Projects that involve Software development sometimes require getting off-board expertise to work in specific areas. The rise of many companies in need of software technology has forced developers to the wall. It is becoming more difficult to oversee the necessary life cycle stages of digital programs.
Steps such as maintenance require continual interaction between the client and the development company. Software companies can outsource at levels like development, implementation, and testing stages.
Software outsourcing has become the norm in meeting quality market demand in time. Unfortunately, it has its challenges. This article discusses five of such.
Table of Contents
Project management issues
Most issues in this area involve coordinating the time factor and budget of the project appropriately. The reputation of the company for outsourcing is what the first industry is basing on to hire it.
Sometimes, project managers wish they knew better than the superficial description of the company’s profile. It is not an easy decision to hire another company for such sensitive jobs that carry the hidden treasures of a client.
Often, the project managers strive to meet the client’s demands within tight budgets. Hence, outsourcing adds more pressure on funds management.
There are deadline issues to be observed; it’s challenging to oversee an industry operating from a different location from where you are.
As such, you will have to explain each detail clearly and allocate enough funds to ensure that everything falls in place on schedule.
Project managers should immerse their heads fully in the project and ensure coordination throughout the project development period.
Most companies that you hire will tend to relax whenever you turn your attention away from them.
Failure to hold meetings periodically to assess progress leads to a lack of proper instructions at developmental stages with the contract-firm.
Language barriers
To the common eye, reading the digital characters and algorithms that software engineers use in designing digital instructions is overwhelming.
Trying to figure out the characters and signs they use compares to the difficulty that language barriers can raise in outsourcing to experts who speak a different language.
In most cases, teams that are efficient in doing software development jobs are those with little proficiency in English. It is a huge challenge trying to explain yourself to a person who knows nothing regarding the language you speak.
Additionally, if you choose to use a translator, the possibility of missing some critical points is high. Translators will not always find every right word to explain your vocabulary and the intensity of the job at hand.
Usually, pinning down a native expert might take time, and sometimes they are expensive than non-native speakers.
To solve the issue of communication barriers, you need to search for teams that are proficient in English. In extreme cases, you should find a company that at least has one member who understands the language.
Time zones differences
When you outsource for a software development job, you will probably come to contact with experts from different parts of the planet.
Although outsourcing opens the market for you to work with professionals, it also constricts in other essential aspects.
Such aspects might be a result of varying global time zones. An American company outsourcing for services in Britain and India poses different scenarios in the two countries hired.
India has longer time-zone differences than is Britain to America. To be one piece with the US group concerns that the group raise might have to wait for long hours before getting a response.
To beat around such challenges, you might have to work till nights or shift your working timetable from days to nights.
Or you might decide to outsource near-shore to work with teams in your time zone.
Trust issues
Outsourcing makes sure that the confidentiality of information is not a secret that the project management team holds anymore.
The challenge that the management will have is to find a team that it can trust with the information.
Things get worse if the team you chose is over 10,000 kilometers away, and the internet is the only office you can meet for a discussion.
Still, the mode of communication that employs the use of e-mails and video conferences can be prone to cybercrimes putting the client’s confidential info at risk.
Signing Non-disclosure Agreements can help add to your trust in the venture you partake in outsourcing. Such will tie the company you hire to the terms of keeping your project to secrecy.
The outsourcing company will decide on the essential bits to disclose to the secondary company. As such, it follows the ideology ‘disclose as much as you are willing to lose’ just in case losses occur.
Client’s issues
Seeing things from the client’s perspective helps one get numerous challenges in outsourcing ventures.
Whether the client is the software company or the customer, you can narrate various difficulties you face from your perspective.
However, the secondary software company that comes in to give expertise in the process has its perspective on the challenges it faces.
Client issues that make it challenging for the software company to operate vary greatly.
When working with offshore clients, vendors have to deal with unrealistic expectations of the services they should get.
It’s a norm that when outsourcing in different countries, one expects to get super-quality work. After all, they reason, why cross borders for anything less than that at home?
Meeting such client-expectations can be overwhelming and mostly deters offshore companies from giving services where demands are unrealistic.
Other client issues might involve getting little attention from the respective customers hence dragging the operation.
Conclusion
Companies that embrace software technology are increasingly putting pressure on the software industries to satisfy their needs and wants. Digital developers aim at providing quality services by turning to outsource companies.
Additionally, outsourcing is thriving in today’s digital market due to shortages that continue to increase in the software development industry. Despite outsourcing adding to the advancement in software programming, it faces challenges that need urgency in addressing by respective stakeholders.
