Outsourcing Vs In House Product Development — Startup 101

Outsourcing Vs In house Product Development:

I’ve constantly battled this thought of outsourcing software development Vs in-house resources. The discussion takes on pros and cons of outsourced software development for startup’s as opposed to hiring developers to complete a development.

Undoubtedly both approaches have their benefits and disadvantages. The discussion takes a questioning approach to find the solution which can benefit you the most.

The startup challenge: outsourcing

The topic of outsourcing Vs in-house is a challenging one for established companies. The trade off is naturally between cost, speed of development, agility for changes, cultural differences and cost of mistakes.

These challenges double up when dealing with a startup where resources are limited and you’re trying to get the best possible solution with minimal resources. A key driver for this thought is — you cannot do everything by yourself

This is precisely what makes the challenge more meaningful since you’ve got more ability to act and arrive at decisions far quicker than a large company can.

Why do we need outsourcing

The key reasons to outsource are

More advantages of outsourcing can be found here

When not to outsource

Outsourcing Vs Offshoring

I’d be wrong not to point out the difference between outsourcing and offshoring. You can outsource within the same geographic region to avoid some challenges such as distance, culture and agility of response. If the software development house is nearby and accessible then all the more reason to consider outsourcing.

Offshoring is a lot more challenging due to cultural and geographical barriers. You’ll need an in-house team to manage the external team. No matter how optimistic you are you’ll certainly need more closer line management and must allocate adequate time and resources for that.

The balance

With all these outsourcing really works and that’s precisely the reason why it exists. It is certainly not as easy as it is made to sound but you can certainly benefit from its use. As a startup, of course it is doubly hard and Challenging. There is often a larger sacrifice for the cost of finances. I suppose the question is how valuable this trade off is.

On that note we call your thoughts on this discussion and would love to know your experience and recommendations about outsourcing. Please do share your views with comments below and help our fellow entrepreneurs to shine.

Originally published at https://inspire99.com on October 6, 2019.