How to combine efforts of both inhouse developers and offshore dedicated team successfully?

The article is a part of Code Inspiration’s software development outsourcing Knowledge Base.


The market of IT outsourcing has never stopped growing. Needless to say, good developers are highly wanted in many countries. In EU countries, there is a possibility to get a Blue Card to work and live in any EU country if you are a developer with more than 5 years of experience. There is also a great number of platforms connecting people with freelance developers from all over the world or with outsourcing companies.

Some even very big companies decide to outsource all their development to a software development company overseas. Like well-known travel company which announced its bankruptcy before Covid Thomas Cook Group outsourced all their development and had a team of more than 200 professionals in Ukraine and Belarus.

However, a major part of companies is using a so-called combination of in-house developers and off-shore dedicated teams.

Why companies outsource software development?

First of all, any company wants to cut down the risks of “putting all eggs in one basket”. Also, many product owners prefer to develop backуnd in-house and to outsource front-end to protect the data. Finally, in some countries there is lack of IOS mobile professionals or Java backend engineers, for example. And the only key to success is to combine in-house engineers with professional developers from another country(s). More about reasons to outsource software development.

Managing cross-cultural teams for the past 5 years I would say there are some typical issues which might arise.

Inhouse developers and offshore dedicated team, typical issues

Language misunderstanding

Speaking one same English people express themselves in different ways from culture to culture. In Eastern Europe people express their negative feedback straightforwardly and when they are willing to say that something is extremely important for them, most likely they will start with the phrase like “you MUST provide me with… “. For a representative of practically any country, be it American, Arabic or Chinese colleague this will sound absolutely rude. At the same time working with US market we used to have very often cases when sending a message that the work is complete we received and answer – awesome, thank you. For us it meant the work is checked and it looks awesome. Needless to say that we were surprised when in two days we got a list of things to fix :).

Time zones and time management

Outsourcing part of your development you should think well about the country of outsourcing. You should also make sure there is an overlap of at least 3 hours each day for the team to get in touch with their colleagues from abroad.

Hierarchy

Make sure you explain in the very beginning who is responsible and for what. While in many companies there is a collective way of taking decisions, with cross-cultural teams it may not work sometimes. Very often I get questions from our developers, whom should I report to if I have an issue? In our culture, if the developer doesn’t agree with the decision of his higher-level colleague, he will very rarely announce that there is a better solution in his head. So make it clear to all team participants they are welcome to speak. It is extremely important to explain to the team that you value all of them and willing everyone to speak and to be heard.

Procedures

If the team is big – it is really a great idea to have a protocol of procedures in a written form. If the team is little – it is usually announced orally. It is always good to share plans of the company, schedules of releases and perform daily meetings. This way everyone feels like a valuable team member.

Collecting feedback

The last but very important point which helps team members to grow in their professionalism. It is important to say “You did a great job” to a person who actually did. What’s more, it is important to explain why the job could have been done better to your teammate if it was. Together with my college Artur Prokopchik we’ve carried out a deep research on this topic which aggregated results were published on the Forbes Business Development Council. Have a look at the full Negative feedback culture research containing 100+ responses from business professionals all over the world. Check it out to find more details on approaches and differences from culture to culture, from country to country.

Final thoughts

Practice shows that patiently formed in-house development teams adjusted with off-shore professionals result in great work, lots of fun and innovative projects. I am a lucky person to monitor how products of Code Inspiration’s clients and friends are getting more users, features and investments.


The article is a part of Code Inspiration’s software development outsourcing Knowledge Base.