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Businesses don’t always have the resources to hire their own software development team. In such cases, outsourcing IT companies take over the development of individual software solutions. We will tell you how to find such partners and entrust them with your project.

When is outsourcing necessary?

When a businessman has a project idea but no “hands” for its implementation, they turn to out-of-staff IT professionals for help. This may happen in the following cases:

• If a company does not specialize in software development, it is unprofitable for it to build an IT department from scratch in terms of time and money. Business owners are handling this job over to more experienced IT partners like Andersen providing outsourced IT support.
• If a company needs to enter the market faster. Outsourcing software development companies can offer experienced specialists upon customer request. If an entrepreneur tries to solve the problems of finding, hiring, and training employees on their own, this can significantly delay the implementation of a project. If you wish to make yourself known faster and beat competitors in time, every day counts.
• If it is vital to save the budget. Rates of in-house specialists are usually higher than those of developers from offshore outsourcing software development companies. Third-party vendors have their own libraries, out-of-the-box solutions, and a robust IT infrastructure that speeds up development and saves time and money. In addition, ordering software from a third-party company frees the customer from organizational costs for renting a room, utility costs, and so on. 
• If there are no dedicated experts on the staff. Some projects require knowledge of rare technologies that staff members do not possess (artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality, DevOps, and so on). If your company does not need such experts permanently, order a product from an outsourcing software development company.

Why is it more profitable to outsource a software development project?

Today, outsourcing is becoming a common practice that helps companies to concentrate on business goals, solve performance problems, improve service quality, and obtain maximum profit.

• With outsourcing, you can find professionals in any country for a smaller amount. Sometimes the benefit reaches 40-60% since hourly rates of developers in different locations can differ dozens of times.

• Outsourcing makes it easier to introduce new technologies and implement solutions that are beyond the capabilities of full-time employees. Thus, you don’t have to waste time on training new staff members. You can involve an experienced IT specialist from another country in a distributed team.

• Outsourcing software development companies have experience in managing projects from start to finish, which takes the burden off customers and allows them to focus on business value. If there is a strict deadline, an IT service provider can schedule work and choose the staff to carry out everything on time without sacrificing software quality.

Popular outsourcing models

Traditionally, businesses opt for outsourcing to hire an entire software management team or individual specialists. There are three models of custom software development:

• Project-based outsourcing. The bottom line is that an external team leads a project completely, from the beginning to the end, guided by the requirements, budget, and deadlines provided to it. The customer can partially participate in the creation of an application and supervise the progress of work.

• Dedicated team. A client contacts a third-party supplier to hire individual experts needed for their project. The customer develops software on their own, but they may not have narrow specialists or advanced professionals. Thus, they don’t have to search and hire an expert for one year. It is more convenient to opt for outsourcing.

• Staff augmentation. A provider offers a customer a special team (developers, designers, testers, project managers, and so on), while the client takes responsibility for the main processes. That is, this company pays for office rent, software licenses, equipment and utilities, employee training, and benefits. The client manages the software development project and distributes responsibilities within the team.

Being aware of the business problems to be solved, an entrepreneur will choose the appropriate outsourcing model.

Things to consider before outsourcing a project

Before handing over your custom software development project, you need to determine several points.

If you have your specialists, check out how busy they are and whether they specialize in the technologies needed to implement your project.

If you are planning to outsource development to a third-party vendor, calculate the project budget. As a rule, the benefit from cooperation with IT outsourcing companies reaches 25-60%. Therefore, it is quite possible to find foreign specialists with different budgets. But keep in mind that it is not always possible to get the best quality for a lower cost.

Custom software development is not a magic solution for every project. It will be successful if both a customer and its IT partner are deeply involved in the joint work and respect each others’ needs.

Steps to take when outsourcing a project

Step 1. Determine your project goals and objectives.

A project without a goal is bound to fail. You cannot effectively monitor its success, effectiveness, and completion if you don’t understand what you are implementing. You must understand the purpose of the project, its users, and its competitors. This way you can protect yourself from bad decisions, obscure characteristics, performance, and unrealized business values.

Step 2. Choose a location for outsourcing

The global outsourcing market is divided into Western and Eastern Europe, the USA, and Asia. In these regions, there is a significant discrepancy in the rates of specialists: from 25 to 100 dollars per hour. The cheapest development can be offered by Ukraine, Poland, and other countries in Eastern Europe.

