Time and Material contract for Agile Software Development

When outsourcing software development, it’s natural to want to control costs as much as possible. Fixed price contracts and budgets set in stone might seem like the best ways to do that. 

However, software development is most often an evolutionary process. Without a working crystal ball to accurately predict the project scope and duration of a project, a fixed-price contract is rarely your best option.

Even if you do think you know enough about the project, building an app from scratch means you will be devoting a lot of time to hammering out every detail at the beginning of a project. As such, companies attempting to cut their time to market with a minimum viable product (MVP) are penalizing themselves early on with an overly detailed scope of work. 

Plus, once the plan is in motion, it’s very difficult to change direction without upsetting the strict pricing model. Deviating from the original scope of the fixed price model usually requires scrapping everything and starting back at square one. In short, every change in the development process will cost the company dearly, while also giving competitors a significant opportunity to beat them to the punch. 

Time and materials contracts increase the flexibility of a project while ensuring development teams are paid fairly for their work. This article will go over why Time and Materials (T&M) contracts are the best way to keep development projects viable and relevant in changing market conditions.

Why Not Use a Fixed Price Contract?

Fixed price contracts are as inflexible as T&M contracts are flexible. Investing heavily in a detailed scope will delay your time to market, and any changes will mean revisiting the drawing board with more meetings, wasted documentation, and redrawing of contracts. 

Team augmentation under a fixed-price contract introduces further challenges. The software vendor wants to maximize profits by using as few man-hours as possible. 

On the other hand, the vendor is not as concerned about time to completion because they want the best quality product. Man-hours do not add to the project’s costs, so it’s difficult for developers and vendors to get on the same page under these conditions. 

What are Time and Materials Contracts?

A time and materials contract is the opposite of the traditional fixed price contract. It’s based on the need for software projects to remain flexible. The volume of work, design changes, and implementation of new features are all within the realms of possibility with T&M contracts. 

Developers are paid for the time in hours they spend on a project, negating the need to go back to the drawing board when the scope changes or new features need to be added. Strategies are free to evolve, and decisions can be made on the fly. These features make a T&M contract the perfect match for quickly getting a minimum viable product to market.

Time and Materials Contracts Increase Flexibility (Agile Development)

Time and materials contracts partner well with an agile process model. Agile development approaches break projects into iterations using small, autonomous teams not involved in long-term planning. Project scopes and requirements are determined at the start of the project, and each iteration is a “frame” of time, usually between one and four weeks. 

The agile model in conjunction with a time and materials contract gives development teams the advantage of flexibility because it’s based on the premise that project requirements almost always change and evolve. 

Agile development makes it relatively straightforward to add, remove, or improve features even in the more advanced stages of the project. 

You can start with the basic core, or MVP, of the project. When you get the core components of a working product to market early and start earning revenue, you can adjust the requirements and key features as more information about what the market needs become available. 

Naturally, agile projects are created in short sprints, starting with the MVP and then testing to ensure all business requirements are being met. Detailed progress reports and analyses verify the development team’s work.  

Tracking outcomes at every stage enables development teams to add improvements and adjust their approach on the fly.

Time and Materials Contract: Getting it Right

A T&M contract will not eliminate all the risks and challenges you will face. Here’s how to make sure your project will stay on track when using a time and materials contract. 

Choosing a Development Partner

Time and materials contracts using agile development processes require constant vigilance on workflow. When selecting remote engineers, you want expertise that matches the skills required for the project. 

You should also know something about the team’s history in handling budgets, project scopes, communication channels, and how they track the progress and effectiveness of the project. 

Selecting the right partner will be a key factor in the success of your project, so make sure you thoroughly review their track record, so you know you are working with a trustworthy team. 

Create the Best Team for the Job

Whether your company possesses all the skills under one roof or offshore team augmentation hiring remote engineers is a component of your development strategy, building the best team for the job is critical to the success of the project. 

Agile development projects work best with small teams because it helps to eliminate communication issues and documentation bottlenecks. 

Develop Project Frames and Estimate Costs

Agile and time and materials contracts are the most efficient methods for software development, but you still need some idea of the scope and budget of the project. Frames provide project scope that remote engineers can use to estimate the number of sprints required and calculate an estimated cost. 

Engage Regularly with Your Remote Engineers

Even with the best onsite developers and remote engineers, you will need to be involved with the project. Lack of communication has been the demise of many software projects, so regular meetings are critical. 

Team augmentation using a remote workforce often means some of your development team will be offshore or live in different time zones. You will need to plan your communication strategy to accommodate the difference in working hours.

Manage Your Project with The Flexibility of T&M

Time and materials contracts allow developers and remote engineers to quickly get on the same page, with both parties working towards a quality product rather than a limited time and budget.

The increased requirement for detailed management may be time-consuming, but the development of a product that meets all expectations of the end users guarantees the continued viability of the project.

Are You Ready to Start Building your Project? 

Are you searching for a reliable development partner who can augment your team with highly qualified remote engineers? Towa Software has tailored, affordable solutions and the right skills to get your software project off to a flying start.

About Towa

Towa is a leading firm across the United States and Mexico for software engineering and outsourcing, including QA and testing. We offer from Mexico our over +300 engineers capabilities as nearshore delivery model service offerings.

Towa Software has over 20 years of experience to guarantee the quality of every line of code, we are proud of our products and services delivered.

As a leading software development outsourcing company in the USA and Mexico, we have extensive experience in many fields including fintech, banking, payments gateways, e-commerce, retail, marketplaces, health care, Omnichannel, and many more.

