A Practical Guide to Finding and Working with Agile Offshore Development Teams

Introduction

The hiring of agile Offshore Software Company is becoming increasingly popular nowadays. This approach requires a handful of product engineers in some faraway land to construct a robust product based on your requirements.

It helps businesses deliver high-quality products and reduce their budget and time to launch the product in the market.

Although agile frameworks are commonly used for in-house development, they are not as widely adopted as they could be. This is because agile software models require strong collaborations among the development teams.

As Agile projects require extensive coordination in each project, many companies need help finding it possible to work with agile offshore development services or build an agile development team in a different geographical location.

Gladly, if you prepare correctly, you can work effectively with an experienced agile offshore development team and come up with innovative and high-impact solutions.

As a result of COVID-19, IT services spending will reach around 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2022, representing an increase of 11.2 per cent over 2020. Additionally, it impacted IT-outsourcing market revenues, which are expected to reach 413.7 billion U.S. dollars by 2022.

In this blog, we will discuss how to work effectively with an agile offshore software development company and its benefits.

Let’s get started!!!!!!!!!

Introduction to Agile

A quick and dramatic rise in productivity and innovation has resulted from agile’s popularity. Furthermore, it is the practice of splitting large projects into smaller projects called iterations.

Additionally, it helps the development team to access the project workflows and provides satisfaction to clients through continuous product delivery.

The most common methodology and framework that incorporates agile philosophy is Scrum, chosen by 84% of agile offshore development teams.

On average, there are 7 members in the scrum team. Furthermore, the scrum team includes a Scrum Master, Software Developers and a Product Owner. Additionally, Scrum is an excellent method for offshore development to build software as it does not require subordinate teams or hierarchies.

This allows the team to plan out their activities in advance, offering more flexibility to all participants.

Benefits Of Agile Software Development

Let’s explore the benefits of agile software development:

1. Faster product launch

In Agile, the project is divided into smaller iterations, which greatly increases the time-to-market. Furthermore, you can launch your MVP at the end of each iteration or begin building a user base after iterating.

2. Flexible Process

This agile development methodology is based on adapting to changes. It adapts quickly to changing market trends and dynamic user requirements. Furthermore, Agile can embrace mid-project ideas to improve quality and relevancy.

3. Cost Control

Agile demands that you pay only for the services you need. In this way, the client can opt to omit features halfway through the development process if he realizes the features he initially requested are no longer relevant. By doing so, they can launch the product more quickly and at a reduced cost.

4. Risk Management

Agile allows stakeholders and users to use and test the product at the earliest possible stage. By identifying any pitfalls during the development process and taking action accordingly, one can avoid them in the future.

5. Quality

Every stage of the agile methodology is subjected to rigorous testing. In addition to ensuring superior product quality, this process reduces the time spent evaluating the product.

Read more: A Complete Guide On Hiring Offshore Development Teams In 2024

An Overview Of Agile Development And Offshoring

You should move on to the next stage once you get a clear understanding of your project’s concept, purpose, and idea. Onshore, offshore, and nearshore agile software development teams can be chosen based on the type of project.

By hiring a team based in your region, you ensure that they have a similar culture and language to yours. Hiring a development team in a nearby country is referred to as nearshoring.

Last but not least, outsourcing means hiring software developers from abroad. Organizations are increasingly leaning towards employing an offshore software development team.

6 Effective Steps To Work With Agile Offshore Development Teams

Often, outsourcing offshore agile development to geographically dispersed teams creates more complexity that hampers communication and collaboration between the teams. Below we have highlighted a few agile Outsourcing and offshoring practices that help businesses to simplify product development.

1. Determine the project scope

Before collaborating with the offshore agile development team, it’s essential to establish a scope of work document. Furthermore, this document outlines the project goals, tasks and timeline and expected outcomes clearly and concisely.

