Building development teams can be a thrilling adventure, but working with external software providers comes with its own set of challenges. The good news? By tackling these challenges upfront, you can navigate your digital journey more smoothly and reap the rewards of partnership. Let’s dive into the common hurdles and why preparing for them is essential.

Either if you are about to start a digital journey or in the middle of a digital transformation process, at some point you may face the situation where you need to build or increase your development force. This exercise usually involves choosing between different approaches such as building an onshore team, an offshore one or a mix of them to accomplish your goals.

While there are different opinions about them -based on real experience- the truth is that we can elaborate an entire article to establish differences, pros and cons of each approach. But what I’ve noticed (and motivated me to write this article) is that when people discuss it, there are some aspects which are not usually included as part of the analysis. What is more, most of them are implications related to working either with a single or multiple offshore partners, and many times they arise since no introspective exercise is done in order to determine how prepared the company is to build a partnership. Casually — or not — most of these items become a real problem at later stages of the project lifecycle.

So, if you or your company are in a situation like this, and working with an offshore software provider is a valid option under analysis, make sure to review this list of considerations before choosing one approach to go with:

> UNDERSTANDING THE SPECIFICS OF THE PARTNERSHIP

As with any other decision that involves investing money in it, make sure to clearly understand what includes the service you are contracting.

In case you find such very different rates for the same tech profiles, make sure to verify the “added value” factor that the provider offers. This one is usually “hidden” and includes not only professional development opportunities but also competitive salaries for the different profiles, considering you may want the best people working for your project for a long time. But that’s not all about it. Your provider also needs to address attrition rate properly — in a time and manner — in order to mitigate the risk, so having the tools and expertise to respond appropriately to this common situation is a big asset. In addition, having experience working with similar projects/business areas and using methodological frameworks is also a plus.

As you can see, this kind of partnership service might include lots of aspects rather than just finding profiles with some specific tech stack knowledge. Not considering them might end up not only choosing the wrong partner but also suffering lots of headaches in advanced stages of your project.

> THE TIMEZONE FACTOR

While it seems to be obvious, as everything is “global” nowadays this has become a critical item to consider. No matter the project nature or how much things are documented, people will need to meet for different purposes. Of course this will be virtually most of the time, but it is super important to have a time range where people’s calendars get overlapped to make these meetings happen. This becomes such a challenge when having multiple providers working from very different locations across the world. If you don’t want to get frustrated when the time comes, make sure to take this into consideration not only when choosing your provider (and their locations), but also when configuring your teams and assigning them to the different projects.

In addition, and considering the overlapping time could be not that much, you should carefully prepare the meetings in advance to make the most of the people’s time. Having a clearly defined approach which includes setting an agenda, enough recurrency as needed, inviting the right audience and having a moderator would be helpful for that.

> THE MULTI-CULTURE FACTOR

If you plan to work with multiple partners from different countries, it’s important to anticipate potential friction between them. Such friction is not uncommon and should be expected. This occurs since people from different cultures could have contrasting visions about how to manage a team, how to solve problems, how to address conflicts, how to develop some project, how to deal with stressful deadlines and so on and so forth. Defining a clear leadership and setting up standard work practices for all the involved teams upfront, is a must if you don’t want to struggle with undesirable situations during your journey.

> ACCESS TO KEY PEOPLE/STAKEHOLDERS

Unfortunately, facilitating access to key stakeholders is often more challenging for offshore teams compared to in-house counterparts. In many cases, internal team members may lack awareness of external partners and their roles, particularly in large organizations with multiple departments. This lack of visibility becomes more pronounced as projects involve numerous stakeholders. Moreover, without a designated product owner or project manager to bridge communication gaps, ensuring effective collaboration becomes even more daunting. It is imperative to establish early connections between all involved parties and prioritize transparency by disseminating relevant information. If full disclosure is not feasible, assigning a dedicated role to facilitate communication can help mitigate these challenges

> THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A QUICK ONBOARDING PROCESS

It’s critical to establish a clearly defined and streamlined onboarding process, ideally leveraging automation wherever possible. Delayed onboarding can significantly impact project timelines, especially considering the already tight schedules common in most projects. Rapid integration of new team members is essential to ensure productivity and effectiveness. The onboarding process should encompass several key activities, including advance preparation of necessary documentation, provisioning of essential tools, granting appropriate access permissions, and introducing new hires to both the team and broader organizational context. By prioritizing these activities, organizations can expedite the onboarding process and minimize disruptions to project timelines

> SECURITY RESTRICTIONS

Depending on the project’s nature, business requirements, or established company protocols, there may be a need to impose restrictions on external providers. These restrictions could range from limiting access to production environments to safeguarding sensitive data or enforcing approval processes for production releases. In such cases, it is crucial to proactively establish mechanisms to prevent potential bottlenecks that could hinder offshore team productivity. This may involve implementing defined workflows tailored to address specific limitations and ensure compliance with security protocols. By taking these proactive measures, organizations can mitigate risks and maintain operational efficiency in offshore partnerships.

> MULTIPLE TEAMS COORDINATION

This aspect is so important in any context to maximize team efficiency. Ideally, each team should have its own leader who collaborates closely with counterparts. Initially, they should collectively establish a cohesive set of development and methodological guidelines to be adhered to by all teams. Consistent enforcement of these standards is essential over time. Furthermore, all leaders should maintain awareness of activities within the broader digital ecosystem. This facilitates effective coordination, prevents redundant efforts, and ensures resources are utilized efficiently.

Neglecting these steps can lead to dependency issues, especially in interconnected projects involving multiple teams. Moreover, it may result in the formation of isolated ‘silos,’ where teams operate independently, potentially leading to inefficiencies and discrepancies in implementation.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

The search for the right approach to build development teams as well as the look for the right partners (if it applies) are commonly underestimated problems. Actually, they are more complex than they sound. It’s not just about looking for a development force at the lowest price possible. It’s more like a detailed exercise that involves not only analyzing the digital goals your company has and the timelines to accomplish them, but also how prepared your company is to work with one schema or the other.

While there is no exact recipe that works for every single scenario, the truth is that if your decision involves working with external partners (either just one or multiple providers or even a mix of internal/external providers) you will need to consider comprehensively all the mentioned in this article before committing. By addressing all of them in advance, it will help you to not only reduce the risks and the friction, but also to succeed in your digital journey.

Did you face any other challenges when working with offshore software providers? What strategy did you implement to solve them?