You can contact us at support@towasoftware.com or give us a call via (+1) 210-787-4525 for more information.

Starting small and build trust with your provider before scaling. 

You can Book a 15-min call call with one of our Customer Success Managers for a conversation.

O

ver the past few decades, there has been a rise in the popularity of outsourcing as a management strategy. Outsourcing remote engineers have become increasingly common due to globalization and digitalization, allowing American businesses to send work to other countries. In recent years, the nearshore outsourcing model has become one of the most well-liked types of outsourcing.

Nearshore outsourcing has many advantages which are used by many businesses. That has allowed them to cut back on overhead and streamline existing procedures, allowing them to devote more time and energy to their most essential tasks.

It entails sending specific tasks to a third-party provider in a country close to the home office. Companies in the United States often outsource work to other countries in Mexico and Latin America.

Nearshore outsourcing has several benefits, like being more convenient due to its proximity, sharing similar culture, sharing the same time zone, etc. In further depth, allow us to investigate these benefits of staff augmentation for remote engineers.

Advantages of Nearshore Outsourcing

Businesses can gain a lot by staff augmentation of software development work in countries with a developed information technology industry. The following are a few of the main advantages of this type of outsourcing:

Streamlined Operations

When a company does talent augmentation, it can focus its efforts on what it does best. That eliminates the need for businesses to spend resources on finding and training in-house software engineers. It is preferable to hire a consulting firm to handle the work. The result is streamlined processes and better financials.

Improved Collaboration

Nearshore outsourcing improves teamwork in which two companies are located in the same time zone. In this situation, the working hours of different parties often overlap significantly. It facilitates efficient communication without requiring people to work at inconvenient hours.

Optimized Operating Timelines

Businesses can save time and money by outsourcing to nearshore contractors. Outsourcing allows companies to save time by delegating specific tasks to outside contractors. Time to market for products and services is reduced, which is vital for the success of any organization.

Focus on Core Competencies

To recap, nearshore outsourcing allows businesses to devote more resources to what they do best. What this means for companies is that they concentrate their limited resources on the things that matter the most. Employees are not overworked, and so spared burnout. In a sense, outsourcing frees up time and resources for companies to focus on what matters.

Extended Talent Pool

When you nearshore your software development, you can locate a more qualified and committed crew for your projects. The region of Latin America has established itself as a technological powerhouse. It’s risen to prominence as a prime location for nearshore software development. Rather than relying on in-house teams, many American companies have turned to top developers in Latin America.

The Mexican labor force is also notable for its high education, expertise, and experience. Outsourcing software development to our southern neighbor has been synonymous with guaranteed excellence.

Using nearshore outsourcing, companies can use other countries’ infrastructure and technological prowess in addition to the right talent. In this way, American businesses may create high-quality, necessary IT services and products.

Lower Engagement Costs

When it comes to developing software, high-quality resources are in short supply. The price tag ends up being rather high. But the nearshore outsourcing strategy allows businesses to tap into the extensive worldwide pool of resources and hire at a lesser cost. As a result, companies can more effectively cut their engagement expenses, allowing them to reduce development costs and sell their products to clients at affordable prices.

Cultural and Geographical Closeness

Nearshore outsourcing centers close to the headquarters of the actual company. That translates to less of a gap between the teams’ schedules due to time zone differences. It allows for simple cooperation between team members and, if necessary, travel.

Nearshore outsourcing’s other major perk is fostering a sense of cultural familiarity between your business and the outsourcing firm. Because of this, communication and collaboration are facilitated by shared linguistic, behavioral, and cultural norms.

Improved Communication Channels

Since the time zones are so close together and the languages are so similar, the company and its suppliers can quickly and effectively communicate. The ability to communicate effectively is critical for fostering productive partnerships and increasing the rate of product development.

Businesses that use the offshore model to send work to another country frequently face linguistic and cultural difficulties. The nearshore outsourcing strategy eliminates these distractions and creates a more harmonious office setting.

Consistency in Law and Governmental Order

Canada and the United States have much, not just a common language and culture. Many similarities exist between regional and federal regulations. In this way, trade secrets are easier to safeguard. When politics are stable, businesses can rest easy knowing their investments are safer for the long haul. It will also aid in keeping projects on track and under budget.

Improved Productivity

The efficiency of your staff will increase thanks to nearshoring. You can, for instance, outsource the management of your back-end development to a team of experts so that you can focus solely on the most critical aspects of the project.

Constant midnight shifts can also lead to burnout for your staff. By using nearshoring, you can increase productivity and employee satisfaction by eliminating or reducing the number of night shifts.

Lower Costs

The outsourcing business model is conceived as a means to achieve that end. While it isn’t the driving force behind offshoring or new approaches any longer, it nonetheless carries considerable weight.

The exchange rate is particularly favorable for American enterprises that outsource project development to Latin American countries. The lower value of the local currency relative to the US dollar can translate into less expensive development costs. 

Wrapping Up

Talent augmentation for remote engineers allows businesses to realize better economies of scale and, most importantly, greater specialization. With this strategy, companies can focus on what they do best.

Nearshoring software development is a rapidly growing form of outsourcing due to its many benefits to the software development industry. Nearshoring can be a great option to traditional outsourcing due to its many benefits, including ease of access, greater process control, and fewer linguistic and cultural hurdles.

Every company has different needs and expectations, at Towa, we have been working with Small and Medium size companies providing expert software design and development services so you can create world-class products.

Our nearshore development teams deliver the benefits of tech expertise, bilingual collaboration, time zone alignment, and competitive costs.

Fuel your business with IT experts to speed innovation and increase ROI.

