Ukraine is one of the top IT outsourcing destinations in Europe, with an extensive talent pool and optimal price-to-quality ratios. Still, entrepreneurs looking to outsource to Ukraine software development should consider certain aspects and details to get the best deal.
Research and selection
Before engaging an IT outsourcing vendor, clients need to take at least three steps:
- Investigate the IT markets. There are almost 2,000 IT service providers in Ukraine. Five hubs shape the market: Kyiv (the capital), Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Odesa. Kyiv has the highest number of developers, but regarding the number of companies, Kharkiv and Lviv are on par. Look for the best companies on Clutch, GoodFirms, and other resources. If onsite visits are inevitable, consider the traveling options too.
- Shortlist the candidates and review them in terms of technological expertise and quality standards. Ukrainian IT companies offer various services. Their programmers are used to working with big data, complex architectures, and high-load systems. C#, Java, JavaScript, PHP, and Python are the most popular technologies. The companies’ average hourly rates range within $25 and 49. Dedicated development team, time and material approach, and fixed price model are most common. The majority of companies use Scrum and incremental product development, but it wouldn’t hurt to check what each candidate does. In any case, an IT outsourcing vendor must have a decent track record and ensure security and privacy. Collect reviews and references.
- Weigh all the pros and cons and choose the company that seems to be the right fit. Time to contact them!
Negotiations
From the very first email, call or visit, try to give the IT outsourcing partner the best understanding of your needs and to learn more about the partner. For example, a trustworthy vendor should be certified to comply with industry regulations, apply best practices to ensure their system security, and have a security plan for business continuity and disaster recovery. After the initial questions, clients usually fill out a General Information Brief about the product they want to have.
Project requirements are the blueprint for software developers to build the product. If you don’t have any designs and technical specifications ready, the outsourcing partner should start by creating them. If you submit at least wireframes, they’ll be helpful during the project spec preparation. (The project requirements are typically created before or simultaneously with the design.) To understand your expectations, the partner would ask about your preferences regarding the colors, brand guidelines, etc. Their designers, developers, and project managers will have to communicate with you for a while to figure out the details.
Once the product’s essential features and design specifications are clearly set out, the estimation follows. The PM and designers you’ve been communicating with, developers who are going to work on the project, and QA engineers would talk through each detail and guess how long it will take to implement. The developers then prioritize the features from the most to least significant, structuring the project and identifying the minimum viable product which can be released the soonest. The PM adds to the preliminary estimate some time for management and communication and the risks of something going wrong.
Finally, the vendor prepares a Software Development Agreement that outlines all the details of your software development and the legal basis of your future cooperation. Once all parties are happy with the agreement, they sign it so that the team can proceed to develop the product.
Software development process
The basic phases of a development process in Ukraine are the same as in the U.S. or India, because the waterfall, Agile, spiral, and other models are universal. The choice of the process model depends on your business needs, but it’s sure to include:
- Code-writing stage, where the development team is building the product. The code is tested and assessed throughout the iterative process to ensure the desired result.
- Testing of a beta version to see if the product meets the specifications.
- After the code is finalized, the team has another code review and double-checks the documentation and security. Even if the code can be deployed for production, they have a roll-back plan in case something goes wrong.
- Release of the software product…
… and probably all over again.
Conclusion
The path of a software product from idea to market may be long and challenging. However, a reliable IT company, competent developers, and efficient communication facilitate the development process and enhance your chances of success. Outsourced software development becomes cost-effective. If you’re looking for all those benefits, Ukraine software development market has a lot to offer.