4 Tips on Outsourcing Software Development

Development partner choice

In fact, today, there are a lot of IT companies, which specialize in web and mobile development. However, when a startup turns to an untried software development company, it risks various problems in the future project. In particular, below we describe the most typical problems that customers may face:

• lack of code standardization. Many self-taught developers do not pay much attention to the format of the written code. Thus, they significantly complicate the subsequent work with the created solution for other programmers.
• imperfect documentation. Documentation is one of the weak points of most projects. The absence of well-structured documentation has an extremely negative impact on the possibilities of further product refinement (especially if you decide to ask another IT company to do that).
• incomplete code testing. In small IT companies, the same person sometimes entrusts themselves with the duties of both the developer and the tester. To do as much as possible, such “universal soldiers” forget to cover all the code. As a result, after the product release, numerous bugs are discovered.
• elongated project development periods. Some companies, which strive to earn more, take several projects at once. In most cases, for this reason, the implementation time for each of them is delayed.
• lack of full understanding of the customer requirements. Some IT companies, having compiled the documentation at the initial stage of communication with the customer, almost do not bother demonstrating the layouts and discussing the further development processes during the whole project development cycle. The results of this, as a rule, is the same: when the product is already finished, the agreed budget is exceeded, or there is a need for numerous corrections, which also implies unforeseen time and financial expenses.
• the expensiveness of the services>. It seems that you have found the ideal web development agency: you like the portfolio, like a nice PM, who promises to prepare in time an unconventional, fully customizable solution. And then you get a check with the price for all these services… Definitely, you expected that it would be lower because usually startups don’t have enough budget. As a result, you have to look for other options.

Therefore, one of the most important app development tips for startup is to thoroughly review the company portfolio, understand its internal processes and the workflow they usually adhere to.

Wise cooperation model choice

Software development outsourcing for startups requires wise choice of the cooperation models. To date, there are two major pricing models in business contracts, particularly, in the field of software development – Fixed Price and Dedicated Team. Fixed price contract allows understanding the precise startup budget and timeframe while building a dedicated team of developers provides you with unique flexibility.

The main principles of Fixed Price cooperation

So, let us review in a bit more detail the three basic principles of transactions in the format of Fixed Price:

• Fixed budget. The Fixed Price cooperation provides to fix the budget before starting the development of the product. On the developers’ side, absolutely no changes to the initial plan are allowed. Of course, it provides customers with an “iron” guarantee that by the time of its release, the amount initially specified in the contract will not increase by a cent.
• Strict deadlines. Working on startups, their owners not always have time to wait for a long time. They want to see the first results as fast as it’s possible. The Fixed Price model protects the customer from the failure of terms allowing to plan the marketing measures beforehand.
• Thorough project documentation. Technical specifications and other kinds of project documents are compiled and finalized at the very beginning of the collaboration. It may not seem a good idea for those startup owners who previously did not resort to the services of IT companies, however, it has sense. Expert employees of the company will discuss your idea in detail, allowing you to describe your requirements and wishes for the finished product in full.

Even if you have got no clue about the technical specifics of the implementation, experienced staff of the development outsourcing company would be able to choose the tools and technologies, suitable in your case. Upon this negotiation, developers will devise a clear plan of actions, describe in detail the functionality of the future application or website of your startup and demonstrate their professional vision to you. You can either agree or return the documentation for revision with corrections and comments to adjust the project to your views until you are completely satisfied with the outlined provisions.

The main principles of Dedicated Team model

Dedicated team model is a perfect choice for startups seeking a flexible and transparent type of cooperation. If you choose Outsourced Dedicated Development Team (ODDT) working with your project, you will experience the following benefits of this model.

• Flexibility. You can change the course of project anytime. Sometimes things change and so do your startup’s current goals, the functionality to wish to have developed first, etc. Sometimes the concept of the future product can be revised due to research or market fluctuations. With dedicated team model, you are able to adapt and make changes at any point.
• The project’s team. First of all, the team will be allocated especially for your project. HR department of the outsourcing services provider will analyze your requirements and search inside the company or in the market for the best specialists who will fit your team perfectly in terms of skills, experience, culture, and more. Additionally, you can be sure that your team is 100% dedicated to your project only.
• Quality. When you have an experienced team working for your startup only, you can adapt and change approach, the developers fully understand your objectives, and there is a well-established communication process, it leads to the ultimately better quality of the end product.

As a result, the dedicated team model has proven to be effective approach and a truly wise choice by many Jelvix startup clients.

Efficient startup workflow

It is important to ensure the perfect workflow of the development team especially when it comes to software development outsourcing for startups. Statistics show that there are much more startups that fail than those which succeed. One of the main reasons for failure is premature scaling and inefficient work processes in the development team. To make your startup development successful – don’t forget about managing because it’s quite difficult to keep everything in mind.

Working with an outsourcing team is a plus because usually they have already worked together and don’t have problems with communication inside the team. Also, outsourcing companies have their own strategies that they have already used before, so they know for sure what will work better for your startup.

ne of the main benefits is that startup owners can easily control the process of software development with the help of technical specialists who will explain everything clearly because they have already done it before.

Outsourcing software development for startups: thorough QA & Testing

It doesn’t matter what’s your products target audience. Perhaps, your solution is intended for in-house corporate use exclusively, perhaps, for anybody with an Internet access. In any case, even the most advanced functionality and the initially original idea might be ruined by the improper implementation. In such a sad case, there won’t be a way to return all the investments. On the other hand, by simply dedicating additional 15-25% of the budget to QA, you’ll get a guarantee that your finished solution is to be intuitive, according to modern standards, and, most importantly, able to meet competition with similar products. We advise taking it into account when planning your project stages and choosing development partner.

If you don’t eradicate as many bugs as possible and adapt your startup to advanced standards before it’s released, you’ll simply be left in the basket and lose your TA’s trust.

When planning app development outsourcing for startup, we recommend choosing a dedicated experienced QA testers’ team that constantly grows in its skills.

What are the Quality Assurance & Control goals?

Usually, QA-engineers’ work includes the following stages:

• composition of technical documentation: this stage implies formulation of detailed requirements as to the future product according to the client’s words and modern software standards. The documentation describes in detail tasks of each team member, tools for their accomplishment, testing conditions as well as expected results of testing;
• working through test cases: the test scripts are executed – subsequent actions that can potentially lead to improper application behavior.
• bug fixing through the bug-tracking system: due to saving all the reports in the bug-tracking system, QA engineers can make sure that all the detected bugs are successfully fixed.

After all, the key to any successful startup is the idea that finds its best incarnation, without bugs and crucial mistakes.

 

There are many factors that lead to startup success since every project includes different stages, hidden pitfalls and hard choices to make. We hope our article with startups outsourcing tips will help to avoid certain mistakes and see important points of startup growth. In case there are any questions, do not hesitate to contact us, we’ll be happy to take up your project. To discuss the details of the further collaboration, just briefly describe the task you want us to realize using the form below. We will get in touch with you in the nearest future.