Contact us to talk about how Towa can help you. 

Grow or establish your IT teams knowing you’ll achieve your objectives and save money. Towa’s Tech Team helps businesses like yours find qualified bilingual engineers so you may expand your operations. You may not realize how close your software development team of engineers and designers is. Our Nearshore service puts you in touch with a tech team that is only a short flight away, shares your time zone, speaks your language, etc.

It takes a lot of effort and money to hire employees. But, with Towa’s Tech Team, you can streamline the process of talent augmentation. If you want to expand your business, you’ve come to the right place. We charge a blended rate and don’t require any long-term contracts.

About Towa

Towa is a leading firm across the United States and Mexico for software engineering and outsourcing, including QA and testing. We offer from Mexico our over +300 engineers capabilities as nearshore delivery model service offerings.

Towa Software has over 20 years of experience to guarantee the quality of every line of code, we are proud of our products and services delivered. We recommend starting small and building trust with your provider before scaling. 

As a leading software development outsourcing company in the USA and Mexico, we have extensive experience in many fields including fintech, banking, payments gateways, e-commerce, retail, marketplaces, health care, Omnichannel, and many more.

You can contact us at support@towasoftware.com or give us a call at +1 (210) 787-4525 for more information.

Mexico is the best country for nearshore software outsourcing for many reasons. For one, Mexico has a robust educational system, which means that they can produce the same quality of work as anyone would find in any other country – but at a lower overall cost. This blog explores why Mexico is the leading country for nearshore software outsourcing and staff augmentation.

Mexico is Nearshore Outsourcing’s Top Choice

Mexico has a well-educated workforce, competitive price points for software development, and time zones that work well with USA and Canada. It is also a country that has experienced amazing growth in recent years in the IT sector.

Benefits of Mexico for Nearshore Outsourcing

When it comes to nearshore software outsourcing, Mexico is the chosen destination. The country’s proximity to the U.S., its knowledgeable workforce, and favorable government policies make it an ideal locale. It has a growing English-speaking population with good core values, strong work ethic, top talent, and eagerness to learn more technical skills, making it one of the most reliable outsourcing and team augmentation.

Technology Hubs in Mexico

Mexico is a perfect place for nearshore software outsourcing. They have a ton of technology centers that are ready to take on any project. Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey are top destinations for landing a remote team. These delivery centers have a high level of expertise and can do anything from ideas to design to programming. 

They also have excellent infrastructure that includes reliable power, internet, transportation, and other essentials needed for a great office workspace. Most of the population speaks at least some level of English.

Top Talent Pool for Software Engineers

Mexico has a very talented pool of software engineers and is a highly competitive market. They have a lot of technical schools that graduate high-quality engineers and programmers to work for nearshore software development firms.

Nowadays, you can find top software engineers in any major city and other towns all around Mexico. With the right partner, you can land, build and scale a tech team in weeks, having 20 years in the market Towa is great sourcing of top software engineers.

More Facts About Mexico Tech Talent

There are many reasons why Mexico is the top country for nearshore software outsourcing. One of those reasons is the high level of talent and technical skills in the country. 

Another reason is that operations and IT expenses will be significantly lower than if outsourced to another region. Companies can also benefit from a broad array of tax incentives and an extremely favorable currency exchange rate.

Conclusion

Mexico is a great place to invest in nearshore software development. Find a tech partner that knows the market, and with extensive experience in building tech teams in your industry. Ask for use cases and don’t be afraid to ask for a blended rate for team augmentation. 

There are many opportunities and benefits that companies gain from nearshore outsourcing and staff augmentation for top software engineers. Compare rates and skills to validate your competitive advantage to deliver more products. 

About Towa

Towa is a leading firm across the United States and Mexico for software engineering and outsourcing, including QA and testing. We offer from Mexico our over +300 engineers capabilities as nearshore delivery model service offerings.

Towa Software has over 20 years of experience to guarantee the quality of every line of code, we are proud of our products and services delivered. We recommend starting small and building trust with your provider before scaling. 

As a leading software development outsourcing company in the USA and Mexico, we have extensive experience in many fields including fintech, banking, payments gateways, e-commerce, retail, marketplaces, health care, Omnichannel, and many more.

You can contact us at support@towasoftware.com or give us a call via (+1) 210-787-4525 for more information.

Starting small and build trust with your provider before scaling. 

You can Book a 15-min call call with one of our Customer Success Managers for a conversation.

Augment Reality for eCommerce 3.0

(4 min read)

Every new technology has it’s “A-Ha!” moment. Think of Edison’s light bulb, the Wright brothers’ biplane and 3-D glasses for moviegoers in the 60’s.

The watershed moment for augmented reality was the Pokémon Go phenomenon in 2016. In case you don’t recall, it was a video game played outside using smartphones to find little creatures. People were running around like crazy in public areas staring into their phones searching for animated creatures that they could only see with their phones.

AR continues to make headlines, and heads turn, watching products magically appear in smartphone apps. However, does it make sense for eCommerce to adopt this newcomer to the marketing arena?

Letting Customers Try Before They Buy Reduces Returns

According to a poll taken by Adobe, 54% of retailers said the customer experience is their most important area of focus. Of those retailers, 33% said “targeting and personalization” were in the top three marketing priorities. As a personalization tactic, AR has become the tool of choice.

Augmented reality has become a new and potent marketing strategy for personalizing products, both in-store and online. Customers can visualize furniture or wall colors while standing in their homes. It lets customers try on, experience or interact with products that they can’t physically touch. It is an interactive shopping experience topped only by physically handling the merchandise.

