It is a common mistake when companies underestimate the role of SQA in outsourcing software development. A lot of companies still practice a false concept of inviting software quality assurance teams either in the middle of their project or at the end of it. Testing your projects from the beginning is incredibly essential not only the SQA team, but also for your client, and the third party. If testing and bug fixing team is involved in outsourcing software development process right from the start, then you are not only taking a proactive approach but also ensuring that your software product comes out clean. It is obvious that quality assurance is an integral part of any web development or software development process. The quicker you start looking for bugs, errors, and crashes, the quicker you will be able to deliver a good high-quality software product.

Treating time difference as your enemy

When it comes to outsourcing software development there’s often a bigger or smaller time difference. This point should be considered when communicating with each other. The most common mistake is treating this time difference as a barrier instead of an advantage. We also should remember to respect each other’s time.

Here are some tips that may help in communication with outsourcing software provider:

- Treat time difference as an advantage. There’s a lot of positives sides in outsourcing software development. Time difference gives you an ability to focus on other tasks instead of being forcefully involved in a project more than you want to.

- Find out at what time of the day both companies are working, so that you will be able at to plan the work in advance. Smart planning is an effect of SCRUM methodology not outsourcing. It’s simply more effective.

- Respect each other’s cultural differences and discuss them with your vendor. When managing outsourced software development, we need to remember that a team from other country/culture can have different national or religious holidays that are not working days. Therefore, you cannot expect from the other side to be available and ready to work on such day. Let’s respect other cultures and plan the workflow beforehand.

Treating vendors like workers instead of team members

Such opinion is unfortunately very common and makes cooperation very difficult on both sides. Vendors’ responsibility is to develop the best product possible, but it won’t happen unless you cooperate with them as equals. Of course, there are still different roles within the team and people who manage the whole project. However, creating a team as a one company is a lot more beneficial for reaching success on the project.

How to get to know your team?

If possible, meet with the team face to face before the project start. It helps in building more friendly and open relations. In case that’s not possible, we recommend making a video conference to quickly introduce everyone and meet the rest of the team. You can follow the company’s social media to get to know their values and corporate identity. Also, keep in mind that they also might have some other responsibilities outside of the project. Even though, the project is important and needs to be developed according with the plan, sometimes they can’t answer right away or are at a meeting. Therefore, it is necessary to remember about respect to each other and understanding from both sides.

Here comes the conclusion - outsourcing software development is about expecting the unexpected. Make research and expect anything that can happen during outsourcing software development process. Try to analyze these five outsourcing software development mistakes that companies are likely to make, and you will see how everything is wrapped around the fact that people are not expecting surprises. Therefore, communication is extremely important and creating a perfect bridge between all parties should be an effort from all the sides that are involved in the project. Make sure that all parties have clear expectations and whatever discussions need to happen, it should immediately take place.