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Albeit being widely popular as an operational model for building high-quality software and mobile applications, building the right software outsourcing team is a challenge that even experienced professionals need time to mull over. Add to this the vast numbers of software outsourcing companies that have mushroomed across the world; if your business is just starting out and needs to choose a reliable partner first, the stakes get higher.

Even the smallest software development projects are bound to be long-term and ongoing endeavours, thereby demanding wise decision making on the part of executive teams across enterprise organisations. Numerous factors weigh in on the big decision as well; budgets, company goals, project longevity as well as hiring new resources in order to deliver necessary skill sets.

As a software outsourcing company that has worked with clientele from around the world, we at EFutures have some tips and insights we can share on what you need to look out for, when you need to build a talented software development team that can align with your company’s values, and drive objectives home.

We’ve also included a brief guide on assessing your business prior to making hiring decisions, as well as monitoring performance post kick-off in order to ensure consistency.

Factors that contribute to a successful software development team

Making sense of your business objectives

Before you hire any members for your software development team, you need to comprehensively assess your business’s existing situation, in order to understand what objectives need to be achieved – and which skill sets are necessary to make it happen.

Start by gathering members from across your organisation, and raise questions/concerns surrounding:

• Existing bottlenecks and information gaps: Are any of your resources inundated with an excessive number of manual tasks? Or do key bits of information never reach certain team members/business units on time?
• Customer complaints: Is there a pattern in terms of what customers are complaining about? These could be over reviews, or on social media.
• Drop-offs in engagement and conversion rates: If you are able to identify where users are abandoning their online journey, assessing what can be done in order to rectify this can help shed light on what can improve within your software or mobile app.

Ultimately, knowing what your business problems and silos are can help you understand what skill sets you need in an individual that makes it into your team.

The right budget

Following your business assessment, knowing how much you can afford for hiring a new individual or two into your software development team is a quandary that needs to be discussed with a few key considerations in mind.

While the total budget available for the project at hand is a big factor, other variables such as project urgency and contract type shall further influence how much you eventually spend on hiring and paying your new resources.

A reliable IT outsourcing model

Although offshoring and nearshoring are the first concepts that come to mind when discussing IT outsourcing models, many other factors shall determine who you end up hiring. Again, it is advisable to assess how, where and for how long you expect your new hire to commit to your software development project.

To assess, ask questions such as:

• How much commitment is expected in terms of time and effort?
• Do you need team members that can visit you on-site?
• Are there incentives involved in meeting certain targets?

Depending on the arrangements required, paperwork can be built and ground rules can be established well beforehand. Numerous software companies in Australia, for example, are flexible when it comes to software outsourcing models, as they cater to any custom requirement that clients have when it comes to team member placements across a certain project, or set of projects.

Identifying (and closing) communication and time zone gaps

During the hiring process, it is important to identify whether your candidate of choice is able to communicate effectively. This can involve articulating ideas well in written form, asking the right questions, and explaining complex ideas with simplicity. Also finding times of overlap between different time zones is something that is best addressed before your new hire joins your software development team, so meeting times can be scheduled in advance.

Formalising all communication and collaboration

Upon joining your software development team, it is wise to have your new hire get accustomed to the workflow you already may have established. Whether this is over a dedicated task or project management tool, or over simple email, reinforce the importance of formalising every task as well as key ideas for execution in order to maintain transparency across remote work environments.

Keeping things Agile

Your software development team needs to adapt to changing requirements, or scale to meet upticks in customer demand or seasonal fluctuations. This level of versatility is a quality that, while tough to gauge during the interview process, can come to light as time passes by – in order to determine whether your new hire is able to embrace changes as they come.

A step-by-step guide on building your software development team

Conduct a thorough business assessment

Always start by assessing your business problems and bottlenecks, so you can obtain a clear idea of how frequent and/or intense your existing business challenges are. Ultimately, you need team members that can solve these pain points, so knowing what is negatively impacting your business first is a valuable starting point.

Identify the infrastructure and resources you’ll need

Once your business teams and software outsourcing partner are all aware (and on the same page) about what your business needs in order to improve outcomes, it is time to decide the resources and infrastructure that shall facilitate optimum performance and output.

Whether it’s SaaS tools or virtual machines, involving your existing team members in the decision making process shall help businesses choose infrastructure that is compatible with team workflows, while also being an enhancer of productivity.

Build job criteria and liaise with potential candidates

With a clear understanding of your business, what needs to be improved, and the resources that are available, it is time to fill in any gaps that still exist with skill sets from newfound hires. Using a combination of assessment techniques such as classic interviews as well as bite-sized assignments to test technical knowledge, your team can gauge both hard and soft skills of said candidate.

While hiring and retaining new team members should form a healthy part of maintaining a consistent software development life cycle, it is also vital to keep a check on existing team members via regular reviews, one-on-one discussions and growth opportunities in order to maintain maximum retention – as well as software that is run by a highly motivated team.

In conclusion…

Hiring the right members for your software development team may be an overwhelming task owing to the wealth of opportunities that candidates have out there, but it doesn’t have to be an impossible one.

Knowing what your company needs to achieve is always the first step, so you can decide which skill sets can help achieve the very same – while keeping budgets, timeframes and the use of existing infrastructure all in check.