Must have Checklist for Successful Software Development Outsourcing

Building a company isn’t an easy job. Leveraging a software development partner may help your business adopt new technology as well as expedite your business strategy. However, you need to put in a lot of thought before you outsource software development projects for your company as choosing the right partner may make all the difference for your business. If you are wondering how to do that, we have good news. In this article, we have outlined a must-have checklist for successful software development outsourcing. Check it out!

How to Ensure Success

The following practices are central to ensuring success for your business:

• Great leadership and teamwork
• Employees sticking to business values and company being aligned to priorities
• Maintaining simplicity
• Fast delivery of services
• Engaging with audience, collaboration and maintaining transparency
• Focus on waste elimination
• Willingness to continue to grow and improve

The Checklist

We have prepared a list of things that you need to consider before you choose a software development team for your company.

Transparency

This is one of the most essential aspects that contributes to successful software development outsourcing. You need to choose a team that is dedicated to maintaining transparency during working on the project and are good communicators when it comes to the methodology used in the project. It is crucial that you are well aware of the process they went through while developing software for your business as you are the one who is going to sell it. When all the involved offices are well informed of the methodology that is used to proceed along with the development, flaws are easily caught and corrected. Transparency also imparts trust between the stakeholders and ensures the expected outcome.

Project Goals

When you outsource software development to a team, you need to define your project goals and objectives clearly. This will ensure a clear alignment among the teams involved.

You need to make sure that the project scope and goals are clearly identified and documented for all the parties to view. You also need to review all the milestones to bring out the best end result.

Communicate business priorities to the team for quality assurance. Ensure that every member of the team who will be working on the project understood your project goals.

Break down the project schedule. You need to make sure that you’re allowing the software development team a reasonable deadline.

Define your acceptance criteria, and make sure that they are measured reasonably by the team.

Another essential point to check is if the leader of the outsource team actively took part in the software development project.

Technology Skills

Before you outsource the project, make sure that the team is competent and has the skills your project demands. You will have to gain insight into their knowledge, whether or not they are versed with the latest inventions and technologies. It’s best if you can opt for a team that is skilled in ROR, Java, Windows, Android, Azure, and more. Such a competent team is key to quality assurance.

Moreover, note if the team uses the standard breakdown structure that involves steps like User Stories, Acceptance Criteria, and Acceptance Tests.

Observe if the team uses development tools for project management, collaboration, source control, test management, bug management, and test automation. Also, note if all the members working in the team have access to the development tools. A common understanding of the project tools is also crucial for the successful implementation of the plan.

Smooth Project Management

Your team needs to have an intentional team design to ensure efficient team management.

• Product Manager: This personnel is responsible for coordinating the overall project, direct and communicate the priorities. They are required to develop a customer validation plan.
• Technical Leader: The team member who is responsible for the technical side of the project needs to be well equipped with the skills and knowledge required for the project themselves. They are expected to ensure architectural consistency.
• Architectural Representative: The person who is responsible for developing the architectural logic behind the project and maintain consistency across products and features.
• Product Owner: The product owner is responsible for partnering with the client and breaking down user stories and acceptance criteria to them. They are required to coordinate the development team.

Before you outsource software, development makes sure that the individual roles are clear among the team members, and they are responsible for their actions. Reinforcing accountability is essential for bringing success to your project.

Focus to DevOps and Software Security

You need to choose a software development team that pays focus on DevOps. DevOps works towards close monitoring of the stages of the project. From planning and integration to deployment and release, all the stages of the project need to be closely monitored and communicated. That’s where DevOps comes in. Its key function is to minimize the development cycle and deliver a fast and reliable software to your users. It is essential to bring out the best value for your investment.

You also need a team that focuses on software security, as it is essential to bringing a user’s loyalty towards your business. You need to cater reliability through your software, and in order to do that, the team that you choose must conduct security testing at every stage of the development project.

Quality Assurance

Prior to handing out your project, check if the team maintains modern approaches to testing, and fixing errors. Check if the codes are peer-reviewed by both members inside and outside of the team. You also need to consider whether continuous integration is conducted to detect and fix errors from early on. It’s best if the team uses a customer representative environment to test the codes for quality assurance.

Conclusion

Choosing the right team to outsource software development for your business might feel like a challenge at first, but if you follow the steps that we broke down in this article, the process will be much smoother and effective.