The costs for mobile app development services may vary drastically from one country to another. Countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines etc are among the cheapest when it comes to the cost of development while countries like USA and UK have the highest costs and the reason for this is straightforward – the cost of human resources in each country.
Although the development costs in countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan etc. can seem very lucrative for founders at the beginning, they can pose several challenges in the future. In this blog, we will briefly discuss about the challenges and risks that you would face while dealing with a cheap offshore development company and ways in which you can mitigate those risks.
The mobile application development industry has grown rapidly in recent years due to the increase in penetration of the internet and smartphones around the globe. Today approximately 6.648 billion people around the world uses smartphones and this represents 83.72% of the total population. Countries like India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Pakistan have catered widely to this increasing demand by offering cheaper and cost-effective mobile app development services. Today there are about 32,000 IT companies in India, 4,500 companies in Bangladesh and 2,350 companies in Pakistan. These numbers are growing rapidly due to the rising demand however, there are several challenges being encountered by companies and founders around the world:
1. Cost variations It is almost guaranteed that when you proceed with a cheap vendor for your mobile app development services, the final costs are going to be much higher than the initially agreed prices. One of the main reasons for this increase is the lack of a clear Scope of Work (SoW) document itemising each and every feature required to be built within the application. The low-cost vendors usually tend to keep the SoW very vague as most founders are non-technical allowing them to cash in once the project is mid-way leaving no option for you to question or change the vendor. Most founders have also noticed that the cost of variation quoted by cheaper vendors are much higher than the initial rates that were offered to hook you on at the beginning.
2. Low code quality: The main strategy that cheap vendors follow to maintain a low operational cost is hiring newbie/ inexperienced software developers. Less experienced software developers right off from their universities come at a very cheap price which means they are most often than not learning coding on your project. This means the quality of code written is most likely very low which may lead to a higher number of bugs and issues once the project is launched. Most founders often look to take a handover of the code post-development to proceed with in-house maintenance of the project. Having a low code quality would make it extremely difficult for your in-house team to manage the project. You would have to spend a considerable amount of time and effort in improving the quality of the code which in turn means more costs being accumulated on the project.
3. Delays in project delivery: Having a vague SoW coupled with inexperienced developers working on your project can only lead to one outcome – Delayed project delivery!!!
It is also important to note the macro trends in such countries where development costs are cheap. As the resources are hired at very low costs, and the demand for software development being very high, the opportunities for software developers are in plenty. This results in a very high employee churn rate where employees tend to leave their company after gaining some experience to join alternate firms offering them a slightly better package. The typical employee turnover rate in Indian software sector ranges between 15-30% where employees tend to leave within short durations. This is an important factor to consider, as high employee attrition rates may lead to several developers working on the same project which leads to a lot of wasted time in knowledge transfer which ultimately results in extended project timelines.
4. Communication gaps: Most of the countries that have a cost advantage due to lower human resource capital are not native English-speaking countries. The challenge here is the lack of efficient communication between yourself and the vendor which may again lead to increased cost, project timeline and more importantly wasted time and effort.
5. Poor testing: Several founders have reported that the quality of mobile apps delivered by cheap mobile app development vendors are poor as they have several bugs and inconsistencies which are only found once the mobile app has been delivered. Mostly all cheap mobile app development vendors invest very little in test engineers to reduce their costs. They give an added responsibility to their developers to test the apps as well in order to control their costs. This affects the project quality drastically as developers do not get enough time to test their code thoroughly as they have project deadlines to get more info meet. This results in a very poor app being delivered where you would have to spend your time in testing the apps or invest in resources yourself to have the apps tested to ensure the quality of your project.
6. Risks in code handover: Most of the cheap mobile app development companies are hesitant to transfer the final code and credentials with you post-project development (although they might have committed to do so prior to project award). This is to ensure that you are not looking out for other vendors to take over the project or that you do not develop the project in-house for all future features and versions. It’s not that they would not transfer the code to you but would provide very little to no support to understand their work. Lack of proper documentation adds to the misery as it gets very difficult for a new team to learn the project which makes the code handover process even more tedious.
Another point to consider here is the payment terms of offshore vendors as they usually demand all their money prior to code handover which puts you at a lower negotiating power while considering getting your work from them.
Another challenge pertaining to code handover is the code itself as you would need to have relevant resources in place (iOS, Android, Backend & Front-end developers) at your end to check and ensure that the latest work is being committed or handed over to you.
7. Poor after-sales support: It is expected that you receive timely feedback and resolution to your queries or app fixes while the project is launched and within the warranty period. Most cheap vendors offer very little aftersales support as it is an additional cost to them which they tend to avoid. This may lead to a bad user experience for your customers if bugs or issues are not addressed quickly. Most cheap vendors are reluctant to offer a long-term maintenance contract as well as it is more lucrative for them to assign their resources to new projects. This may lead to your project left hanging post-launch which is a key factor to consider while choosing your software development partner.
8. Low business ethics: It is important to note that cheap mobile app development vendors most probably have very low business ethics. This may lead to frequent unhealthy encounters throughout the project development life cycle. This is also important to consider while selecting your vendor as you would be revealing your business idea to them which also poses a risk post-development as they might use the developed code for other projects or customers.
9. Lack of Cloud Competence: It is very seldom that cheap mobile app development vendors would have a competent cloud architect at their disposal as they are quite expensive resources. Cloud competence is crucial for most projects as it determines the scalability and performance of the mobile application. Moreover, the cloud architect is also responsible to configure the security features of the cloud to ensure the apps and backend are secured from hackers.
How can Innobayt help?
Innobayt is a mobile app development company based out of Dubai that also offers Project Management as a service. With this business model you not only get to enjoy lower development costs for your project by outsourcing your project to other countries but also ensure your projects are delivered with high quality. Below are the services we offer as part of this package:
1. Interviewing your chosen software vendors and the developers assigned to your project to test technical competence and aptness for your project.
2. Drafting a highly detailed Scope of Work (SOW) document through multiple rounds of brainstorming sessions with you prior to releasing a request for quotation.
3. Prepare a thorough legal contract to be signed by the awarded vendor that is tailored to your project requirements and needs.
4. Prepare a proper project architecture to ensure the apps are built as per the best practices.
5. Review the Functional Requirement Document (FRD) prepared by the vendor to ensure all features are considered.
6. Splitting the project into milestones to ensure there a several check points through the project development cycle to ensure project timelines and quality is met
7. Testing the project both by Manual testing and Automation testing to ensure very high project quality.
8. Ensuring regular code commits from vendors to mitigate risks in the project.
9. Reviewing code quality at the end of every milestone to ensure optimal code quality.
10. Act as bridge between the client and the vendor to ensure proper and timely communication between the two.
11. Perform penetration testing at the end of the project development stage to ensure optimal security of the code
12. Configure relevant parameters in the cloud (AWS/ Azure) to ensure optimal performance of the app with the highest security
13. Confirm on all points at each stage/ milestone of the project and provide a confirmation for the client to release the payment to the vendor
14. Preparing thorough project documentation that would include SoW, Project Architecture Diagram, Functional Requirement Document, Bug reports, Penetration test report, Automation Test Report, GIT Repo credentials, other third-party credentials etc.