Question: How to effectively outsource dev

#php #contracting #outsourcing

Hi All,

We have a 19-year-old software company we have grown organically. Our biggest challenge to additional growth has been sourcing local dev resources.

We tried outsourcing to India a few years ago and it didn't work very well for three main reasons: there was a communication gap, and because our legacy/non-standard/non-framework code is difficult to inderstand and code, and passing along an understanding of our target market needs is difficult.

I read a lot about distributed teams and am considering trying remote resources again. We do have a remote contractor now who is very good and effective but he was the lead programmer (in-house) for many years and the architect of much of the system so that is a huge advantage.

Any thoughts on how to go about this?
Success and failure stories and learnings?
Advice and recommendations?

Thanks.
Cheers,

Richard