Maximizing Efficiency and Productivity: Nearshore Software Development Explained
+ Nearshore general/broader questions
What is nearshore software development?
Nearshore software development is a form of outsourcing, yet closer to home. It enables you to partner with a service provider to jumpstart your software modernization or digital transformation initiatives, utilizing the expertise, capabilities and experience of software engineers, developers and design professionals in your own country or one very close by.
Nearshore software development enables greater collaboration, responsiveness, and convenience. When you work with a nearshore software development partner, in contrast to other outsourcing models, projects can be completed and deployed faster, you can be assured that the solution was designed to fit your exact needs, it meets your quality standards and you still save costs.
What is Agile software development?
Agile software development methodologies, such as scrum, are widely used by nearshore software development teams. They’re a set of practices that help teams to collaborate, organize their work, and see it through to completion. It involves iterative development, where requirements and solutions are created through collaboration across cross-functional teams.
What types of software development should I outsource?
Software development nearshorers should be able to address the full range of requirements -- from cloud-based systems, such as workflow management solutions or custom mobile apps, to legacy application modernization.
Specific software development initiatives may include:
- Mobile app development: World-class mobile apps can provide a better user experience across all platforms and devices and deliver business value and the right solution wherever and whenever it’s needed.
- Software architecture: Whether it’s built upon Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS, the software architecture utilized can define your solution for years to come.
- Cloud software development: The cloud has brought new levels of accessibility and usability to companies everywhere. Your provider should have close partnerships with leading cloud service providers, in order to deliver cloud-first, SaaS applications that enable greater productivity with minimal resource requirements.
- UX/UI consulting: Human-Centric UX-UI design is an integral approach to creating products that solve specific users’ needs, taking into account their traits, habits, and expectations. Your nearshore software development partner should have design experience specialists who can help to pinpoint the customer pain points, desires, and expectations and build that into solutions that meet their real-world needs.
Automated and manual QA testing: This should be an integral part of every project, ensuring that software can correctly mitigate risks and be thoroughly tested to eliminate bugs and deliver quality software.
- Serverless application development: Your service provider should understand the complexity of scaling robust cloud infrastructure in terms of stability, security, and reliability.
- Legacy application modernization. Updating your application to a modern software language or a cloud-first architecture often is necessary to remain current, boost the user experience and enable more powerful and robust functionality to your core applications.
- DevOps as a service: A unique on-demand and cloud-first approach can help you to achieve a true DevOps implementation, accelerating software development, providing the tools needed to achieve desired outcomes and resulting in real business value.
How do I hire a nearshore developer?
Selecting nearshoring partners should be done with the same rigor as when hiring new internal staff. After all, they should be seen as an extension of your team. When procuring services from nearshore providers, you should first ask:
- How does nearshore software development fit into the overall business strategy? The real goal of a nearshore software development engagement should be to help you realize your business goals. A good prospective partner should be able to understand your vision and share ideas and provide guidance and recommendations on how to best execute strategic IT projects that meet your specific needs.
- What is the quality of the talent pool? An important step in the due diligence process is understanding the skills and experience of individual team members. Building transformational applications with state-of-the-art technologies requires top-notch talent at an individual level as well as the collective experiences of a company.
- What skills are required to get the job done? A nearshoring partner that provides a multidisciplinary team for UI/UX design, DevOps, quality assurance, software development, and artificial intelligence will be invaluable in extending your organization’s capabilities. This proves to be a real competitive advantage when executing digital transformation projects.
- Have they demonstrated success in similar engagements? As you do your research, you should not only ask for references but also follow up with each and every one. It is quite common for companies to skip this part of a due diligence process if they have established a good rapport with a vendor.
- How well does the team fit into your corporate culture? A nearshore development firm providing a dedicated team is bound to become an extension of your organization. Aligning corporate culture and values, establishing a trustworthy relationship, and creating a good team dynamic will be critical to the success of the engagement. Soft skills should be taken into consideration when selecting an IT sourcing vendor.
