Models of Cooperation with an Outsourcing Partner

Each company has its own way of doing things, and of course, its own preferences and requirements which have to be taken into consideration when choosing an individual model of cooperation with a software development outsourcing partner. The expectations of companies primarily result from the nature of the problems they contend with, so partners who will be able to flexibly adapt to the needs of the other party should be selected.

For starters, let’s think about the software development outsourcing opportunities vailable on the IT market, as well as related services. Companies looking for the right model can choose from the most popular ones:

Team extension

The outsourcing partner provides specialists which the customer team is lacking, both in terms of quantity (an insufficient number of employees in the team) and quality (lack of specific qualifications or competences within the team).

Creation of a full, external team, i.e. team leasing

The team is created based on specific project requirements and can consist of programmers and software testers, project managers, business analysts, and scrum masters in the case of scrum teams.

One-off technology consulting service

A service commissioned on an ad-hoc basis to solve a specific problem, carried out by a dedicated specialist or a team of specialists with the appropriate competences.

Managed Services

Managed Services s a comprehensive management service for a defined technological area at the company, as a result of which the technology partner assumes responsibility for maintaining the entire system or client application environment by delegating a dedicated service team for this purpose.

The evolution of outsourcing cooperation

Cooperation with a technology partner ften evolves over time, resulting from the fact that customers’ needs are changing. Together with the improved level of trust and experience gained during joint projects, new initiatives also appear; the partnership matures, tightens and expands through working on subsequent projects. This is a natural phenomenon, so outsourcing cooperation in the IT industry very often starts with small, pilot projects, during which the parties get to know and test each other.

If the project fails, this means that the risk is limited, whereas in more successful cases, such cooperation can quickly develop into an increased number of tasks.

How might the evolution of such cooperation go? I will share the example of one of the companies I work with. That company asked Inetum to add a tester to its internal testing team, in the team extension model. During cooperation, however, it turned out that testing strategy was neglected at that company, and no documentation was kept, so the same errors and problems kept occurring, which drew out system maintenance processes.

Thanks to our wide range of Quality Assurance services and competences, Inetum was able to propose the necessary changes. An experienced Quality Assurance engineer took care of creating a dedicated and secure test process. As part of the service, testing strategy and policies for the entire organization were created, and the client also benefited from mentoring, supervision and training for the employees who were members of their own test team.

After the implementation of the new test strategy, the client also decided on the Software Testing as a Service (StaaS) model, which allows them to use the resources of the Inetum’s QA department “on demand”, meaning as and when the need arises.

Conclusion

The above example shows how important getting to know each other, building trust and flexibility in mutual relations are when it comes to outsourcing cooperation. These are the three basic elements necessary to build a secure relationship and long-term partnership which both sides will benefit from. When selecting an outsourcing partner, it is crucial to check the models of cooperation offered, but also to listen to the client’s needs, as this will be vital during joint outsourcing projects.