DEV Community: megha maheshwari

4 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Building An Extended Development Team

megha maheshwari — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 09:56:58 +0000

If you're a tech-enabled business, then you know the importance of having a well-rounded development team to build innovative, state-of-the-art products and services for your business. With companies, especially in the West, facing an acute shortage of talent, more and more businesses are attracted to the concept of building an extended development team elsewhere.

Given the sky-high prices that businesses have to pay to hire the best local talent in places like Western Europe and the US, building an extended development team in another country means getting the best value for your money, and not having to compromise on the quality of the engineers that you hire. You'll not only be able to fill in the crucial missing pieces in your core development team, but also crank up their productivity and get projects off the ground.

However, staff augmentation, especially in another country, if approached with misaligned expectations and insufficient planning, can derail your entire offshoring process. And that's why, in today's blog post, we bring to you some common development team extension mistakes that companies make, as well as actionable solutions to avoid them. Steering clear of these mistakes will ensure that you have the best partnership with your offshore provider and your extended development team!

#1: Outsourcing your development processes

If you want to augment your existing development team, it's crucial to look beyond a temporary arrangement that can work for a one-off project. Building an extended team is a permanent solution, and the engineers that you hire become permanent employees of your business that are in it for the long haul - and that's the biggest difference between outsourcing and building a dedicated team.

How is building an extended development team different?

When working with an outsourcing vendor, typically, you get access to a team of engineers who are hired by the outsourcing company. They are NOT your employees, which means that they aren't invested in your business. Often, they're working on multiple projects for multiple clients at the same time. With little to no focus on your business, more often than not, at the end of the day, you're left with substandard software and no team.

Your extended development team, on the other hand, is yours, in every sense of the word. They work for you, they believe in the vision of your business, and their goal is simple - to help you grow your business by building software.

We, At The Scalers, believe that if your core business is software development, then it should stay within your organisation and not in the hands of an outsourcing vendor that you don't have control over. And sure, outsourcing might seem like a simpler and cheaper option, but it won't give you the long-term collaboration that is crucial in building great software.

#2: Evaluating the cost, rather than the value

Indeed, irrespective of the kind of business, the bottom line that acts as a deciding factor for any business proposition is: How much will this cost? While cost is a glass ceiling that somehow can never be breached, fixating too much on the price can mean that you're not looking at the value proposition of the deal.

The result?

Many businesses, when given a choice, will choose the less expensive result. Not surprisingly, this is usually the wrong choice because lower rates doesn't always mean getting the better end of the bargain. Even outsourcing, for instance, offers services at very low prices, but we just saw how that could spell disaster for your business.

Keep the price aside for a moment, and focus on asking them the bigger question - what value can they bring to the table? Assess their portfolios, their expertise, and how the higher costs can translate to higher productivity and success rate. If the facts and figures laid out don't speak for themselves, then you're better off not making that deal.

#3: Not involving your extended Development team enough

When you have an extended development team, it's important to remember that they're as much a part of your organisation as your local team is. The only real difference here is that they sit elsewhere, in a different office space.

Depriving your remote team of importance business knowledge, keeping them away from team calls, or not letting them voice their opinion or feedback can lead to them feeling isolated, unappreciated, and unrecognized. Apart from that, your extended team will no longer have a 360-degree comprehensive view of the business, the project at hand, and the larger goals of your business, which will result in unoptimised software solutions. This, in turn, can affect their morale and motivation and hinder productivity.

So what can you do?

A study conducted by Harvard Business School showed that 37% of the respondents said that their superior recognising and appreciating their work positively affected their productivity. It's that simple, really. Make sure to include your extended team in any important discussions, ask them for ideas, brainstorm together, appreciate their efforts, and collaborate on day-to-day tasks. Treat your extended team no differently than your remote team, and see the magic happen.

#4: Not establishing a clear roadmap

Imagine building a stellar extended development team, all ready to work on building software, but you're not able to assign the right tasks to them because you didn't plan well in advance. Sounds like trouble, right?

An integral part of collaborating with an offshore provider and building a remote team is planning. Before you even partner with an offshore development company, it's essential to put together a clear roadmap - a set of actionable steps for the near future. Rushing into a collaboration headlong and building requirements on the fly will lead to chaos and confusion, rather than increased productivity.

While it can be appealing to build requirements on the fly, you still need to make sure that you have enough work for your remote team for the next one to two development cycles, at the very least.

If you're looking to build an extended software development team, and you want nothing but the best, you can reach out to us by filling out the contact form. As experts in building the best engineering teams in India, we can definitely help you build the team that you're looking for.

If you want more information about building a dedicated remote development team, you can download our free ebook, which acts as a guide to all things offshoring. It's a simple, easy-to-understand guide full of invaluable information!

Source : https://thescalers.com/4-common-mistakes-to-avoid-when-building-an-extended-development-team/

3 Ways To Improve The Productivity Of Your Development Team

megha maheshwari — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 09:59:04 +0000

The software development industry is one that thrives solely on high-speed evolution. Every other day, innovative products and services are brought to the market by companies that are hoping to gain a much-needed edge over their competitors.

However, this comes at a high cost. Firstly, due to the acute shortage of engineering talent, especially in the US and Western Europe, hiring the right workforce is an expensive affair. Their salaries, employee-centric benefits, workspace, and other admin costs amount to over 50% of the fixed costs of running the business. On the other hand, the cost of web and software development services itself is steadily rising.

In such a scenario, it only makes sense that every company takes the necessary steps to improve the efficiency and productivity of their development team. An increase in productivity means that the company can develop high-quality products and services within a defined time period.

So, how can you increase the efficiency of your development team? Let's put aside project management and different tools for a moment - you've probably heard about them a dozen times, at least. Then what other innovative strategies and changes can you implement to ensure increased productivity? That's exactly what we'll discuss in this blog post!

