3 Common Mistakes to Avoid While You Outsource Software Development

Today many companies are utilizing an array of outsourced IT services and it is increasing more than ever. This is because of the obvious benefits it brings such as cost-savings, enhanced organizational and financial flexibility and more time to focus on your core competencies.

Despite being a proven strategy for success, there could be pitfalls in outsourcing if you do not exercise caution and avoid these following mistakes:

1) Failing to ask the right questions

To make your outsourcing a profitable investment start asking questions upfront. First of all ask yourself, what are you expecting from this partnership? Then define your requirement that you want the software to fulfill prior to evaluating any outsourcing software development company. Make a list of questions and do not forget to include the following:

• What measures do you take to safeguard data?
• How do you handle intellectual property rights?
• What measures have you in place for handling incident management or disaster recovery?

This list is not exhaustive but you really need to find out anything and everything about your vendor right from their technical expertise to client testimonials.

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2) Entrusting Software Architecture

Architectural decisions are of paramount importance as it can make or break a business. While good decisions can enable you to gain competitive advantages in tough markets, bad decisions can make your software development program to stagger down the line. As a result, letting your outsourced software development specialists could be the biggest mistake.

However, professional software vendors have experienced architects and by making a senior architect from your company to collaborate with them you can come up with an ideal decision.

3) Delegating Your UI and UX

The development team of your software provider may be technically proficient but when it comes to your target audience you need to handle the reigns. If you do not own the UI and UX decisions then it is another blunder that will cost you heavily down the road. Take note of the following:

• UI design noticeably varies across region and culture. So, unless and until the dedicated project manager of your outsourcing company is well versed with your culture, entrusting them with UI design could be a risky affair and expensive to rework.
• Imagine you end up with a product that no one really wants to use! Horrible, isn’t? Therefore, it is recommended to conduct UX research so that you can back up your design with data.

Conclusion

We have outlined here these three mistakes which you must avoid to get maximum return out of your outsourcing investment. Would you like to include any more points to this? Your suggestions can be helpful, so don’t forget to leave your comments.