Do you think it’s challenging to manage an offshore development team in 2022? Given the current technological advancements, communication methods, robust training, & the efficiency to convey your firm’s expectations, are you still leaving some crucial points as a significant part of the process? Owing to such careful management, this blog will ensure that you do not miss out on any significant steps while making sure that your team generates high-quality software solutions.
Besides, what does it actually mean to effectively manage your offshore development team? Does it involve micromanagement at each step of the process? Or is it about making sure that you & your offshore team coordinate properly at each step? On top of that, what’s most relevant is the fulfillment of business requirements by ensuring maximum productivity. So, as your partner, your proactive offshore team will make sure that this collaboration generates desired results.
There’s also no doubt about how low-quality communication can bring in differences within the team. The overlapping schedules & different working approaches can take a back foot relating to the scope of growth & improvement at a given period. Yet, if you choose the right location to seek offshore services, you’ll save yourself from all these troubles. And, your offshore partner will take one step ahead by positioning themselves as a dedicated team of full-time colleagues.
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Hiring Offshore Development Team: What Goes Behind?
There’s a lot more that goes behind to assure that there’s maximum productivity while responding to the businesses’ market demands. From hiring on your behalf to making certain that everything is taken care of on a day-to-day basis involves planning at each step. And this extensive planning is calculative when it comes to the management of highly-skilled professionals along with their assigned tasks & the expected output.
At the same time, it’s also salient that your team must be aware of every detail regarding the projects to add value to the overall development. Missing out on little details can also create a state of confusion at later stages of toil. This also means that you’re expected to brainstorm with your team. Once you’ve decided upon your offshore partner, communicate well with your team. Tell them about your business goals & the steps required to be taken to meet the deadlines in time.
Hiring On Your Behalf
So, when a firm contacts an offshore development company based in another country, your offshore partner will assess your business needs as a first step. After deep analysis, the hiring process is begun keeping into consideration businesses' hard & soft skills requirements. Whereas, the hard skills majorly constitute the technical competency of a prospect. On the other hand, soft skills include the alignment of the engineer’s attributes with the company’s working culture.
Both of these aspects are very closely related to getting the right person on your team! Well, Indian engineers, in this case, are quite familiar with the working style of western countries. This creates leverage for countries wishing to capitalize in India in the form of offshore services.
Cultural & Organizational Sync
It may seem like cultural differences or unlike working patterns doesn’t matter at the end of the day, but it does. Your future team must have a complete understanding of your organization’s culture. It must be synced with the business goal, its vision, & long-term strategy to bridge the gap of cultural differences.
However, your offshore team will just be like your local team. The new engineers that will now be part of your team must be able to communicate clearly without any language barriers. Needless to say, the Indian engineers are transformed in such a manner that not only makes them communicative but also qualified to handle work with expertise.
Handling Daily Operations
Your offshore team must have the ability to handle daily operations without the need of being micromanaged. At each stage of project development, it's important to plan things in advance. This also calls for detailed analysis within the offshore team. Well, in fact, no one likes to be micromanaged at each phase of their job responsibilities. This not only hampers your relationship with your team but also makes them feel irresponsible or less trusted.
Having understood the offshore development working processes in detail, it’s important to create a balance between work flexibility and the responsibility to meet the deadlines in time. By showing little trust, you can seek relatively 50% more productivity.
Tracking Results
To enhance the workflow of the processes, it’s important to focus on the results time-to-time. Recurring evaluation will generate feedbacks that can be implemented before it’s too late! Additionally, it’s a great option to review performance to change the strategy & plan, if required.
If the job expectations are clearly stated in advance, it becomes easy to track results. It also leads to communicating feedback for much faster & better growth. As a result, your offshore team will assure that the feedback is taken while implementing the necessary changes.
Steps To Manage Your Offshore Development Team
There are some steps to manage your offshore development team. All these steps can influence the current working pattern of the company by not only ensuring effective communication but solving the most common offshore issues. For sure, it will create a difference in terms of better results & utilizing the skills at their best.
