How can you manage a dedicated software development team?

As a software development company owner, I would suggest adding this point to the article: how to manage the cultural and time zone differences of a dedicated team. If your dedicated team is located in a different country or region than you, you need to be aware of and respect their cultural values, norms, and preferences, and avoid any potential misunderstandings or conflicts. You also need to consider the time zone differences and find the best time to communicate and collaborate with your team without compromising their work-life balance or productivity. You can use tools and platforms that can help you manage the time zones and schedules of your team, such as [World Time Buddy] or [Google Calendar].

Software outsourcing often fails when communication isn't a priority. We're in the business of moving information – from thoughts to code, from docs to code, and more. So, when you make communication harder, you make development harder. When you make communication almost impossible, having a project succeed becomes impossible. Outsourcing remotely works when you fully integrate these remote people into your communication. It's about speaking the same language, knowing each other beyond text, and even understanding body language. Focus on establishing proper communication with your software agency if you want to make your collaboration bring value to the table. Otherwise, it will be a waste of your time and money.

Communication, communication, communication! That the key - so 'regular' is not enough. You need to establish the daily stand up and get that working. Then a demo for the end users at the end of every sprint as another part of the communication. And have a Teams channel running all the time in the first two or three months after you onboard the external team. Even when the small demos, questions to a feature or bug, may seem a little overkill to include the full team, but it builds trust, understanding and leads to better teams in the long run.

When you kick off with a dedicated software development team for the first time, make sure you're ready to put in a good chunk of your time upfront. A smooth start is all about some solid planning, setting the right directions, and prioritizing things to make sure everything aligns with your end goal. Sure, remote dev teams can handle their business and deliver results at the end of the day. But the more time you invest upfront explaining your vision and steering the ship, the better the outcome will be. It's a gradual process—spending time with your remote dev team will ease up as they get the hang of your business processes.

We should not neglect the power and importance of bonding and chit-chatting every once in a while by organizing activities on working hours or after hours such as dinner, lunch outside the office, movies, hiking, karaoke etc… Or online meetings for remote teams to discuss topics and share thoughts that not necessarily is related to work. This works as an “icebreaker”, and helps creating synergy among the group.

Make sure all developers have created a pull request within the first working day or two! That is the way they see the contribution directly to the next release and the value you try go improve by having the team on board. QAs must be through a full test case and see that a previous delivered feature works or ensure that any automated tools work for them within the first day or two. They are an intergrated part of the full process and often their role is not appreciated enough.