In 2016, Deloitte published a study according to which 31% of all IT tasks are performed by external specialists. Managers use outsourcing for short-term projects if you need a simple site or application.

When there is a trusted contractor and technical expert for monitoring, like Vironit software development company Vironit software development company , everything is clear: we paint the task and pay the bill. Problems arise with an unfamiliar company, because the quality of an outsourced project always rests on parole.

There are three troubles with outsourcing in IT: deception, ineffective technical assignment and unwillingness to communicate.

Deception by the developer . Young companies are rarely honest with the client. They need to maintain cash flow in order to pay salaries, and for this sometimes you have to lie about skills or promise to comply with an unrealistic deadline. Outsourcing is easier to trick the client, because he does not see the internal processes, he can be “fed breakfast” and report unforeseen problems.

Sometimes customers are tricked by trusted companies. If the contractor has few orders, and you pay for the time actually spent, it can specially delay the development. Catch non-existent bugs, change the interface - anything, if only the check came out a little more.

Strict terms of reference without an expert on the customer side . It happens that the client does not have enough knowledge to formulate the right requirements, and it does not make sense for the outsourcer to change something - it is easier to do as it is written.

Outsourcing developers do not think about the future of the project, but they are not out of harmony approaching tasks mechanically. Small IT companies live off the flow of customers - contractors cannot stay on one project longer than agreed at the beginning. Strict terms of reference are appropriate when the customer has a technical expert with free time and understanding of how the final product looks. In other cases, it is better to give developers more freedom.

Customers do not want to talk about the project. Often questions from the developer are perceived as a sign of unprofessionalism. In fact, it is the good developer who will get the questions and the bad one will shrug and do what they pay for, even if it is ineffective.

Outsourcing a project is more difficult than adding hours to your team. New specialists come to work, you need to bring them up to date. If you do not reveal all the cards and do not explain in detail the difficulties, the result will be a solution that works poorly, but made on a technical task. This is due to perception errors. The customer thinks that he is buying the finished product, and in fact the IT company is selling developers time. Whether the product will turn out from time depends on how the team understood the task.

Usually, developers oppose outsourcing and product approach. In fact, outsourcing and product approach are things from different categories, they can not be compared. Outsourcing is the way companies work together, and the product approach is the principles by which the project lives.

Here's how we combined outsourcing and product development:

The development company affects the requirements for the product, the work goes in conjunction "development - marketing - analytics."Customer representatives are involved in the project 50% of the working time.The developer is involved in decision making.

If the contractor can influence the project, he does not perceive it as items from the terms of reference. The team develops the product: conducts research, searches for the best solutions and offers them to the customer.

The product approach requires more specialists than for the design work. But you can save by buying the team sprints for weeks. Each call - with a new composition, only the necessary specialists. The work is divided into stages, according to the results of each, the next step is planned. This saves money: the customer does not overpay for specialists who are not needed at a particular stage. The only employee that is always needed is a product manager.

The product manager represents the customer side. He feels the essence of the product and can build the path that the prototype will follow. Such a specialist may be on the staff of the company, or may work on the side of the developer.

Outsourcing with a product approach often becomes a test site for a project. Hypotheses are checked outsourced - this is cheaper than building an inhouse team in an office. It happens that after testing hypotheses, it is more convenient for the client to work with the house-team. In such cases, we help find specialists, transfer responsibility for the development of the product to them, and go to support ourselves.

To manage the project, representatives of the customer should have enough time. Once, for a large accounting firm, we developed a system through which customers set tasks for employees. From the customer side, the project was managed by the head of the key department - he pulled with feedback when we passed the stages of work. As a result, the system was launched, but twice exceeding the target period. This could easily have been avoided if the manager had allocated more time for the project, carefully assessed the results, and corrected the development direction in time.

At first glance, it is difficult to distinguish a project team from a product team. But you will immediately understand who is who, when the negotiations begin.

The product approach does not cancel outsourced design work. If you know how to make the right product and there are technical experts at your side, you can get by with the services of the project team. In this case, you just buy extra hands that do the work according to your plan.

Inhouse development - creating a team from scratch or buying a finished product team. Long, expensive and fraught with problems - what to do with new developers when the project is over? Good managers, developers and marketers are in short supply. Keep in mind that employees have to wait up to three to four months.

Outstaff development - you hire specialists from another company. This differs from outsourcing in that the specialists are directly in your submission and will do what you say. For normal work on outstaff, the customer will need a powerful technical expertise.