Define Your Goals & Expectations
Your offshore development team has the right to know about your business goals & project expectations. For this purpose, it is very crucial to set up a flow of communication that directs these conversations easily. If your team clearly knows about the product, it will automatically provide a space to make flexible decisions & remodel it, if required.
Additionally, it’s a great option to create a blueprint or a plan in advance to discuss modifications. Your team will see the bigger perspective in terms of vision & the expected results. If they are not part of your 10 or 15-year plan ahead, they won’t be able to drive right through it.
Get An In-House IT Specialist For Technical Balance
You & your lawyer must be present throughout the negotiation process assuring that everything goes right & within the government regulations. Beyond that, to respond well via explaining your business demands & requirements related to the software development, you must include an IT professional in your team.
As a result, the IT professional will help you create seamless communication. The person shall answer your team’s questions too! Because it’s always great to ask & answer questions by leaving no scope of confusion at later stages. The IT expert at the meeting must be fully qualified to understand & respond to technical responsibilities. The specialist will be also responsible to create a technical balance amongst the teams, in case of any unforeseen challenges. Not only this, but as an expert, the individual shall also be liable to look after the project & direct the team, if required.
Refrain From Micromanaging
Nobody likes to be micromanaged or monitored at each step. That’s because it creates an environment of lack of faith & a sense of negativity. This might also impact your team’s performance or it can lead to changing jobs eventually. In short, it’s very important to show faith in your team & trust their work processes leaving no scope for any doubts or judgment.
You can always track your team’s performance periodically. This is a means to review work & make your projects better without much loss of resources. Your offshore development team must have the freedom to make their own decisions & if so, this will improve their performance.
Set-up A Free Flow Of Communication
Needless to say, communication is the key to the success of any project. However, if you’re willing to treat your offshore team like your permanent colleagues, communication will help you cross the bridge safely. For this purpose, you can also conduct periodic meetings with your team. You can plan the processes in advance.
Well, at the beginning of the collaboration, you must be prepared to ask & answer a lot of queries. This will also include questions related to the prospect’s attributes, qualifications, knowledge, and others. Not only this will help you develop a sense of satisfaction before making your final decision but will also establish trust within the team. It’s great if this is maintained throughout to encounter challenges & keep up with the transparency.
Staying Ahead Of Time-Differences
As per the Indian standard time, your offshore team will always stay ahead of you. The differences in time zones will surely emerge but some can associate it with an advantage and others with a drawback. By staying ahead in time with countries like the USA, it’s always a great opportunity to create time-difference leverage for businesses. And that's why you need an offshore team with you.
What’s logical is to create a schedule in advance to avoid overlapping time differences. This will allow you to establish seamless communication with better results! Needless to say, what goes behind the communication? - the work processes. In case of a query or disruption in the process, your offshore team will always come up with solutions. In this case, even before your businesses’ next working day.
Get Along With Your Offshore Team
The real meaning to effectively manage your offshore team is to get along with your offshore team! Treat your team as your permanent colleagues & build trust at each step. Your offshore team will never hesitate to go an extra mile for you if trusted with the project.
The top-notch solution to seeking the best offshore development services is by recognizing your team’s efforts. With your periodic feedback in hand, your team will implement these changes by adding their expertise to a profitable extent.
Offshore Development Team: An Opportunity To Scale Up!
By going offshore, you’re already on the verge of scaling up your business. In general, the practice of going offshore is always related to the idea of scaling up. For that, you surely need a lot of planning & analysis of what’s best for your business. Here’s our little contribution to make that happen - Offshore Guide 101: Via Indian Software Development Companies.
The Upcoming Silicon Valleys of India will never disappoint you in terms of an opportunity to scale up at the right time. Acknowledging the cost, talent, knowledge, & cultural competency, the country has a lot to offer you. Especially The Pune - Popularly known as the IT Parks & The Next Silicon Valley of India. With robust IT infrastructure & highly-skilled engineers ready to collaborate with you, get ready to scale up your business.
Takeaway
After reading this blog, you'll be in a position to manage your offshore team effectively. There are various benefits of having an offshore team of developers by your side, but if managed rightly, your efforts will be multiplied in the form of outcomes. This will help you resolve the most common offshore problems that you may encounter on a day-to-day basis.