The National Retail Federation states that eCommerce retailers are stuck with 8% returns of all sales (2016). Clothing returns are as high as 40%. By offering AR apps that allow customers to visualize themselves wearing any item in the catalog, it eliminates the customer’s doubts and should reduce the number of returns.

Memorable and Unique Experiences Lead To Sales

BigCommerce says that 96% of Americans have made at least one purchase online in their life and 51% prefer online shopping to brick and mortar stores.

To keep customers glued to the site and coming back, retailers need to provide unique and personal experiences. It doesn’t get more unique than trying products through augmented reality. Retailers who have integrated AR to enhance their web development and design are automatically ahead of their competition. It provides an innovative way to interact with customers that will soon become the norm, like mobile-friendly pages.

Advantages of Leveraging Augmented Reality

Retailers who offer AR apps provide a better customer experience which leads to more sales. Here are four more reasons why customers are taking to AR like ducks to water:

Better Visualization of the Product
The online retail environment is mostly a two-dimensional world. That’s not good if you’re selling physical products. AR lets customers visualize the product from all angles. They can virtually try before they buy. Dresses, furniture and cars are a few ways customers can see how a product fits without having to visit a store.

Instantly Show Options
Merchants can include product details and specifications that the customer can absorb while simultaneously viewing the product. Customers can immediately change options such as colors, allowing for a faster buying decision. Better visualization creates ownership, moving the buyer closer to a sale.

Broaden Your Reach Globally

IKEA proved that AR works with their furniture catalog. Customers from around the world use the app to visualize IKEA’s products right in their homes. By merely moving their phone, customers can imagine what a bed or sofa will look like in a room.

Any retailer can have the same global potential and reach by adding AR to their marketing strategy.

Keep Them In Your Store Long

The AR experience keeps customers in the store longer, and The Wall Street Journal reports that engaged shoppers can spend up to 40% more.

A UK research company showed that new visitors to a retail site spend an average of 2 minutes and 31 seconds browsing, but sites with AR increased the browsing time by five times longer. Longer shopping times mean increased sales.

Is Augmented Reality Suitable For Every Business?

Online merchants, both B2C and B2B, who sell physical products will benefit by offering their customers an augmented reality experience. However, if your business sells digital products or is service oriented, AR may not be the best choice of marketing tactic since it is more about visualizing a 3-D product.

It lets shoppers interact with products online, at home or in the store. Wowing shoppers with a personalized experience is vital for the future of any retailer. AR does that while removing uncertainty from the shopper’s mind.

BigCommerce also reports that 67% of Millennial shoppers and 56% of Gen Xers would prefer to make purchases online than in a store. AR provides them with the interactive, gamified experience with which most of them grew up. U.S. 2018 sales revenue from AR was $1.26 billion. It’s estimated to grow to over $15.5 billion by 2020 (Statista).

You should seek a full-service eCommerce development outsourcing company to partner to help plan and implement AR, to stay ahead of your competition; contact us and we can help!

Conclusion 

Towa Software has over 20 years of experience as a leading software development outsourcing company in the USA and Mexico, we have extensive experience in many fields including fintech, banking, payments gateways, e-commerce, retail, marketplaces, health care, omnichannel, and many more.

We have eCommerce Specialists and Innovation Consultants along with top talented teams who have delivered awesome products to customers in U.S.A, Canada, Mexico, London, and Australia.

You can contact us at support@towasoftware.com or give us a call via (+1) 210-787-4525 for more information.

You can Book a 15-min call with one of our Customer Success Managers for a conversation.

Quality Assurance & Software Testing

Today digital transformation of businesses and lifestyle have an increased need for software products and services of outstanding quality. In combination with the current fast-paced world, companies expect faster time-to-market and continuous delivery of software solutions.

Which can be provided with effective quality and software testing service, the Nearshore offering of software testing services is a response to the increased demands of the local market. Nearshore software testing services can reduce operating expenses while increasing productivity and ensuring the quality of delivered services in the development lifecycle.

Agile Software Testing Services

What is Nearshore Agile Software Testing Services?

Software testing services refer to the process of verifying a system to identify any errors or gaps in a software application or program so that it functions according to the client and end-user requirements. 

Every product deserves to be delivered to the full specifications required by the client, which means quality assurance needs to be thorough, deliberate, and efficient. The traditional means of software development is known as the Waterfall method, which splits the build process into a series of steps. This linear design provides a clear course of action, but sacrifices versatility and seamless delivery.

Agile Software Testing can be implemented at the start of the project with continuous integration between development and testing, something the Waterfall method cannot deliver. Rather than being sequential, Agile software development is continuous.

And, nearshore refers to the geographical location used for outsourcing projects and services to partnered companies. Most business-minded people are already familiar with offshore and onshore outsourcing, which leverage overseas partners and in-country third-party companies respectively to supplement your software development teams.

Nearshore, by comparison, is used for outsourcing companies that are situated within the same time zones used by your company but reside within the borders of a separate country. This allows you to have your quality assurance and software testing extended teams be in a location that is close to the country of your headquarters. A great nearshore location for companies in the U.S. would be Mexico.

What is Nearshore Agile Software Testing Services?

Nearshore is a form of outsourcing that refers to services delivered from an adjacent or nearby location.
Any outsourcing location “near” to its primary market (i.e. Eastern European countries to Western European Countries). Some analysts describe it as services delivered from an adjacent or nearby country.

Manual and Automated Testing

Testing can be done both manually and automated. Manual testing utilizes the input, inspection, and attention of human software testers. Automated testing, uses several tools and scripts to do the work.

