Benefits of Agile Nearshore Development 

By definition, the model of Agile nearshore development is two-fold and combines the best of a nearshore development approach and Agile, a common methodology used in software development. Due to the deficit of software developers, many EU and UK-based businesses bet on the combination of these approaches to tap into the pools of IT talent located in neighbouring countries and optimise their budgets. In this post, we review how Agile nearshore development can benefit your company as well. 

Nearshore Agile development: Pros of Agile 

Agile is a modern methodology used in software development, which allows teams to build software gradually via short-time development cycles, including such key stages as development, testing, and analysing the results. 

Agile excels at dealing with the uncertainty associated with the ever-changing market. When it comes to nearshore units, it helps to tame the chaos that can potentially appear when two distributed units work together. 

The Agile approach facilitates effective management, communication, efficiency, transparency, and control over the project progress. All of these aspects play a great role when it comes to creating a seamless collaborative environment for Agile nearshore software development. Below, we go over the benefits of Agile and why it’s adopted by many tech units. 

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Focus on a high-quality product. The core aspect of Agile is flexibility, which allows you to change the project’s priorities instantaneously. Thanks to this, any changes needed for the sake of better quality within the development process can be fulfilled without impeding the overall workflow. Moreover, Agile nearshore development prioritises testing the product as a part of the project execution phase, which enhances the quality of the final product.

Enhanced control over the processes. Thanks to transparency, ongoing communication, integrated feedback, and quality control, Agile lets stakeholders and project managers retain full control over the software development process, which is critical for remote teams. When going with Agile nearshore development, you can have regular progress reports using a wide range of tools and methods. 

Reduced risks. Agile guarantees projects a more safe landing due to increased risk prediction and failure prevention methods. The approach offers excellent ways to identify and mitigate mishaps and ensure a more predictable outcome. For example, you can rely on backlogs (a document of features to be delivered) to boost visibility, estimate workload, and plan your future targets.

Continuous improvement. The centrepiece of the Agile approach is continuous improvement. Agile allows teams to develop software gradually, within a continuous process where each version of the product is tested to ensure it’s better than the previous one, which lends itself to better product quality. 

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More relevant metrics. When it comes to projects with unpredictable outcomes, there’s a lot of unknown. When software development milestones are in flux, so are the priorities and KPIs you set for the teams. With nearshore Agile development, it’s easy to cover all essential metrics within the software development process and make effective data-driven decisions. The methodology lets you keep track of the progress and the team’s performance in an efficient way for each team member using such features as lead time, cycle time, work in progress, flow efficiency, throughput, and more. 

Agile nearshore software development: Pros of nearshoring

Nearshoring is an approach to the formation of a tech team in a neighbouring country. Provided by the vendor of Agile nearshore software development services, the team will work on your project together with your in-house squad while adopting the best practices of the Agile methodology. Here are the key benefits of nearshore units:

Lower rates. While onshore teams are out of the price range for many EU and UK businesses, nearshoring lets companies eliminate the costs for recruitment, onboarding, administrating, and retention of a team of developers. Working with an Agile nearshore software development unit guarantees lower software development costs, so you can further invest that money into growing your business. 

Solid expertise. It’s a fact that Western Europe suffers from a lack of tech talent, especially when it comes to the latest technologies, for example, AI/ML, Blockchain, IoT, Cloud, Computer vision, etc. If you’re hard-pressed to add specialists of this caliber, you can bring in the needed talent from neighbouring countries, and even faster. A reliable Agile nearshore development partner, for example, nCube, will provide you with a skilled squad based in Eastern Europe. 

Geographic proximity | Time zone. Compared to offshore teams, nearshore units don’t take a full day to fly to, so you can check in on your team in person as often as you need without the added stress of a long journey. Another benefit of close geographic proximity is the time zone, which significantly simplifies communication between your local and nearshore units and puts your teams in a close collaborative Agile nearshore development environment. 

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Similar culture. Different cultures can potentially be a complication in establishing a smooth communication process. There’s always a risk of a project going awry due to miscommunication or misinterpretation of messages. Nearshore Agile development lets you work with software developers who are located close enough to be familiar with your culture and share your values. For example, many developers based in Eastern Europe have harbored vast experience working in a multi-cultural English-speaking environment. 

How Agile software development nearshore can boost your business

The benefits of an Agile methodology and a nearshore development model tend to overlap in many cases. Batched together in one project, these approaches can increase the efficiency of your tech units, add to the transparency of the distributed engineering process, and help you to create a quality product within an optimised budget. Here’s a rundown of the key benefits that come with Agile software development nearshore:

A hands-on approach. Many companies choose the model of Agile nearshore development because it allows them to be personally involved in every aspect – from team creation to guiding a software development process. The benefit of this approach is that it allows firms to adjust the workflow and implement changes instantaneously – unlike other software development models. Also, the client doesn’t hand the keys to the castle to the provider when they work with nearshore units. In nearshore Agile development, they have the ability to manage the process as they see fit – unlike the outsourcing model. 

