The ability to scale outsourced software development teams is essential for CEOs looking to drive business growth further and achieve success. By utilizing external team or third-party team expansion, CEOs and their companies gain access to the global talent pool, specialized skills, and more cost-effective solutions when compared to in-house hiring. This allows for more innovation with fresh perspectives, more cost-effective solutions, and increased productivity in a range of business processes.
Scaling an outsourced team, whether up or down, comes with unique challenges that CEOs, leadership, and project managers on both teams must coordinate. This requires intense communication and collaboration with everyone involved. Critical aspects, like cultural and time zone differences, as well as communication, require attention.
Despite the challenges associated with scaling outsourcing teams, companies and software development outsourcing providers working together help make the process a streamlined and effective one.
Understanding Team Scaling in Software Outsourcing
Team scaling is an important aspect of IT outsourcing that hiring companies must educate themselves on in order to do so effectively and achieve sustainable growth. This includes understanding not only the common challenges but also why scaling matters.
Why Scaling Matters
When companies outsource, access to a larger talent pool is one of the main benefits of the partnership—and scalability comes with that advantage. This helps teams handle increases in workloads and allows them to take on more projects. For projects with more complex tasks than anticipated, scaling is also essential for bringing in more specialized skills and expertise to handle certain aspects of the project. Changing requirements also call for scaling.
Scaling teams has a major impact on meeting project expectations and sometimes even determines project success. By scaling effectively, companies meet deadlines more reliably without compromising on quality to deliver results. This enables a faster time to market as well. This process also helps companies optimize costs when needed—they can scale teams down if business slows, for example.
Scaling Outsourcing Teams: Common Challenges
Scaling outsourcing teams sometimes proves a bit more challenging than companies expect. It’s possible, for instance, that companies struggle with communication, team management, and quality issues. Communication gaps typically occur due to new team members not fully understanding existing processes and procedures. This calls for a reimplementation of the designated clear communication channels, regular updates, and the use of effective collaboration tools.
Leaders must make sure that the most effective team management is also in place for both the outsourced and in-house teams by establishing clear roles, responsibilities, and expectations while supporting a positive team culture. To maintain quality, teams must enforce strict and thorough quality assurance processes.
By prioritizing communication as the top priority, investing in helpful project management tools, and welcoming new team members with all of the help they require to get started, companies better set themselves up for success with the scaled team—and give themselves the opportunity to focus on their core business.
Strategies for Effective Team Scaling
There are a few methods and strategies companies should consider implementing before scaling their outsourced teams to help make the transition as smooth as possible.
Aligning Business Goals and Project Requirements
It’s crucial that business goals and project requirements align when scaling outsourced teams. This helps ensure that the efforts of the process remain coordinated with the company’s objectives to maximize the team’s success. Businesses then see better project outcomes, improved overall ROI of the arrangement, and increased efficiency levels.
It’s essential that the companies revisit project requirements and expectations when bringing on new members to the team while also assessing their relevance in the current business landscape. This allows the newly added team members to understand what they’re now involved in. Business goals associated with the project require periodic evaluations and adjustments as well.
Effective Communication and Collaboration
Effective collaboration practices and communication methods are some of the most critical aspects of successfully scaling a team. By creating clear and open communication lines across both the in-house and outsourced teams, companies help foster a work culture of understanding, alignment, and more efficient working relationships to enhance teamwork.
To establish these channels, companies should sit down with their outsourcing provider to determine everyone’s preferred and most useful communication methods. This should include email, direct or instant messaging, video conferencing, and project management tools. Team leaders should then take it a step further by creating opportunities for regular communication via scheduled meetings, progress updates, and status reports. This helps everyone, including stakeholders and new team members, stay on the same page by maintaining transparency.
Newly added team members should have clear communication guidelines, such as escalation procedures and expectations in regard to response time. Project managers and team leaders should also schedule regular check-ins, both formal and informal, to make sure they’re handling their new workloads well and don’t have any questions or concerns.