Manual testing is done by a tester to make sure all use cases are working as expected and requires time to validate each case scenario. The software tester works with the application or software, clicking through it to find errors. Manual testing takes some time, but it provides the unique insight of a hands-on experience to help validate the product quality checks.

Automated testing is performed by a software tool that executes a test script written in advance. Since each test is pre-programmed, the quality of the tests depends on how well the scripts are written. It’s more reliable and robust than manual, but poor programming may lead to missed bugs in the product.

Benefits of Nearshore Agile Software Testing

Creating software products is a complex task, any project or product in the first iterations is difficult to make bug-free. Quality assurance and testing are crucial in solving these errors, preventing potential system failures that result in higher costs. Having the right nearshore software testing services will guarantee that a dedicated team will work from the beginning of the project on identifying and removing errors on time. This will increase software quality and reduce maintenance costs.

The initial development stage is critical for identifying errors, and issues before they become bigger problems. Quality should be one of the main concerns for all software projects from the early stages, ensuring that potential mistakes are minimized.

Principles of Agile Software Testing

Here is a list of some fundamentals of agile software testing. These principles should drive every team’s software development process, reporting, and determining the most effective team strategies.

Everyone Should Tests

There are no individuals within your software development teams that are exempt from testing the product. This means that all developers are tasked with interacting with the application and systems, putting more hands on deck to potentially pick out any vulnerabilities and weaknesses within the design of the program.

Continuous Testing

Agile development requires the team to test the software regularly, any product increment should demand running testing use cases again, and again. New issues could arise at any moment, so that is why testing help to reduce bugs quickly and effectively. Both manual and automated testing techniques are very useful for delivering continuous releases of the software product. 

Testing Improves the Team and Project

The feedback generated through the continuous testing process repeatedly informs how you can meet the requirements of a software product. Each time you test, you learn more about what needs to be done to improve the project. The more testing is done, the better the team becomes in all the specifications of a given project.

Faster Feedback Response

Continuous feedback translates to more immediate response times. With every project iteration that comes across, testing reveals more feedback about what needs to be improved. Constant attention to product incremental during each sprint will increase the team’s capability to address any issues, creating a faster cycle of development with greater quality.

Good Coding Practices

Each time the project moves through on a continuous testing cycle, your team of developers fixes any new defects. Every iteration delivers a better, improved version, effectively improving, and optimizing the final code. Adding up new features and having a continuous testing practice will help the end product and end-user have a better user experience.

Minimmum Documentation

Creating documentation for every phase, iteration, or testing cycle is extremely time-consuming. The agile manifesto states that people, interactions, and working software over comprehensive documentation, there is no real need to document every single step. Agile software development and testing promote the use of checklists rather than filling documentation templates per cycle. These checklists focus on the essence of the test and results.

Test-Driven

The agile process for software development is executed with the corresponding testing before releasing functionality. Agile in comparison with waterfall does not wait for the whole project to be finished in order to do testing cycles to see if it functions properly. Every product incremental during the agile building process is done through testing, ensuring continuous participation in the quality of the product.

Nearshore IT solution provider

At Towa, we are certain that these elements serve as a great foundation to build a powerful value proposition for users of IT services.

The Nearshore model is much more efficient in achieving higher percentages of work performed at a lower-cost location than offshore.

Value propositions

• Leverage proximity 
  • Proximity and time zone
  • Cultural affinity and ease of doing business
  • Cost savings
• The total cost of engagement

Although nearshore rates tend to be higher, the overall cost of nearshore engagements is equivalent to or less than offshore, because of the efficiency gains that working in close proximity to the US and in the same time zones can bring.

Productivity gains

• Global nearshore 
  • World-class cost-efficient services
  • Fill the gap left by India centric global sourcing
  • Outstanding customer services
  • Reduce the complexity of IT services management
  • Globalize IT operations
  • Optimize costs
  • Support the evolution of the business

Nearshore software testing 

Increase software quality, reduce costs

Today’s software applications are increasingly intricate, often operating within multi-layer, multi-platform environments, and shaped in rapid and agile conditions, with increasingly ambitious requirements.
In this complex scenario, software testing becomes even more critical as a means to assure quality and minimize risk, while meeting the market and organization’s needs.

Towa provides a robust and comprehensive testing practice that identifies the correctness, completeness, and quality level of software products. Towa enhances productivity and increases communication with the development teams while helping clients achieve significant cost savings.

Services 

• Quality assurance
• Software testing
• Test automation
• Performance testing
• Mobile testing
• Security and penetration testing

IT Services Nearshoring 

Towa´s goal is to improve the efficiency of all processes throughout the application lifecycle from vision and development to implementation and continuous maintenance.

Services 

• Application development services 
  • Application modernization
  • Business intelligence
  • Custom application development
  • System integration
  • Ecommerce services
  • Open source
  • Mobile

• Application value management 
  • SLA Management and monitoring
  • Requirements management
  • Configuration management
  • Transition management
  • Communication management
  • QA management
  • Risk management
  • Change management

• IT infrastructure services 
  • End-user support services
  • Server and datacom support
  • IT business process support

Nearshore cloud solutions

Cloud technology maximized

Leading organization are controlling their futures by using the cloud to drive change and innovation, build new business models, and follow new opportunities. 

Towa takes a holistic approach to leveraging the cloud with our architecture and advisory Services, Cloud Migration and Application Development Services, Managed Services for Cloud Hosting, and Cloud Application Support Services. We combine all these services into one package and deliver a solution that allows you to phase your implementation of the cloud relative to the business requirements you have. Our approach to the cloud combines both business and technology, ensuring a positive result.