Based on the SOW, the entire software project is divided into smaller tasks. Each task is called an iteration and each task must be completed within a specific timeframe or deadlines. Furthermore, the client and development team can take this document for reference purposes.

Overall, it helps all the team members to execute the development workflows in an organized way and even prioritize the changes based on customer feedback and other factors.

2. Create a product roadmap to execute the work efficiently

Once you created the SOW document, the next step is to split each task into specific time intervals to prepare product strategies and a roadmap.

Furthermore, this roadmap provides a complete list of all requirements needed to construct an application.

Also, a product roadmap provides a clear understanding of the development approach of all the members of the agile offshore development team.

Additionally, this SOW document is flexible and can be modified throughout the development cycle based on user feedback and requirements etc.

3. Ensure effective communication among team members

Regular and effective communication is the prime reason that contributes to the success of the agile development approach. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct regular meetings to improve communication among team members when working with agile offshore development teams.

Below we highlighted some most common meetings, including:

Planning and review meetings for Sprints: These meetings aim to assess the project’s progress and compare it to the Sprint goal set during the planning stage. Furthermore, the team prepares for the upcoming Sprint, and any pending tasks from the Sprint backlog are discussed.

• Release planning meetings: The development team creates the release plan. It includes complete information to take the project from one point to another. Additionally, it highlights all the potential risks and ways to deal with them.
• Regular stand-up meetings: In this, team members held 15-20 minutes calls every day. Here, the team discusses the specific work plan for that particular day.
• Retrospective meetings: Such meetings allow team members to discuss their working culture and recommend any changes or improvements if required.
• All the team members can use various platforms such as Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, and even WhatsApp to conduct the meetings.

4. Conduct regular demos

This is a best practice to improve communication while working with an offshore development company. In addition, a demo is fundamentally an example of a final product that has been achieved after a series of iterations.

Furthermore, it enables clients to view the product performance so far and helps them to give feedback and suggestions based on the performance.

In this demo, the team looks back at the last iteration, pinpoints the positive and negative points, and develops smart solutions.

Overall, this approach involves solid and effective collaboration among the team members to get positive outcomes.

5. Use collaboration tools and technologies

Leveraging collaboration tools and technologies is crucial when working with agile offshore development teams.

Furthermore, agile teams can use various collaboration tools to simplify their work processes and maintain accessible communication among team members.

Collaborative tools cannot fully replace the idea of sitting and working together in the same place, but they definitely boost teamwork. A few examples of collaboration tools include Wikis, Trello, JIRA, and Slack.

6. Stick to common agile standards

Generally, the agile software development approach uses some common practices. Furthermore, these include continuous integration, certain coding criteria, and smart bug tracking and design patterns.

It is crucial to follow these development practices when managing agile offshore development teams.

Additionally, remember to use a source code service for smooth communication and collaboration between the internal and offshore team members.

By utilizing a source code service properly, one can discover project vulnerabilities, and design flaws, and even verify crucial security controls.

Benefits Of Partnering With An Agile Offshore Development Teams

Let’s explore the benefits in detail:

1. A vast pool of adept developers

By working with agile offshore development teams, you get unlimited access to a huge pool of proficient developers who are updated with the latest technologies and market needs.

Additionally, the experts bring a great deal of understanding and expertise to your project, ensuring a high-quality outcome. By working with them, you can be ensured that your work is in good hands.

2. Reduced operational costs

Working with an internal agile team leads to high operational costs. Also, you need to spend on a proper working setup, employee benefits, hardware costs, insurance etc.

Partnering with an offshore team, you have to pay for development costs without any additional or hidden expenses.

3. Time to concentrate on core business activities

This is one of the significant benefits of working with an agile offshore development team.

Furthermore, businesses can focus more on their core activities without stressing about product development.

Additionally, you can hand over the work responsibilities to the project manager and put more focus on improving project strategies.

4. Time-efficient

A project’s effectiveness is often decreased if it takes too long. By collaborating with an offshore team, you can get a proficient team to deliver top-notch quality within shorter deadlines.

