OFFSHORE DEVELOPMENT TEAM: HOW TO GET OUT OF TROUBLES WITH A BAD TEAM?

• Context: Offshore Development: Outsourcing software development to a team in another country, driven by cost savings, access to talent, and scalability. Risks: Poor vendor choices can lead to delays, bugs, financial losses, and unlaunched products, as illustrated by real-world experiences shared on platforms like Reddit.
• Offshore Development: Outsourcing software development to a team in another country, driven by cost savings, access to talent, and scalability.
• Risks: Poor vendor choices can lead to delays, bugs, financial losses, and unlaunched products, as illustrated by real-world experiences shared on platforms like Reddit.
• Definitions: Outsourcing: Delegating business functions to another company. Offshoring: Outsourcing to a company in a different country. Offshore Development Team: A dedicated team in another country, under your control, executing your software projects. Offshore Development Center (ODC): A structured offshore team tailored to meet project requirements with high qualifications and experience.
• Outsourcing: Delegating business functions to another company.
• Offshoring: Outsourcing to a company in a different country.
• Offshore Development Team: A dedicated team in another country, under your control, executing your software projects.
• Offshore Development Center (ODC): A structured offshore team tailored to meet project requirements with high qualifications and experience.
• Pros of Offshore Development: Reduced costs and financial savings. Access to highly skilled, systemic teams. Faster delivery and improved focus. Enhanced quality and risk mitigation.
• Reduced costs and financial savings.
• Access to highly skilled, systemic teams.
• Faster delivery and improved focus.
• Enhanced quality and risk mitigation.
• Cons of Offshore Development: Language, time zone, and cultural barriers. Mismatched quality expectations vs. cost. Delivery delays and loss of operational control. Potential exposure of confidential data.
• Language, time zone, and cultural barriers.
• Mismatched quality expectations vs. cost.
• Delivery delays and loss of operational control.
• Potential exposure of confidential data.
• 5 Signs of a Bad Offshore Development Team: Lack of Documentation: Failure to provide clear project requirement specifications. Underestimation: Unrealistic cost and time projections. Incompetency: Lack of necessary skills or expertise. Poor Infrastructure: Inadequate tools or technology stack. Ambiguous Ratings: Unreliable or unclear vendor rankings.
• Lack of Documentation: Failure to provide clear project requirement specifications.
• Underestimation: Unrealistic cost and time projections.
• Incompetency: Lack of necessary skills or expertise.
• Poor Infrastructure: Inadequate tools or technology stack.
• Ambiguous Ratings: Unreliable or unclear vendor rankings.
• Consequences of a Bad Hire (Reddit Example by SofaAssassin): HCL (India): Slow, incompetent team; simple feature testing took excessive time (2 weeks development ballooned to 3 person-months). Turkey Team: Frequent breaking of master branch, requiring local team fixes; reckless deployment (e.g., untested SSL fix crashed production). China Teams: Issues with technology theft, abuse, ignorance, and impatience, leading to project failures. Impact: Wasted time, financial losses, damaged team morale, and disrupted operations.
• HCL (India): Slow, incompetent team; simple feature testing took excessive time (2 weeks development ballooned to 3 person-months).
• Turkey Team: Frequent breaking of master branch, requiring local team fixes; reckless deployment (e.g., untested SSL fix crashed production).
• China Teams: Issues with technology theft, abuse, ignorance, and impatience, leading to project failures.
• Impact: Wasted time, financial losses, damaged team morale, and disrupted operations.
• Solutions for Recovery: Discontinue Contracts: Terminate agreements with underperforming vendors to avoid further losses. Research Trusted Providers: Use platforms like Clutch.co to evaluate vendor rankings, portfolios, skills, experience, and IT infrastructure. Due Diligence: Review past projects, verify technology stacks, and assess infrastructure before signing agreements. Act Decisively: Learn from mistakes, counter risks, and pivot to reliable offshore partners to complete unfinished work.
• Discontinue Contracts: Terminate agreements with underperforming vendors to avoid further losses.
• Research Trusted Providers: Use platforms like Clutch.co to evaluate vendor rankings, portfolios, skills, experience, and IT infrastructure.
• Due Diligence: Review past projects, verify technology stacks, and assess infrastructure before signing agreements.
• Act Decisively: Learn from mistakes, counter risks, and pivot to reliable offshore partners to complete unfinished work.
• Why Vietnam for Offshore Development?: Competitive Costs: Lower labor costs compared to other countries. Talent Pool: 430,000 software developers and 1.03 million ICT professionals, with strong foreign language proficiency. Global Recognition: Ho Chi Minh City in Top Outsourcing Cities for 8 years (Tholons, 2009–2016). Ranked 1st in pioneering location and cost environment (Cushman & Wakefield, 2016–2017). Top 10 for engineering graduates globally (Forbes, 2015). Supportive Policies: Open government policies for foreign companies.
• Competitive Costs: Lower labor costs compared to other countries.
• Talent Pool: 430,000 software developers and 1.03 million ICT professionals, with strong foreign language proficiency.
• Global Recognition: Ho Chi Minh City in Top Outsourcing Cities for 8 years (Tholons, 2009–2016). Ranked 1st in pioneering location and cost environment (Cushman & Wakefield, 2016–2017). Top 10 for engineering graduates globally (Forbes, 2015).
• Ho Chi Minh City in Top Outsourcing Cities for 8 years (Tholons, 2009–2016).
• Ranked 1st in pioneering location and cost environment (Cushman & Wakefield, 2016–2017).
• Top 10 for engineering graduates globally (Forbes, 2015).
• Supportive Policies: Open government policies for foreign companies.
• InApps Insight: InApps Technology, led by Tam Ho (Founder & CEO), is ranked 1st in Vietnam and 5th in Southeast Asia for app and software development. Offers Offshore Development Center (ODC) services, leveraging technologies like React Native, ReactJS, Node.js, Vue.js, Microsoft’s Power Platform, Azure, Power Fx (low-code), Azure Durable Functions, and GraphQL APIs (e.g., Apollo). Serves startups and enterprises with Millennial-driven expectations, delivering cost-effective, high-quality solutions at 30% of local vendor costs. Specializes in world-class software development, dedicated talent teams, tech startup consulting, and growth-hacking marketing.
• InApps Technology, led by Tam Ho (Founder & CEO), is ranked 1st in Vietnam and 5th in Southeast Asia for app and software development.
• Offers Offshore Development Center (ODC) services, leveraging technologies like React Native, ReactJS, Node.js, Vue.js, Microsoft’s Power Platform, Azure, Power Fx (low-code), Azure Durable Functions, and GraphQL APIs (e.g., Apollo).
• Serves startups and enterprises with Millennial-driven expectations, delivering cost-effective, high-quality solutions at 30% of local vendor costs.
• Specializes in world-class software development, dedicated talent teams, tech startup consulting, and growth-hacking marketing.
• Call to Action: Contact InApps Technology at www.inapps.net or sales@inapps.net for reliable offshore development services, tailored solutions, or to recover from bad outsourcing experiences.
• Contact InApps Technology at www.inapps.net or sales@inapps.net for reliable offshore development services, tailored solutions, or to recover from bad outsourcing experiences.

