Success in Outsourced Product Development

Success in Outsourced Product Development

The recent economic slowdown was so swift and dramatic that many companies had to find ways to trim their outsourced product development costs in a hurry. While the big companies could move to scale up their lower cost offshore design centers rather quickly, the smaller companies were without that option. Unable to find a quick and economical way to implement their dream projects, many startups were forced to shut down. Still others signed contracts with limited third party product developers in low-cost geographies only to realize that outsourced product development is easier said than done. 

Occasionally, customers discuss their experience in outsourced product development with companies, almost always noting failures by both parties. Like everything else, there’s a process for successful outsourced product development, and lack of enforcement will lead to expensive mistakes. Any outsourced product development project has several stakeholders, starting with the management of both the product and service companies. But the key stakeholders are the VP and Director of Engineering in a product company and the Technical Lead and Project Manager in a services company; their experience and skills can make or break the engagement.

 

It’s important to know the business model of your partner for outsourcing product development. While many companies make available qualified engineers, tools, and infrastructure, they sometimes do not take delivery responsibility for the product. The product development almost always involves hardware and software. While it’s much easier to have everything done by the same vendor, one must also consider their capabilities in both areas separately. In any case understand the business model and their fit to your requirements.

Outsourcing product development requires extensive documentation, much more than when doing it internally. Since it is a contractual arrangement, it requires very detailed documentation. Lack of adequate documentation is one sure way to end up in failure. Full documents are the requirements before the actual work starts and all the way through completion of the outsourced product development project.

Success in outsourcing product development is not obtained through black magic. It is the ultimate fruit that is harvested after the long process of careful and planned implementation of the various components that go into the execution of a project of outsourced product development. 

Q3 Technologies an Outsourced Software Development company help our customers achieve new heights with reduced Time-To-Market and substantial cost saving.