How Does Agile Software Development with Offshore Companies in India Sound Like?

Agile software development is centered around the concept of short operation cycles or iterative development. This software development uses a methodology that is repeated over and over again, hence, the short cycles. Today, companies mostly prefer hiring offshore development teams for a project. This means that the team is sitting somewhere far away such as in India and doing their jobs precisely as they should. Hiring an offshore development company in India extends one of the biggest advantages. You get superior quality work done on time at a lower development cost. Read to find out more about Agile software development and offshoring services.

Introduction to Agile Software Development

Productivity and innovation have a trending synonym termed agile. Agile software development is an approach where the big projects are broken into smaller fragments that are comparatively more manageable. These fragments are referred to as iterations. What importance do these iterations hold? Well, the small bits make it easy to assess the project’s direction and deliver optimal satisfaction to clients by continuously delivering them on time. And that is how offshore companies in India work.

At least 84% of the agile teams follow the Scrum methodology. Usually, a Scrum team consists of 7 members inclusive of a Scrum Master, the product owner, and other developers. Since this method doesn’t involve any hierarchies, it is thus called one of the excellent agile methodologies of offshore software development.

Agile, the Most Favored Software Development Methodologies

Did you know agile is one of the most practiced software development methodologies after DevOps with almost 32% of respondents using agile and 36% DevOps.

Agile With Offshore Teams: Top Benefits You Need to Know

The agile methodology works big time to improve and streamline the software development process. It quickly identifies the possible issues and fixes them in no time. Well, here are some benefits of agile methods adopted by offshore companies in India.

1. Quicker launch time

Agile divides big projects into iterations or small fragments which in return increases the time-to-market. After each iteration is completed, you can choose to either launch them or test the MVP.

2. It’s flexible

The entire agile methodology is based on the idea of adapting to the changes. This approach quickly responds to the user requirements and shifts in market trends. Thus, even if the team comes up with a great idea in the middle of the project, through this approach, they can quickly bring the changes or improvements.

3. Controls the cost

Agile software development focuses on paying for what you want. So, even if you want to eliminate a not-so-necessary feature mid-project, you can omit it without having to pay for it.

4. Risk management

With agile, the stakeholders and even the users can test the app in between its development to identify any pitfalls at an early stage. This eliminates the chances of incurring costly errors.

5. Superior quality

The rigorous testing at every stage ensures that the product holds a superior quality.

Challenges Working with Offshore Team

Who said there won’t be challenges? Even the greatest ideas and solutions have their drawbacks. And so, agile software development with offshore teams has challenges too such as:

1. Lack of quality in the output

Not always can the offshore companies present good quality output. And in reality, many factors may affect the quality like:

•       The team might still be adjusting.
•       Proper communication channels may not have been set up.

To overcome this challenge, you have to aim at reducing the staff turnover ratio. Besides that, you can set reachable goals and expectations, to begin with, and set a proper evaluation process.

2. Not able to meet the deadlines

The ever-shifting deadlines are another challenge that can directly affect your project. The offshore teams may miss the deadlines initially because they might still be overwhelmed, they are adjusting, or might just be the case of miscommunication.

To overcome this, you can provide enough time for the first deadline. Give them time to adjust to the new settings and bring your team together for risk identification meetings or ice-breaking sessions at first!

3. Keeping track of the progress can be challenging

To rule out inconsistencies, you can measure schedules and evaluation standards. For better results, keep your hired offshore company in India on board with the rest of the stakeholders, users, and company. Although offshoring brings flexibility to the table, it may also cause problems related to promoting development.

To avoid any uncertainties, try to develop a clear and straightforward communication plan. Learn and teach how to use communication tools properly.

4. Cultural differences

You get a team with different traditions and customary backgrounds when you outsource your project. That is inevitable; you cannot stop denying the fact. Now, the challenge is you need to work out how to handle the team and get them aligned with your business and workplace who belong to a different environment.

Initially, they seem like minor cultural differences, but they can have a more significant impact on your project —thy project is handled and practiced.

You need to check whether or not the team you hire from a company has proper communication skills. Do they understand your project scoop, or do you have to put a lot of effort into making them understand? These are basic things, but ignoring them can cost you your project.

5. Varying time zones

What if you hire a team with a different time zone? You need to spend a lot of extra hours to maintain your project development consistency. For example, you are from the USA, and you hire web app developers or mobile app developers from South Asian countries, like India. That means you have to wait 10 hours to match with their working hours.

