proof of their skills and often work on several projects at a time. They seldom take any legal or financial responsibility for their work, leading to low quality of work.

High risks

As mentioned above freelancers are seldom held accountable and can simply disappear if something goes wrong. Since there is no way to control their work, missed deadlines are a common thing that makes hiring a freelancer very risky for a project.

Long hiring process

It is quite difficult to find a responsible and skillful developer which sometimes takes a longer time compared to finding an appropriate candidate in the local labor market.

Best match

Freelance developer

Dedicated developer

Dedicated Developer – a developer or a team of software developers lent by a third party company. This person works for your project 40 hours a week just like an InHouse Developer, officially being an employee of a provider company though.

In exchange, you compensate development costs to the provider.

PROS

Fast hiring

Hiring a dedicated developer can take as short as a couple of days. There is no need to pass all the hiring process steps as software developers have been already assessed and verified. You should simply find the best match and sign an agreement.

Flexibility

The nature of this approach enables fast team scalability with required specialists. Scaling back is also an easy task.

A high degree of control

A developer works only for you 8 hours a day 5 days a week. You assign tasks, you control the results and you make corrections in the process of development. Practically this is your full-time employee.

Guarantees

Agreement with the provider ensures responsibility for the quality of work performed by a developer. When a developer doesn’t fulfill obligations and is unable to continue work the provider finds a substitute or refunds the costs.

Moderate costs

In most cases hiring a dedicated developer is more cost-effective compared to an In-House Developer as there are no associated expenses for hardware, taxes, employee benefits, etc. In some regions, the hourly rate of a developer having a similar skill set can be lower. However, it is more expensive than a freelance developer.

Plenty of professionals to choose from

Similarly to freelance developers, the choice is not limited by a geographical region when looking for a dedicated developer. It increases the chance to find a more suitable professional.

CONS

Remote work

Under most circumstances, dedicated software developers work remotely which may cause impaired information exchange, discussion of ideas, and making decisions.

Different time zones

Companies can provide software developers from different locations and sometimes these countries are not from the same time zone. Practical experience speaks in favor of at least four-hour overlap within working hours to organize remote work efficiently.

Cultural differences

While choosing dedicated developers from different locations one should realize that a person from another part of the globe can be chosen which means not only a different time zone but also a different mentality. Sometimes it can become an obstacle for productive work.

Best match

Dedicated developer

Check this out before you decide

In-house vs Freelance vs Dedicated developer: whom to choose

How to Hire Remote Developers Successfully

JayDevs — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 06:45:25 +0000

There are many aspects to consider when you want to hire remote developers: the candidate’s technical and soft skills, the region where you hire, how to find a developer, hiring format, and many more.

Read more about each of these aspects in our blog:

Here we’ll talk about what a developer needs to work efficiently in the remote format. As well as how to check if this work is efficient.

Ask an HR manager about what is important for a remote developer and most likely you will hear that this person should be independent, organized, self-disciplined, structured, etc. Sounds reasonable. But what hides behind these names in reality? Let’s take a thorough look at the candidate requirements from a practical perspective.

Essential skills for remote work

It is important how a person deal with the given task: how a person accepts it, informs about intermediate results and issues faced within the accomplishment, how manages the terms and timeline, and how presents the result of work.

Let’s focus on each of the stages in detail.

Task acceptance

It is a bad sign when a person asks no questions, nods, but starts asking questions in the chat half an hour after the initial meeting.

An ideal situation is when a developer says “everything is clear” and gives back the results of work, however, it is a rare case.

A good sign is when a candidate tries to digest the task: express the understanding of the task to be addressed in his own words and model it in his mind.

The main focus should be on understanding: the ability of a person to comprehend the task and chances to fulfill it in due time. Forecast the potential obstacles and inform about them beforehand without making the process of further communication a nightmare.

Informing about progress and “impediments”

It is important to analyze and evaluate the actions of a developer when issues and obstacles are faced within the fulfillment of the assigned task.

