A Comprehensive Guide on Application Development Outsourcing in 2023
As the digital world keeps growing and changing in terms of technologies, and consumer needs, the urge to serve users with pragmatic solutions is becoming a necessity. In order to thrive in this digitally-transforming world, businesses must keep up with the changing pace.
They need to harness the latest digital innovations and go in flow with the current market trends. This is where application development outsourcing comes in. Outsourcing isn’t a new concept. In fact, this industry has taken a firm hold ever since mobile apps started hitting smartphones.
In fact, a research report of Statista reveals that by the end of 2023, revenue in the application development outsourcing industry shall reach around 119 billion USD. But one more fact to consider here is that outsourcing isn’t always pretty, especially if you don’t proceed the right way.
Budding entrepreneurs and start-ups are frantically looking for cost-saving options to get fully-functional apps. But they often get confused owing to the countless options present before them.
If you happen to be going through something similar, then this post is meant to help you out. You can consider it your comprehensive guide as it uncovers the critical phases that you need to pay attention to while outsourcing your project in 2023. Let’s get started.
Phase #1 — Preparation
Before you set out to find your outsourcing partner and hand over your project, you first need to be through with your own homework. This means that you need to cover all crucial parts of your project. Here are a few things you need to do beforehand:
- Clearly define the scope and limitations of your app idea along with your specific requirements for the app.
- Have a thorough knowledge of your app’s market, including assessment of successful and unsuccessful apps.
- Have the features of your app clearly chalked out along with their functions.
- Fix your budget and be specific about the timeline.
- Set measurable performance parameters like adhering to guidelines, meeting delivery timelines, etc. to track your project’s progress.
Phase #2 — Find Your Outsourcing Partner
This phase includes extensive research. Right from searching the names to shortlisting them and carrying out detailed conversations, you will need to work hard on this one. The first step of the phase is obviously researching the names of outsourcing companies.
Before that, you need to decide whether you wish to go with an offshore company or stick to an onshore one. Once you have decided, follow up with the steps below to ensure you find the right partner for your project:
- Go through the websites and do consider your own user experience for a good website can give you a fair idea about their expertise.
- Learn everything about their web application development services and examine the relevant ones.
- Go through case studies, white papers, portfolios, client reviews, and testimonials.
- Have a conversation with the chatbot and also with an actual representative to have an idea about communication and collaboration capabilities.
- Go through the various hiring models and do assess the time zone.
Phase #3 — Negotiate and Seal the Deal
Once you have found your outsourcing partner, look at the terms and conditions. If you find anything conflicting, then discuss it with the company’s representative. But before you seal the deal, do take care of the following things:
- See to it that there is proper and comprehensive documentation that covers the terms and conditions of the service agreement.
- Most importantly, do check out the infrastructure and data security protocols.
- Do get an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) that clearly mentions the ownership of the property rights and check out the confidentiality clauses
- Be very clear about the payment structure and define the milestones and deliverables of the project.
Phase #4 — Build Your Team
The next thing to do is to hire developers from your selected mobile application development company. Build an ensemble team of designers, developers, and testers. However, do ensure that there’s a single point of contact to avoid ambiguity. Usually, it’s the project manager who acts as the central contact point.
There are other things that you should also take care of before you finalize your team.
- Go through their resumes and check their technical skills and expertise.
- Ask for any personal projects that they have worked on or ask for apps (if any) that they might have uploaded on app stores.
- In case you don’t get a peek at any project for confidentiality issues, then ask for a prototype as that will help you to scrutinize their capabilities
- Immediately set up communication channels to ensure seamless collaboration and check their development methodologies too.
- Do get to know about their monitoring and reporting processes and use the systems regularly for the same.
Phase #5 — Talk about Maintenance and Support
A big aspect of app development is maintenance and support. For an app to thrive, there must be regular updates, performance monitoring, and proper technical support.
So you need to see to it that your hired app development company includes the same in their agreement. Talk and learn about the same from your hired developers. But besides maintenance and support, there are certain other things that will need clarification too.
- Learn about their QA processes that will ensure the proper quality of your product by implementing proper testing methods.
- Ask about regulatory compliance and adherence to coding standards.
- Talk about the latest innovations and how the team keeps up with the changing technologies.
- Most importantly, do take regular feedback and see to it that your team is open to changes
Learn about how the team shall address issues proactively, both technical and non-technical
Wrapping Up
Application development outsourcing is a smart strategy for a good number of reasons. It helps businesses get the right expertise and skills along with access to the latest innovations within their budget.
But in order to make the most of it, you need to know the different steps that lead to successful outsourcing. For that, you need to define your project requirements, find your outsourcing partner via extensive research, learn about their models, and finally hire your team.
