Talking about my outsourcing experience, my first outsourcing came from one day two years ago when I was shopping in a mall with my girlfriend. I received a phone call from a friend who happily introduced a big project to me: The demand is not much, the money is not much, the difficulty is not big, the tone is not big, I listened to the heart, originally thought to earn a sum of easy money, later look, this outsourcing stepped on many big and small pit, so I want to record.
The early stage of the communication
On the second day of the phone call, after a simple communication with the demander of the outsourcing project, they sent more than ten samples of App interface, which are probably crudDemos that combine software and hardware and display hardware information, data statistics and related information through the App interface. They have few functions but also limited development time. I am required to finish the App Demo and background system before the end of the month and attend a conference presentation. The other side repeatedly emphasized the advantages of the project: it is in the tuyere, and all aspects of resource allocation are ready, except… There are no software technical teams, only hardware teams at the moment, and only a few on the software side, but they can’t be reused.
Tips:
I made the first mistake here. I thought it was just a Demo, but behind it was a huge and complete project. The wrong evaluation of the size, type and complexity of the project made me fail to properly control the overall situation and consider the details of the whole project, which led to many problems later.
When evaluating a project, we often underestimate its complexity and overestimate our ability to handle trivial details.
To form a team
When the project is going on, it is impossible to manage it by myself, because it involves various apps, Web and background. Therefore, I first find a reliable background developer friend, and then look for and determine other friends together before the project officially starts.
Tips:
In the process of outsourcing cooperation, priority should be given to those who are reliable, skilled and responsible. Most of the outsourcing projects are not technically complex, but due to the particularity of the way of collaboration, most of them work asynchronously in different places, so people with strong sense of responsibility are needed. Otherwise, during project development, people are often unable to find, or lack of feedback in communication will be very passive.
The project bid
When it comes to the project, money will inevitably be talked about. Regarding the quotation, the other party is very open and has two ways of cooperation, one is in the form of technical equity, the other is in the way of outsourcing quotation. I thought it would be safest to adopt the second method since it was our first cooperation.
As it was the first time to receive outsourcing and I had no experience, I was very upset, so I hurried to the Internet to check some outsourcing quotation methods and notes. Finally, I decided to give it to the team members according to their daily salary multiplied by a coefficient. Not surprisingly, they thought it was too expensive, and the whole deal was deadlocked. The friend who introduced the project agreed to mediate, and then… Nothing more.
Tips:
Different outsourcing projects of the company, project background is different, encountered technology shares this matter must be cautious. Of course, now there are many outsourcing platforms, and everything is basically streamlined and standardized, directly involving the transaction of projects and money. This kind of problem will be less and less.
According to the normal rhythm of the story, my first experience of outsourcing was aborted. About two weeks later, things took a turn for the better when the person in charge of the other party called and said they needed to talk face to face. Then the technical director and the manager rushed over and introduced the background of the project, the company and the technical team for a long time. I realized that the project was not just a simple Demo. Finally, we agreed to find another time to communicate the needs in detail and evaluate the quotation.
When the quotation was made after the communication, the other party wanted a package price, regardless of each person’s daily algorithm, and the project was very large and would be developed and delivered in several phases. In the first phase, the two parties wanted to cooperate with each other in a running-in attitude. It means that you don’t want to ask for a high price, we first cooperation at a lower price, run in and feel the bottom, if you think good cooperation later to talk.
Because IT was my first time to receive outsourcing and I lacked experience, IN the process of price grinding, MY mind was hot and I accidentally agreed to the request of the other party. After the negotiation was completed and the quotation was confirmed, we found that only half of the daily quotation for each person was given for the first time, so we realized that we were still poor in pattern Tucson.
Tips:
Here is a second error, to insist on your price, as far as possible, in the process of quotation condition and the bottom line, if the other party say the lowest price, can not give a thought of the lowest quotation, or you get into the market bargaining, will eventually be ground and their expectations gap very far, can communicate with each other seriously, talking money must not conveniently. Expensive price is also the guarantee of quality, can be symbolically less, but be sure to control the scope.
Sign the contract
Anyway, now that we’ve made the offer, in the spirit of learning how to raise, let’s do it. When I needed to draw up a contract, I didn’t see any suitable one, so I finally found a software outsourcing development contract template on the Internet, and changed it roughly, so I will use it.
There are a lot of points to pay attention to in outsourcing contracts, but here is just one simple point: go through the terms of the contract one by one. Make sure that you fully understand and understand the content and meaning of each clause. Make sure that you don’t pit yourself against the other party.
