5 Mistakes to Avoid when OutSourcing to App Developers

In today’s tech world you don’t have to literally employ a team of app developers in order to get the job done. Outsourcing gives you flexibility, will most of the time save you money and can be a great alternative if you need your app developed instantly.

While it may seem like an easy task, falling on the right outsource company is easier said than done. These are the top mistakes you should avoid when outsourcing App Development.

1) Thinking only about costs

While pricing is always a major factor, it shouldn’t be your only consideration when developing an app. If you’re outsourcing your development to a third party development firm, you should make sure that the company’s developers have great communication skills and understand the objectives of your app. A freelancer might give you a great price which is unbeatable, but if their communication skills, customs and work procedures aren’t inline with your company’s expectations, this can create major problems which will result in delays, bugs and friction between both sides. We have seen lots of clients, start with one developer and are then forced to change their developer in the middle of the project, consequentially ramping up costs and causing unnecessary delays.

2) Not accounting for different timezones

Imagine that your R&D team, located in the U.S, needs to outsource a project and find their ideal candidate located in eastern Europe. If you can deal with a time difference of around 10 hours then go for it, but from our experience this will result in poor results, constant delays and a lot of anxiety. Just imagine that you want to change a feature. You send it off to the programmer, only to receive an answer the next day. Consider taking a development firm that can work the same hours as you or at least give 24h support.

3) Not working in milestones

The main objective of an external developer, especially those who work on a fixed price per project, is to get the job done a quick as possible. At times this will effect the quality of code as programmers will miss bugs, errors or won’t perform quality assurance guaranteeing the product functions properly. While you can always adopt a work procedure or agree upon a method that will guarantee satisfaction, we advise to work in milestones. Pre-define the milestones of the project prior to starting it and at each milestone check your programmer’s work. This will avoid serious back-tracking which could delay the project.

4) Your programmer doesn’t ask questions

A company looking to develop a project will always have specific objectives in mind. If your developer doesn’t spend time asking you questions, trying to understand them, then you will encounter problems down the road. How can you develop an amazing app that will accomplish your goals, if your developer doesn’t understand what your aiming for and develops like a robot? If your app is targeting a specific audience or needs to working using specific functionality, then your developer needs to know. Furthermore, your developer needs to inquire about the functionality of your app in order to know how to develop it in a way that will suit your needs.

5) OutSourcing a Project without having your own project manager

When outsourcing a project it is always important to have a focal point within your company. Someone that has technical knowledge that can guide or assist with any problems that occur along the way. Some of our clients previously worked with firms that gave them extremely low prices and illogical time lines which caused delays, lots or problems and finally received a terrible final product. Someone involved in the project that had technical knowledge would have been able to steer them in the right direction and coordinate better with the third-party development firm. Even if you don’t have an employee that is tech oriented, make sure that the company you are hiring has vast experience in project management and not just in development.