Services

• Cloud architecture and advisory services
• Inventory application portfolio
• Cloud roadmap and strategy
• Build business case
• Architect solution
• Cloud migration and application development
• Cloud application migration
• Cloud application development
• Managed services for cloud hosting
• Cloud hosting
• Software as a service
• Managed storage and database services

Conclusion

Agile development is a proactive strategy for delivering the highest quality assurance for every project. Constant assessment maintains a system that continuously improves the product, polishing its design until the code, functionality, and interface are performing as expected. Combining agile quality assurance with the convenience of a nearshore outsourcing team delivers premium digital products at an affordable cost with accessible collaboration.

Towa is a leading firm across the United States and Mexico for software engineering and outsourcing, including QA and testing. We offer from Mexico our over +300 engineers capabilities as nearshore delivery model service offerings. If you want to learn more about what we can do for your company, contact us here.

Towa Software has over 20 years of experience to guarantee the quality of every line of code, we are proud of our products and services delivered. We recommend starting small and build trust with your provider before scaling. 

We have expert Project Managers and Innovation Consultants along with top talented teams who have delivered awesome products to customers in U.S.A, Canada, Mexico, London, and Australia.

As a leading software development outsourcing company in the USA and Mexico, we have extensive experience in many fields including fintech, banking, payments gateways, e-commerce, retail, marketplaces, health care, Omnichannel, and many more.

You can contact us at support@towasoftware.com or give us a call via (+1) 210-787-4525 for more information.

All company sizes, any business can potentially benefit from outsourcing talent. Instead of taking an in-house approach for a team of developers, outsourcing top talent and management skills can save enormously in the software development budget.

It’s a win-win, you will have more time to focus on your core business strategy. And you will hire a dedicated team of skillful engineers to carry on the heavy work of development and launching software products. 

Keep in mind that any contract for software development is different for each type of company. It will be good to have a lawyer to tailor and structure the core areas such as fees, expenses, the scope of services, and costs from time to time.

Why software development agreement is important?

By signing a software development contract, you can protect your business from some downfalls. If not carefully doing it right, you can time-draining legal dispute. Don’t worry. The contract is your best protection against inevitable conflicts over things like:

• Specifications. This is one of the most important elements of the contract. A well-written scope of work (requirement specifications) defines out exactly what the finished product will be like.
• Payment. What payment terms are agreeable to both parties and when.
• Work phases. Determine how much work needs to be completed at each stage of the project.
• Intellectual property rights. Ver important, who owns the software, source code and technology.
• Copyrighted material. Who owns the copyrighted material that goes into software development.

At Towa Software, we have more than 20 years of business experience. When developing a new project for our clients, we will outline the specific requirements like audience research, deadlines for particular areas, prototyping, UI/UX design, coding, testing, DevOps, and many other activities that are needed. The software development contract helps many clients ensure that the software outsourcing company and the client are on the same page, clearly stating development services, timelines, payments and more.

What you should take into consideration when hiring an Outsourcing company?

Watch for contract loopholes in an IT outsourcing contract. There are dozens of common mistakes you can make.

Before the master contract is signed, ready carefully.

Let’s learn what to watch in contract loopholes in software outsourcing, from personal experience. 

Most Popular Types Of Outsourcing Contracts

First, you should be clear about what types of software development contracts are available.

When outsourcing a development team, it is hard to have full control over the work process. Before the project begins, the most important thing you can do is to clarify all the requirements of the contract in detail, most importante is the scope of work.

What costs are involved? Is there any hidden cost? What price rates will be agreed upon? 

Let’s find out the features of each contract for outsourcing services, most commonly used.

Fixed Price Contract

A fixed-price contract determines the price of a certain scope of work, regardless of the actual time of end-to-end implementation. Moreover, this type of IT outsourcing model can provide financial incentives for achieving specific project milestones and reach goals.

• A good option for short-term projects
• Client and Outsourcing provider agree on a ‘fixed price’ for the service
• The price is estimated by outsourcing company based on the well-defined scope of work (requirements)
• The downside is little or non-flexibility under this type of contract for adding or changing the scope of work

Time & Materials Contract

Different from the fixed price project, the T&M model does not need a detailed estimate of all the features and requirements. The client pay for the hours spent on the development of a determined scope of work. Ideal for long-term collaboration: 

• The Client pays the outsourcing company for work time and used materials monthly.
• In contrast, to Fix price, T&M allows a great level of flexibility in development, to change requirements, and to allocate resources according to business needs. 
• Ideal for long-term cooperation.

Dedicated Team Contract

This software development contract model will fit better for all kinds of development tasks. A dedicated team will only focus and work with your software project to achieve results and become a high-performer team in little time.

At Towa Software, we have been proving this model of contract for some time now and believe it is the best way to consolidate an outstanding team, with top talent, dedicated only to your product.

• More for a long-term project with flexibility and potential to scale
• The whole team is in one place or remote, same time zones and cost savings
• The team is managed by senior experts and specialists to guarantee results
• Highly motivated team members quickly react to any issues and changes
• The whole team is dedicated to your success

Now that we have discussed in general terms the most used models of contracting with a Software firm, it is time to bring some light to the most common mistakes people suffer when hiring a team of engineers, watch for these loopholes.

How To Avoid Contract Loopholes In Software Outsourcing?

It’s usually the client’s choice to select between Fixed price, Time & Materials, and Dedicated Team for hiring a software development company.