What companies use nearshoring for software development?
Any company can nearshore their software development project - regardless of the industry or size of the company. Small-to-medium-sized businesses find that they can lower their IT costs, and reduce the need for FTEs with highly specialized expertise. And, larger, regulated companies, can accelerate software development timelines to remain competitive, while ensuring that they adhere to the compliance requirements their specific industries demand.
What is rapid application development in software engineering?
Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a software development methodology that focuses on rapid prototyping and testing instead of software development with long schedules and extensive plans. RAD is just one way to approach software development and your software development partner can work with you to determine if it is the right approach for your project.
How much can you expect to pay for nearshore software development?
While the offshore model of outsourcing has been traditionally less expensive for companies than nearshore or onshore models, rates are increasing across all models of outsourcing as it becomes a viable solution to meeting IT goals and digital transformation initiatives. Even with the rising rates, outsourcing continues to be a lower cost alternative to in-house software development given the rising cost of highly specialized professionals for in-house positions.
Nearshore fees can vary widely depending on the project complexity, specialized staff needed and other factors. But to provide some context, a general digital transformation development sprint, conducted over three-to-four weeks could range from $25,000-to-$30,000. The development of a basic chatbot to be used to automate customer service functions could average $15,000. These types of one-off projects are one model, but there also can be more long-term partnerships where IT teams are composed of internal and nearshore experts who assimilate into a long-term partnership for extensive digital transformation initiatives.
Unpacking the Benefits of Nearshore Software Development
+ Nearshore software development benefits
Why is nearshore software development important today?
The pandemic has taught us that business continuity can thrive with remote work teams, and that includes software developers. The proven success of the remote work model, comes at a time when there is a serious shortage of tech talent to help companies deploy the software that is no longer a pet project, but a competitive necessity. Thanks to the growth of the internet and remote collaboration, nearshore software development allows companies to create digital solutions at lower costs and reduced internal resources.
Nearshore development outsourcing offers key strategic benefits, including:
- Diversified skill-set: Nearshore providers can complement the core capabilities of your organization with diverse and specialized technical capabilities. They also can help you scale your team whenever and for however long you need to.
- Faster time to market: With added resources, internal teams can increase the velocity to release and roll out new products and updated functionality to existing solutions in less time.
- Increased capacity: CIOs or IT managers often turn to nearshore software development partners that are able to scale up to execute strategic projects when their own staff is stretched too thin, or too busy working on other critical projects.
How can nearshore software development help your business?
Software development and AI are essential to business success today, yet it not only is becoming increasingly difficult to find the right tech talent, but it can be costly and risky to hire full-time given an uncertain economy. Nearshore software development is an effective way to make sure your projects move forward successfully with experienced tech professionals, cost effectively and with minimal risk.
What are the 5 benefits of nearshoring?
- Lower costs than an FTE
- Specialized expertise
- Pay for what you need
- Accelerated project timelines
- Easy collaboration
- A partner close to home
Why consider nearshore software services?
Nearshore software development can help you accelerate your software development and AI projects, with successful outcomes. Unlike offshore services, you’re assured talented professionals located closer to you, with similar time zones, culture and way of doing business.
How do you pick the right software development methodology?
There are many software development methodologies that can be used – from Agile, Waterfall or Scrum, to Lean and Rapid Application Development. Your nearshore software development partner should be able to select the one that is right for your project, based on the software requirements and the scope of the project.
How should I choose where to nearshore my software development projects?
You should consider leveraging nearshore providers in your own country, so that the same regulatory requirements are followed. Many countries and regulated industries require that data remain within the confines of the country, so it’s important that you can easily share the data that is vital to effective AI and other development projects.
What are the disadvantages of nearshore software development?
There really are no disadvantages to nearshore software development. The costs, however, can be slightly higher than offshore, yet the ability to more easily collaborate to ensure successful solutions can offset those costs.
