Communication tips for Offshore Programming and Software Development Services.

There has to be a ‘click’
Make sure that you, or the person who will be project manager and programming contact person in your company have a click with the IT Offshore Project Manager
Companies use often sales persons in the first phase to get projects in. The sales don´t know always enough about programming and the technical possibilities, it can happen that they promise to much. Be sure to talk with the Programming Project Manager who will manage your project(s). Your Project Manager has to understand your programming requirements in depth and you have to be able to communicate in a flexible way with him.

The Functional Description for your software programming
Prepare your functional description for the programming work as good as possible. A functional description for software programming contains the Goal of the software application and describes required features. When programming parts are not complete or not clear enough, every good IT Outsourcing company will ask additional questions. Make time to answer these questions, also when some questions seem already clear. When all details are fully clear to the outsourcing partner, the first important step for good software and web programming development is taken.
The outsourcing company will refine your functional description for software programming (your request for proposal, RFP) and based on that will make a price, this after calculating the amount of programming hours required. After the functional description, a technical analysis has to be done. Sometimes pricing can´t be given before these technical analysis is completed and for some programming projects a fixed price will not be given, in this case the company will propose to work on an hourly base; it all depends on the complexity of your programming projects, third party components involved, programming in existing code, influence of existing data, etc…

Project Planning, partial deliveries and deadlines for Application Programming
Ask for a planning, be sure that you can follow up the progress of the programming development, daily reporting can be an option, daily Beta updates mostly not beacuse of required testing time. Beta updates are best organised at fixed times, agreed before the programming starts. How often and how you will be able to follow up the progress depends on the kind of software outsourcing project and on the agreement you make with your application programming provider.

Testing Procedure, Quality Assurance
Good IT Offshore companies have testing procedures in place. That´s also why you mostly can not get daily Beta version updates. Certainly in larger applications, testing takes time and has to be done thorough. When IT companies would give you a daily Beta update, it´s would be only interesting when they had already the time to do quality testing, otherwise you will become their test team what will consume a lot of your time.

Bug Management and Project Management tools online for programmers and clients
For larger programming applications, there will be a lot of communication between the client and the IT Offshore Programming Partner. Online tools to structure these communication and the follow up of things to be done is no overkill. It makes the workflow as well for client as outsourcing programming company more efficient. Ask the potential outsourcing partner if they have the right tools in place ?

• what will you get for which price ?
• when will you get it (planning, deadlines) ?
• how long (amount of days/months) bug fixing is included in the price, when does these tiime start ? (logically after delivery)
• what the price per hour will be when new requirements would come up and after delivery of the software application ?

• Will the programmed software be installed on your server or on the IT Offshore company server ?
• Will the programmed application be delivered by e-mail, FTP, … ?
• Installation of the programmed software is included or not ?
• Will you get 100 % of the programmed source code without that a part of the code is blocked, well or not fully editable code? Also when only 1 % of the programmed source code is not editable, you can´t do and edit everything you want with the code, although the IT Offshore company probably says, you can…
• Will there be a monthly or yearly maintenance fee ?
• Will another company be allowed and able, to see and get 100 % of the code to maintain or edit the code in the future without extra payment ?
  

Security, data protection, intellectual property right, Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
It´s a good idea to put on paper who is allowed to handle which kind of data, who has access to you your code etc. For larger projects an NDA, Non Disclosure Agreement will be signed between the client and the IT Offshore company. Good IT Offshore companies have an NDA in place between the company and their employees. This to make sure that what private is, will stay private.

Be commercial is: win-win partnership
A good start requires mutual respect and some trust.
When you want the cheapest, cheapest solution possible … you will probably get what you want. When you require extra features that are not described in the initial functional description you both have approved, understand that it is normal that your IT Offshore partner will probably ask for extra money. Every company has to earn his income.

Follow your basic instincts to find a quality programming partner
As well for the ‘click’ you need to have with your IT Outsourcing Project Manager, as for the trust you have in the technical programming experience and commercial honnesty of the IT Offshore partner, follow your basic instincts. It sounds maybe strange but big contracts and a lot of programming certifications do not assure that you are talking with the right, trustable programming partner. Company referrals, for example on social networking sites such as LinkedIn.com can give you a good idea about the history of the programming company and their management, if they have satisfied clients, … or not.