Tips:
Outsourcing industry development is more and more mature now, of course, the outsourcing process and project is becoming more and more specifications, also gave birth to mature, like the cloud, the guest crowdsourcing platform, we need cooperation to no longer even signed an agreement the two sides in private, service and demanders can put the energy to focus on the project, and left behind some trivial things and problems in platform to standardize management, worry a lot.
When I got out of the car, I saw that the sun was almost down, and the tall buildings had disappeared. Everywhere I could see were low houses, and the old men and women lazily set up food stalls. At first, I felt that I had come from Shenzhen to the county. The other party is a traditional company/factory, which means that Internet, software development, etc., may be like casting pearls before swine. If the other party doesn’t have a professional docking staff, the progress of the project will be very difficult.
Tips:
Get to know the other company, the project situation and the background of relevant personnel in detail as much as possible. If the quality of the docking personnel is inconsistent with the project, ask questions to the partner as soon as possible and throw the questions to the partner. Do not let such problems affect the progress of the project and the follow-up work.
After the contract was signed, we needed to communicate our needs in detail and evaluate the development plan again. My team mates and I went to the other company for a meeting. In the process of communicating demands, the other party must add demands, or even an independent module, which is equivalent to an inexplicable amount of work. The other side was vague, saying that it was a very important module, without which there would not be a complete system. At first, I thought that this was the tacit knowledge of things. Fortunately, when I drafted the contract earlier, I wrote the main functions and related modules in the development content of the contract. I showed the contract to the other party in a hurry, but the other party was speechless. Later, we continued to communicate whether to increase time, increase manpower or simplify functions.
Tips:
When drawing up the contract, we must clearly write the development content and main functions, as detailed and accurate as possible, to avoid the follow-up because of adding functions, changing functions, after all, it is hard to say without proof, white and white words.
Project start
After signing the contract, according to the contract, the other party needs to pay 30% of the project amount as the first installment. Because these are clearly written in the contract, the whole payment process is very smooth. The only problem is that the other party needs to provide the invoice.
Spot of tax of bill of software value added tax is 6% commonly, tax fee also can be a not small expenditure. It is best to communicate taxes and invoices when quoting.
Tips:
It is better to wait until the advance payment or the first phase of the project is received before starting the project to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Take taxes and invoices into account when quoting. Now crowdsourcing platforms have mostly solved this problem, so users don’t have to worry about it anymore.
Project preparation
When the relevant process is finished and the product prototype needs to be provided by the other party, the other party can’t roll out a fart and can’t provide anything for a long time. After we have popularized the difference between design draft and prototype draft with difficulty, they puzzled and said: Shouldn’t this kind of thing be handled by you? I had to tell them clearly, while providing them with a few prototype examples and prototyping tools.
Looking back, in the whole process of the project, the other party provided a very rough conceptual requirements document, but there was no output of any documents. When communicating requirements, they asked the other party to sort out relevant requirements documents for us, but they said that they had no time to sort out such things in their own minds.
Without the output documents, there is no basis for the follow-up work, and all the basis is just the requirement list documents we sorted out when we communicated the requirements in detail.
Tips:
The output of the document is very important, detailed requirements documents and design documents are the necessary tools in the follow-up project development, without these, the whole project became a clever housewife without rice, and these will be one of the criteria for acceptance of the project development.
The early stage of the project
Before the project officially started, the other side made another mishap. The contact person of the other side changed from the technical supervisor to another junior technical director. It is estimated that they did not have careful internal communication, so they directly asked us to contact with him. Please, your boss has all the details.
All the output only when I communicate with the first docking people demand, demand list document, which means it is after the first docking statements and digested by us to sort out, and the second docking if take the reference of it, here needs to understand because of the person different, more project variables, prospects are grim. With this in mind, we had to go back and communicate our needs in detail.
Tips:
The project’s docking person changes are an unexpected problem, and highlight the importance of the documentation described earlier. Forming detailed and clear documents as soon as possible directly determines the subsequent trend and progress of the project.
This time, we were waiting for the prototype is tottering project and a new flaw: originally negotiated we only need to responsible for the software system development (including the client App, Web management system, the background system), the other party is responsible for the hardware production and hardware system development, then they hardware developers, want to put the hardware system development that is passed on to us. We didn’t even think about it. We just said no.
Tips:
Although hardware is profitable, it is not our team’s strong point, so we need to find another professional, which is equivalent to adding risk and uncertainty to the team and the project. It is also a sense of responsibility to focus on what you are good at and not add risks and uncertainties to the team and project.
Write in the last
Before the official start of the project, it has been a long and wordy piece, the follow-up record of the pit and lessons in the process of project development, to be continued, welcome to exchange.