Offshore Software Development: The Benefits and Pitfalls of Virtual Teams
Offshore Software Development is the process of having a company in one country or region that has software developers in other countries. This has become an increasingly popular business strategy over the past few decades and it's now available to just about any type of software development project. However, in order for the strategy to work properly, there are some key points that need to be considered by both parties and before you start looking for offshore developer talent.
This post will touch on those key points so you can get a better idea of what it takes to make offshore software development successful.
The Benefits
One key aspect of offshore software development is that most companies can now afford to pay for development of their software. That can be a significant benefit, particularly if the software has a high cost to market or is tightly integrated with other systems and not easily reproducible. The other benefits are well known and have been talked about extensively in the past, so I'll only talk about two: the communication and economic benefits.
Communication between offshore companies and their clients is often difficult because there are different time zones involved and there may not be any one company that all employees can go to for support. While there are a lot of communication solutions and methods available, it's still a common problem.
Offshore software development benefits the economy as well. As you know, if you have enough employees in different locations working on the same project, it can be cheaper to use offshoring. One of the main reasons for this is that companies send their developers to other countries instead of hiring them locally. Also, since there are fewer employees at one location, the company can often get more work done per employee which increases productivity and efficiency and lowers costs so that the company actually makes more money than it would if they were able to hire local talent.
The Pitfalls
There are also some issues that you need to watch out for when planning an offshore software development strategy. The first one is that if your developers are located in a place with high costs of living and low salaries it may not be as beneficial to send them there. Even if it does have low costs and salaries, you should look at the wage levels for employees in other countries because sometimes it can be better to go elsewhere. For example, China has a lot of talent but the cost of living is high and the salary levels aren't as good as they used to be because more companies have been sending developers there.
Another problem is that if you hire offshore employees, you may not be able to give them the same benefits and perks that a local employee can receive. While the money matters, it's also important to realise that offering perks can help with retention of talent by creating a better work environment and company culture. The other problem is that there are often issues with communication. For example, if employees in different locations need to send information back and forth, it could be quite difficult to make sure that they are getting the same information without needing to go through multiple people.
Feedback
One of the best ways for me to determine how useful this post has been for everyone is by doing a survey on Quora. So, if you can take a minute to answer these two questions, it will definitely help me out. The first one is how well does the post answer the question? The second one is for anybody who has worked on an offshore software development project before: How did you overcome the issues I discussed? My goal was to give an overview of the benefits and pitfalls of offshore development along with giving some strategies that can be used to overcome those pitfalls. I hope this post was able to give you some good information on what you need to look at when planning an offshore project.
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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Offshore Software Development: Summary There are a lot of advantages to using offshore software development for your project, and it may be a great option for some companies. However, there are also some issues and pitfalls that you need to watch for. Download the FREE guide to discover the most effective tips to find the best offshore service provider.
Conclusion
I hope this post was able to give you some good information on what you need to look at when planning an offshore project. I also want to know if this was useful for you or not so please leave your comments below and give me some feedback. Also, if you have any questions about offshore software development that I didn't cover, please feel free to ask them in the comment section and I'll do my best to answer them.
About the author: Nick is a content writer, SEO consultant, software reviewer and marketing enthusiast. His blog helps small business owners create better websites that bring more customers through the door while increasing their search engine rankings. He's also a proud husband and father of two crazy dogs.