1. Provide mentorship & continuous education

A study conducted by Gartner showed that IT organisations across the globe spend over $1 trillion every year on their IT initiatives. Even spending 10% of that amount on training their existing employees can lead to a significant increase in the overall productivity of their software development team!

Many companies expect their employees to learn the latest technologies, skills, and programming languages on their own time and their own dime. However, the fundamental problem is this - they simply do not have the time, money, or even desire to take this upon themselves. The primary reason for this is that experienced developers often grow too comfortable with a specific coding language or technology.

This is where you must step up and promote an environment of learning and exploration, rather than letting your team become stagnant or disinterested. The process of continuous learning will not only introduce you to newer methods and ways of delivering world-class software but will also keep your development team excited and motivated.

Something as simple as internal training sessions, brainstorming sessions, or even learning about the latest tech advancements will not only help your development team expand their skill sets, but may also come of use in a future project. On the other hand, you can also arrange soft-skills training classes once in a few months on skills such as leadership, interpersonal communication, and management. This will make them more efficient in handling a team, sorting out communication issues, and building more productive processes.

2. Minimise unimportant tasks

A study conducted by Stanford University revealed that rather than increasing the number of working hours, reducing the work hours increases productivity. Many would think that the key to higher productivity is to work for 10 hours a day. However, your team would rather efficiently work for 8 hours than waste their time for 10 hours.

Instead of extending the working hours of your development team, find out what tasks are time-consuming. It can be something as simple as answering emails or giving status updates. Then, find ways to reduce or eliminate redundant tasks. Some simple ways to do this include:

Implement effective meeting management practices in place.
Make sure that every meeting has an agenda and an action plan.
Limit the use of email to essential matters only. For instant communication, you can use instant messaging apps such as Slack or Skype.
Rather than having elaborate meetings at the end of the week, implement standup meetings once a day. It has even been proven that standing actually reduces the overall meeting time by at least 25%.

3. Create a distraction-free environment

Did you know that on average, it takes 25 minutes to recover from a distraction and focus on the task at hand? Depending on your workspace, different kinds of distractions could prevent your developers from working at their full capacity.

In software development, it is proven that a quiet environment increases concentration levels, in turn, leading to an increase in productivity. Organisations that focus on creating a work environment that is favorable to the quality of output rather than the quantity, will enjoy higher rates of production.

While some people can work amongst chatter or noise, others get easily distracted and find it difficult to finish their tasks. When working with remote teams, video-calls and screen presentations are a daily occurrence. The last thing you want is for your remote team not to be able to hear you present an important piece of code because there's too much noise around them. And that's why we always give our developers noise-canceling headphones! It might seem like a very trivial change but can make a massive difference in creating a distraction-free environment.

Distractions can also take other forms, such as instant messaging, e-mails, and requests for status reports. The best way to prevent that is to change the way you communicate - use instant messaging and e-mails only for time-critical conversations.

These are some simple strategies that you can implement to increase the efficiency and productivity of your development team. If you want to know more about building a software development team in India, feel free to reach out to us by filling out the contact form. One of our senior executives will get back to you soon!

You can also choose to download our e-book, which describes in detail what building an efficient offshore team is all about, the process, what to expect, and other invaluable information.

IT project management phrases - 10 terms you need to know

megha maheshwari — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 11:55:39 +0000

Just like how every course has its own glossary, IT project management has one too. The Project Management glossary contains a number of terms that will help project managers standardize the project’s processes and make them more efficient and foolproof. Here is a list of 10 IT project management phrases that you need to know if you're going to be leading an IT project soon.

1. Project

A project can be defined as an activity or endeavor to create a unique product, service, or result. The activity must have a well-defined purpose, a beginning, and an end.

Any project should also be progressively elaborated. What does that mean? That means that the project should progress in definite incremental steps, where the purpose of the project is further refined until all the defined goals are met.

2. Project Life Cycle

At the beginning of every project, the sheer amount of planning that is required can often be overwhelming for a project manager. To ensure that a project is successful, dozens of tasks need to be completed at the right time and in the right sequence. The best way to do that is to divide your IT project management efforts into different phases and simplify them into a series of logical steps.

What are the phases of a project?

The Initiation Phase

The initiation phase is the first phase of the project lifecycle, where the value and feasibility of a project are evaluated. This process usually involves a thorough investigation of the business case document - a document that justifies the project and its potential financial benefits.

The next step is to conduct a feasibility study that focuses on the goals, timelines, and costs of the project. If a project is labeled as unfeasible, it is abandoned. If not, then it is assigned to the next stage.

The Planning Phase

This is the most crucial stage of the project lifecycle, where a project plan is prepared. Over 39% of all IT projects fail due to poor planning. Thus, the project planning phase focuses on the guidelines for obtaining resources - both monetary and otherwise, and gives the team a much-needed direction.

The Execution Phase

The execution phase, commonly associated with IT project management is all about building deliverables. By allocating the right resources and strategically approaching the task at hand, teams can deliver quality output and satisfy the client. This is also when teams monitor their own progress to prevent scope creep, track the variations from the allocated cost and time, and calculate key performance indicators.

The Closure Phase

The final phase in the IT project management lifecycle is the closure phase, which means that the team has successfully delivered the finished product or service to the client. This step also allows the team to evaluate the entire project, and learn from their mistakes so that they can build stronger processes for their future projects.

3. Gantt chart & Milestones

A Gantt Chart is a commonly used method in IT project management to track tasks and events against time. To the left of the chart, a list of activities are displayed, and along the top is a suitable time scale. Each activity is represented by a bar where the position and the length of the bar reflect its start date, duration, and end date.

How is this helpful?

