Challenges You Could Face While Hiring Overseas Developers and Their Solutions

In this blog post, you will get a detailed overview of challenges you could face while hiring overseas developers along with solutions.

It’s inevitable – if you hire overseas developers and face challenges.

From time zone differences to cultural diversity, you deal with numerous challenges.

You might be working in the USA having a proactive software development team in Poland and your client somewhere in Europe, so when you work in 2 to 3 different time zones, there come delays, downtimes, and planning issues.

What’s expected from offshore development is cost savings and vast talent pool access but in reality, you may face poor communication, lack of coordination, language barriers, etc., sort of issues. Well, there is a flip side along with the positive side of offshore software development.

Related Blogs: Offshoring Software Development When to Outsource and How to Manage?

Hire Overseas Developers – Challenges and Their Solutions

Struggle With Time Zone Differences Especially When I Hire Dedicated Offshore Development Teams

Clearly, nobody wants to be calculating and memorizing time zone differences and overlapping hours. If you have an offshore development team from another time zone, you find it hard to synchronize time when in-house and offshore guys are online.

Solution – You need some tools and apps and certain practices to work with remote teams.

The important thing – establish overlap hours between in-house and remote teams when both parties are available.

Taking an example here, let’s say you work in New York USA, and your remote team is in Poland, there is an overlapping window of 2 hours (considering 9-5 work hours). Conduct daily standups, discuss project progress, clarify roadblocks, etc.

Don’t Feel Connected With The Team and Don’t Get Up-to-Date Information on Project/Product Development

The confusion comes when the development team doesn’t get properly the requirements. Poor communication and the language barrier is a major hurdle when hiring overseas developers.

Since you get access to a global talent pool, there is a high chance that their common understanding of the English language is weak. Confusion lingers when there is a communication barrier.

Solution – we emphasize ‘over-communication’ where poor understanding can affect the results or outcome of the project. You can visit the offshore development team offices, get to communicate with your teams face to face, and break the ice.

Hold regular video conference calls and initiate with routine and light-hearted questions, like what’s going on in your lives?

There are Many Software Vendors, and It’s Hard to Trust One and Choose the Right Development Team.

It’s tough to choose from hundreds of software development agencies and trust the one that could go long way with your ambitions and business goals.

Related Blog: How to Choose an Offshore Software Development Company? For Getting A Clear Understanding

Solution – there is a long list of a checklist you should consider before finalizing the offshore development team.

• Make a criteria list of what you need from your vendor.
• Opt for multicultural outsourcing teams for bringing diversity.
• Check the portfolio/past projects.
• Look into recommendations and referrals.
• Communication skills of the team
• Ask from your close business circle group

Although I Hired Inexpensive Hourly Rate Development Teams Now Facing Cost Overruns

According to Deloitte, almost 59% of companies outsource to cut costs. If your offshore development company handles the project poorly, you may face cost overruns. Often end up paying additional costs and the offshore option no longer remains inexpensive but rather costly.

Imagine spending a year or so only to get disappointed at the outcome.

Solution – work with a well-respected development company. Often directories have reviews of previous clients, giving a fair idea if the company can deliver the promised code with quality and on time.

Data Breaches are Common, How to Overcome This Issue?

Confidential information unauthorized access, corruption, or theft is common and often happens when you trust third-party vendors without doing your internal checks as we mentioned in the checklist above.

Solution – NDA signing. NDA is a legally binding document that entails a confidential relationship between two parties. This helps in saving the two parties from crossing the line in terms of data security.

Only Get to Review The Code Once it’s Delivered

Usually, when the code is developed by an offshore team, it’s delivered when the milestone is achieved. Once it’s reviewed, there are many changes needed for a revised code but comes with additional costs.

Solution – before hiring offshore developers, keep code checks that are, code review, documentation, unit testing, etc. ‘during’ the development process.

Early code review or pre-production code review benefits:

• Easy to change – and it’s fresh since you worked on it recently and you have a clear context and structure in mind.
• Change resistance is low – it works, why change’ you don’t need to get into this argument as when code gets on production, it’s hard to convince for a change.
• Code quality is improved – functionality testing, and overall code testing before making it live.
• Fewer issues in live code – once reviewed before pushing it to production, there will be fewer bugs.

Developers are not Aligned With My Vision – Undelivered What’s Expected

Delayed or late feedback, and not having access to project code could lead to project failure. The underperformance of the team leads to disappointments.

Solution – do your market research. Never hire a cheap software development vendor. Do check about the past projects they delivered, and the technology stack they are proficient at, check company pages online, and do connect with their past clients in order to see the clear picture if the vendor is capable enough to deliver your project.

Useful Checklist On How To Get Expected Results When Aligning With The Offshore Development Team:

• Jot down your company goals and prioritize.
• Be clear on the role of software engineering manager.
• Set performance metrics for the software engineering manager and his team.
• Prepare a defined communication guideline.
• Establish a transparent and open organizational process. 

Related Blog: How to Hire Offshore Developers For Startups – A Complete Guide

How CodeNinja Consulting Can Help You Deal With The Challenges Of Hiring Overseas Developers?

1. CodeNinja collaborates and creates a database of qualified software engineers who undergo a strict vetting process.
2. A tech talent marketplace we offer, we’ve pre-vetted software engineers’ profiles working on client projects on an hourly and full-time basis.
3. After you submit the request with your needs, we carefully handpick the best-vetted candidates and pre-interview them and within 48 hours (usually) provide you with ‘first-selected’ developers.
4. The client can choose a team whom he wishes to work with and can personally interview and seek technical assessments.
5. More often, the client kicks off his project within 2 weeks of his request for the resources.
6. Being software development suppliers, we handle the payroll, office space, sick leaves, annual vacations, etc. You’re free of HR and admin-related fatigue.

Conclusion

We do understand that hiring a software development team is an uphill task and comes with many challenges. This is the reason why we prepared this thorough guide for you based on our experiences with offshore clients.

However, if managed well with the best collaboration tools and practices in place, offshore development comes with more benefits. Why do you pay a local software developer $130-150/ hour when you can develop a project for the quarter price by hiring overseas developers?

Hire Offshore Developers from CodeNinja and cross-check the prerequisites, we’ve been into the game for quite a long time and have amazing projects on our credit.