Aligning Internal Teams with Outsourced Teams for Superior Code Quality

The NerdCloud onboarding process has two critical phases:

1. Time Estimations & Expectation Management
2. Team alignment with code quality and style

Establishing an alignment between your in-house team and external resources is essential for code quality and overall operation efficiency. As mentioned in our previous blog, establishing this begins with accurate time estimations to ensure that everyone comprehends the scope of work involved. In this post, we are going to further examine how important team union is when it comes to both maintaining high software standards and code style.

The elements of team and code quality alignment

Maintaining high-quality code and a consistent coding style are essential for successful software development outsourcing. Well-structured code should be easy to read, follow best practices for naming conventions, and be thoroughly documented. Nevertheless, the other side of the coin is recognizing a company's unique approach and how their team operates. Therefore, outsourcing partners must be able to align with this specific way of doing business in order to optimize success. Ultimately, these details help ensure that all members of the team understand each other's work and are able to more easily collaborate on projects.

Tracking time estimates and actual time spent

The relationship between estimated time and actual time spent on software development tasks is an important one, especially for outsourcing partners (we are aware of the reputation). But, sudden shifts in the scope of a task, software dependencies or other unidentified factors can quickly invalidate estimates.

We've found that aligning teams is more efficient when it's done through action, rather than relying solely on documentation, even if it makes things a bit slower in the beginning. With strong communication and collaboration, the code can be aligned quickest, as there’s more focus on communicating with each other than writing code. When the team communicates effectively, cooperation flows naturally.

At NerdCloud, we track the trend of estimated versus actual time spent on software development tasks very closely. Doing so allows us to ensure that our teams are aligned with expectations and identify any discrepancies before they become a problem. It is our responsibility to capture the facts and results, refine how we communicate during the onboarding process, and gain insight into customer requirements so that we can provide an unparalleled task-sourcing service.

Making things flow

By analyzing our customers and the thousands of tasks and development hours we have done, we have revealed an accuracy of between 80-100% between the estimates and final hours. With our pay-per-hour billing system, you have the peace of mind knowing that your time is being used efficiently.

However, we never rest on our laurels and are always looking for ways to improve - reach out to us and together we'll maximize your development results without any unpleasant surprises!