Are you ready to outsource your app development? When should you consider outsourcing?

This article is divided into two sections so choose the one that best fits your needs. Alternatively, you can read the whole piece for a more broad view of the issue, of course. 

The first section is for those who do not have an in-house team for their mobile app development project. It covers matters such as the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing, some reasons to consider outsourcing, and a description of situations where it’s not a good idea to delegate tasks externally. 

The second is for those who already have their in-house team and would like to use the help of an external team to speed up the app development or would like to know if their internal issues can be solved by additional team members. 

What’s the purpose? 

I’d like to help you decide whether it’s a good moment for you and your business to consider outsourcing your app development. Additionally, if while you read it turns out that it’s not really a good idea in your case, you’ll find hints on what to do to make your project grow anyway. 

I don’t have a mobile app development team. Should I outsource? 

As mentioned above, this is a part for you if you don’t have a team and are thinking about getting one. How to assess whether it’s better to build an internal team or delegate your tasks externally? It’s not that hard. 

Why and when outsource app development?

In the below section, you’ll find some advantages of outsourcing along with reasons why it’s worth considering i.e. situations in which it’s probably a good idea to outsource your app development.

When you don’t have a clue what you’re doing

Non-technical app owners do exist. But if you’ve just come up with an idea to create a new revolutionary app and you’re 100% sure it will bring you huge profits but you don’t know what the process of creating an app looks like, let the professionals speak. 

Broadly speaking, if you’re a non-technical person, it absolutely doesn’t mean you can’t run a business effectively. However, it’s a good idea to let experienced people guide your project in the right direction. 

That’s why it might be a great time to start looking for an external team full of people who have made it through the process hundreds of times. They can help you not only develop the app. At the idea stage, you might need help shaping the idea, finding the right business paths, etc. That’s also something an outsourced team can guide you with. 

If you want to create an app in less than a couple of years

It’s not that easy to find an office, onboard experienced and reliable people for the whole app development team, buy equipment and provide the newest technology solutions in a short period of time. It is also not easy to recruit remote staff from scratch, coordinate their work and bring the whole team together so quickly. You should probably start with little steps and extend your team over time.

That’s why if you’re rather time-sensitive and don’t want to take care of these things, take into account that the outsourced mobile app development team: 

• Has an established workflow and is flexible as they’ve worked on different projects together so there’s no need to provide some time for onboarding and getting to know each other
• Will adjust to your needs at all times – it won’t be the only project your external team has. Mobile app development companies adjust the number of people dedicated to the project based on the current needs. 

Let’s also add that you won’t have to worry about sick leaves, employees' holidays, salaries, etc.

If you value flexibility

What if the app idea turns out to be unprofitable? What if you decide to pivot and change direction in a fundamental way? Or if the team turns out to be ineffective? When delegating the whole development or part of the tasks to an external team, you can flexibly change plans regarding your mobile app development. You also don’t need to create additional tasks during downtime for people who aren’t your employees. 

Moreover, when hiring new team members is on your side, you’ll probably find it extremely  time-consuming and expensive (due to the need for onboarding, interviews, etc.). Good IT specialists are in demand in the job market and overall recruitment is a long-lasting process.

Reasons to resign from outsourcing your product development 

Now let’s focus on cases in which it’s probably best to rethink your plans regarding outsourcing mobile app development. It’s not the best and only solution for every business. Here are some examples: 

You don’t want to cooperate remotely

If you aim to work with your team on site only, this may bring some complications. It will simply be hard to find the right agency that fits your needs if you’re limited by the search area. You might find it quite hard to arrange the process of communication with the team well, to always keep in touch and track the progress, but it’s not impossible. 

However, if you’re not very keen on working remotely with your team, it will probably be a better idea to take your time and compose an in-house team. The fact is still that it can be easier to communicate with the in-house team e.g. if you all work in the same office.

You need a truly dedicated team

The internal team you build stays with you for the next projects and their time is only dedicated to your business so if this is your condition, you should probably decide on this option. Also, you choose the people you want to have on your team so they fit the culture of your company. 

Remember you can always extend your internal team with additional outsourced members if there’s such a need.

I have an in-house team. Is it time to outsource app development? 

Now it’s time for those who built an in-house team and are considering extending it with employees from an external company to speed up the app development or for any other reasons. The question is: are you ready to bring in outsourced developers and start working with them? 

When is it a good time to outsource mobile app development? 

Generally, you could say that it’s a good idea to outsource your app development when:

• All the processes in your company are well-organized
• You have your business procedures established (regarding matters like project management, task description, code review, designs, and documentation).

Why are those matters so important? Because they’re crucial to effectively use every team member’s time. So once you decide to onboard additional employees, it’s highly important that their time isn’t wasted. If you don’t take that into account, you’ll keep hiring new team members endlessly and it won’t bring results. 

Let’s focus on particular matters to be taken into consideration when making that decision. These are the things to think about before you start looking for an offshore development team:

Transparency matters

Our project manager, experienced by working with many different businesses, says: you’re ready to outsource if you’re ready to be fully transparent. 