We can divide the developer’s reaction to emerged difficulties into three categories.

The first – a person stops doing anything and waits.
The second – working outside of the development team he starts to address issues at his own discretion stepping aside from the initial assignment and spending a lot of time.
The third – developer starts asking thousands of questions.

All three cases are bad.

The works case scenario is when a developer attempts to resolve the situation without discussing it with the team. Much time is spent and you are given the results you don’t need. And everything should be done from scratch.

The second one in terms of severity is the case when a developer doesn’t undertake any action and soon you understand that nothing has been done. It happened because he was blocked by the absence of backend, API, or anything else that doesn’t eventually matter at all. The developer decided that the best he could do would be to flag the issue during the next daily meeting. By doing so, he wasted time and put the project’s timelines at risk.

And the third story. Objectively it is not that terrible. It occurs when a developer starts throwing plenty of minor questions to the team, which may force the key team player (lead or architect) to micromanagement. This provokes micromanagement that is always harmful.

These are the three foremost things to beware of.

And we haven’t yet discussed a developer’s performance, qualification, knowledge, etc. We are simply evaluating a person in terms of soft skills and some understanding that in the future he needs to work in a team but not in isolation.

Reporting the results obtained

Pay attention to how a remote developer hands over the results of his work:

A person accomplishes the task and keeps silent until he is asked;
A person accomplishes the task and informs you about it, you start checking and it appears that “everything is done, but …” meaning a number of minor things that should have been clarified independently;
A person accomplishes the task and schedules a short call to demonstrate the results, informs about the minor issues if there are any. Prepares a short integration manual if needed.

The third variant is preferable. For you, it will save time on management, for developers – on the integration of the work outcomes, especially within the remote collaboration.

How we can evaluate this

Unlikely we can evaluate the above-mentioned traits of developers at the interview level. However, the test task will clearly reveal all of them.

A test task is a great example of goal setting.

If at the goal-setting stage, a developer doesn’t ask additional questions, most likely he is inexperienced. You will face issues with this developer.

If giving a task to a developer, you tell him “Any questions, talk to me” and he doesn’t but returns with something you don’t need. Declaring that “I haven’t understood” makes it pretty straightforward what person you are dealing with.

Another situation – a developer made a list of questions to a coding task, got back to you and got the answers. As a result, he fulfilled the task and informed that it couldn’t be done in the way you required.

The thing here is that people make coding tasks for one another. And someone could accomplish the tasks for your candidate. To be on the safe side, it is better to ask a candidate to present his task.

Attention should be paid to how communication is held, not a code quality itself. We are talking about task acceptance, comprehension and giving back the result. This is something you can fake and the person will do everything by himself.

Mind that this shouldn’t be live coding, but a test task for 4-6 hours. It contains a work statement – description, followed by a call when a developer can ask questions, and a handover – work presentation.

Important note: don’t mix a test task and a wish to get a piece of work for free. Test assignments should aim at revealing certain features of a developer, nothing more. Why would you need a cobbled-together piece of a project?

What else to pay attention to

Level of a developer

Middle developers and developers of the lower levels of seniority can face issues with remote work. In practice, everything depends on the inner character of a person. It is worth keeping in mind that not only qualification but also experience differentiates a middle developer from a senior.

Experience gained by a senior developer helps him address typical issues faster. While middle, facing the same issues, will spend an extreme amount of time (not only his but time of other team members). Middle developers need assistance. Providing this help remotely is more complicated rather than in-house.

We are talking not about qualification, but about experience. Namely production experience helps developers do some things with minor effort. And the right thing is to flag this.

However, experience doesn’t always come with the level of a senior developer. Senior developers differ. There are professionals who can work absolutely independently and perform the key project functions. And sometimes a senior is a good specialist, however can lack experience in terms of self-organization as he always played the role of developer only. In this case, he should better become a part of the team where he will demonstrate his maximal efficiency.

Performance

Performance is the accuracy of meeting the planned production estimates for a certain developer. If a person implements the features 30-50% faster compared to an average senior in a vacuum – this is a good performance. Amazing performance.