By glancing at a Gantt chart, you gain access to important information such as the different tasks in progress, when they begin and end, how long each task is scheduled, and if any overlapping activities need to be rescheduled. You can also mark milestones on the Gantt Chart such as project kick-off date, design completion, phase completion, etc.,

For instance, the above Gantt chart displays a list of tasks and their respective deadlines that can be understood at a single glance.

4. WBS - Work Breakdown Structure

Work Breakdown Structure or WBS is a hierarchical organisational structure that is used to describe the flow of responsibility, orders and communications. This breakdown allows the scope of the entire project to be divided into manageable chunks that each team member can work on. The figure below is a simple illustration of the hierarchical structure where a project is divided into individual functions that each has its own deliverable.

Apart from defining and organising work, WBS has other benefits such as estimating specific costs of each task, building an efficient project schedule and track the project's overall cost performance. It can also be used to determine the potential risks in any project. For instance, if one of the branches of the work breakdown structure is not well-defined, then it means that there is a scope definition risk. The risk is then tracked and reviewed during execution to prevent any failures.

5. Brainstorming

Brainstorming is an innovative method to introduce "controlled chaos" into one's thought process. In simple terms, brainstorming is an activity that is conducted in a workshop environment to facilitate creative thinking and innovative solutions to a problem. Brainstorming sessions allow team members to bond over ideas by encouraging democratic participation. It also helps identify a list of ideas in a shorter duration of time.

6. Waterfall Methodology

The waterfall model is a predictive, sequential life cycle methodology that divides the process of software development into different phases. Each phase contains a set of tasks that need to be performed before moving on to the next phase.

The figure below illustrates the different phases of the waterfall model in a typical software development project.

Typically, the waterfall model is used when the requirements are well-defined, the project is short, and the development environment is stable. However, many project managers no longer use the waterfall model because of its many disadvantages, such as a more prolonged testing period, higher error rate, and the requirement for elaborate documentation.

To know more about the last 3 phrases read more

Offshore Software Development: The Definitive Guide For CEOs

megha maheshwari — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 06:33:27 +0000

There's no doubt that the software industry has become incredibly saturated. With tech start-ups mushrooming like never before, industry experts suggest that there will be over a million software companies in the world within the next 10 years. Almost 50% of these businesses are tightly-packed into Western Europe and American cities. Competition is at an all-time high, operational costs are always climbing, and talent is getting scarcer by the day.

Offshore software development services have now risen as a solution for Western businesses who are looking to get ahead in the crowded and expensive marketplace. However, a lot of businesses still don't know what offshore development really is. With the internet full of confusing and conflicting information, even understanding the basics of offshoring can be quite a task.

In this blog post, we break it down for you. As experts in the offshoring industry, we explain what offshoring is, what benefits it could bring to your business, and how you can offshore your software development.

What is offshore software development?
When is the best time for offshore software development?
Who should use offshore software development?
What are the benefits of offshore software development?
Offshore outsourcing locations: Where can you go?
Does offshore outsourcing create an ethical dilemma?
How can you manage your offshore software development team?

What is offshore software development?

Offshore software development is when a company opens a new office called an offshore development centre and hires a team of developers in another country. They are permanent employees just like your in-house team, except that they're based elsewhere.

For instance, IT giants like Google, Microsoft, and Apple have all established their R&D centres in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of Asia. The lower operating costs, massive talent pool, and the opportunity to scale quickly allows them to increase their output and improve their technical expertise, without undue stress, hassle, or cost.

Simply put, offshoring means expanding your business with a new team of skilled employees who are geographically distant from your in-house team.

When is the best time for offshore software development?

Your operational costs are getting out of hand

Engineers are the most highly-paid workforce in the world today. Research conducted by The Engineer in 2018 shows that the average salary of an engineer in the UK is roughly 48,000€. With employee wages accounting for more than half of the fixed costs of an average business, hiring local talent in the West means having to pay through your nose. And that's just the payroll!

Add employee-centric benefits such as travel allowance, insurance, and yearly bonuses to the equation, and your operational costs are through the roof. Instead, by starting offshore development, you can save a significant amount of money, and increase your margins, without compromising on your output.

You're not scaling fast enough

No business wants to be in a position where they have to turn away profit-generating, growth-enabling business because they don't have the internal capacity to accommodate them. However, without the right tech team in place, it's quite likely to happen.

If you're looking for a long-term solution, then outsourcing your software development to an external vendor isn't going to work. You want to scale your team, and it needs to be done fast. This is where an offshore development model can prove to be invaluable.

By starting offshore development, you gain access to a massive pool of qualified engineers who aren't outsourced help, but a value-adding extension of your business. They will be a part of your business for years going forward, enabling you to take on more projects, and generate higher profits. And because the talent pool in countries like India is huge, you don't ever have to worry about talent scarcity either.

Who should use offshore software development?

Typically, offshore software development is leveraged by service-based companies whose core business is non-technical. These are businesses that are experts in their respective industry, but are unable to keep up with the ever-changing technology. It can be something as simple as transforming their existing website, or a complex project such as developing a value-adding digital product for their customers.

However, because of their lack of expertise in all things software, their technology is not cutting edge and requires a lot of developers to maintain and build. With local engineers costing well over €50 an hour, offshoring is a neat solution where they can hire developers full time and at a fraction of the cost. The development teams they build can also help implement new ideas further down the line.

In other cases, companies may already have an in-house development team but are unable to scale up and take on bigger contracts. They want to increase the value of their business and grow with the times but are struggling to. Since new developers are expensive and hard to find, a dedicated offshore team might be an ideal solution.

Does offshoring work for one-off projects?

Because the offshore team that you build are permanent employees, if you've got a one-off project, partnering with an outsourcing vendor might be the better move.

What are the benefits of offshore software development?

