Many businesses consider outsourcing software development when creating a website, a mobile app, or some other digital products. A couple of years ago, the main reason for outsourcing was cost reduction, and this is still true in some cases, but the phenomenon has changed over time.

Outsourcing undergoes actual changes as the markets, technologies, and requirements evolve. Today, outsourcing is being looked at as a key part of driving innovation within important industries.

Choosing a reliable outsourcing company is extremely important because you want the company to be on the same wavelength as you, to be a solid partner, and to help your business get on the path to success or to be even more successful than it already is.

Here are the most important questions to ask when outsourcing software development

1. What do I need to know before contacting an outsourcing company?

First of all, you must have a well-founded plan and you must have a good picture of the future result.

To make the planning process simpler for all parties, prepare a document that focuses on the business perspective as it holds the details of the business solution for the project. It should include a basic version of the documentation with a clear goal, mock-ups and requirements, time, project status, and budget estimation. This way you will be able to figure out from the beginning if a company will align with your plans and if you can become reliable partners.

2. How will outsourcing benefit my business?

Companies outsource to save costs. But this shouldn’t be the only reason, though. It’s all about taking advantage of the strengths of having access to professional expertise, flexible resources, reducing working time, and ultimately increasing productivity.

You can read about all the advantages that outsourcing has: Advantages and Disadvantages of IT Outsourcing

3. Why should I outsource rather than hiring my team?

The hiring process takes time, and the costs of maintaining an in-house development team are substantial. The advantages are substantially more if you choose to outsource than if you hire your team, and you can convince yourself of this by reading our article: Why Choose Outsourcing Instead of Having an In-House Team?

4. What happens after my project is finished?

Technical support and app maintenance can be offered by your outsourcing partner. Also, if you have in mind other projects to start you can continue the collaboration, especially if the company you worked with is reliable and managed to help you lay the foundations of a successful project.

You can engage in a successful long-term partnership, and if you were not satisfied with the services offered by the company you can always find a professional team of developers.

5. I already have a market consultant and a web designer in the company, and all we need now is a developer. Is it better to employ the same software development partner’s professionals?

Hiring the whole team from a single outsourcing partner speeds up the production process because all of the experts work together under the direction of a single project leader. It is much easier to handle a team that operates under one roof when technological challenges occur during the development cycle.

6. How can I be sure that the code I’ll get from an outsourcing company is of good quality?

Reliable outsourcing partners will happily explain their quality standards to you and will not hesitate to include them in the software development contract. You can ask them to show you some of their successful projects, what approach they have and what their values are. As a result, the chance of outsourcing poor quality can be reduced.

7. Do I just want the outsourcing company to deliver a product or do I want to collaborate with them on a solution?

This is a very important question to ask right at the beginning of your research.

You have to figure out if you just need the outsourcing company to provide a finished software product and don’t want to be involved in the whole development process, or you want the vendor to be involved in the project and come up with their suggestions and solutions.

When you think about what would be the best solution, just keep in mind that sometimes any solutions coming from a different perspective can prove to be successful.

8. Is their development approach similar to mine? 

The production phase is typically a side issue if you plan to outsource the whole new project to the vendor. Normally, you should ask as to what your position will be in this phase as well as how much time you will be required to allocate to it. But, at the end of the day, this is mostly a question of determining whether or not their plan is reasonable and entrusting them with the task of managing it. Anyway, if a the company’s method has proven effective in the past, it’s wise to put your trust in them again.

The picture differs, however, if you need to hire a few developers from an outsourcing company to expand your current team. Then it’s critical to discuss the procedure and make sure you’re both on the same page.

9. How can the outsourcing company deal with challenges and problems?

Let’s be frank and realistic: any software development project will encounter difficulties at some stage. It is unavoidable. And how your chosen vendor handles any problems could be critical to your partnership. As a result, you should ask about actual examples of how your future partner has dealt with similar issues in the past.

It’s a good idea to talk about real-life situations that might arise during your partnership.

To conclude

Choosing an outsourcing partner can be a challenging task. At this point, you aim to collect as much information as possible so that you can make informed choices when the time comes to select a provider.

Although the questions to ask when outsourcing vary depending on the business, market, and use case, there are a few things you should be focused on before entering into any negotiations.

Summing up, it’s essential to not only ask a potential partner a bunch of questions but also to answer some questions on your own. Find out what you want and what kind of people you’d like to work with on this job. It’s very important to feel safe with your elected partner in the first place. You can have different opinions and differences, but it’s necessary to understand those differences. It is important to be satisfied with the company you will work with, to feel that it is trustworthy and that it can help you turn your business into a successful one.

If you have any additional questions after reading our article, please do not hesitate to contact us and tell us what your next big project is going to be. We’ll be glad to chat about your ideas, and who knows, maybe it will be the start of a long and fruitful journey for us both? 🙂