It is useful to ask yourself these questions before including an external developer in your team:

• Am I ready to receive constructive feedback? – Often an external person is able to diagnose your problem quickly. So if you want help, you need to be prepared to hear what you are doing wrong and take that advice into account. 
• Am I ready to make changes to facilitate the work of my in-house developers? – Above all, you need to be ready for change. A new team member, let alone a new team of developers, often means not only additional support but also revolutionary ideas. 
• Do I know the basics of proper onboarding and offboarding? – Proper onboarding of new team members, as well as proper offboarding, are essential when you are considering outsourcing.
• Will I treat the outsourced developer as a fully-fledged team member? – Regardless of where new team members are, you should take their contribution to the work and changes in the company seriously. 
• Do I want to gain their fresh perspective on what I am already used to? – If you want to outsource, don't do it just because you need extra support with tasks. As mentioned above, be ready for change.
• Is my internal development based on iterations and agile/scrum assumptions? – Spontaneously taking up tasks, no time perspectives and no awareness of the impact of the completion of a given task on the overall schedule are common mistakes made by development teams. They are mainly due to the lack of the presence of a Project Manager or Scrum Master and the fact that the project is not run in an agile methodology. If you have similar issues, you can definitely benefit from working with a software development agency, but just an additional developer may not solve your problems. 
• Will an additional developer actually solve my problems? – It's basically a definitive answer, a mix of the previous ones that will guide you through the next steps. 

Where does your demand to outsource come from?

All the above matters will bring you closer to an answer to the question: what do you actually need help with? Is it only the lack of people? Or do you have some organizational issues? In many cases, it’s the second thing that’s a real pain. That’s why you should do an in-depth audit of your needs. The below bullet points can help you with that. 

Option 1: too much work

If you want to outsource mobile app development because there’s too much work and the backlog is overloaded, the first thing to do is review your backlog. Does it meet the objectives of a well-crafted software backlog? They should include:

• Well-described tasks (tickets)
• Acceptance criteria
• DOD – definition of done
• Figma/other design tool project link 
• Aggregation of tickets into epics

So the “too much work” argument isn’t always the case and if there’s chaos in the schedule, an additional outsourced developer will simply make this chaos progress. 

Valuable pieces of completed work delivered systematically and in iterations are able to significantly speed up the development process of your app. Therefore, if you have organizational problems, outsourcing will make the most sense if you ask for help from a dedicated team including a Project Manager or Scrum Master, not just a developer or two. 

When all the scrum events take place and the development team understands the business assumptions and the impact of their small piece of code on the overall project, success is guaranteed.

Option 2: your business is growing and has further growth prospects

The growing user base and further growth will cause the backlog to expand. New clients, projects, or ideas for app development can make your business grow but can also cause quite a fire alarm in the team. Especially when it comes to sudden needs. 

In this case, it’s also important to think about your possibilities and needs, i.e. how many people do you need? Is it time to expand the team with one or a few engineers or to not risk and delegate organizational work too? 

To establish this, you need business forecasts, timelines, roadmaps, and estimates. If you can't provide them, again – you need more than a developer. 

Option 3: inefficient team

If you find your team inefficient, you should check a couple of things first:

• The team’s skills and expertise – check your employees' performance. That’s the first red flag that should lead you to consider additional education or changes in staff. Instead of hiring additional developers to fill in the holes resulting from incompetence.
• Communication between team members – communication is one of the most important things in every project. Proper communication leads to your business success and poor communication can actually be a deal breaker. Review the level of communication within the team, as well as the channels of communication. The most important issues are active listening, processing information in the right way, a culture of feedback and being open to change – this factor will be particularly important if you decide to outsource. 
• The team’s condition – when your team is frustrated or tired of useless processes, dead-end tasks, or any other issues, they will never be efficient. Listen to your people because thanks to their insights you’ll be able to implement great improvements. 

When you find everything from the above right (the team has good standards) and the need for expansion continues to exist, your mobile app development team will certainly be ready to adopt another employee/s. 

Does an additional member of the team mean faster and better development? 

As it turns out, the answer is not as clear-cut as it might seem. Before deciding to outsource, you should first answer all the above questions, assess your processes as best you can, and review your business to find out whether additional employees will solve your problems and, if so, what specialists the new team should consist of. 

If your company passes such an audit, then you can confidently look for the help of developers for your project and such a person will certainly be valuable and can adopt good cooperation practices. 

Tips for starting to outsource app development

As a finish, find some hints on what’s good to prepare when you want to reach out to app developers or app development companies:

• Business overview – it will help the people who are new to your business activities understand your perspective and objectives.
• An intro – which can be also mixed with the above, however, an intro should include a description of your company, team, and value proposition. Let the team who’s supposed to help you grow know what your business goals are and, what follows, let them find ways to make those goals happen. No secrets. Transparency is very important at this point because it’s crucial for the whole team to know why you decided to outsource app development (understand your problems) and what goals you want to achieve. 

Conclusion

Outsourcing app development can be really profitable if it’s done at the right time for your business. Whether you already have an in-house team or you’re just considering your options, follow the rules described above for the success of your app development process!