Step 3. Narrow your search by choosing an outsourcing software development company

The search for partners should start with studying the top IT software developers in the region. You can easily find them in rankings made by Clutch, GoodFirms, Awwwards, and others. For an initial acquaintance, you can study a company’s website to get an idea of ????its experience, implemented projects, tech stack, etc.

Step 4. Contact the companies you have chosen.

If the customer has found several companies and does not know which one to choose, they should see if any of them worked on similar projects. This will speed up the development process, as the firm will be able to offer specialists who are familiar with the required technologies.

During the initial contact with an IT provider, you should clarify a number of issues on the project cost, the necessary specialists and their competencies, the pricing model, development methodology, and so on, and agree on a joint meeting to discuss important issues. Choose an IT outsourcing company with a clear and transparent approach to cooperation. Thus, you will get a partner seeing eye to eye with you. Such a provider will be committed to the final result which is high-quality software.

Step 5. Recruit a project team

Depending on the goals of a project, its scope, and timing, an IT outsourcing company will offer several working resources capable of fulfilling all customer requirements. Typically, a project team consists of a Business Analyst, a Project Manager, several developers, and testers. The project may also involve IT architects, DevOps engineers, cybersecurity experts, automated testers, and so on.

All these issues are discussed with the customer within the framework of the pricing model and budget, which are previously agreed upon. The client can hire both the entire team of an IT outsourcing company and specific specialists that they lack in their own staff or a distributed team.

The agreements reached are reflected in the following documents: SLA, SRS, KPI, NDA, etc. 

Conclusion

You’ll understand if you can successfully outsource software development to a third-party vendor only after carefully studying the needs of your company, its budget, and other issues that are important to your business. The very fact that this format of work is cheaper than in-house development speaks in its favor. And this is not the only advantage of custom software development.

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Why does a business need an MVP?

Bringing a new application to market is always a business risk. About a third of startups fail because there is no demand for their products. To avoid this and not waste money, companies practice the development of a minimum viable product (MVP). This article will tell you what an MVP is and how to create it.

What is an MVP?

A minimum viable product is the first version of an application with a minimum set of basic features. It is ready for work and release to the market. This is a test version that helps to find out if a business understands the needs of its target audience correctly and it’s a standard part of an effective product development process. 

For example, when the Instagram MVP came out, users would log into the application, upload photos, apply filters, and share them with their friends. This social network has become popular from the start. The creators began to develop the program by adding new features: hashtags, live filters, stories, monetization tools, and so on.

The MVP concept was clearly illustrated by Henrik Kniberg, the author of Lean from the Trenches. He compared two product development processes: the traditional one and building an MVP.

In the traditional approach, a project team builds a product step by step. As a result, a business wastes time and money but customers may not like the final product.

With an MVP, things are different. A company focuses on the users’ problems and offers a solution. It enters the market. Customers use it and leave comments on its performance. Based on this feedback, the software development team improves the product and adds new useful features. Thus, after each such refinement, the product evolves.

In practice, it turns out like this: developers create a product within a month or two, implement the most important features, and invite users to test them. If the business idea is good and customers are willing to work with the application, the team continues to improve the software until it becomes a full-fledged digital product.

What are the benefits of an MVP for a business?

Companies start software development with an MVP to reap the following benefits:

Bringing an application to market faster. It will take developers only a few months to create an MVP. Then it enters the market and starts generating money that can be used to refine the product.

Attracting early adopters. An MVP introduces a business to the target audience. By researching it, the company learns what users like and what they expect from this software.

Getting valuable customer feedback and improving a product. An MVP is needed to check the number of users and buyers, the cost of customer acquisition, and so on. This data will be useful to improve the first version of a product.

Understanding if a product is suitable for the market. Software developers evaluate whether users like an application and whether it outperforms competitors’ offerings.

Getting started with minimal investment. The cost of developing an MVP is lower than that of the final software version as it includes only the main functions with which the program serves the target audience.

Attracting investors for the further development of a project. With the help of an MVP, it is easier for a business to demonstrate the merits of a product and get funding. When investors see that an idea works, they are more willing to invest in custom software development services.

