Offshore Development – How to Build a Highly Productive Remote Team?

Offshore Development - How to Build a Highly Productive Remote Team?

Outsourcing is a trend these days in the IT industry and the Offshore Product Development Services are running the game. Production and maintenance costs are a huge pain to see through for the business models in the current scenario. Outsourcing the offshore development IT processes to remote staff helps to take out this pain to a considerable extent. However, it is not as easy as it might sound to choose a suitable partner among the Offshore Product Development Services. Neither is to build a Highly Productive Remote Team.  

Surely, there are numerous benefits of a remote development team. But only if you get it rightly executed. The execution phase of offshoring starts with building a great remote team. Going through the further sections of the blog, you will get to know how to build a great remote development team… 

Steps to Build a Strong and Productive Remote Development Team 

We established that it is difficult to put together an ideal offshore team to carry out your project with optimum efficiency. However, if you follow certain steps with precision, the process will get quite easier for you.  

The following are the steps you need to consider:  

1. Create a Detailed Job Description 

It is something that most organizations fail to adhere to. Eventually, it leads to hiring the wrong candidate for the project. This creates a conflict between the employee and the employer later. Hence, you need to make sure that you create a job description just as you need the candidate for the role. Portray the job responsibilities, details of your project, timeline, and budget including all the relevant information. Also, remember to mention the goals and objectives of your business. 

2. Hire the Team Members from Trusted Sources 

Once you fill a vacancy, you will receive lots of applications for the role. Try to be selective with the sources you choose for leads while hiring the members for your remote team. You are possibly never going to meet the candidate. All communication will be digital. So, it is better to have a trusted source to back the authenticity of the candidates. This is important for security reasons as well because the candidate after hire will have access to your resources. This may include important data and some critical information as well.  

3. Hire the Right Developers 

Do not run behind just the raw talent. You need to understand your project requirements and the technical skill set to carry it out. Then shortlist the developers proficient in the coding languages you are going to work upon. It is better to hire a candidate who is 10/10 in one language than a candidate who is 5/10 in multiple languages. You just need to focus on the technical proficiency you need for your projects. Also, keep an eye on the soft skills while hiring the development staff. Communication proficiency is a must-have in Offshore Product Development Services. 

So, that was all about hiring the team. Once the team is created, the actual challenges start to come your way. Let us see how to manage them… 

Making the Team Highly Productive Once It’s Created 

Offshore Product Development Services come with process-borne challenges. These challenges include differences in time zones, language barriers, cultural differences, and most importantly diversity in working attitudes. You will see that different team members will approach the solution for the same problem in a different manner. To develop a better synchronization and optimize the productivity of the team you need to keep in mind the following points: 

Put People Above Everything Else

A development project constitutes a lot of elements, even if it is carried out by a remote team. There are tools, techniques, goals, objectives, and compliances as well. But the power of putting people first is something that these teams always underestimate. You need to make sure that each member of the team feels valued. This will help to enrich your organization’s culture. 

Give the Remote Team Members Ownership and Responsibilities

Most often offshore teams end up doing menial tasks like creating and filing the documents of the project. You need to give ownership and responsibility for the deliverables to the remote team members. This will make their job challenging as well as interesting. Without challenges, their routine will get tedious, and they will tend to leave their positions eventually. 

Maintain Frequent Communications

Communication is the key factor that would clear any kind of confusion in the running of things. Also, it helps to keep everyone updated on the real-time progress of the project. Moreover, development methodologies such as Agile and Scrum involve daily stand-up meetings to keep track of the project as well as the individual performance. Additionally, adequate communication is the only thing that can counter the cultural and strategic differences among the team members. 

Summing Up 

We here at RSK have been providing Offshore Product Development Services for a long time now. And we understand that a talented team can lead to impressive results. Also, while creating and managing a remote development team you need to see what is more suitable rather than what is the best. Highly skilled individuals do not guarantee a well-synchronized team. So, focus on building a team that has individuals having suitable skills as per your project requirements and they work in optimized coordination as well.