Wednesday 13 August 2014

How to Overcome Challenges Faced in Offshore Web Development?

Offshore web development
Offshore web development has become a more or less standard practice of the majority of business organizations these days. Experts are of the view that offshore web development is the best way to cut costs. However, in order to ensure successful offshore web development, a company needs to successfully initiate as well as manage it. The entire process is easier said than done. This is because outsourced development is often plagued by a string of issues. Hence, there is an ardent need to address these issues effectively to overcome these challenges. Before discussing the ways to overcome them, let us mention what the issues are.

The principal problems that plague this phenomenon are lack of a feasible window for client participation, cultural difference, difference in cultural obligations, time difference, or difficulty in communication.

Appointment of onshore technical team lead
Often the companies assume that appointing someone for managing outsourced web development is enough. The person concerned will be able to take care of the development in their ‘spare times’ even after managing their regular responsibilities. This is, to say the least an absolutely disastrous decision. The best way is to appoint a professional on a full time basis who will be able to take care of the offshore developers. The core responsibilities should include explaining business priorities, giving various technical inputs, help in troubleshooting, and solve technical challenges. Providing training as well as mentorship to the remotely located developers also falls under his or her jurisdiction.

Corresponding with the offshore technical team
This is another important factor that needs to be taken into account. The onshore developers and technicians need to work in close coordination with their offshore counterparts. Besides, it should have the right to take technical as well as administrative decisions whenever needed. This prevents the technical bottleneck from forming.

Daily correspondence with the offshore team
It is absolutely imperative for the onshore developers to maintain a regular correspondence with those handling the outsourced work, via video conferencing. There should be a regular as well as constant correspondence between the two teams on a regular basis to chalk out strategies jointly and work in close liaison with each other. It is necessary for the two teams to know each other so as to eliminate any confusion or misunderstanding.

Besides, the onshore team needs to have a close interaction with the developers who are taking care of the outsourced works. The entire team needs to interact with the other team frequently. This practice helps the two teams to get used to each other. This also helps in understanding each other’s language, culture, work ethics, as well as other issues properly. In this way, the working environment can be improved by many folds, which impacts the end product in a great way.

Small Offshore team
The offshore team needs to be small. A small but highly efficient team is more effective than a large team comprising of some mediocre developers when it comes to handling outsourced projects. In case there is a large team that needs to be split into groups and trained in a proper way so as to improve the productivity.

The offshore team needs to participate in every facet of development as well as architecture. It also needs to take part in the design related discussions, though the responsibility of implementing the same should be on the onshore developers. This imparts a sense of agility into the developers, which in turn affects the productivity as well as its quality at the end of the day.

The web developers like to take up challenges thrown at them. Hence, when it comes to outsourcing, things are no different. In fact, a stiff challenge has in most of the times helped them to bring the best out of them. Hence, it is best to put up challenges in front of the offshore developers. This will help improve their performance and come up with some out-of-this world web solutions.

We provide web development services. If you would like to hire offshore developers from a software development company India, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

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