Path to successUsing Outsource for a Startup

Roman SmolgovskyHead of EngineeringSORT Financial

To Outsource or Not to Outsource?

❖ Benefits❖ Cost (Duh?)*❖ Talent attraction ❖ 24x7 development cycle

❖ Drawbacks❖ ‘Knowledge distribution’❖ Regulations compliance (Government, financial,

security, etc.)❖ Distributed team

“The road so far…”❖ Outsource 1.0 - “Give us a spec and we will build it

for you”❖ Charge per hour (disaster!) or per project (try to

get it!)❖ Requires:

❖ Very detailed and accurate specification - impossible to make!

❖ Coordination and alignment effort (often billable!!!)

❖ Project management and activity tracking - time consuming and boring!

“The road so far…” - Continued

❖ Outsource 2.0 - “Here is your team…”❖ Charge per person per month❖ Same personnel for long period of time❖ Has a Delivery Manager (may even not be

billable) that is responsible to assure your success ❖ Very often residing in US

❖ You manage the team any way you want (Agile - suggested, more about it later)

What to look for in Outsource 2.0 provider

❖ Personnel retention, no personnel rotation❖ Personnel is 100% dedicated to your project❖ Adequate development/testing equipment (at times

it is OK to pay extra for some testing stuff)❖ Facilities: conference rooms, videoconferencing

facilities, ability to easily reach the team (e.g. US phone numbers)

❖ Personnel engagement and interest❖ Teams training and intra-team knowledge sharing

Set your expectations…❖ “Out of the box” the team is not yours!

❖ They may (and will) see you as a ‘stranger’❖ They may not push back when needed ❖ They may take requirements and procedures literally!❖ They will not ‘fill the blanks’

❖ Language barriers (lots of funny stories)❖ Even the best speaking team may not understand all the subtleties

❖ Cultural differences❖ Amount of vacation time❖ Start time and working habits

Expected from you…❖ Strong engineering management at the home office

❖ Manages your remote team and represents them within your company❖ Establish connection with your team

❖ Meet them in person - periodically spend time at their facilities❖ Identify the key events (new release planning, etc.) and spend a few

weeks at their location working together❖ Establish daily call with a video

❖ Establish the right attitude towards the remote team in the home office❖ Eliminate ‘they’ attitude ❖ Establish collaboration outside engineering; e.g. QA-Product

Management, UX designers - UX developers, etc.

Expected from you…(Cont.)

❖ Figure out the mechanisms to motivate your outsourced team❖ ‘We are all in it together’ - work with your team in

their office❖ Cool technology/‘You can learn cool stuff’ -

exposure to the Silicon Valley new tech. Presentations, training, etc.

❖ US visits ❖ Souvenirs, team lunches, team dinners❖ Bonuses

Expected from you…(Cont.)

❖ Develop relatively formal processes. Clearly establish:❖ What is expected from the remote team❖ What is expected from the home office❖ Collaboration between the home office and remote

team: requirements, planning, artifacts, etc.❖ Measurements of performance and success

❖ Assure that requirements, artifacts, etc. are completely ready in advance way before the development effort is expected to start

Expected from you…(Cont.)

❖ Establish formal SDLC❖ Recommendations:

❖ New Development: ❖ Scrum, 2 weeks iterations❖ Planning in ideal time. You must assure relatively stable throughput after 2-3

sprints❖ Continuous integration (Unit, Integration, System Tests on every GitHub

merge)❖ Maintenance/Operations

❖ Kanban with the regular planning❖ Constant effort ❖ Clear understanding of the priorities❖ Automated deployment

Performance and Success Measurement

❖ Estimates Vs Actuals - delta should decrease❖ Steady throughout when nothing changes

❖ Investigate any deviation❖ Number of critical bugs post release - should be 0❖ Number of mid-air substantial requirements changes - should

be 0❖ Number of midair requests for the requirements clarifications❖ Number of deviation from the requirements❖ Number of re-opened bugs and number of the re-opening of

the same bug (per developer)

Thank you!Questions, Comments, Concerns