Undoubtedly, going offshore isn't a small move. It's a signficant strategic move, which means that the benefits must be tangible for your business. So, what are the benefits of offshore software development?

Access to engineering talent

The primary reason why hiring engineers in Western countries is so expensive is that their skills are incredibly in demand. For instance, in the US alone, there are over 250,000 software engineering jobs that are currently unfilled - a number that is only increasing. There just aren't enough talented developers to fill the gaps.

Even though colleges in the West are pushing IT courses, there's still going to be an inevitable delay before those graduates are experts in the industry. And that's why, today, the main reason companies are looking to build offshore teams and engage developers in countries like India isn’t cost – it’s availability.

India produces 1.5 million engineering graduates every year. Thanks to the high training pedigree and extensive English language training, these engineers roll out of university ready to work. Indian engineers can not only communicate with general fluency in the English language, but can also be extremely clear and concise in a highly technical environment.

Lower costs of operation

A lot has been said and done about "lower" costs when discussing the pros and cons of offshore software development. But, let's get more specific.

Say you establish a development team in Bangalore, along with your in-house team at home in London. When you compare the salaries only, the salary of the average developer in Bangalore is comfortably 3-4 times cheaper than in London. That means that the total cost of doing business in Bangalore, including premises, administrative staff, legal work, payroll, developer salaries, etc., typically comes in at 50% the cost of your at-home developers’ salaries.

The reason - a lower cost of living. The cost of living in India is at least 3 or 4 times lower than in the West. A higher disposable income means that you're paying significantly lesser to cash in the same, if not better expertise as back home.

The opportunity to scale quickly

Taking on new, skilled, expensive employees is an investment that presents a significant financial risk. If those employees decide to leave early, you could be overburdened with work, the quality of the software you develop drops, and before you know it, your clients are going elsewhere.

However, with an offshore team, this crisis can be averted. First, the cost of recruiting and paying staff is lower. Thanks to the reduced payroll, a business could shoulder down periods more easily with an offshore team. At the same time, expanding your offshore team can be done much faster than in-house. For instance, The Scalers have brought multiple groups of engineers to our clients’ teams in as little as 4 weeks. Vetted, tested, and ready for work.

The ability to focus on your core business

With offshoring, the administration, payroll, recruitment, accommodation, insurance, and so much more are all taken care of by your offshore partner. The primary role of an offshore software development company is to limit the stress and inconvenience of scaling your team.

This gives you ample time to focus on your core business, interact with potential clients, and grow your business without having to worry about not being able to accommodate them.

Offshore outsourcing locations: Where can you go?

The world is your oyster - you can literally pick any location to build an offshore development team. However, some offshore development locations are better than others. So, which country can you offshore to?

India

India is the IT offshoring capital of the world. They have the most developers, with the best training, and the most fluent English-language skills. Given the lower cost of living, setting up offshore software development in India can be a very lucrative option for your business.

Eastern Europe

For businesses that operate in Western Europe, nearshoring to countries in Eastern Europe is also an option. Nearshoring is useful for businesses that want constant, real-time collaboration with their in-house staff. On the flip side, countries like Ukraine and Romania have good developers, but they are few in number and therefore lack flexibility when building remote teams - at least compared to India.

Latin America

Because of the minimal time difference, offshoring to Latin American most common among North American companies. Again, this is considered as nearshoring. However, the standard of developers is typically not as high other regions, and you still end up paying a premium for talented, experienced developers.

Another option is onshoring, where you transfer your software development to non-metropolitan areas within your own country. Consider a city like London where the rent, bills, and wages are all much higher than the rest of the country. By building a development team in a nearby town instead, you can keep expenses a bit lower. However, it's still significantly more expensive than offshoring.

Does offshore outsourcing create an ethical dilemma?

An ethical dilemma that arises when companies are considering offshoring their development processes to another country is, “Am I depriving local engineers of jobs?”

However, the reality is quite contrary. The primary reason why companies are drawn towards offshoring is so they can scale quickly, without compromising on quality. We've already discussed how setting up a development center in the West is very expensive, and the fact that there aren’t enough engineers. This, in turn, implies that offshoring definitely doesn’t lead to a loss of jobs, as one would think.

Source

Rather than companies having to choose between globalisation or patriotism, they can choose both. Globalization has always proven to benefit the economy of a country. Wealth is not a zero-sum game where one country’s loss is another country’s gain. If going offshore means becoming more economically productive, in turn, producing better services and products, aren’t companies doing more good than harm?

Another ethical argument about offshoring is the wages of engineers in countries like India. Because you can hire developers at a fraction of the cost as compared to the West, businesses sometimes worry that maybe the engineers aren’t being paid enough, they're not as good, and that the quality of work delivered is substandard. But again, this is a direct result of the lower cost of living, and not cheap labour = poor quality.

Read more about the ethical dilemmas of offshoring

How can you manage your offshore software development team?

Once you've done all the groundwork, the next step is to start building your offshore team with an offshore development company that you can trust. Your offshore partner will take care of the recruitment, administration, and everything in between. However, as a stakeholder in the business, here are some tips on how you can manage your offshore team.

Share the vision and mission of your company

The first step towards a successful collaboration with your offshore team is to explain the vision and mission of your business to them. This is an opportunity to formally introduce the objectives, goals, and needs of your business and define where you see your company in the next couple of years.

A lot of the times, companies see their offshore team only as an execution partner for their development processes and nothing more. However, establishing a connection with your remote team is extremely important. The more they know about your brand, what you want to build, and why, the more invested they're going to become in the vision and mission of your company.

Right from the moment you start building your offshore team, you should always have a clear vision and mission for your project, and that vision must be consistently and continuously communicated to your offshore team.