The remote format of work is tightly connected with performance. Because for some people remote work results in performance increase and for some vice versa. Why? Because some people have enough self-discipline and some don’t. People from the first category don’t spend time preparing, commuting, having coffee chats with colleagues, they are not distracted from their work “to take a look” or “for a piece of advice”. Working remotely they show much higher performance compared to working in the office. The second category includes specialists with many parasite activities during the day and issues with time management, therefore their performance decreases.

The bad thing is that it is quite difficult to define this at interviews.

Screening and monitoring tools that tracking activities and time also don’t solve problems. Everything depends on mentality: some are ready to work under the tool supervision, some don’t. However, if a developer is not ready to work with these tools it doesn’t mean that he is a bad developer. There are people willing to have a staggered schedule: freedom to have some rest right here and right now. They don’t want to be questioned why they didn’t work from three to four. They can easily work from six to nine in the evening and make this time really effective.

You should learn to read between the lines. Give a developer a chance to reflect on what he considers to be good and evil. What is acceptable for him in working remotely. Learn what a person likes and dislikes. If a developer says: “I like that I don’t have to move around the town and spend time on this”. This is a normal reaction. If a developer declares: “Oh, I love complete freedom, I can work from any place where I have some horizontal surface”, be sure there is something tricky behind this. We wonder how he is going to work from picnics and beach beds.

Habits

Martin Flower, one of the software development gurus and author says that there are no good and bad software developers, there are developers with bad habits.

What is that supposed to mean? It means that if you have a methodology for how to arrange your work right, your result won’t be bad and outstanding. That is to say, if a developer clearly understands the task, properly communicates with the manager and the team, follows best practices, it is unlikely to expect many bugs and low performance from him. I practically haven’t seen such people.

Habit #1

Ability to design code.

Software developers have dedicated literature describing how to design the code right. The important thing here is to design, but not simply write.

Any task should be designed beforehand: decomposed to atomic parts (subtasks), understand what issues and problems might be faced. Accordingly, people who don’t do so and don’t foresee issues have no questions about a new task. They simply start implementation. The professionalism of a developer involves studying the given task and saying that something can’t be realized for certain reasons.

Habit #2

Ability to follow best practices.

There is good code and there is bad code. All the professional literature teaches how to write the code right: following certain templates and rules – the so-called best practices. It is preferable to hire remote developers who are able to follow them. It can take much more time, but this code is easier to work with later on: easier to scale, easier to hand over to other developers, easier to review. Ultimately, writing is faster as well.

It is similar to assembling IKEA furniture. There are people who start putting it together without the instructions. It is not always faster, and it is certainly not more reliable.

Habit #3

Ability to interact with others’ code.

Reading, integrating, making commits, waiting for a commit from somebody else, reusing code written by other developers while solving the tasks, giving back the results of work in the form of clear components and modules. All this is extremely important for you not to waste time for debriefing afterward.

Developer’s habits make him a highly qualified specialist. Say you hire two identical software developers: one follows the rules taught by the whole industry and the second one doesn’t. It’s like wearing safety glasses at a production facility because it is required by safety regulations. Of course, you may not wear it, but there is a risk that eventually you will end up having less than two eyes.

Cheat note

Now you know how to hire remote developers. Let’s recall what we have discussed.

The essential skill in remote work is how a developer approaches the given task:

How accepts: does he analyze it before implementation and ask additional questions;
How communicates progress: when and how flags issues, does a developer offer alternative solutions;
How gives back the results of work: whether informs about the details worth paying attention to, degree of readiness of the results for use/integration.

All this can be checked with a test task. It is better not to make it a long one: a 4-6 hour task should be enough.

Also pay attention to:

Seniority level of a developer: candidates of middle and lower levels can face problems due to lack of production experience;
The motivation of a developer to work remotely and how it will impact the efficiency of work;
Habits of your developer: how close are they to the habits of the “right” software developer?

Good luck hiring your best remote developers.