Have you ever heard a fellow startup founder or product manager say something like: “Every release is a pain in the neck. It takes so much work, and then when it goes live, the issues end up outweighing the value”?
This is indeed a common problem in the world of software outsourcing. Here are a few of the main reasons for it:
The team assigns under-qualified engineers
Communication issues
Poor process management
Let’s elaborate on each of these.
“The team assigns under-qualified engineers”
If you suspect that a group of engineers may be in over their heads, the first thing you need to do is ask them to provide you with builds as often as possible. And yes, you’ll have to put a little bit of your own effort into testing. The goal here is to test several builds in a row and see if the value is growing. If you’re seeing more bugs than value incrementation, that’s a red flag that an engineer isn’t qualified for your job.
If you see a strong increment in each build and it’s fairly heavier than the number of bugs you find, the dev is likely on the right path. But what if the work seems to be progressing more slowly than you were expecting? There could be two reasons:
1) The work does actually require a significant time investment (you can only know this through experience)
2) The engineer isn’t spending as much time on your project as they say they are. Unfortunately, this is a common problem with remote work nowadays. Here’s how you can prevent it:
Keep people motivated
Try using AGILE methodologies with iterative team commitment
Improve planning processes
Next: “Communication Issues”. This one’s our favorite 🙂
We’ve all heard the phrase, “communication is key” - and it’s true. Period. When communication is clear, development is predictable. Of course, the main player here is the project manager.
When choosing a team for your project, we strongly recommend putting a lot of emphasis on the PM. This is the person with whom you’ll be solving problems, making joint decisions, and living the project life. The PM should be skilled. They should be able to understand product needs and technical nuances, and are capable of communicating clearly. They make unpopular decisions while being a good friend and assistant to you and the developers. Don’t forget to allocate some regular 1:1 time with the PM.
What your PM should NOT be is a “Yes Man”. This will lead to problems down the road. So how can you find the right PM? For starters, an interview is a must. If you feel a connection from your first call with them, that’s a good sign. Of course, don’t forget to check their LinkedIn, validate their relevant experience, and if possible, get referrals.
What about “Amateur process management”? Isn’t that just communication issues that can be solved with a good PM?
The short answer is yes. A skilled PM shouldn’t build processes for processes sake. They should make the project more efficient and effective without sacrificing quality, according to the project phase.
However, some PMs are good at communication but not so good at processes, which usually plays out like this: you start the project with a small team and everything is going well. Communication and the development pace are good. Luckily, your product is receiving good market feedback and you want to keep improving it by adding more features and scaling up the team. This is where you need the right processes, and the PM’s efforts may not be enough.
Here’s what you need to do: make sure the team can provide you with a full set of skilled managers, including, but not limited to: Project Manager, Scrum Master, Tech Lead, Product Owner (who should be on your side) and others. These people should be able to choose the right Project Management framework: it could be Scrum, Kanban, Lean, or a hybrid of these that best fits your project.
It is only through a combination of effective communication and good processes that a project can thrive at an optimal pace.
What thoughts or experiences do you have on this topic? Is there anything you disagree with?
Leave us a comment! We look forward to delving into this topic more!
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