Bridge the culture gap

When working with an in-house team in the US and an offshore team in a country like India, you're bound to come across some cultural differences. The key is to foster a unified culture of belonging across both your teams.

Remind your teams that they are both working towards a common goal and that if the project is a success, then everyone wins - together. It doesn't matter where the person sits or what his role in the organization is.

As the lead on a project, it is your responsibility to make your offshore team feel appreciated and recognized. Make it your mission to ensure that every single person who is contributing to your project feels included, and as a part of your greater vision.

Visit your offshore team from time to time; conduct ice-breaker conference calls where both your teams get a chance to get to know each other and always be vocal about how you feel about their collaboration.

Communicate effectively

Effective communication is the key to a successful partnership with your offshore team, and a lot of the times, this aspect is overlooked by companies.

It is crucial to foster an environment in which effective communication becomes the first, and most important goal, without which your development project can derail. Some communication channels that you can use between your in-house and virtual teams include:

E-mails: official communication, schedules, and project meeting notes can be shared via emails.
Instant messaging: Instant messaging tools like Slack and Skype work best for quick clarifications, status updates, and queries.
Productivity tools: Project management is crucial when working with offshore teams because without it, you wouldn't know what your remote team is working on. Tools like JIRA, Asana, and Basecamp are worth exploring.

These are just few of the many strategies that you can implement when working with remote teams. We've written an entire blog post dedicated to the topic - a resource that can prove to be extremely helpful for your business.

Now that you know everything there is about offshore software development and how it can be a great move for your business, feel free to reach out to us by filling out the contact form, and let's get started!

Source : https://thescalers.com/offshore-software-development-definite-guide-for-ceo/

5 reasons behind the rapid growth of offshore software development services

megha maheshwari — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 06:18:24 +0000

The Industrial Revolution was a turning point in the manufacturing industry. The production and manufacturing process in the West was severely hit by either the unavailability of a workforce or expensive labour. By the mid-1900s, companies began thinking outside the box, looking at any solutions to boost their production process to increase profits and grow their market share. Because this was also the time when software development had gained momentum, software companies were also looking for ways to leverage their business.

This led to the birth of outsourcing - a model where they could send their requirements to an external vendor who would help them build software. However, the problems associated with outsourcing such as delivery of substandard software, lack of customer focus by the engineers and overhead costs made companies look into a better strategy - offshoring.

Offshoring compensated for all the drawbacks of outsourcing. By going offshore, companies could build their own offshore team - an extension of their business. It also gave them access to a large, cost-effective talent pool so that they could scale their business efficiently. Today, the offshoring industry has grown leaps and bounds and continues to do here.

Here are 5 reasons behind the rapid growth of offshore software development services

1. An acute talent shortage

With more and more companies in countries like the US and Europe finding it extremely difficult to fill jobs in engineering and IT, the talent shortage is like never before. This massive talent shortage means that companies have to look elsewhere to source engineers, making offshoring all the more popular. By offshoring, companies can select skilled and passionate engineers from a large pool of talent.

2. The need to build innovative products

Given the rapidly changing market scenario, if a software development company cannot build new and creative products for its consumer base, it can quickly run out of business. By offshoring their R&D activities, companies can not just come up with innovative products but can also find the workforce who can execute it to increase productivity.

3. Cost-effective labour

The cost of recruiting engineers directly depends on the availability of IT talent. In countries like the US and Europe where talent is scarce, the cost of labour is quite high. On the contrary, offshoring to countries like India and Ukraine where there is surplus talent available means significantly lower costs. Offshoring software development to these countries also helps a company scale down on operational costs - infrastructure, utilities & administration.

4. Difficulty in juggling the core & support business functions

Large firms find it hard to devote undivided attention, time and energy to its core business matters while simultaneously taking care of the software development processes. If they can build an offshore team who can build software for them and deliver it on time, then they can focus on their core business.

5. An opportunity to scale their business

By building an offshore team in another country, the company is essentially establishing remote centres in different parts of the world. This acts as a great marketing opportunity for the company to scale its business, taking on clients and supporting their requirements irrespective of their geographical location.

In the near future, the concept of offshoring is only set to become more popular. Though there are a few challenges in building remote teams, if you can overcome them, the end result will give you the much-needed competitive edge for your business.

The Business Benefits of Offshore Software Development

megha maheshwari — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 05:34:00 +0000

Offshoring allows companies to access talented engineers at a lower cost than at home. Great! But what are the actual business benefits of doing that? Financially. Operationally. What do companies gain by investing in an offshore team?

What is offshoring, really?

When discussing offshoring, most people dive too quickly into specifics: you can build a bigger software team! You can save money! It's safer than outsourcing!

All true, but we should slow down. What is offshoring? Fundamentally, it's a way to increase a business's output, and improve its technical expertise, without undue stress, hassle, or cost.

At its most basic, offshoring is simply expanding your business with a new team, with new (or complementary) skills. Aside from being geographically distant (which isn't a major issue in 2019) it's no different from hiring locally: advertise, recruit, work, reward - it's the same process.

So if it's the same process, then why are companies using offshoring? What are the real business benefits of offshoring?

1. Higher profit margin

A lot of companies and articles talk about "lower costs" when offshoring. We want to be a bit more helpful and specific.

Say you establish a 5-person development team in Bangalore, along with your 5-person team at home in New York. Now let's look at two comparisons: first, a pure salary comparison between India and the USA, and then the total cost of doing business offshore versus in-house.

Salaries only - If you hire the same team in Bangalore (same ranks, experience, and quality) then the salary difference will be substantial. Comfortably 3-4 times cheaper - but this comparison is too simple to be useful.
Total cost - For our average client, the total cost of doing business here (including premises, administrative staff, legal work, payroll, developer salaries, insurance - the works) typically comes in at 50% the cost of your at-home developers' salaries.

