There is no gainsaying that outsourcing software development is the fastest way to build your website or mobile app. Aside from that, it is cost-effective and provides access to a large talent pool.
However, you must hire the right team to enjoy the benefits of outsourcing development. What better place to find the best advice on hiring an outsourced development team than Deazy?
This article provides tips on how startups and organisations can hire an outsourced dev team by explaining how to define your project requirements and skills, choose the right hiring model and vet the team.
Are you ready to hire an outsourced development team? Hire dedicated developers from our ecosystem of talented programmers and build your squad in as little as two weeks. At Deazy, we provide flexible hiring models created to suit your project requirements. Book a call!
Five Tips for Hiring an Outsourced Development Team
Software development outsourcing involves hiring an external agency to build your website or mobile application.
An outsourced development team is a squad of ready-made professionals with the skills to build software for your business.
Outsourcing to a dev team has many benefits, including improved efficiency, cost reduction and access to expert programmers.
Let's consider the five tips for hiring the right outsourced development team.
Define the Technical Requirements
In software development, the technical requirements are the factors required to deliver desired functions in software. Defining the technical requirements means listing all the features and functionalities you want in your website or mobile app.
List Your Project Requirements
Start by thinking of the problem you want to solve with your software. What kind of software product do you want to launch? Do you want to build an e-commerce website that sells thousands of products to customers? Or do you want to launch an app that lets you engage better with your users?
Your software must meet your business needs, so you should ensure you know what your customers want if you will meet their expectations. Divide the project needs into functional and non-functional requirements. The functional requirement is a description of what the software must do.
Depending on your project, the requirements can include:
- Specifications of what the software must do.
- Business rules the software must meet.
- Details of what you want the software to track.
- Steps the system must take to authenticate users.
- How the software will collect payment.
Non-functional requirements define how the software should operate. They include storage, performance, flexibility, accessibility, cost and security.
Choose a Dedicated Development Team Structure
Your outsourced team should be formed based on the type and complexity of your project. A typical dev squad should consist of the following experts:
Project Manager
The project manager in software development links the team and the clients. This expert controls the entire development stage, ensuring the software is up to standard, and the team finishes before deadlines.
Business Analyst
You need someone to conduct business and technical research on your project. That is why you need a business analyst in your outsourced development team. The business analyst will ensure high-quality software compliance with your business goals and technical specifications.
UI/UX Designer
The UI/UX designer's main goal is to identify issues users will face and try to solve them by creating the perfect design. This expert will create a user-friendly software product that is easy to use and represents your business.
Software Developers
Depending on your project, you can add web developers or mobile app programmers to your outsourced development team. You must hire front and back-end programmers or a full-stack developer if you want a website.
A front-end dev is in charge of building the user interface or the visible parts of your website, while the back-end developer connects the database to the front end and develops APIs.
A full-stack developer can create the website's front and back ends.
If you want to develop a mobile app, you must add an Android or iOS programmer or an expert that can build a cross-platform app to your team.
QA Specialists
This expert will check the software for errors and debug it to ensure it functions as intended. QA experts are tasked with bringing the software to the market without technical problems.
DevOps Expert
This professional works with the development team members and the QA specialist to coordinate the development and operation of the software. Also, the DevOps engineer builds comfortable conditions for testing the software.
List the Skills You Need
Now that you know the software development team structure, it is time to list all the skills based on your project requirements. Here are some skills that you need.
Coding Languages
Software developers should be able to write code using programming languages relevant to your project. Common front-end skills are:
- Knowledge of HTML and CSS
- Proficiency in JavaScript
- Knowledge of UI/UX design
- Frameworks like Bootstrap, ReactJS, Vue.JS and AngularJS.
Back-end skills to list include:
- Database management
- API development
- Knowledge of coding languages like Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, C# and C++.
For an Android development project, you must list skills like knowledge of Java or Kotlin, Android Studio, Android Foundation, Android Interactivity and Android UI. iOS development skills include Swift or Objective-C, Xcode, UI/UX and core data.
Database
Software developers must be able to store and organise data in a database. This will make it easy for you to keep a record of your customers and the different transactions they make. The developer should be able to use MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL or SQLite to store, update, delete and retrieve information from a database.
Debugging
Programmers must be able to find and fix errors in the code. The process involves running the code through specialised software to observe errors and then using problem-solving skills to fix them.
Cloud Platforms
Software products like mobile apps or websites are hosted in the cloud, making running a business remotely from any location easy. The developers in your outsourced team must have knowledge of various cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud.
UI/UX Skills
You need a UI/UX designer in your development team to help create the perfect user interface for your website or mobile application. Common skills are prototyping, creating user flows and mock-ups, wire-framing and visual design.
Search for an Outsourced Team
Getting the right outsourced team requires due diligence. Here are some ways to find the best development team.
Choose a location
You must choose the location you want to outsource before searching for an outsourcing company. The top countries to outsource development are:
Ukraine. Ukraine has more than 200,000 IT professionals, with the industry growing by up to 30,000 experts annually. This makes it a great location to hire an outsourced development team. The hourly rate to hire developers in Ukraine is between $20 to $40, depending on the seniority level. The top outsourcing destinations in Ukraine are Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv.
