In the modern world, the demand for software development services is increasing at an incredible speed. More and more companies working in different fields need software products of high quality.

Among a great number of software development companies, it is quite challenging to find the right agency for your project. Here are 4 aspects that you need to consider before hiring a software development agency.

1. Decide on the type of service

Apparently, you are familiar with outsourcing and outstaffing. According to the outsourcing model, a client entrusts the whole project to the development team. According to the outstaffing model, a hired person performs all the job duties because he or she is officially hired by the client company. However, most usually, a collaboration between customers and software development companies takes the form of outsourcing. Also, there are four types of outsourcing: onshore, nearshore, offshore, and hybrid. The type of outsourcing depends on the country to which a company outsources its software development.

Thus, as you can see, all of the four types have their advantages and disadvantages. The most popular type of outsourcing is hiring offshore teams. The reason is that it gives an outsourcer an opportunity to minimize costs spent on development and still get high-quality services. In fact, approximately 85% of outsourcing customers come from the United States while British companies occupy second place based on the number of outsourcing deals.

2. Choose the right outsourcing country

There are three factors, which you should consider while choosing the outsourcing country: cost, IT-market development, and educational infrastructure. Ukraine is one of the top destinations for outsourcing, along with India, Brazil, Mexico, The Philippines, and China.

Ukraine

Outsourcing to Ukraine has a lot of benefits for potential customers. Ukrainian IT sector is developing very fast because of governmental support of the industry and a great number of skilled specialists. The Ukrainian government actively supports business climate in Ukraine introducing a number of regulations that make doing business in Ukraine much easier. Primarily, the process has been eased by reducing fees and taxes that are paid by the employers.

More than a half of Ukraininan high school graduates opt for IT-related education. According to data provided by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, yearly, more than 36,000 students graduate with a degree in tech specialties.

Another obvious reason for outsourcing to Ukraine is a considerable number of IT outsourcing companies. In fact, there are more than a thousand large-, medium-, and small-sized IT-companies with their headquarters in Ukraine.

"The advancing IT industry in Ukraine opens new opportunities for developers, as well as, potential customers."

Ukraine is one of the best options for outsourcing because of its cost-effectiveness. On average, hourly rates for developers in Ukraine vary between $20 and $75, which is cheaper than in other European countries. More and more students in Ukraine opt for IT-related fields, which causes high competition among IT students and specialists. With dozens of tech events held annually (IT Arena, Software Development Forum, AI & Big Data Day, YouthSpeak Hackathon, IT Outsourcing Forum) and a great number of courses, there is a favorable environment for tech and non-tech specialists to improve their skills and thus get ready for the highly competitive Ukrainian IT market.

India

India is another popular country in the world for outsourcing. India has been in the IT industry for approximately 25 years. It has proven to have a great pool of specialists with good technical skills. Usually, in India, customers are offered the lowest prices between $18 and $25 for IT services.

Brazil

Brazil is an emerging alternative to India as an outsourcing destination. Brazil is now experiencing strong economic growth, which attracts foreign investors and IT services customers. The hourly rates for developers in Latin American countries, including Brazil, are between $30 and $50. Cultural and geographical proximity are also factors that attract American and Canadian customers to Brazil as an outsourcing destination.

Mexico

Together with Brazil, Mexico is another popular Latin American country for IT outsourcing. Like in the case of Brazil, American customers choose Mexico as a country for IT outsourcing because of cultural and geographical proximity. Furthermore, Mexico is one of the leading countries in the world based on the number of computer science graduates.

The Philippines

Many American companies choose The Philippines for IT outsourcing because there is a great pool of IT talents in this country. There is a great number of government support initiatives for IT industry development. The third beneficial factor for potential customers is that most of the country’s population is fluent in English, which guarantees effective cooperation between customers and developers’ team.

China

Some companies outsource software development to China, where political and economic environments are constantly improving; the wages of software developers are constantly increasing, which is why, in China, software development services are more expensive than in other Asian countries.

3. Consider the communication process

Effective communication is of crucial importance for the development team. Communication is one of the key factors of successful project completion. Before choosing a software development company for outsourcing, you should decide how your communication process will go to make your collaboration as productive and effective as possible.

Firstly, you need to consider the time-zone difference and the level of English of your potential partners. Apparently, when it comes to offshore or hybrid outsourcing, there may be a considerable time difference. However, it is possible to minimize the negative effects of time difference. Discuss with your development team how you will handle this issue. For instance, you can schedule daily meetings at the same time or agree that, sometimes, the development team will work overtime.

The lack of a proper level of English can also affect the communication process.

"Ensure that the level of English proficiency of your potential vendor is high enough to minimize chances that your communication with the development team will be impaired."

In Ukraine, most IT specialists are well-skilled in English. Most of them (approximately 82%) have an intermediate or higher level of English. Employees at GTM Plus have a good command of English. However, they constantly improve their fluency level by attending our in-house English courses.

While hiring a software development company, you should also pay attention to communication channels. One of the most commonly used tools for communication between the customer and the company is Skype. It’s quite easy to use so that it is an ideal tool for communication. Many customers use G-Mail to interact with software developers because it allows not only to send emails but also to share documents and make appointments.

Some companies also use My Teams that allows you to get your team on the same page of project development, collaborate on files and documents, and get your team secure. Extremely useful tools for supervision and task tracking are JIRA and Confluence. With the help of these tools, you can control the whole development process. Some other useful tools for communication include Slack, WebEx, Hangouts, and Mattermost.

4. Conduct research on companies

Another step to hiring a perfect software development agency for your project will be gathering information about your potential service providers. In this respect, it will be useful to check companies’ profiles on trusted platforms, for example, clutch.co. Moreover, you can read some of their clients’ reviews, which also can be rather informative for you. However, you should not make conclusions about a company’s expertise solely based on its profiles on such platforms.

Conclusion

It might be difficult to find an ideal software development agency. It may take you quite a long time to find the best partner for outsourcing. To find exactly “your” company, you should know where you are now, know your needs, and determine the factor which is the most important for you.