There's no industry where skilled Indian workers cost more than in Western Europe or the USA. The differences in cost of living are just too substantial.

It's everything else - offices, admin, and these things - which are most important. Handled correctly by your dedicated offshore partner, offshoring offers higher margins and, therefore,higher profits.

Why are these salaries so different?

We need to remember there are two sides to the story. Pound for pound, Indian workers are always cheaper than their British or American equivalents. But that's been the case for decades; longer than decades.

So why do we suddenly want to cash in on Indian labour?

The quality of Indian workers has improved. Specifically in IT, engineers across India are getting the same education, training, and practical experience as Westerners. They're incredibly capable, and that's attractive to businesses.
Lower cost of living = lower salaries, period. It's basic economics. Until India's economy grows significantly compared to the west, the Rupee will be worth less than the Dollar. Therefore, salaries will remain smaller in India - regardless of the quality of service.
Engineering scarcity in the west - This is something we can't afford to forget. In isolation, quality Indian engineers cost more than they used to. However, in Europe, the UK, and the US, engineers are very hard to find and extremely expensive. Because of scarcity. Part of why Indian labour is so "cheap" is actually because local labour is so expensive.

A greater proportion Indian engineers have Bachelor's degrees than the other nations, and only Germany has more Masters-qualified engineers.

So perhaps we should stop dismissing "cheap" Indian rates with so much scepticism: it's all relative to the obscene wages that engineers command at home. Today, the main reason western businesses invest in offshoring isn't to be cheap - it's to hire equally-skilled talent ataffordable costs.

2. Access to niche or rare talent

We've looked at how expensive engineers are to hire in western countries and cities. There's no hiding from it: you could be facing $100+ an hour for a capable senior developer. And why are they so expensive? Because their skills are incredibly in demand.

In the USA alone, 250,000 software engineering jobs are currently unfilled, and increasing. There simply aren't enough new developers to fill the gaps.

Colleges are pushing IT and engineering hard, but there's an inevitable delay before those graduates trickle into the industry. To make things harder, the number and variety of tech companies are also increasing. Good candidates can pick and choose their employers.

Hence the holy grail of incentives: crazy wages.

A problem of availability

Today, the main reason companies are looking to build offshore teams and engage Indian developers isn’t cost - it’s availability.

India produces 1.5 million engineering graduates every year, a good proportion of which are in software. Thanks to the high training pedigree (including niche specialisations) and extensive English language training, these engineers roll out of university ready to work.

English is the language of the industry. Indian engineers can communicate with general fluency, but can also be extremely clear and concise in a highly technical environment.

Even if you ignore the lower rates, there are some niche skill sets that are just plain-old hard to find. It wouldn't be unreasonable to work with an abroad contractor to get those skills.

Offshoring can sometimes be seen as an extension of that idea: access to highly-skilled developers you can actually find (and afford!) who happen to live elsewhere.

Combined with the lower rates, the argument is a no-brainer. Recruiting world-class engineers requires an experienced hand, but in India, there's an extremely accessible pool of talent to get you started.

3. The opportunity to scale up sustainably

Scaling up a company is never as easy as it sounds. Taking on new employees (especially skilled, i.e. expensive ones) is a huge investment and presents a significant financial risk.

If those employees decide to leave early (very common in this work era) you could be overburdened with work. The quality drops, clients go elsewhere, and the whole business is in trouble. Worst case, but it does happen!
But what if everyone stays, but you can't drum up as many new clients as you expected? You're left with spare resources on the payroll, twiddling thumbs and burning up cash. Again, a nasty situation - and an unsustainable one.

With an offshore team, things are a little different.

Simplified scaling

First, the cost of recruiting and paying staff is lower. Thanks to the reduced payroll, a business could shoulder down periods more easily with an offshore team. At the same time, expanding your offshore team can be done much faster than in-house. We have brought multiple groups of engineers to our clients' teams in as little as 4 weeks. Vetted, tested, and ready for work.

Second, since the offshore team will have ample, inexpensive office space, there’s no concern over moving to larger property.

A game of margins

The more you grow your offshore team to provide increased capacity, the higher your profit margin.

Say your current staff wages are £250,000 a year for 5 developers. Revenue is £1m and business is going great, but you want to grow.

You manage to negotiate another £1m in jobs for the coming year. You have 3 options:

Hire 5 more local developers - For another £250k per year, you can simply double the size of your existing team. Assuming zero extra costs in doing so (which, of course, is impossible) your total profit is now £1.5m. In reality, it's some amount less than, but close to, £1.5m.
Hire 5 new developers in an offshore team - The total cost of business with this team is, worst case, 50% of the at home salaries, remember? Let's say £125k, which means the other £125k goes straight into your profits.
Dismiss the in-house team for a 10-person offshore team - £250k for your offshore team, but still £2m in revenue, so a whopping £1.75m in profit.

So while option 1 amounts to some amount less than £1.5m in profit, option 3 offers a guaranteed £1.75m profit.

Now we don't want companies to ditch their in-house teams. It's just a matter of demonstrating how significantly offshoring can impact the bottom line. In brief, it impacts it a lot.

4. The administrative burden is not increased

On its own, this is not a good enough reason to build an offshore team. "Things won't get any worse" is not an incentive - but stick with us.

Given the first 3 points on our list, this is an important topic. Expanding any team is usually a big logistical effort. With offshoring, the administration, payroll, recruitment (except final decisions), accommodation, insurance, and so much more areall taken care of by us.

As an offshoring partner, our role is to make this as effective as possible for you, while also limiting stress and inconvenience wherever possible. Building a similar team at home would be much more resource-intensive.

At the end of the day, offshoring with the help of an experienced, versatile partner makes all the difference. It allows companies to leverage all the benefits of offshoring without compromise.

