Challenges of hiring an off-shore Software or App Development Company

There is no question that app development has continued to grow in popularity recently, and the demand is higher than ever. Today’s competitive market is full of business ventures jumping into the application bandwagon. This rise in mobile app adoption across industries means it is necessary for businesses to adapt to this technology to stay relevant.

Today, we will discuss the challenges and hidden costs that are often associated with offshore app development and the considerations you should keep in mind before hiring a team abroad.

Before we continue, we would like to share some vital statistics regarding app development and its impact on the modern world.

• The app development industry is expected to become a trillion-dollar phenomenon by 2023.
• The pandemic has created a massive demand for apps, with over 218 billion downloads in 2020.
• Mobile users spend an average of 4 hours each day using applications.
• At least 60% of smartphone users have used contact buttons for business inquiries within applications.

The popularity of the web and mobile app development has grown immensely in recent years, making it essential for anyone to consider investing in a mobile or web application. Having said that, you need to make sure that you are hiring the right team for this investment.

Now, let us move on to the challenges accompanying offshore app development.

Quality issues with the final product

High-quality work is available worldwide, but the standards of what quality means can vary from one place to another as it depends on several factors. When you work with offshore developers, you may be dealing with a team that benchmarks quality based on their local standards or requirements.

The major issue here is that most discrepancies will arise due to differences in expectations between the parties and the process of fine-tuning the final product for increasing its quality to meet your expectations is extremely time-consuming and would lead to lost time and additional costs. Keep this in mind when you decide to hire your development partner, as this will be crucial for you to see optimal results.

Legal issues

The possibility of encountering a legal issue is a scenario that most people miss to foresee, but there are many situations where people could end up in a legal battle with the development firm.

It is always a good idea to review the laws of the country that your offshore development team is based in. This research process alone could take precious time away from your project schedule, but it would be necessary to prepare yourself for the worst-case scenario in case you end up getting into a tussle with your offshore development team.

Communication challenges

In most cases, people hire offshore developers who do not speak English fluently. This could be a serious issue when working on a project such as an app development because it involves several rounds of discussions and iterations and could get challenging to convey ideas, thoughts, or features. This is one of the most common reasons why offshore development can get complicated.

This is why you need to find out just how fluent the developers are in the language you prefer. Maybe a quick chat over a video conference can be a great way to reveal this and see if communication between you and their team is seamless.

Infrastructure deficiencies

It is quite possible that an offshore team is going to be using obsolete equipment to handle your project. This could lead to many setbacks and issues that could be avoided if you can hire a team that can show you the kind of hardware and work environment they will be using while developing your project.

One of the main issues that can delay a project is the lack of quality hardware for development and testing purposes. Therefore, it is good to ensure that you are working with a team that has updated hardware, but this could also mean a higher cost to you than expected.

Travel expenses

Some projects may be too large to be handling exclusively via video conferencing. When you are dealing with a significant investment, you will find that travel expenses will also be involving in the course. This could mean several trips to meet with the developers, and that can translate to thousands of extra dollars in expenses.

There could be situations where video conferences and online meetings would suffice. Nevertheless, most large projects would usually require face-to-face meetings to finalize and conclude the works. There could be several details and conversations that cannot be expressing or conveyed through online conferences.

Further expenses and complications with updates and upgrades

Even the most experienced development teams would have to modify their application code through several rounds of bug finding and fixing to ensure a seamless experience for users. When an app is launching, there could still be several bugs arising in the code (new updates on iOS/ Android versions, updates/ upgrades from third party vendors, different screen resolutions etc) that would require immediate attention, and it is expecting that the development team would resolve the bugs as quickly as possible and release frequent patches/ updates to ensure a seamless experience for your customers/ users.

Working with an offshore app development agency will make this process complicated than it would with a team that is more accessible. This is yet another thing to keep in mind when you consider hiring a development team located in a different country or continent.

One of the main things that people need to consider is that they will not find the same level of clarity, engagement, communication, and workflow with offshore developers as they would with a domestic mobile app development company.

Therefore, it is recommending that you take your time with this process to ensure that you can make the most out of your investment. Keep these challenges in mind when considering the right team for your project.