Additionally, they provide fast response and quick project completion by delivering continuously and adjusting to the project timeline. This accelerates the project development process.

5. Scalability and flexibility

The agile offshore team can easily adjust its size to meet the project’s needs. Furthermore, they can adapt to changes quickly, ensuring efficient collaboration and timely delivery of work.

6. Cultural diversity and innovation

Cultural diversity means having team members from different backgrounds and perspectives, which can lead to creative problem-solving and fresh ideas.

A flexible offshore development team can also generate innovative solutions thanks to the combination of cultural backgrounds that would have been impossible for an in-house team.

Overall, it enhances the project experience and the team’s ability to adapt effectively to dynamic challenges.

7. 24/7 development and support

Agile software development outsourcing offers the benefits of working around the clock. With team members located in different time zone, they can work 24/7.

Furthermore, development tasks progress continuously resulting in faster completion of the project. Moreover, they provide support at all times, ensuring that any issues or questions are resolved immediately.

This constant availability helps meet deadlines, increases productivity and delivers better customer satisfaction.

Tips For Managing Your Offshore Agile Software Development Team

Below, we highlighted a few tips, let’s check out:

1. Make the most of the time difference

Dealing with the time difference is a common challenge when working with offshore development teams· Furthermore, it can cause communication delays and difficulties in coordinating tasks·

It is crucial to prepare work strategies to handle these problems. These include coordinating overlapping working hours to enable real-time communication and utilising asynchronous communication tools for flexible collaboration, setting clear expectations for response time and deadlines, fostering a culture of flexibility and implementing open and transparent communication to address any possible difficulties.

By employing these strategies, the impact of time difference can be mitigated and teamwork can be enhanced·

2. Keep updated with the latest tools and Practices

A smooth agile process depends on continuous integration and unit testing after each phase. Therefore, it is important to use efficient tools to ensure smooth communication among involved teams.

Organise an expert demonstration if you are introducing any new tools to your team. As a result, you will be able to ensure a smooth onboarding process without any hassles in the future.

3. Build strong bonds and trust among team members

The offshore team members will rarely feel inspired and motivated to deliver their best if they are only given the responsibility to code up. Furthermore, make them feel like they are part of the project to improve their engagement and contribution. Help them understand the business context and make them feel like a partner.

4. Apply Consistency across the Entire Business

Having agile offshore teams located in different regions can be helpful when your business expands. Furthermore, it is crucial to maintain consistency across all channels.

To ensure consistency, make sure each team follows the same processes and guidelines. By creating a standard roadmap and implementing it throughout the company, you will avoid roadblocks.

5. Conduct regular reviews and retrospective

Regularly reviewing and reflecting on the work done is important when collaborating with agile offshore development teams. Furthermore, these reviews help us identify areas for improvement, track progress, and adjust accordingly.
By conducting these reviews and retrospectives, we can ensure that the team is on track, communication is effective, and the project is progressing smoothly. Overall, it’s a way to continuously learn and enhance our collaboration, making sure everyone understands and contributes to the project’s success.

Partnering Up With The Best Agile Offshore Development Teams

Bigscal is your best agile offshore development center because of our affordable cost, time management efficiency, and growth opportunities. Since we specialize in solving difficult tasks, no time will be wasted on recruitment and training.

Additionally, we provide a time-efficient and cost-effective solution. As for the quality of deliverables, Bigscal confirms that it will provide you with exceptional services with no hassle. Through our modern strategic consulting and technological maintenance, you can eliminate risks and accelerate output.

Conclusion

It is often possible for distributed development teams to perform as well or even better than colocated teams. Offshore teams can benefit from agile practices in terms of efficiency. Despite geographic differences, offshore development teams can benefit from the best agile practices for high performance and trustful partnerships. Using the above tips will help you narrow down your potential partners and make the best decision.

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