Web development outsourcing has become an integral part of any development strategy. Be it an enterprise or small & medium size businesses or start-up companies, the word “Offshore Development” or “Nearshore Development” became very critical.
There are many reasons to move towards offshore development. I am sure you would have already read articles which talks about the pros and cons of Offshore & Nearshore development. You could Google “Outsourcing” and tons of materials are readily available for reference. Here, I am not going to discuss again about the pros & cons. Let’s discuss about cost of high-quality code.
You could read the following article: The Price for IT Services in the World: Market Research. This article talks in detail about the cost of the development in various countries. The detailed study gives a clear view of the price range of the different experience levels of developers around the globe. The only missing piece of the information is that about the quality of code and the technology platform & related skill sets of the developer
By now most of the companies accept the offshore development as a great shift in perception. But still determining the cost or associated quality is still a challenge. The “Skilled Web Developer” is always the need of the hour. The offshore development companies’ success entirely depends on the Skilled Web Developer.
When we talk about the “Quality” of the “Code” and the associated “Cost,” there are two major factors to be considered:
1) Technology Platform
2) Product Development Process
Let us discuss more on these two critical factors which decide the outcome of web development outsourcing.
Technology Platform:
Picking up the right development platform makes the vision comes to reality concerning the product development objectives. Read the article, “Tips for choosing your development platform” which gives a good set of points to understand the critical factors to consider when a technology platform to choose for any product development. As per the previously referred article, as I mentioned the technology platform is not regarded in great detail to determine the cost.
Let me share one of the real time incidents which I have faced in recent past. One of the ex-Google employee based out of Europe wants to develop a product in healthcare domain. The startup idea is fascinating. He told he is going to evaluate three vendors to choose the offshore development company to work with for his product development. He wants us to work on a small proof of concept. Have agreed nearly all the conditions he has listed down to us.
The technology stack to work for the product includes Google GoLang and Docker along with micro services concepts. Our skilled developers are capable of exhibiting all the knowledge he is looking for to explore. The initial interview process and discussions are over with the client. Then comes the critical phase, “Cost negotiation.” I am sure as an ex-Google employee he knows about the technical skill he speaks about for the product development. But his way of understanding is as similar to the market research referred above. The cost mentioned by him is too far low for the experience and technical skill combination he is looking for to develop the product. Just referring to one such report, he was negotiating the cost of the skilled web developer way below than the par market rate.
Finally, I had decided to pull back as there is no reason to spare our best-skilled web developers to the project which pays far little than the industry average. Have spoke in detail about “When to say No to the project” in my another article.
So by now, you could have understood that the experience level and the technical skills you were looking will determine the “Cost” or answer the question on “How much should I pay for the high-quality code.”
Product Development Process:
The next important factor in determining the “Cost,” based on the product development process. As some of you might know there are three corner stone which hold the reason for “Quality” output:
1) Product Features
2) Timelines for Delivery
3) Skills of the Resources
We could consider these three points as three corner stone of an equilateral triangle as shown below:
The factor “Quality” revolves around the inner spherical structure of this equilateral triangle. To consider the “Quality” staying well within the mentionable boundary the triangle will always be an equilateral triangle. By now, you could have understood the fact, as long the triangle is equilateral the predicted or the expected Quality can be achieved.
Now the question is “How to maintain the Triangle as equilateral?”
The answer is “Fix” two of the three end points always, which means solve any two factors out of the three factors: product features, timelines for delivery, skills of the resources makes the process easier and provides the perfect solutions. The equilateral property of the triangle remains the same by pre-setting two sides or set the lengths accordingly. This set of two sides helps to achieve the predicted or expected code quality.
Lets us see this equilateral triangle concerning on how much should I pay for high-quality code. The cost is driven by the three factors: Features, Timelines, Resources.
To maintain the quality as we discussed above, we have to fix up two of the three corners. Meaning, if the “Features” and “Timelines” are set as constant, then the “Resources” needed can be determined. The same way if the “Features” and “Resources” are fixed as constant then the “Timelines” required can be determined. So this little process discipline could help to determine the “Cost” associated.
Whenever the client has a Budget constraint, I used to explain about this equilateral triangle and requested them to fix up two of the three factors.
This agreement could help to determine the “Budget” in turn to answer the question of “How much should I pay for high-quality code?”.
Please share your experience on this topic in comments, so can discuss more for understanding the real-time scenarios in detail. Thanks for reading.
Ganapathi
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