Common Challenges in Offshore Development and How to Overcome Them
Alisha Rukhsar
August 31 2024 2:42 PM
Recruiting and working with an offshore software development team is a challenging journey. However, companies in today’s globalized world tend to work with them. It is because these teams come with numerous benefits for the company, i.e., reduced cost, focus on core business, access to a global talent pool, etc.
In contrast with all the opportunities an offshore team brings, some unique challenges are experienced worldwide. This article will discuss some common challenges faced when working with an offshore development team, which is crucial to understanding your company’s success. This article will also discuss the solutions to all those challenges so your offshore team can work effectively.
Challenge 1: Lack of Communication
Poor communication is one of the significant challenges in recruiting an offshore development team. When your company manages an offshore team, i.e., geographically separated, there is a high risk of misinterpretation and misconception. Lack of communication leads to additional delays and errors, so there are no more cost savings. Clear communication is the backbone of a successful software development team.
What is the best possible way of transparent communication with your offshore team?
Solution:
This problem can be eliminated by doing your homework and assessing the cultural diversity of your offshore development team at the corporate level, process level, and daily interaction level before deciding on recruitment. Your company should behave respectfully towards their culture, traditions, and beliefs. You should give proper training to the hired team, and your company’s goals and objectives should be clear. Constructive feedback procedures should be adopted and encouraged.
Challenge 3: Management Issues
When recruiting an offshore team, management challenges have a high chance because of the absence of face-to-face interaction, time zone differences, cultural differences, and lack of communication. Effectively managing an offshore development team is a challenging task. Still, it’s not impossible and can be done by adopting some strategies practiced worldwide for better and higher productivity.
Solution:
One way to overcome management challenges is to hire a competent project manager, in addition to his team, who can oversee the overall development of the offshore team. A project manager of an offshore team must have know-how about all the possible issues and problems regarding offshore development projects.
Following are also some project management tools used worldwide for high team turnover:
- Jira
- Asana
- Trello
- ClickUp
Challenge 4: Data Security Risk
Data privacy and IP protection are companies’ main concerns when hiring an offshore team for their IT projects. In today’s world, when almost all software is cloud-based, hackers can quickly attack cloud data and access your company’s confidential information. Data privacy risk increases when hiring a third party, i.e., an offshore development team, and sharing your company’s personal information.
Solution:
Data security problems can be terminated through a proper course of action. Before hiring an offshore team, you should do thorough research regarding data security and protection, and afterward, your higher company management should take corrective actions, i.e.:
- Signing detailed NDAs to secure your data.
- Signing Non-Compete Agreements to bind team members to work for your competitors.
- Access to just minimal confidential information is required for task completion.
- Using secured and encrypted communication channels.
- Only use software that is updated regularly regarding security concerns.
Challenge 5: Infrastructure Issues
Most companies hire an offshore team, thinking of the benefit of not providing infrastructure to the team, but sometimes, issues regarding infrastructure become a challenge for the company. Electricity, internet connectivity, speed, up-to-date systems, and technologies are crucial when working remotely. Their absence or low quality can affect the productivity and quality standards of the development team.
Solution:
Here is a small check-list for companies before recruiting an offshore team to avoid infrastructural problems:
- 24/7 electricity supply
- High-quality internet
- Availability of systems and technologies to the offshore team
- Suitable environment for international calls
Challenge 6: Time Zone Difference
Time zone difference is a significant challenge when working with an offshore team. Collaboration and communication become very difficult in this scenario where the in-house and offshore teams operate in different time zones because of limited interaction.
Deciding a convenient time for online meetings for both sides becomes very difficult because when one side is operational, the other sleeps, leading to short, overlapping working hours. It also results in delayed decision-making.
Solution:
One of the most straightforward solutions for this problem is to find an offshore software development team near your geographic zone. Moreover, you can eliminate it by deciding on pre-defined meeting slots and rotating shifts for in-house and offshore teams. Also, suppose both your teams are willing to start their work early or extend their working hours at least once a week to communicate and discuss the ongoing project. In that case, it will result in better collaboration and on-time production.
Challenge 7: Constant Delays And Missed Deadlines
Finalizing your end product at the right time and launching it before or at least at the same time as your competitors do decides your success or failure of the product. However, constant delays and missing deadlines for your offshore team have become frequent due to the abovementioned challenges, resulting in a considerable loss.
Solution:
As discussed above, completing and releasing the right product at the right time is like the mortar holding bricks together. It is essential to release your product at the right time in the market before your competitors fulfill the market’s needs. Hence, your development team should be competent enough to meet its deadlines promptly with high-quality products.
To Wrap It All Up
Regardless of all the challenges mentioned above, it cannot be concluded that recruiting an offshore development team will be a disaster. In this article, we have discussed solutions for all the common challenges faced by the company when managing an offshore team, so considering all the abovementioned solutions and doing your homework before hiring a team can easily overcome these challenges.
Once your offshore team develops the right product at the right time and releases it in the market with high-quality standards compared to your competitors, your company’s success will be worth the troubles you face.