All types of outsourcing models have their risks and opportunities. Even with all things being considered, we strongly recommend watching for these key points to reduce the risk of contract loopholes.

Define Development Specifications

Specifications are the main part of any software development contract. If you don’t clarify what the final product looks like, how it will look, or what customers expect, it’s hard for the development team to build a product that meets your need.

Your contract should clearly define:

• All the functions integrating with your product.
• Write down the details of the project, be as specific as possible.

Also, the contract should describe the development services that you expect your partner to provide. It also shows the procedure of making changes to the scope. Ideally, we recommend stating any changes proposed by each party as following:

• How many times you can change a request.
• A description of the change.
• What is the result of the change has on the project cost and time.

Project Timeline

Every project should have a defined plan. The project should state the hourly rates, development phases, milestones, and deadlines. Defining each stage also helps you and your software provider. Just make sure all supplementary documents are signed by both parties.

There are project management tools that help you to manage an effective timeline such as Asana, Smartsheet, Trello, Monday, there are many tools for tracking these activities.

Payment Time

As we mentioned before, the most common forms of payment agreement are:

• Fixed-price means the price is paid for an entire project. It can be helpful for you to know upfront what the project will cost. This type is less flexible for changes but gives more certainty on how long it will take to develop.
• In Time and Materials, you have to pay for the time spent and the cost of materials. Time and materials contract is easier to kick off. Because it requires less preparation and planning. Besides, the development team has more flexibility to maintain the high quality of the project.

Your contract should detail a schedule of payments including:

• The date that each payment must be made.
• How payments will be made.
• Additional fees that may be incurred.

Planning payments ahead of time is always a better practice, know your cash flows and payment due dates in advance.

Cost Estimate 

Cost savings is arguably the major reason to outsource services and staffing. However, one of the common contract loopholes in IT outsourcing is also about the cost.

It’s easy to fall into the temptation of selecting the least expensive providers to save money. Unfortunately, sometimes the lowest bid comes with poor quality.

Nobody wants to provide a negative experience for a customer. So you and your software outsourcing provider should be made clear what are the communication channels, deadlines for payments, and if there is flexibility.

To avoid mistakes in your contract, you have to set all the rules for payment and service.

User Acceptance Testing

In general, acceptance testing is done at the end of each development phase or Sprint. If your provider has a specific QA process that should form part of the testing, it should be documented. The agreement should also note the time assigned for testing, fixing bugs, and warranty time after launch for proving support for any defects or incidents. 

For Testing, you should note the following

• Who does the testing?
• How long does it take?
• What is the warranty for bug fixing?

Measure KPIs

Your outsourcing contract should specify the key performance indicators of the project. When the contract clauses are misaligned with the business objectives, problems arise

You should consider SLA, service hours, and service elements, human resources as well as technical resources required. This allows you to prevent contract clauses and have a flexible approach to describing the service.

Duration of Contract

When you signed an outsourcing contract, it means the provider is the right one at that moment. However, things can change with time and business strategy. Maybe, you wish to transfer an outsourced service to another vendor or bring it back in-house development. Contract loopholes relating to exit management should be clear, but they are often ignored. 

Therefore, from the establishment of the contract, the exit option must be integrated. What are the elements that will be transferred back to the customer? What are the knowledge transfers that will be provided in case of not outsourcing anymore? When and why could you decided to end the services provided must be stated in the contract. 

Security on Top

Many of the most commonly outsourced processes require the transfer of data. Therefore, it can carry significant contract loopholes with data protection.

First of all, to ensure data protection, there are questions that should be asked:

• Are the outsourcing company’s services compliant with good data protection?
• What are the security measures in place to prevent abuse of data?

Outsourcing agreements should cover key data protection issues. Then, the provider has to compliant with the legislation.

The contract needs to cover the extraction and removal of your data.

It’s also highly recommended you take advantage of how the transfer back to your systems can be made securely.

Conclusion

When starting outsourcing with a new outsourcing partner, many companies tend to sign the contract without having the resources to manage the agreement. As an Owner, CEO, CIO, or CTO you should know how to follow up on a detailed outsourcing contract. But we highly suggest that you write a simple contract through a clear and structured model of cooperation. Both client and software outsourcing providers should consider including timeline, the scope of work, payment terms, data security, clarify service description, ending clause, and notice periods.

Towa Software has over 20 years of experience to guarantee the quality of every line of code, we are proud of our products and services delivered. We recommend starting small and build trust with your provider before scaling. 

We have expert Project Managers and Innovation Consultants along with top talented teams who have delivered awesome products to customers in U.S.A, Canada, Mexico, London, and Australia.

As a leading software development outsourcing company in the USA and Mexico, we have extensive experience in many fields including fintech, banking, payments gateways, e-commerce, retail, marketplaces, health care, Omnichannel, and many more.

You can contact us at support@towasoftware.com or give us a call via (+1) 210-787-4525 for more information.

You can Book a 15-min call call with one of our Customer Success Managers for a conversation.

How can teams maintain effective communication when they are separated by location and time zones?

Principles like “software over documentation,” “responding to change over following a plan” and “quality interactions over tools” take on whole new meaning when managing remote teams.

Why Agile prioritizes communication

Agile methodology recognizes face-to-face communication as the most efficient and effective means to share ideas. The benefits of sketching on cards or a whiteboard are two-fold — improving the level of understanding and reducing the time it takes to deliver the core message.

Most credit the adoption of Agile thinking as the primary driver to create more open, collaborative office spaces no longer punctuated by rows of cubes and team members appearing every so often. Open spaces led to more drive-by conversations between team members and more feedback collected throughout the development process naturally.

