Privileges and Drawbacks Of Building a Remote Software Development Team

Hiring remote tech talent is definitely the main trend in IT staffing in recent years. More and more companies choose this option every year and building a development team of remote professionals today will be a great investment in the future of your company. Of course, the whole process can be challenging, especially for newcomers, so let’s talk about the main advantages and drawbacks of assembling a remote team of software developers. 

Pros

Budget-friendly

Definitely, the main advantage for business owners is the cost-effectiveness of remote hiring. You won’t need to pay for office spaces, servers, supplies, maintenance, and other additional resources. Also, you won’t have to pay for medical insurance with a remote hire. But the main way to cut costs is by hiring offshore developers. IT professionals from Eastern Europe, South Asia, and Latin America will charge you significantly less for the same level of expertise. It is possible due to lower costs of living in those regions and differences in currency exchange rates. With some time spent on choosing the right hiring destination for your project's needs, you can find a perfect balance between cost-effective and expert hiring. 

Wide pool of talents

As we mentioned, with remote hiring you can basically assemble a team from all around the world. This makes your potential pool of candidates virtually infinite and gives you a ton of opportunities. In many developing countries governments choose to invest in school and university tech education, which provides us with thousands of young IT specialists, who are ready to work for lower rates, every year. With a great amount of dedication or with the help of an IT staffing agency, you can find a perfect candidate without any geographical limitations and assemble a highly educated coders team. 

Hiring faster

Timing can be crucial for an app's development and hiring team members is one of the most time-consuming stages of the whole process. Remote specialists are much easier to find due to the wide pool of talent and hiring developers on freelance sites or as contractors can be done faster due to the easier legal side of things. Interviewing candidates online via video calls also saves you a lot of time and resources. 

Flexibility

The ability to adjust team structure on the go can’t be overrated. You can start the project with core team members employed full-time and with time add some new specialists with time according to your needs. You can also combine different types of hiring options, for example, working with in-house full-time core developers and bringing on freelancers with cheaper rates for small portions of code or some design twitches. Another really popular option is staff augmentation with the help of recruitment agencies. With a remote team, your options are really limitless and this will help your app’s budgeting big time. 

Cons

Problems with communication

As we mentioned earlier in this post, the language barrier is not as big a problem as it was just a few years ago. English proficiency all over the world grows at a rapid speed and most IT professionals can communicate clearly with their employers. But in some instances you still can experience some drawbacks due to troubles with communication, which is why it is crucial to confirm a developer's English-speaking skills during the interviewing process. Another thing we need to mention is different time zones which can make regular video calls utterly impossible. 

Team culture

Even if you go with local developers from your area you still can experience some problems with communication due to a lack of soft skills on their end and the absence of corporate team culture. Team-building exercises and after-work activities can be crucial to healthy working relationships and some product managers just can’t build a strong development team without them. With specialists from abroad, you also can experience additional difficulties due to cultural differences, it can be avoided with some thorough research about their country beforehand. It needs mentioning, that a diverse group of IT professionals from different countries can be a positive too due to different perspectives, increase in creativity, and cultural exchange between team members.  

Scheduling problems

As we mentioned before, time zones can differ drastically for you and your developers. This makes scheduling work calls and setting clear deadlines very hard for you and your project manager. Also, without any clear workday restrictions, there can be some minor delays in the latest updates from a team and responses from employees on any urgent issues. This can be avoided by hiring a top-notch project manager with a firm grip on the development process and by setting clear deadlines. Also, try to hire candidates with a really strong work ethic and self-discipline. With freelancers being infamous for being late with work delivery, try not to give them any urgent tasks to avoid major setbacks in product development. 

Lack of control

Many business owners are cautious to go with remote hiring due to an apparent lack of control over the development process. With an in-house full-time development team, you can get regular updates as often as you like and be involved in all stages of the app’s creation. Maintaining the same level of control with a remote team can be challenging. This can be avoided by a really thorough candidate search and interviewing process. When you assemble a team of trustworthy hard-working developers who can strive with lack of supervision, you have nothing to worry about. 

Conclusion

Building a remote software development team is an in-demand skill nowadays due to the growing popularity of this hiring option and it is better to start learning it today. If you decide to go with remote hires for your newest project, some potential drawbacks can scare you but with the right amount of research, clearly set goals, and a thorough interviewing process, you can assemble a really strong team without any problems, and all advantages that come with it will definitely overshadow all cons.