How to build an MVP: a step-by-step guide

Companies often want to create a perfect product. As a result, the development of an MVP is delayed and the budget is running low. Other organizations, on the contrary, cut software functionality so severely that it becomes unsustainable.

Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup, has a simple piece of advice. After you come up with a product, you need to cut the functionality in half and repeat the same thing twice. It means that you should reduce the version by eight times.

An MVP development plan includes the following four steps:

Research the market

Eric Ries defined the main goal of startup projects: “The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes should be geared to accelerate that feedback loop.” For these purposes, you should conduct market research.

To create a relevant and useful product, project participants must know the purpose of the application, who will use it, what customer problems it will solve, and how exactly. By analyzing competitors, a business learns from their ideas and adds its own unique features, which makes the product stand out in the market.

Create a customer journey map

To create a useful program, you need to look at it from the point of view of customers and trace all the steps of users to the completion of purposeful action.

For the consumer journey map to be comprehensive, you need to do the following:

• Define user categories;
• Define user tasks, that is, actions that users need to perform to achieve their goals;
• Define the end of the user’s path, for example, “buy product”.

The map ensures that developers don’t miss anything when they create an MVP. As a result, clients will receive useful and up-to-date software.

Select the main features of the application

A customer journey map can help you determine which features to implement in your application. The software development team will prioritize functionality as low, medium, and high. The critical functions, without which the product cannot work, will be included in the MVP in the first place. For convenience, project teams use a priority matrix.

This is how a team providing custom software development services describes what features will be included in the first and subsequent versions of the product.

Develop and launch an MVP

When an MVP is released to the market, the software development team will constantly analyze customer feedback. It will tell you how to develop the product, what features to add to the software, what prevents users from achieving their final goals, whether there are errors, and so on.

An MVP may undergo several iterations before a useful competitive application is obtained.

Major mistakes of MVP development

Here are common mistakes of MVP development.

• Creating a product without researching the market. From a business perspective, a software product may be perfect. But if it fails to solve a consumer problem, it doesn’t make sense.

• Overloading an MVP or creating a feature deficit. An MVP includes the most necessary functions for the normal operation of an application. All other features can be added in future versions.

• Not prioritizing features. Working with an MVP does not stop at one release. For the software to develop consistently, you should plan what features will be implemented in each iteration.

Conclusion

An MVP helps to learn a lot about users and “test the water” before diving headfirst. All you need to do is plan your business hypothesis, define the core features of an MVP, understand your target audience, and find the right software development partner offering outsourced IT support. A team of professionals will help you build the most efficient solution. 

The post How to Create a Minimum Viable Product: A Business Guide appeared first on noupe.

Approximately 2.2 billion people all over the world suffer from visual impairments of varying severity, 5% of the world’s population experience hearing problems and 15% have disabilities. Therefore, when developing a software product, it is important to consider the accessibility of its design and inclusion. In this article, we’ll tell you how to put these principles into practice. 

The importance of accessible design

A low-floor bus is accessible to users with disabilities. In the digital world, a similar rule applies: if a person with a physical or mental disability can use a service or application, such products are considered accessible. 

Applications must be accessible to users who have hearing, visual or physiological impairments. In practice, this means, for example, providing subtitles to videos for the deaf, sign language translation functionality for the deaf-and-dumb, voice control for people who don’t have one or both hands. Accessible design helps people with disabilities to become full-fledged Internet users. 

In 2006, the UN adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which accelerated the integration of people with disabilities into society. Since then, the principles of accessibility have been extended to the virtual environment. Microsoft is one of the world leaders in accessible design and its promoter. The company has created a guide for designers on how to develop better apps. 

Another example of accessibility is Netflix. The interface of the platform has sufficient contrast so that the visually impaired can use it. Audio description allows the blind not only to listen to the dialogues in videos but also to imagine what is happening on the screen. 

Users of services themselves began to pay attention to accessibility. In 2017-2019, about 3,000 lawsuits were filed against brands without accessible website design, including well-known Apple, Domino’s Pizza, etc. 

Accessibility and inclusion

Design agencies focus on the average person: designers see a general portrait of the user and may not take into account the characteristics and needs of each person. 

Accessible design focuses on a specific group or groups of users. Inclusive design, in its turn, is a broader concept. This approach means that a product solves the problems of different people in different life situations. 