Unlike smaller teams who do have the option to co-locate, enterprises managing remote teams often don’t have the luxury of sharing the same physical space each day.

Team structure options:

• The stakeholders and the development team share the same physical space.
• The business is physically separated from the development team with the stakeholders in one office and the development team in another, often offshore or nearshore.
• The stakeholders and the development team are separated by distance and time. Additionally, the development team itself is distributed across cities or countries.

Distributed teams must actively work to avoid falling into communication traps that shift the project process away from Agile development to a decidedly waterfall one. But, the world is a small place even for distributed teams — made smaller by the available communication platforms from Microsoft Teams, Trello, Slack, Jira, or Skype. Promoting the same close communication expectations is the key to supporting the Agile process on distributed teams.

7 Communication strategies for managing remote agile teams

Foster a culture of continuous integration while builds are regularly reviewed and planned.

Creating a culture where continuous integration is the norm is especially valuable on projects with extended timelines or while managing remote teams. In this structure, it’s easy to opt for dividing work for teams along technical boundaries. These technical boundaries may be divided by frontend/backend work or even database and services layer/frontend. Team bandwidth or security might drive the boundaries. Additionally, some businesses may be cautious of releasing intellectual property into a cloud-based platform like GitHub.

This usually results in the maintenance of two source code repositories with a commitment to merge them later. Resist this. The technical debt that results from this fractured code is more time-consuming to overcome than if the teams had increased the communication necessary to manage just one code repository in the first place. Overcoming any communication barriers to work on the same code base is worth it in every way.

The team manages successfully at leading remote teams and achieving this culture will begin to see evidence manifest in the daily communication and behavior of team members:

• All members actively strive not to break the build.
• They will provide visibility to broken builds.
• All will react with a sense of urgency to adjust build issues.

Commit to frequent builds, so you don’t prioritize upholding the plan over agility.

It’s easy to produce a giant spec instead of communicating daily with the remote development team or let distance become a reason to stay the course and avoid developing the solution when challenges or barriers arise.

Building on a weekly schedule is good, daily is even better. Hold your team accountable to submit a change set to the source code control each time. Then, take advantage of your compiler as a stand-in team member to ensure your source code has reached or exceeded quality expectations. Adding smoke tests can propel this even further.

Welcome the human process of developing custom software.

Most people assume custom software development is a purely technical process. While it’s true the process is highly technical requiring years of training and experience to run successfully, software development is a human process first and relies on trust between individuals.

Promote knowledge sharing on every team. This is less about documenting processes in a Wiki and more about nurturing this behavior in daily stand-ups or any time team members give updates.

Support your team to share beyond what concerns to that day’s work. If a team member expects something they are working on may impact another role the next day, call that out. Once team members master the habit of sharing important, forward-looking insights, that’s when true knowledge sharing has been reached.

Foster communication between UX designers and business analysts to accelerate throughput by a factor of two.

Fostering close collaboration between designers and business analysts, urging extra attention to the graphical interface. This mean additional time is spent creating visual artifacts for the technical team to complement related user stories. The prize? Less questions related to aesthetics and less iterations created as a result of the mismatched expectations.

Consider even non-functional requirements.

For teams who are co-located, it’s easy to address questions around performance and scalability as they arise. Imagining and documenting requirements with the appropriate level of detail serves as the link between the business and technical teams.

For distributed teams, understanding non-functional requirement feature plays an even bigger role. Without specific directions documented for the technical team, it might result in the production of an architecture that makes assumptions about the non-functional requirements resulting in increased rework, and time waste later.

Managing a distributed team may mean documenting more.

While all Agile teams strive to write “just enough” requirements, managing a distributed team means accepting “just enough” may still mean documenting more than would be created for a co-located team.

Distributed team members can’t quickly sketch on a whiteboard to work through a complex concept. Rather than leaving your development and testing teams left guessing on the nuances that would otherwise be delivered verbally, document them and “give the answers” before the test.

By augmenting user stories with test or acceptance criteria you can set the technical team up for success without drastically expanding the narrative.

Choose a set of communication tools for your team that allows for the usual escalation of communication needs.

When teams are co-located, the level of communication needed escalates naturally. It might begin with co-workers speaking one-to-one in the breakroom. If clarifying details are needed, additional subject matter experts may be pulled into the conversation. Then, the conversation shifts from many-to-one or many-to-many, depending on the context. Maintaining this escalation process is essential to create outlets for quick answers or more in-depth conversations despite any distance that may exist between team members.

Types of Communication

• Chat 1–1
• Chat many-to-1
• Voice call
• Visual call
• Screen share
• Collaborative Board

The ability to ask quick clarifying questions is inherent in how most teams work. In the past, this could be accomplished with face-to-face drive-bys in the office. But, increasingly even teams who are co-located are relying on instant messenger or video calls to accomplish this.

Instant messaging is a powerful tool for managing remote teams that include non-native English speakers. The tool allows them the space to craft replies without the pressure of discussing directly (and quickly) with a native English speaker. That said, tools like Microsoft Teams or Slack allow for escalation from messaging to voice and video calls and even screen sharing if needed.

While the importance of instant messaging cannot be over-emphasized for distributed teams, watching body language and physical reactions to comments or questions are also critically important, especially when discussing challenges or questions to estimate feasibility or understanding.

What does it take to win with distributed Agile software teams?

No digital tool or communication strategy can replace the determination of the leaders needed to achieve the Team highest potential.

Co-Innovate with us.

Towa Software – Boosting Digital Transformation with best ROI – Remote Tech Teams. 300 strong.