From Shanghai and Beijing to Mumbai and Bangalore to London, Stockholm and Toronto, the startup ecosystem has seen dramatic growth around the world.
From the findings of Rise of the Global Startup City, the world’s top 10 cities account for 61% of venture activity in the latest three-year period, which was just 56% a decade ago.
Smartphones are the significant game-changer here, which opens the floodgates for startup enthusiasts by providing them the business platform at competitive pricing. Rich mobile technology fused with mobile application development is what defines business for smart entrepreneurs.
So, not only startups are emerging, but there is also an increase in the number of rebound entrepreneurs entering the market with the advent of e-commerce businesses. And thus, it will not be wrong to say that an application which can bring a creative solution for modern problems is all you need to bring the card up your sleeve.
How you can kick start your app development?
One of the biggest dilemmas here is to outsource or not to outsource app development.
Well, for startups, outsourcing app development is the best solution to jump in the market within the shortest time and to spend the minimum amount.
Choosing in-house development will not only increase the initial investment but also affect the capital requirement of the company and its overall starting position.
Why startups should outsource app development
1. Access to top talent from around the globe
Outsourcing product development means gaining access to great talent worldwide. You choose your team based on the skills and professionalism.
A recent report by PPI reveals that India will account for 1.674 million app economy jobs as of August 2019, which means the growth of 39% from 1.208 million in 2016.
Fueled by rapidly rising demand for app development services, the country’s app economy is expected to grow at an exponential rate, with a number of application developers surpassing those in the US by 2024.
To find the team that is perfect for your project’s purpose
- Browse the company’s portfolio
- Check the reviews
- Look for the customer’s feedback
- Try the products that the company has delivered.
2. Get much more than product development
Why outsourcing is fruitful for startups is also because by collaborating with an outsourcing agency, you get much more than software development.
Top app development companies in India offer you a complete package of consultation, market analysis, design, development, and marketing services.
Software Development Life Cycle. Img Source:Science Soft
So, don’t worry, even if you only have a product idea that exists in your head. Outsourcing agencies will work with you from the very first phase of the project. You can pick a company that can assist you in building the product prototype and performing market research.
Depending upon the product type, you can ask the marketing and design experts of the outsourcing company to create an MVP and then interpret the analytical data it yields. Outsourcing companies offer you the most optimal and comprehensive project plan, which includes everything right from project planning to cost estimation, wire-framing, UI/UX design, and software development.
3. The right balance between skills and rates
With outsourcing, you can pick an option that benefits you with maximum skills along with matching your budget. The outsourcing geography is quite broad with India and Eastern-Europe as popular outsourcing hubs.
India is one of the most financially attractive locations when viewed in combination with the availability of skilled people and the business environment it offers. Apart from cost, strong technical education also makes India one of the favorable choices for outsourcing product development.
For instance, Ukraine has over 400 educational institutions, which result in more than 40K students graduating with technical disciplines every year.
On the contrary, India has around 620 technical institutions including the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing (IIITDM) and Indian Institute of Information Technology. All India Council for Technical Education along with 10 statutory boards takes care of technical education within the country.
4. Get complete team on-board
Establishing your development team can put you off schedule and could be a bit heavy on your pocket as well.
For a successful product, you not only require developers and DevOps, but you also need
- Business Analysts to identify the requirements of the project functionality
- UI/UX designers to create wireframes, design user flows, create UI mock-ups and more.
- QA engineers to test the product
- Copywriters to create product documentation and other UI texts.
In addition to this, you might also require some highly specialized skills, if your idea includes advanced technology such as AI or virtual reality. Finding such an expert is a time-consuming and daunting job.
Usually, outsourcing companies in countries like India have a complete team on board or quickly look for freelancers to fill the positions that require particular expertise.
5. Application of agile methodology
For a startup, it is crucial to keep up with the principle of lean development. Lean software development includes a set of principles that can be applied to decrease programming effort and budgeting.
The best way for successful product development is to apply the lean approach with the agile product development methodology, organizing the development as an iterative process.
Agile methodology is a practice that promotes continuous iteration of development and testing throughout the product development lifecycle. The agile approach enables making changes on the go and with agile, hence the necessity to redo finished component reduces to zero.
Agile Development Approach
App development agencies in India adopt an Agile approach recognizing that startups need to work with the lean development methodology. This way, you will be consistently updated with the status of the project and suggest changes without any delay.
6. Easy scalability
When it comes to project development, there are chances that scope may grow or reduces. With in-house development, it becomes challenging to scale up or down the initially selected team.
If you are looking for your own development, it becomes a bit challenging to quickly find another team with the required challenges, if the skills are required for one project only. If you have to reduce the team, either you have to dismiss people or continue paying them on the current salary. Either way, the solution is far from optimal.
Team composition by Size. Img Source: EightShapes
With outsourcing, you need not worry about all this as the agency usually has enough staff to cover the project needs and if any special skill is required to cover the project, then they contact a part-time member.
7. Smooth communication
Communication could be your biggest concern while outsourcing product development. However, an outsourcing agency is equipped with all tools and platforms for project management and effective collaboration of the team. There are numbers of collaboration and project management tools like GitHub, Slack, Jira, Trello and more that makes communication a piece of cake.
When a team is used to working together, all big and small issues get resolved quickly and in the most effective manner.
In addition to this, in a well-established, the project manager can quickly find a replacement in case of illness or other emergencies.
8. Minimum risk
Of course, there is a risk involved in assigning the project to a new team. Despite good and positive testimonials of the company, there are still chances of delays, miscommunication and features developed differently from what you expected.
However, with outsourcing chances of such risks are minimal. In outsourcing, you get the flexibility of building contracts for a small task. You can make a complete agreement specifying the quality, deadlines, rates and acceptance criteria. If you are satisfied with the performance of the team, go ahead and sign a contract for the complete project.
On the contrary, if you see that your project is not getting development the way you want, you can cancel the contract at any time.
Now, when you are convinced that outsourcing is the best strategy for the success of the startup, the next question is whether outsource to agency or freelancer?
Agencies or freelancers?
On a final note, let’s find out which outsourcing structure is better for your startup project. Both approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, and the most obvious being the cost.
Freelancers work with minimum infrastructure and management, hence the cost of hiring freelancing is usually low. However, there is also side to this advantage and i.e. with freelancers, you need to manage each and everything and coordinate with a distributed team who will be working according to their schedule.
On the other hand, development agencies do their management which makes the entire process more streamlined. For this reason, if you are thinking of a complex and large project, it is recommended to make a contract with a reliable cloud based app development company to make sure that you get the product as per your standards.
A final thought
Mobile app development is a time-consuming, challenging and expensive venture in the tech world, especially for a startup.
To minimize the price tag, avoid the hassles of hiring and managing staff, and to gain the consistent support that is required after the launch of an application, trusted agencies that specialize in cloud based application development are always the best bet.
Even the tech giants like Google, IBM and Skype relied on offshore development during their initial years. This allowed these companies to unleash new opportunities and finally become a big brand.
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