Poland. This Central European country is another location to outsource software development. There are over 250,000 IT experts skilled in different technology stacks in Poland. The hourly rates of developers in Poland vary between $25 and $100 depending on their experience and seniority level. Popular outsourcing locations in Poland are Krakow, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Lodz.
India. This is one of the best countries where you can hire an outsourced development team because of the high numbers of programmers there. Aside from that, the hourly development rate is between $10 and $15, which is cheaper than in North America. Top tech destinations include Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata.
The Philippines. This is a great location to hire an outsourced development team because of the low hourly rates charged by programmers and the large talent pools. Developers in the Philippines will charge between $15 and $30 per hour to build your software. You can search for programmers in Manila.
Mexico. For companies in the United States of America that want to outsource software development to a nearshore team, Mexico presents itself as the best option because they share a similar time zone and work culture. Programmers in Mexico will charge between $20 and $50 per hour to build software.
Argentina. This is another location in South America where you can hire an outsourced development team. The time zone difference between Argentina and the US or Canada is not much, making it easy for companies to find and hire programmers. The hourly rate for software development in Argentina is between $25 and $50.
Referrals
One easy way to get an outsourced team to build your software is by asking a friend or business partner for recommendations. When researching your software ideas, it is important that you do research to find similar products to yours and how they are performing.
If you see any software similar to what you want, you can ask the business that helped build it. Since the development company has done something similar to what you want, it should be able to build software that meets your business needs.
Use Google
A simple Google search is another way to find an outsourced development team. Depending on your project, you can search for "web developers for hire", "hire PHP web developers", "hire dedicated web developers", "hire WordPress web developers", "mobile app developers for hire" or "android app developers for hire".
Those queries will reveal a list of mobile app or web development companies from which you can hire an outsourced team.
Software Development Companies Listing
You will find many directories that list different web or app development companies online. Clutch is one popular directory that makes it easy for businesses to find and hire an outsourced team quickly.
Vet the Team
You have to make a careful and critical examination of the development team before you hire them. This includes checking portfolios, communicating and conducting technical interviews.
Check Portfolios
Shortlist several outsourcing companies and check their portfolios to determine if they match your needs. Evaluating portfolios will give you a glimpse of who the companies have worked with and the type of project scope they have done.
Also, it helps you determine the team's experience level and confirm if they can handle your project. In some cases, most development companies may not be able to share their previous projects due to non-disclosure agreements; they should be able to give you a broad outline of their previous work.
Check Effective Communication
Lack of communication will make it hard to complete the project even when you hire the best software development team in the industry. That is why you should ensure the team understands your business language and uses project management and collaboration tools to tackle each project. Also, you should provide a guideline for feedback.
Conduct technical interviews
After evaluating portfolios and communication, you can conduct technical interviews to confirm their skills.
You can line up three or four outsourcing companies to interview. Ask specific questions related to your project, and they choose the team that answers all the questions correctly.
Here are some examples of questions you can ask the team:
- Could you present a similar task regarding functionality, technology and business domain?
- Who are your ideal clients?
- How do you guarantee quality software development?
- What are your rates and payment terms?
- How long will it take to create my project?
- Can I meet the team that will build my software?
Choose the Right Hiring Model
Software development outsourcing companies have different models you can choose from.
- Staff augmentation model. In the staff augmentation model, you hire extra talents from an external agency to extend or strengthen your in-house team. This model is for you if you already have in-house developers but want to fill skill gaps or need a dev team to handle additional tasks.
- Dedicated team model. Hiring a dedicated team is the best option if you don't already have an in-house team and need programmers to build your software. The squad comprises experts, including a software developer, QA specialist, UI/UX designer, DevOps engineer and project manager.
- Project-based model. In this model, you hire an outsourced team to develop the entire project according to your specifications; however, you may be unable to monitor the team or provide feedback when necessary.
Aside from choosing how you will work with the outsourced team, you must set how to pay them. There are two models you can choose from. They are:
- Fixed-price model. If you choose this model, you and the outsourced team will agree on a set rate at the start of the project. The rate is based on the team's estimated time and resources to complete the project. This is the simplest payment scheme to choose; however, it doesn't account for changes in the project scope.
- Time and materials model. In this model, you pay the outsourced team for their time building your software. This model creates less friction and stress between you and the developers, enabling them to focus on output.
Sign a Contract
When you are certain you have the right software development outsourcing company, you can sign a contract. The contract should outline your project scope, milestones, timelines and payment terms.
Hire a Vetted Development Team with Deazy
At Deazy, we make hiring developers and building a dev team as simple as a, b and c. You can find experts with skills across tech stacks from our ecosystem of over 5,000 developers with the right experience to handle your project.
Aside from that, we provide a flexible hiring model that allows getting developers in as little as two weeks. Skip the time-consuming process of hiring in-house developers and kick off your project with pre-vetted experts made just for you. Book a call!
Conclusion
Hiring a software development team is easy if you follow the advice provided in this article.
Defining your project requirements, choosing your team structure and listing all the skills you need are tasks you must do to hire the right development team. After you can choose a country to outsource your project, search for devs and screen the team before you sign a contract.
Ready to start your project? Hire an outsourced development team the easy way by outsourcing your project to Deazy. Book a call.
