Over the course of a decade, offshore development has become a promising business segment for IT & software development companies worldwide.
The global companies are now more tilted towards seeking outsourcing services from abroad to gain leverage over skilled professionals.
The world was never this small. Now, companies across continents and oceans can establish strong business relationships and have long-term deals that are beneficial to both exchanging parties.
Without having to worry about hiring the right person for the job, orientation, monitoring, and management of the staff, or keeping the team motivated, companies can rather hire skilled professionals from other companies for a particular time period under outsourcing services and pay only for the services delivered.
It is, indeed, a highly efficient and cost-saving approach to get the job done without compromising on quality.
The offshore work model has multiple advantages as the offshore team works on an hourly basis, they can work anytime. While some members take rest, others can keep working overnight.
The offshore team members are accountable to deliver quality work at a faster rate within a limited timeline. This is one of the major aspects of why companies favor depending upon offshore teams to get their job done.
However, with all its advantages comes along certain downsides as well, as nothing is flawless or ‘Perfect is a trap’ as Seth Godin puts it.
In this blog, we’re going to discuss what challenges do offshore development presents and how to overcome them.
4 Tips to Manage Offshore Development Team Effectively!
One of the major disadvantages of offshore development is the collaboration challenges between the cooperating companies.
There is always room for uncertainty hanging in between the dealing companies that often leads to misconceptions or inconsistencies. This is because of the lack of communication and appropriate management of the offshore team.
It is challenging to manage the offshore work among the companies due to several factors such as-
- Time-zone differences, if the team is located at far ends geographically, it is highly troublesome to schedule a meeting.
- Language preference is another challenging factor as all the business dealing meetings are conducted in English to which some of your team members might not feel too confident.
- Meeting the client’s specific requirements is challenging when most of your team members are preoccupied.
Here are a few tips to how to effectively manage your offshore team-
#1 Layout A Plan!
Formularizing a strategic plan that addresses every pain point and presents a possible solution that is congruent to both sides is beneficial for everyone.
The offshore company needs to devise a well-defined model that will address client issues round the clock and lay a few members in the hierarchy at their disposal to meet specific requirements, regardless of time.
The plan would define a certain set of rules, depicting day-to-day communication and collaboration outline on regular basis, that will be followed by each side with full cooperation.
The rules will sort out every communication barrier by defining the meeting time, setting up progress tracking tools, work management rules, and work structure.
#2 Establish Seamless Communication!
While managing an offshore development team, communication is the key factor. Regardless of the communication medium, you are using, whether over a phone, Skype call, or Zoom video call, what matters most is that you are communicating.
A precise end-to-end communication has tantamount importance in every business deal. Maintaining transparency across the development process through frequent interactions is what builds the cornerstone for integrity and credibility.
For this purpose, you need to set standard procedures to carry out effective communication. To surpass the language barrier that your team member might be having,
Furthermore, it would be great to conduct query resolving sessions on a regular basis to clear out any forthright doubts and potential queries.
This will ease the workflow management and help the team to complete the project effectively.
#3 Use Standard Work Tools!
In most cases, the offshore partner company remains uncertain of how the work is going on, what their assets are working upon, how much time they are spending on a particular task, what progress they have made, etc.
The offshore model requires that the client should give distinct and precise information of the everyday activities regarding the ongoing aspects of the project to the offshore partner.
That’s why it is vital to provide your partner with a convenient and practical tool system to utilize so that both the offshore partner and the client can have access to the required data.
If offshore team members use a standard set of tools to track their time and record work, of which both companies share knowledge, the entire workflow process will become more coherent.
You would be surprised as to how things will ease out using such dependable tools.
#4 Building A Base for Mutual Understanding!
If two afar companies have to work seamlessly and build a long-term relationship, it is essential to have a strong foothold of mutual understanding.
Both the company and the client need to implement some practices to enhance communication, build trust and transparency, and create an upfront for coordination.
To extricate any rising inner unsaid conflict, it is important to build a foundation of credibility by arranging regular meetings and sessions to discuss work progress and share ideas.
Bottom Line-
That said, it is important, however, to choose the right business partner as a wrong decision could lead to disastrous results for your business.
HabileLabs is a long-trusted offshore partner for many companies across 15+ different countries. We deliver outstanding results for your software development project, by taking into account every specific requirement on your part and render a stellar experience throughout the process.
To discuss your project, reach out to us!