Collaboration tools like project management software prove especially helpful when bringing in new team members to existing relationships as they give them access to shared document repositories, timelines and benchmarks, and status updates.
Hiring and Onboarding New Team Members
The success of an outsourcing relationship relies on the skills, experience, and cultural fits of the team members. Hiring the right talent and effectively onboarding them is definitely a significant part of this process. When hiring these new team members, the hiring company and the offshore IT software development company must work together to conduct thorough interviews and technical skills assessments to ensure those under consideration are actually a good match for the job.
Just like hiring for a permanent in-house position, decision-makers should also evaluate their past projects and seek references, if possible, to decide if they’ll be the right fit for the job. In most cases, the outsourcing provider will suggest certain professionals to consider for the scaled-up teams. Once team leaders decide which talent is the right fit to join the projects, they must ensure seamless onboarding for everyone by providing clear expectations, goals, and context to help set the new employees up for success.
Adapting Processes and Infrastructure
Teams who want to scale efficiently and productively know they might have to adapt their processes and infrastructure a bit. Workflows commonly require adjusting to accommodate the now larger size of the team while work distribution may need some tweaking. This may also include adopting new tools and technologies to help better streamline communication and project management across the larger team.
It’s important that companies proactively act to ensure that the new team members have access to documentation, resources, and training on day one to kick things off on the right foot. Embracing an agile development methodology also helps foster a culture of continuous improvement across teams as well.
Monitoring and Evaluating Software Development Team Performance
After scaling teams, companies should take the time to monitor and evaluate the software development team’s performance.
Setting and Tracking Performance Metrics
To measure progress and better ensure accountability, teams should set and track key performance metrics as the team scales. By selecting relevant metrics, like productivity, customer satisfaction, deliverable deliveries, and overall quality, teams gain insights into performance levels so that they know where everyone stands at any given time, especially the newcomers.
Team leaders should regularly evaluate and adjust targets based on the company or project’s evolving needs to help everyone stay aligned on the business objectives while also driving continuous improvement.
Conducting Regular Reviews and Feedback
Regular performance reviews and continuous feedback are essential parts of managing a scaling team as they provide managers with the chance to identify areas needing improvement, assess performance levels, and recognize achievements. An effective performance review sets clear expectations for the team member while providing specific feedback and discussing opportunities for further growth.
Continuous Improvement and Training
The most high-performing teams make continuous improvement and training priorities. Identifying skills gaps allows companies to offer more targeted training programs to keep up with the latest industry advancements and enhance existing capabilities. Making learning and training priorities within the company also promotes a work culture of knowledge sharing and innovation as well. Companies that provide access to learning resources, workshops, and courses help team members, new and old, learn new skills and improve effectiveness.
Conclusion
Scaling software development teams seems like a daunting task for both the outsourcing provider and the hiring company. However, by acting proactively and ensuring the necessary systems, tools, and training are ready, companies set themselves and the new team members up for success.
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out some more outsourcing articles.
- Quality Assurance Outsourcing Strategies: Tips & Tricks
- Nearshore vs Offshore Outsourcing: Which One Suits Your Business?
- Top 7 Industries That Benefit from Software Outsourcing
- Leveraging Big Data To Boost Your Outsourcing Model
FAQs
How can I ensure effective communication and collaboration on a scaled outsourced team?
Companies ensure effective communication and collaboration in a scaled outsourced team by establishing clear communication channels, using collaborative tools across teams, defining processes and procedures, and fostering a culture of teamwork.
Are there significant differences between scaling development with an outsourcing partner vs an in-house team?
There are significant differences between scaling development with an in-house team and an outsourcing partner. Scaling in-house teams requires more time and more money, along with traditional recruiting and hiring procedures. Scaling outsourcing teams means that the providers do that leg work for the hiring company or pull in existing, vetted talent to the team.
How can I monitor and evaluate the performance of my scaled outsourced team?
To monitor and evaluate the performance of a scaled outsourced team, companies should select relevant metrics to track, conduct reviews regularly, and encourage a culture based on continuous performance.
