What to do if your tech team abandons you and your project??

Non-dedicated tech teams are not a constant. They come and go, leaving behind projects that need to be managed and completed. But it's not just entire teams that can pose challenges; even the departure of a key role responsible for project delivery can turn into a potential disaster. So, what do you do when your tech team abandons you and your project?

Once you’ve found yourself in this situation, you should know that there are three ways things can go:?

• Scenario #1:? You can continue from where you stopped, but this time with a new team;?
• Scenario #2: You can restart the project fully with the new team;?

• Scenario #3: Unfortunately, in some cases, you’ll have to terminate the project.??

?I know, neither of this looks ideal but with the right approach you'll find a way out.

Look Before You Leap?

Before you make a final decision, conduct a quick troubled project assessment:?

• Gather the project data: Collect all project-related documents, plans, timelines, budgets, and communication records;?

• Evaluate the project objectives: Assess if the project objectives are clear, realistic, and achievable and whether they should be changed if you proceed with a new team;?
• Review the project plan: When proceeding with the new team, you might need to set new tasks and milestones, changing the whole project progress structure;?
• Analyze budget and resources: Evaluate the budget spent so far and the resources utilized and determine if there are adequate funds and resources to continue the project;?
• Talk to stakeholders: Communicate with stakeholders, including clients (I’m talking about client and user feedback here) and internal team members, to understand their expectations, concerns, and any changes in requirements;?
• Quality of deliverables: Review the quality of work completed so far.?

Assess Your Results??

So, which ones from the list are your results??

• The issues are primarily due to lack of expertise or commitment from the previous team, the project objectives haven’t changed, there are enough resources, and the deliverables are high-quality - then choose the first scenario;?

• If the project's foundation is weak, the progress is severely flawed (low-quality deliverables), but the resources are enough, and it has been possible to create an improvement plan - you can restart the project;?
• The project requirements have significantly changed, poor deliverables, and there is negative client and user feedback or it's financially unviable to continue - better terminate the project.?

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To Outsource or Not to Outsource??

You might have had a bitter experience with outsourcing your tech team in the past, but that doesn't mean all your engagements have to be that way. It's about being mindful of what went wrong and making informed choices. From my experience, the time and material model can be the most risky, so if you're concerned about your tech team potentially leaving you in a lurch, you might want to steer clear of it, though it still has its perks.

What I would strongly recommend is to opt for a dedicated team that acts not like an outsourced hub but as an extension of your own team.

Take, for instance, Ascendix. Our software development outsourcing journey took us to seven different places. We’ve kickstarted with the US and out of the frying pan into the fire again with China, Argentina, India, and Mexico, and finally landed our endeavors in Eastern Europe and Portugal.?Something that started as offshore dedicated teams transformed into our offices in those locations.

However, here are some mistakes we’ve made and what we want you to know before you start outsourcing your new tech team:?

• Look for a strategic partner rather than a generic development team that simply deals with the tasks once assigned. There is nothing wrong with the “staff augmentation” approach, but such a model might lack the depth of involvement and dedication that a strategic partnership brings to the table – that's what we’ve learnt from outsourcing to Mexico;?
• Outsourcing is not only about hourly developer rates – it's also about choosing an outsourcing partner that prioritizes shared vision and proactive involvement over mere task completion (yes, Mexico again). Oh, and it’s also about language – along with English proficiency, your outsourced team should have excellent communication skills so everyone can be on the same page and share fruitful ideas;?

• Time zones matter - how can you efficiently communicate if all requests are packaged up in emails as what happened with China in our story? To avoid losing days (or weeks (!) in our case with China), your time zones should overlap at least partially;?
• Utilize strong connections within your business network to explore established partnerships that have already proven successful as there's no need to always pioneer a new path;?
• A proof-of-concept engagement is a good approach to mitigate risks while providing a substantial scope to gauge the firm's capabilities – that's what outsourcing to Ukraine taught us. Even now, as commercial proptech developers, we offer our customers a ‘pilot project’ approach where we exercise a small task, and you can easily evaluate whether we align with your expectations and requirements.?

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Here comes the moment when I have to tell you that Ascendix can help you reignite your motivation for completing the project or restarting it from scratch, but let’s face the truth – we are good. Ascendix had been in proptech development long before proptech became a whole new game with its own rules and players.???

We offer on-demand flexible engagement models with US-based, blended, or offshore teams. And if you don’t want to be actively engaged, we can handle the entire process for you.??

By working with us, you don’t get a generic proptech development team – instead, you get an extension to your team that shares your vision, understands your goals, and actively contributes to your success.?

We’ve already helped JLL and Colliers. Contact us today or book a free proptech call to learn how we can help you.?

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