Budget optimization. Agile nearshore development is typically associated with reducing software development costs, as it allows businesses to source talent from more affordable locations. With this methodology in place, you can combine the benefit of lower developer rates with the increased efficiency of Agile methodology where making the changes costs nothing, which significantly reduces your IT budget. 

Easy scale-up. The backbone of Agile’s philosophy is flexibility. With Nearshore agile development in place, you can make the most of this benefit, as providers of Agile nearshore software development services typically let you expand or shrink your team on short notice. Nearshoring also enables you to add the needed talent fast, without having to grapple with the formalities associated with increasing or disbanding your team. 

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Autonomy. Some firms prefer to build a nearshore unit to execute a certain type of task, for example, cloud migration or Quality Assurance. Agile nearshore development lets you build self-managing units with increased autonomy that will yet act as an integral cog in your software development project. Following Agile’s best practices, your nearshore unit will share the responsibility for the whole project thanks to the sense of belonging to the bigger unit promoted by the methodology. Providers of nearshore Agile software development can help you to create a unit just like that, guiding you in establishing the right kind of communication and collaboration processes. 

Reduced staff attrition. Agile nearshore development helps firms to cope with the biggest problem of IT staffing – tech talent attrition. The methodology lets developers feel that their ideas are valued and appreciated, which turns them into active participants in the software development process. Working in such an environment gives developers fewer reasons to consider other opportunities. 

Fast team creation. Building an Agile nearshore development unit is possible at record speed since it gives you access to vast pools of tech talent. With that in mind, businesses located in the UK and the EU tend to seek partners in Eastern Europe where they can enjoy a repository of over 1M developers with experience in Agile nearshore development. The team formation process can take less than a month if you work with a vendor who has a solid network of developers, for example, nCube.

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What to keep in mind when hiring a provider of Agile nearshore development?

When you plan to go for Agile nearshore outsourcing, it’s best to consider the following aspects in advance.

Determine the scope of the project. Before you dive into nearshore Agile outsourcing, it’s best to define your project scope and goals. By doing so, you will set up the venture to success – with a clearly articulated strategy it will be easier for your nearshore Agile software development partner to understand your requirements and expectations, which enables them to provide the right kind of Agile nearshore team. 

Ensure a smooth collaboration process. All team members need to be in perfect sync when it comes to the SDLC and communication. This is especially true for nearshore Agile software development teams where close-knit collaboration between the client and the team is essential. Your nearshore developers need to be “in the thick of things” when it comes to communication with your local team. Thus, it’s crucial to ensure transparent communication channels from the beginning.

Maintain agility throughout the project. A nearshore Agile approach assumes high levels of flexibility on the part of the client and the team. So, it’s essential for all to stick with an Agile mindset and make sure you’re prepared for adjustments and adaptations throughout the SDLC. 

Build trust. The process of Agile nearshore software development requires a great deal of trust, given that the teams are separated from each other. As such, it’s crucial to regularly share project updates, address concerns, and ensure common understanding. Regular updates, reports on the progress, and team-building activities (even remote ones) will help nearshore Agile teams stay on the same page. 

Overall, Agile software development nearshore is a complex endeavor, and choosing a suitable partner is key. As a company that provides nearshore Agile teams to companies worldwide, let us share more detail about how we work.

Agile nearshore software development services | nCube

At nCube, we provide Agile nearshore software development services for our clients from the EU and the UK by sourcing tech talent based in Eastern Europe. We know the ins and outs of the region’s labor market and spare you the task of seeking skilled team members to add to your squad. 

We have 15+ years of experience building tech teams who work in a nearshore Agile software development environment. We work with companies stemming from many business verticals, including such industry leaders as AstraZeneca, Green Peace, doTerra, and Dentsply Sirona, to name a few. When it comes to creating tech teams, we cover all fields, from generic programming languages (Java, Python, PHP, JavaScript, etc) to in-demand technologies, such as ML/AI, IoT, Big Data, Cloud, Blockchain, etc. 

As a vendor of Agile nearshore software development services, we can help you to build more than just a nearshore team – it can be an offshoot of your company with engineers fully integrated into your workflows while adopting your company’s best practices when it comes to collaboration and communication. 

If you’re a proponent of the Agile approach (or any other methodology), contact us to learn about the possibilities of building your own Agile nearshore development squad.