Proponents of inclusive design believe that people with different physiological abilities can, under certain circumstances, be in the same conditions. For example, both an elderly person and a child with a congenital illness can see poorly. Not only those who have lost a limb can use an application with one hand but also people who have been injured. 

Microsoft has a special term for such consumers which is extreme users (brink users / extreme characters). By creating universal products, developers solve the issue of accessibility for a wide range of users. It turns out that subtitles designed for deaf people can also be useful for those with good hearing but in conditions of poor audibility. 

Accessible and inclusive design helps companies to improve customer experience as customer focus is one of the defining factors of brand awareness. 

How do you know that a site meets accessibility requirements?

To create an accessible site, you should refer to the Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG). The standard is built on twelve guiding principles for creating content at three levels – A, AA, and AAA. 

• Level A

This is the minimum recommended level that can be implemented without a major redesign of an application. A software product must comply with 30 WCAG requirements: in particular, a text must be given an accessible name, labels are required for form fields, the application can be controlled using the keyboard, etc. 

• Level ??

This is a more advanced level of the standard including 20 additional points. To implement AA requirements, you need to make changes to the product design: change the contrast, focus, adjust the status of messages, and so on. 

• Level ???

This level summarizes the requirements of the previous levels and adds 28 serious conditions. Developers and designers must ensure that complex text has a simplified version, excludes embedded images, etc. 

Let’s compare the levels based on one example. The contrast should be 4.4-3 for Level A, 6.9-4.5 for Level AA, and 21-7 for Level AAA.

The compliance of the site with accessibility parameters can be checked through WebAIM, Colourcontrast, Contrastchecker, Color Oracle, Wave, etc. 

How to improve design accessibility

When implementing accessibility requirements, designers need to pay attention to the following issues:

• Color

The contrast between the text and background is of great importance for visually impaired people and for those whose eyes get tired from working at a computer. 

The color of the text and buttons is significant for those who do not distinguish between colors (colorblindness) or see the world in black and white (monochromacy). For example, red and green warning messages can be misunderstood and should be provided with textual indicators: “Stop”, “Forward”, “Back”, “Resend”, etc. 

Infographic 2:

• Font size and dimensions of elements

These characteristics are important for visually impaired people, the elderly, and users who are trying to read text from small smartphone screens. When choosing a font size, consider the semantic hierarchy of the elements on the page so that it is clear which element is the heading and which is a subheading. The size of the elements affects usability: small buttons are harder to click. 

• Subtitles

Subtitles make it easier for deaf viewers and those in noisy environments to watch videos.

• Alternative text in graphics

By adding alternative text to photos, images, and icons, you will make it easier for blind people to use the app. A screen reader helps them to navigate the virtual world. 

• Simplified text and navigation

Not all users perceive complex text in the same way. By adding a simplified version of the content to your site, you will help people with dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and low IQ to perceive information about your company, products, and services. Keyboard navigation is for users with limited mobility. 

How to create products with accessible design

To make software design accessible:

• Let your teams know beforehand

While designers are responsible for this, both developers and testers should be aware of design issues to best implement the project with inclusiveness in mind. 

• Conduct UX/UI research

UX/UI research helps to better understand your users. By conducting it, you will learn how people of different sex, ages, levels of physiological and mental development interact with the product. The study will show how effective your solution is and whether you are limiting your circle of users due to a lack of awareness. 

Use accessibility assessment tools

When creating a custom web design, use the tools to assess the accessibility of the application:

1. Color Oracle shows the site through the eyes of the colorblind and people with color vision deficiencies, 
2. Check My Colours evaluates the contrast of the color and background of pages,  
3. Wave evaluates the site’s HTML structure, contrasts, and compliance with the WCAG standard. 

• Provide the same user experience for everyone

Compliance with the WCAG requirements does not always determine the convenience of a product for customers. For example, if subtitles are set up carelessly, users will not have time to read. An alternative solution is to invite visitors to choose the playback speed and transcript format themselves. 

Accessibility as part of UI/UX design brings benefits in terms of business outcomes. By implementing the principles of inclusion, you will make software products more convenient, expand your audience, and improve your site’s SEO. If you want to create a product with accessible design, you should turn to an experienced software development company.

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