You can plan on setting golden hours, and that means you need to decide the in-between time you and your offshore team are available to take the call or the meeting. It’s not a big deal if you make a plan before setting up an offshore team. You can ask your in-house team to change their shift so that both teams can collaborate better.

6. Handling the Ownership

When outsourcing projects to offshore teams, you might face one of the significant challenges of “ownership.” Sometimes, you might have difficulty changing the people you have hired to change the software development company you have connected with.

In such a case, you require to set a meeting with the team, judge your in-house capacity, and based on the capability; you can divide the project into various tiny parts. Now, you need to outsource part of it instead of handing over the entire project. Take an innovative step and outsource on your team’s part that is hard to finish. Or you can also consider outsourcing the project that you feel is hampering your team’s productivity.

7. Software Development Firm with Good Infrastructure

You cannot ignore the significance of infrastructure, as your project output will entirely depend on the type of infrastructure your offshore software development company has. Everything depends on how good the infrastructure is, from smooth communication and development to on-time delivery and deployment. Web and mobile app development company with good infrastructure ensures the project is developed effectively.

A good infrastructure refers to having a good working environment, faster internet connection, robust project management tools, and excellent communicators as their project managers and leaders.

Working with Offshore Team In India: How to Manage Them

If you are wondering why we haven’t talked about how to hire an offshore team, don’t worry. We’ll be uncovering it later. As of now, let’s just focus on how to manage them properly.

1. Define the scope of work

Prepare a Scope of Work (SOW) document. This single document contains details of project milestones, its deliverables, timeline, and the reporting format. Based on this document, one can categorize the iterations and deadlines. In brief, it is the point of reference for you and your team.

2. Create a roadmap

After you have made the SOW, create a roadmap. This will provide you with a comprehensive view of all the things that are required to complete the project. The primary motive for creating the roadmap is that it will provide you and the offshore company with a clear picture of the agile software development process.

3. Build effective communication networks

Effective and frequent communication is the key to success. Thus, when working with the agile software development offshore company India, make sure to schedule regular meetings and casual interaction sessions.

4. Regular demo sessions

Conducting regular demo sessions is an excellent way to improve your collaboration with the team. Here, the agile development team demonstrates the intermediate results of every iteration, enabling project owners to assess the progress and performance.

5. Stick to the agile standards

The agile methodology works on common standards and practices. These standards are coding standards, integrations, bug tracking, and so on. With an offshore software development company, you can accurately concentrate on practices.

Tips to Gain Better Outturns from Offshore Development Company in India

Hiring an offshore team will be beneficial if you have to plan out managing the team. If you are a company, you need to set up a team in-house that will be collaborating and managing the outsourcing partner. These are a few tips that might help you:

1. Make the best use of the time difference

The time difference is one of the common challenges of working with an offshore team. But, you can still take advantage and make the development process efficient. If the working time of offshore companies in India, is ahead of you, you have time to conduct early morning meetings and practically omit communication gaps.

2. Stay updated with the latest tools

Agile processes are directly connected with market trends, continuous integrations, and thorough testing. Therefore, it is important that you collaborate with both onsite and offshore teams, and ask them to use the latest tools and newer practices.

3. Building a strong bond of trust is important

The offshore team may feel motivated and inspired if they are given the freedom to code. However, if you want results that are par excellence, you need to provide them with a sense of ownership. Make them feel that they are an important part of the company, they are one of the partners, and help them understand your business.

How to Find Offshore Development Company in India

Coming to the concluding point, let’s see how you can find the best offshore development company in India. 

1. Start defining what you really want and expect from the team.
2. Focus on their demonstrable experience. Ask the companies, “have you done it before? Can you show us?”
3. You must partner with an offshore team that follows professional management capabilities and are culturally fit for your project/business.
4. See if they are offering what you need at an affordable price or not.
5. Working with offshore teams means that you need to also measure if they are showing flexibility, adaptability, and focus, or not.

If you find all these qualities, you know that you have found the best offshore agile software development company! 

Conclusion

On a concluding note, the only important thing is that the hiring offshore development team is offering you exactly what you need. Although there are several factors to consider while hiring offshore companies in India. However, what’s crucial is that the team is helping you grow by providing effective and efficient expertise!

So, keep the pointers in mind while hunting and working with the offshore teams!