Over to you

As we said, how offshoring works is no big secret: you go to India and build a team of developers there. It’s the benefits, the real, tangible business benefits of offshoring that we rarely cover. To recap:

To learn more about offshoring and whether your business can reap these benefits, simply get in touch. Our team is always happy to field questions, so feel free to fill in the form and let us know what's on your mind.

Originally Published at : https://thescalers.com/the-business-benefits-of-offshore-software-development/

Offshoring, Outsourcing, Nearshoring, Onshoring: What's the Difference?

megha maheshwari — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 05:00:00 +0000

When companies want to scale up their development team, the most obvious solution is to hire locally. Put out a job advert, maybe enlist a recruiter, then interview the best candidates. However, this is easier said than done.

An acute shortage of developers, combined with a continuous increase in salary expectations, has prompted more and more companies to assess their options.

A quick Google search for terms like "how to hire good developers without huge costs" or "how to scale my development team affordably" throws up some interesting results. A lot of those results use terms like "offshoring", "nearshoring", and "outsourcing" interchangeably.

The problem with these results is that most of the information is vague and limited. So we've put the answers together for you. In this piece, we'll talk through the definitions, pros, and cons of these four headline models: outsourcing, onshoring, nearshoring, and offshoring.

Let's start with some definitions

Outsourcing

Outsourcing means engaging third-party vendors on a contract basis to deliver a specific deliverable.

This either means working with freelancers, or vendors who work with freelancers. This is typically the cheapest way of getting work done. However, with no control over development, the results can be very hit-or-miss. It is not considered a sustainable or long-term strategy.

Onshoring

Simply put, onshoring is the transfer of your software development to non-metropolitan areas within your own country. Consider a city like London: rent, bills, and wages are all much higher than the rest of the country. By building a development team in a nearby town instead, you can keep expenses a bit lower.

Nearshoring

As the name suggests, nearshoring means 'near' to home, but not quite. To give an example, developers in Los Angeles are very expensive, and there's no easy "onshoring" alternative. Good Mexican developers, however, work in a similar time zone and would with much lower costs.

Nearshoring is useful for companies who want constant, real-time collaboration with their in-house staff. For a company based in Paris, nearshoring might be done with Ukraine, who are only a couple of hours ahead.

Offshoring

Offshoring is nearshoring without the proximity restriction. You build an independently-functioning development team, anywhere in the world, and everyone on that team is a full-time employee of your company.

This adds a potentially awkward time difference, but eliminates the risks of engaging short-term contractors. It also allows companies to hand-pick their developers, with no geographical limits. They collaborate with your in-house team, work on projects, and build software consistently.

Those are the basic differences. Now let's dive into a bit more detail, looking at the merits and limits of all these methods.

Outsourcing: a cost-driven model

Outsourcing is a model that is usually defined by low cost. It is traditionally used by companies looking to make significant cost savings, particularly over the short term.

One perceived advantage of outsourcing is flexibility and the lack of commitment. Since the team is not permanently employed, you only pay them for the work that they do for you. If there's a fall off in demand, no resources are spent on idle workers. This can be a boon for businesses with less predictable capacity.

So what's the downside?

Some outsourcing companies can offer developers for as little as 10% of what you pay at home - but those kinds of savings don't come without compromise.

For a start, the developers aren't your employees. They're not bound to your company, and in reality you won't always deal with the developer themselves - just those organising them. These developers are probably working on concurrent projects, for clients across the globe, and are invested neither in your business nor the vision of your brand.

Low-cost outsourcing often leads to substandard delivery. Since these contractors aren't permanent employees, it can be risky to assign them significant or urgent tasks: if they disappear, you have nowhere else to turn.

Will outsourcing work for your business?

The answer is, as always, it depends. If you need a job completed **now ****and you don't have the in-house capacity to deal with it, outsourcing can be a life-saver. This tends to work best when there's a strong, ongoing relationship with specific developers you can trust.

When it comes to sustainability or scaling up your development team, outsourcing is the wrong route. The main issue is a lack of control: you don't manage the developers directly, communication can be difficult, and they could leave partway through a project.

Outsourcing has its place, but it's no substitute for a full-time development team.

Offshoring: a more sustainable solution?

An offshore development team is a handpicked team of engineers, based in another country, who are full-time employees of your business.

That is the core difference between outsourcing and offshoring. The ideal situation would always be having everyone in the same office - but that is often expensive and difficult. The only difference between offshoring and in-house hiring is that the office space is quite far away - and in 2019, that's not a significant barrier.

Will offshoring work for your business?

There are a lot of benefits to offshoring versus recruiting at home. You get top-quality engineers with the specialist skills you need, on a permanent basis, usually at about 50% the at-home cost.

With the right offshoring partner you can scale up quickly and sustainably, which is a potent combination. For companies looking for growth or to engage engineers with rare or niche specialties, offshoring is a proven and powerful approach.

Onshoring and nearshoring

In reality, nearshoring is just offshoring with added restrictions.

Sharing a time zone is a nice benefit. It means that logistical challenges are, for the most part, averted. You're also less likely to experience a significant culture gap between employees. However, what businesses gain from proximity, they often lose in talent scarcity.

The beauty of traditional offshoring is that you place no limits on who you can hire.

Onshoring is only leveraged in very expensive cities. A company in central London, for example, might situate their software team in a separate, less expensive city. While wages and premises in this "secondary" area might be cheaper, companies will still struggle to find and recruit quality engineers at a good price.

We can broadly summarise the four different models as follows:

Offshoring - A sustainable way to build a permanent software development team, or scale your existing one.
Outsourcing - A very low-cost way to deliver short-term or temporary projects.
Nearshoring - Effectively a subset of offshoring.
Onshoring - A little-used practice, similar to offshoring without the financial benefit or flexibility.

