Companies often look to outsource web development. The website is the face of any business. Be it a start-up or an established business, web development, hence, assumes importance. That said, outsourcing web development is not as simple as it sounds. The companies need to perform intense research and efforts to make the most of their web development outsourcing partner.

As we move ahead, let us understand how to make the most of your outsourcing web development and maximize the outcome:

1. Be clear on your web development outsourcing requirements

Outsourcing web development works out as intended when you are clear on the requirements prior. To explain to the outsourced team what your web development requirements are and the output that you are looking for, you should first hold clarity on many aspects as follows:

• The technology that you want your website to be built on

Reason: This is related to the cost of web development

• The objective behind your web project;

For instance: are you building from scratch or thinking of revamping.

• The budget you can afford for your website development;

Reason: Your choice of country for outsourcing might impact the budget

• The list of queries that you may have related to web development; 

Reason: You don’t want to take chances of missing any details that you are supposed to know.

Thus, it is indispensable that you should do your homework and list out all the aspects to be able to explain your requirements to the web development company. 

Remember that web development outsourcing companies may follow many technologies and methodologies for building websites, and hence you should be able to convey what you need precisely. 

It will help them understand what your web development needs are and can help you obtain the maximum outcome from your web development outsourcing.

2. Choose web development outsourcing experts

The central advantage of outsourcing web development is that you can get to work with experts at an affordable rate that otherwise might turn into a costly affair if you intend to opt for in-house web development. 

Thus, to make the most of your web development outsourcing, researching for the experts in the domain, and collaborating with them can help immensely.

3. Gain clarity on communication strategy

Outsourcing web development comes with a multitude of benefits, including faster completion of projects at reduced costs. To achieve this, constant communication with the outsourced team is crucial.

Due to the geographical and time-zone variations, problems in communication can arise. Also, finding an expert web development outsourcing company that can communicate in a common language might not be an easier task. 

To overcome such challenges and to maintain smoother communication, which is the key to ensuring a maximized outcome, here are some criterion that you should consider:

• Choose an outsourcing company that has a local representative or branch. It helps in reducing the turnaround time for communication and eases the knowledge sharing.

• Check the communication strategy that your web development outsourcing partner is using. Ensure you are comfortable with their flow and that the communication strategy ensures seamless work delivery.

• Check for their previous customers, if any, from your own country. Seeking their opinion might help understand their working style or to estimate their professional expertise.

• Invest in communication tools that help track the progress of the project. Slack, Toggl Plan, GitHub, Moqups, Gira, Dropbox, Asana, GitLab, Harvest, Confluence, Trello, Invision, etc., are some proven tools that help communicate at various stages of your web development outsourcing.

• Believe in the power of feedback. By sharing regular feedback, you can make your requirements clear that in turn helps the outsourcing team to correct their work strategy to meet your needs. Besides, constant feedback helps eliminate the hassles of reworking on the whole project had you shared your feedback at the end.

4. Arrange for a Point of Contact

Opting for web development outsourcing gives you enough time to focus on other business tasks. To maximize this benefit, you may consider arranging for a point of contact from your organization who can communicate and track the progress of the web development outsourcing. 

By arranging a point of contact, you can effectively handle the issues that could arise due to timings and language mismatch. Your POC can schedule regular calls or video meetings with the offshore team at pre-set timings and this provides clarity in communication as well.

The point of contact should be well versed in your business needs, possess excellent communications skills as well as issue management capacity. 

The role of POC is much more necessary at the initial stages of the project where the outsourcing team should gain clarity about the requirements to get started and to strategize the work style to meet your business needs. 

Once the workflow is fine-tuned, weekly updates might do to stay in communication for both parties.

What else should you do?

Outsourcing web development is a business on its own. Thus, forming a contract with the web development outsourcing company can help handle any unforeseen circumstances. 

The contract should talk clearly about the outsourcing company’s role in web development, their quality assurance, the budget of the project, the timelines of delivery, the after-project support, and legal aspects involved in the whole process. 

Summing Up

Outsourcing web development is not new for businesses. Owing to its multitude of benefits, outsourcing web development has always been preferred by both small and large businesses alike. 

However, the trick to making the most of the outsourcing process lies in choosing the best of the web development outsourcing companies along with ensuring constant and clear communication, aided with regular feedback.