1. Diminished Cost
2. Financial Savings
3. High proficient and systemic team accessibility
4. Rapid delivery time
5. Excellent concentration
6. Quality acquirement
7. Risk mitigation

1. Language, time zone & cultural barriers
2. Anticipated Quality (vs.) Huge Cost
3. Delivery delays
4. Disclosing confidential elements
5. Slipping control over operations

1. Failure to provide well-documented project requirement specifications
2. Underestimation of cost and production time
3. Incompetency
4. Poor infrastructure
5. The ambiguity of ratings and rankings.

Question: Tell me about your experience working with offshore teams? Answer: “Terrible overall. I had bad experiences with a team we subcontracted from HCL (a major Indian outsourcing firm), who were all very slow and downright incompetent when it came to working. I had to push some new feature for a piece of software I was building, and the QA team for the product was the HCL team. Two weeks of my development time somehow became 3 person-months of testing time even though the functionality wasn’t very complex and fully documented. That was one of the most egregious moments I remember, but I wouldn’t say I liked working with them. More recently, I managed a team locally and worked in a company that outsourced some development work to a team in Turkey because of cost, and the local dev team was being rebuilt. The offshore team would break the master branch all the time and leave work, right about when we’d start our day, so we as a whole would have to fix their mess before we could start our work. The dev on the Turkish side who worked closely with me broke our production system multiple times because he was quick to leap before he looked – security fix for SSL needed? Boom, let’s push the fix without making sure to test the fix! He took down our site, and I had to fix it while on vacation. One of their team members also insulted my team, and that spelled the beginning of the end of our contract with them when I brought it up with my manager. And I’ve worked at companies that had offshore teams/partnerships in China. Those always ended up being absolutely awful for various reasons (technology theft, tech abuse, complete ignorance of technologies they were using, extreme impatience, etc.).” – A comment of SofaAssassin on Reddit.com

• Ho Chi Minh City in Top Outsourcing Cities in 8 consecutive years (Tholons, 2009-2016)
• Vietnam is ranked 1 in pioneering location and cost environment (Cushman & Wakefield business process outsourcing and shaped service location index, 2016-2017)
• Top 10 countries with the most engineering graduates (Forbes, 2015)