To learn more about offshoring and its applications, Visit The Scalers. If you're considering using one of these methods to grow your business, we encourage you to speak with a member of our team to get answers to any of your questions.

Originally Published at : https://thescalers.com/difference-offshoring-outsourcing-nearshoring-onshoring/

Four Major Reasons Why Software Projects Fail

megha maheshwari — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 08:33:29 +0000

A study conducted by PMI in 2016 indicated that roughly 14% of all IT projects fail. This suggests that while the software industry continues to grow exponentially, a good chunk of software projects and endeavours still don't pan out right.

When a company undertakes a software project, it's usually of some importance. Given that, how can you make sure that your project doesn't fail? In this blog post, we'll explore four reasons why software development projects fail - plus actionable solutions to help keep them going!

1. Unclear or vague project requirements

Defining project specifications is the first step in executing a successful project. However in their eagerness to please potential clients and close a deal, companies often overlook details that could derail a project down the line. Perhaps less forgivably, project requirements can be poorly communicated and completely misunderstood between parties. For instance, the client may require a developer who is proficient in coding in PHP and .Net. However, your understanding may be that the client is looking to hire a developer who is proficient in coding in PHP or .Net. See the difference?

Detailed requirements exist for a reason. They help us define clear goals and objectives for completing the project, but also ensure that the end product meets the actual expectations of the customer.

How can you address this problem?

Every project is unique, and every client different. The simplest way to ensure that you're on the right track is to ask a lot of questions. Even if they seem silly or "obvious", it's always better to be sure than to be wrong. Fact: if you don't understand something, it's almost certain that others in the room feel the same way but are holding their silence.

Are the requirements specific and measurable? Can they be achieved realistically? Are the requirements fluid? These are all questions that can help clarify intentions for the project.

Once you're confident that you've nailed the requirements, note everything down in a comprehensive document. Then chat with the client. Use the time to go back and forth, adapt requirement specifications, add extra details, and make sure you're on the same page.

2. Poor or limited communication

Effective communication is crucial to the success of any project. Just because you've understood the client's requirements, doesn't mean that your developers have. Sometimes, employees are too shy to voice doubts or ask questions. Lofty management on the other hand, is not entirely transparent with the client either.

Transparent and candid conversation is a project manager's dream. Yes, it might cause some stress when disagreements (or technical problems) arise, but they eventually lead to a successful and well-rounded project. When concerns are bottled up and problems glossed over, we risk jeopardising the project.

What should you do?

It's an easy one: communicate better. Establish a culture of honesty and encourage employees to speak up over hesitations, complaints, and anything else that's playing on their minds. Eliminate the constant "blame culture" which has pervaded most modern offices.

Set up weekly meetings with your developers to ensure that they're on the right track. This is time for you to openly and honestly communicate with them, motivate them, assess their progress, and address any roadblocks along the way. By doing this, everyone is kept aware of the status of the project at all times.

Speak with the client

Communications problems aren't just an internal problem. Depending on the project, you should also keep your client as informed as possible. Even if that means confessing to minor problems or delays.

Update the client on the progress of the project - reports, numbers, anything that is relevant. Use this opportunity to show the client that you are responsive, interactive, and as invested in the project as they are. Communication, as they say, is key.

3. Poor planning

In a survey by Innotas, 55% of IT professionals indicated that their development project failed due to lack of time, staff, and budget. The primary reason behind this is poor planning. In fact, exempting unpredictable circumstances, it's the only reason.

Many companies don't do a proper feasibility study, or even give much thoughts to the real logistics of a project. This can cause unrealistic expectations (usually on the optimistic side) and that invariably leads to stress and disappointment. In the worst case, there aren't enough senior managers assigned to guide the engineers. Left with no direction and limited motivation, it's no surprise when the project eventually fails.

So, what can be done?

Involve upper management from the start. If the project requirements change, or expectations were overly optimistic from the outset, there has to be someone involved who can adjust the plan; someone to control project execution so that it all stays on course.

Clients will always want their project delivered yesterday, at the lowest cost possible and the highest quality. Fair enough. And because you don't want to disappoint them, you might just assure them it's possible. Eventually, when the project does get delayed, the budget overshoots and you're in trouble.

A simple way to avoid all this is to try your best to be frank. Speak facts and numbers to the client, and be as transparent as possible. If a deadline is unrealistic, make sure that the client is aware of it. It's a necessary step to ensure delivering a successful project - even if it takes a bit longer than the client would like.

4. Substandard engineers

If a project goes pear shaped despite thorough requirement analysis, planning, and communication, it might be time to face a nasty truth: your developers just aren't good enough.

Sometimes it's a case of not hiring assigning enough qualified engineers to the project, being lazy with testing, or trying to accelerate results by cutting corners.

Other times it's cost based: the company wants to save money, so they "invest" in outsourcing for a tenth of the usual price. Lo and behold, the quality matches the price and the whole project is a disaster. It doesn't matter how thorough you are with planning or logistics: if the engineers aren't up to scratch, the project is in trouble.

How can you prevent this?

Put a robust quality assurance team in place. The primary role of quality assurance engineers is to test the code in different environments so that all the features of the software are functioning properly. By hiring the right QA experts, you can enhance the quality of the software that you build.

If you want to go the cost-saving route, or you're taking on more work than you can handle, consider offshoring your software development. We've written a short guide to offshore development in India, which will help you understand what that's all about!

Building software is an art that requires expertise and thorough planning for good execution. By addressing the areas we've discussed, you stand a great chance of running a successful software project. Good luck!

If you're interesting in building an offshore team in India to successfully develop software for your business, feel free to fill out the contact form and one of our senior executives will get in touch with you!