5 Important Questions to Ask a Potential Offshore Development Vendor

Offshore software development industry is growing by leaps and bounds, and the real challenge for business owners is to find the right vendor who meets their goals and  expectations.

This article explores the 5 pivotal questions that a business must ask a prospective offshore development company before sealing the deal.

1. What is the size and composition of your dedicated development team?

A proactive and skilled development team will be the cornerstone of your project. So, enquire about the number of developers, their skill-sets, technical and industry experience, etc. 

The vendor must allow you to interview, hire and manage your remote team. Also, they must offer you the flexibility to scale your team according to your changing project requirements.

2. What all strategies do you adopt for effective communication and project management?

Ask your prospective vendor about the communication channels and remote project collaboration tools they have in place that will help mitigate the challenges of time-zone differences and cultural barriers. 

Phone calls, emails and videoconferencing are all okay, but for getting a 360-degree overview of product development, they must follow best practices like Scrum and use project management tools like Jira, Trello, etc.

3. Can you tell us about your product development approach?

An efficient offshore vendor should be able to answer this question with elan. They must walk you through the process; right from requirement gathering to the product launch and maintenance.

Assess their workflow strategy; it has to be devoid of any pitfalls. Practices like Agile and Continuous Deployment can improve transparency and add maximum value to your products.

4. After product development, who owns the code? 

Access to product code is really important. One of the mistakes committed by businesses is to hire vendors who don’t have a software documentation policy.

A good offshore vendor will assure you of documentation transfer to your business’ name once the project is completed. Also, they will offer a warranty period for product maintenance and support.

5. How much would you charge for building my product?

Last but not the least, the clićhed, yet relevant question – the cost of product development. Is it fixed or variable pricing? Are there any recruitment, administrative or infrastructure fees?

A reliable offshore vendor should provide you with a rough quote and ideally, should charge you only for utilizing the services of its developers.

Conclusion

These crucial questions will definitely help you evaluate a potential offshore vendor before signing on the dotted line. Thus, through qualitative assessment, you can choose the right offshore software development company and build world-class products.