Software Development
Related content curated for you
Hey there! My name is Linda Savage, and as a Wovenware Brand Ambassador, I’m here to help you navigate the changing world of software development. I’m sharing a few pieces of our curated content. Don’t miss out on staying current and inspired!
Linda Savage
Wovenware Brand Ambassador
Choosing the Best Nearshore Engagement Model to Meet Your Goals
+ Difference between different ways of engagement
What is the difference between offshore and nearshore?
Offshore is defined as outsourcing to providers in another part of the world, say India or the Philippines. These offshore nations have large talent pools, the lowest rates globally and a mature market with many outsourcing providers. However, communication and quality standards can be difficult to manage, travel times are extensive for U.S. clients, and the physical distance can stunt team collaboration, despite the benefit of 24/7 workflows.
Nearshore is right in the middle of these two models. While it’s not always referring to companies in the same country (although nearshorers often can be), it’s always referring to physical proximity and similar time zones — U.S. enterprises that outsource to companies in Canada, Latin America, or the Caribbean, for example.
What is the difference between onshore and nearshore?
Onshore is defined as outsourcing to providers in the same country. For example, a company in New York hiring a software development company in California is outsourcing onshore. Nearshore isn’t confined to companies in the same country, but is defined more in terms of the proximity to the client.
What are the benefits of nearshore, offshore and onshore development to my company?
Onshore provides the benefit of being the closest in proximity to you for easier collaboration, yet the costs can be higher than nearshore. And, while offshore is the lowest cost, it involves providers that are very far away, in different countries, time zones and cultures, which can inhibit effective collaboration. Nearshore provides the best of both worlds, typically lower costs than the mainland, yet with the same quality and all the collaborative benefits of onshore.
How do I choose between nearshoring and in-house software development?
It’s important to understand what it is you are hoping to achieve and then determine if you have or can easily obtain the internal resources required for effective software and AI development.
Better Together: Why a Project-Based Team is Essential for Nearshore Development Success
+ Project based-team
What is a dedicated project team?
A dedicated project team is a team of software development or AI professionals who are employed by your service provider but who together work on your short-term or long-term project. With this business model, the team becomes an extension of your own team and they are committed to your project.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a dedicated project team?
A dedicated project becomes an extension of your existing team for the long-term. As such, they become experienced with your business goals, processes and challenges and it avoids the disruption of onboarding new team members. There really is no downside to a dedicated project team.
How does a dedicated project team work?
A dedicated project team is an outsourcing option that allows you to contract with a remote software development team that is managed and part of the outsourcing firm. It provides a great option when you have a long-term project that requires the expertise of software developers, since it instantly expands your team, without needing to hire a FTE. Depending on your needs, a dedicated project team can work on-site as well.
How is a dedicated project team structured?
The service provider will structure the team to ensure that it consists of professionals who may have been involved with projects similar to your own, and which contains a mix of the right expertise and talent.
What is the difference between a dedicated project team and staff augmentation?
A dedicated project team is a team employed and appointed by your service provider to remain committed to our project throughout its duration. Staff augmentation can occur with a dedicated project team, but it also refers to individuals appointed by your service provider or your own company, to supplement your existing team, bringing the expertise needed for specific roles and skill-sets.
The Future of Development Teams: Nearshore Staff Augmentation as a Game-Changing Solution
+ Staff augmentation
What is staff augmentation?
Staff augmentation refers to individuals appointed by your service provider or your own company, to supplement your existing team, bringing the expertise that is lacking to specific projects. Augmented can work at the service provider’s location or at your own site, blending in seamlessly with your existing team, for short-term projects or long term.
What are the benefits of staff augmentation?
Staff augmentation can help you fill the gaps in your IT or development teams, to address tech talent shortages. It can help you jumpstart software development or IT initiatives, accelerate timelines and avoid the risks associated with hiring full-time-employees who may not be needed for permanent positions.
What is staff augmentation vs outsourcing?
Staff augmentation can occur within an outsourced business model to add to your software development, managed services or AI project teams, but it also can occur when you add contractors or other non-employees to your internal teams on your own to supplement them.