Quality Concerns

“I feel like I’m paying my offshore team to put bugs in the system and then fix them.” Does that sound familiar? One of our potential clients felt this way, frustrated with the quality of work delivered by his offshore team. It was costing them more than just money.

Research shows that quality remains a significant concern in offshore software development. A survey by the International Data Corporation found that 65% of businesses struggle with quality when working with offshore teams. Meanwhile, McKinsey & Company reported that poor software quality costs the global economy around $1.7 trillion annually.

Low-quality software doesn’t just mean technical issues. It can lead to dissatisfied customers, tarnish a company’s reputation, and cause missed business opportunities. Furthermore, it erodes trust between companies and offshore partners, complicating long-term collaboration.

Strategies and Tactics to Improve Quality

Addressing quality issues requires a comprehensive approach throughout the development process. Here are some tactics we recommend:

1. Due Diligence: When picking offshore partners, do thorough research to make sure they're reliable and follow industry standards.?

• Ask them for references located in the US. Call them and ask about their experience in execution, coding, support, and quality.
• Ask the offshore partner the following questions:
• What industry standards they follow to ensure quality is met and ensure bug count is low. We are looking for them to reply with specific testing frameworks that cover the software development lifecycle.?
• What do they use for unit testing the UI/UX??
• How about the middle tier / backend code??
• Any automated and performance tests for APIs?
• Do they do any end-to-end integration testing??
• How do you track bugs and their resolution?

2. Implement a Quality Assurance Plan: Set up a strong plan and processes to check and test your software regularly. This helps make sure it's reliable and meets the right standards.

Every time we start a new project, or we are brought into an existing one, we implement what we call Iteration Zero. This is like building a sound foundation so that we can build a beautiful and functional house right on top of it. Your plan should include but not be limited to:

• Implementing Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Set up a CI/CD pipeline to automatically build, test, and deploy code changes. Integrate tests within the pipeline to prevent defective code from moving forward. Setup your CI/CD so that with every commit developers do to the codebase tests are executed and fail the build is some dependency breaks. We also set up coverage metrics. Let's say that a dev forgets to add unit tests. Well, when he commits the code, it will automatically fail as that code has no testing harness coverage.
• Testing Strategy: Implement automated testing where possible to expedite the testing process and reduce manual effort. Automated tests can run frequently to catch issues early.
• Unit Testing: Developers should write and maintain unit tests to verify the correctness of individual components.
• Integration Testing: Ensure different software modules work together as expected by testing their integration.
• System Testing: Validate the complete and integrated software product to ensure it meets the specified requirements.
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Test the software with real-world use cases to confirm it fulfills end-users needs.
• Code Reviews: Enforce a practice of peer code reviews to catch issues early and encourage knowledge sharing among developers. This is easy if you are using any of the source code cloud providers, as you could implement a Pull Request (PR) process where code does not get accepted into the main branch unless someone else reviews and approves it. This creates a sense of ownership and responsibility.
• Performance Testing: Conduct load and performance testing to ensure the software can handle expected usage levels efficiently.
• Security Testing: Perform security testing, such as vulnerability assessments and penetration testing, to identify and address security risks. Utilize static code analysis tools to automatically identify potential code issues, security vulnerabilities, or non-standard practices.
• Bug Tracking & Feedback: Use a centralized bug tracking tool to manage defects and prioritize their resolution based on severity and impact. Collect and analyze feedback from end users and stakeholders to continuously refine the quality assurance process.

3. Encourage Continuous Improvement: Support offshore teams in learning and getting better over time. Offer training, share knowledge, and give feedback to help them improve their skills and work better. Do weekly “lunch and learn“ sessions and talk about the strategies for having an error-free product. Use the above tactics to have team members present on how they do it so that we can spread the knowledge.

Addressing quality concerns with offshore teams requires effort, but by following these guidelines, you’ll be closer to a cohesive team delivering high-quality, low-bug software.

The Anxieties of Working with Offshore Teams and Resources ( Full Series ):

1. Communication and Language Barriers
2. Quality Concerns
3. Time Zones
4. Data Security and Privacy Anxieties
5. Project Management and Oversight
6. Cultural Fit
7. Legal and Compliance Issues
8. Dependency and Scalability
9. The Impact of Stress on Productivity
10. Embracing Remote Work for Stress Management