Benefits of Agile Nearshore Development 

Struggling to find top-tier developers at a reasonable cost? Many EU and UK businesses face this challenge. Agile nearshore development offers the best of both worlds – access to skilled IT talent in nearby countries while keeping costs optimized.  

By definition, the model of Agile nearshore development is two-fold and combines the best of nearshoring 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 neighboring countries and optimize their budgets. In this post, we review how this approach can benefit your company as well.  

What is Agile software development?  

Agile software development is based on flexibility, collaboration, and continuous improvement during the software development lifecycle. Instead of spending months building a product without feedback, Agile teams work in small stages, regularly receive input, and adapt to changes. 

Agile methods help tech leaders manage projects efficiently by incorporating frequent reviews, plan adjustments, teamwork, and self-organization. 

In a nearshore setting, this approach also prevents situations where software is developed over a prolonged period only to fall short of expectations or contain critical errors. Instead, your external team will collaborate directly with you (and your local team), deeply integrating into your processes, gaining deep domain knowledge, and driving your goals forward. 

Key principles of Agile methodology

• Customer satisfaction comes first

Agile teams prioritize delivering customer value by providing working software early and frequently, thanks to sprint planning and short development cycles. This ensures that the product meets their needs and expectations. For instance, here are bits of feedback from our clients:

• Embracing change

According to Agile methodology, change is an opportunity, not a problem, even if requirements tend to fluctuate in a rapidly changing tech industry. The ability to quickly adapt to new realities helps keep the product competitive and relevant.

• Frequent delivery of working software

Instead of waiting months for a final product, Agile teams release functional updates every few weeks to collect quick feedback and adjust accordingly.

• Collaboration between developers and business teams

The success of Agile development comes from continuous teamwork. Nearshore agile software development benefits businesses, as it creates a tight-knit environment where external staff and internal teams work together daily.

• Empowered and motivated teams

The best results come from professionals who are trusted, supported, and given the right environment to do their best work.

• Working software is the ultimate measure of progress

Fancy documentation or endless planning doesn’t define success – a functional product that users love does.

• Sustainable development pace

Agile development promotes a balanced workflow where teams can maintain a steady, healthy pace without overworking.

• Focus on technical excellence and attractive design

High-quality code and well-thought-out design make the software more adaptable, reducing the cost and effort needed for future changes.

• Simplicity matters

One of the key Agile principles is efficiency: Doing only what’s necessary to achieve the goal and avoiding unnecessary work or complexity.

• Self-organizing teams produce the best results

Most Agile teams work autonomously. That way, they are more innovative, take ownership of their work, and come up with the best solutions.

• Regular reflection and improvement 

Agile methodology involves frequent work revision, identifying areas for improvement, and adjusting the team’s approach to boost efficiency and effectiveness.

How Agile nearshore development helps you reduce costs and increase speed

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

Implementing Agile 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.

READ ALSO: How to Benefit From Distributed Engineering Teams 

Benefits of Agile

1. 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 practices prioritize testing the product as a part of the project execution phase, which enhances the quality of the final product.

2. 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 a nearshore software development model, you can have regular progress reports using a wide range of tools and methods.

3. Reduced risks

Agile reduces project failure rates by up to 28% (according to Standish Group). Frequent iterations allow for early issue detection and course correction.

Agile guarantees a safer 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.

4. Continuous improvement

The centerpiece 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.

READ ALSO: Nearshore Product Development: Eastern Europe and Latin America Overview 

5. 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 neighboring 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, administering, and retention of software engineers. Working with a nearshore software development unit guarantees lower software development costs, so you can further invest that money into growing your business.

Hiring in-house developers in the UK can cost up to 50% more than nearshoring. With nCube, you save on recruitment, onboarding, and retention while accessing top-tier talent.

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 software engineers of this caliber, you can bring in the needed talent from neighboring countries, and even faster. A dependable vendor like 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 environment.

Similar culture

Different cultures can potentially be a complication in establishing a smooth communication process. There is always a risk of a project going awry due to miscommunication or misinterpretation of messages. Nearshore Agile development lets you work with software engineers 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 optimized budget. Here’s a rundown of the key benefits that come with Agile software development nearshore:

A hands-on approach

Many companies choose Agile methodology because it allows them to be personally involved in every aspect, from team creation to guiding a software development life cycle. 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 can manage the process as they see fit – unlike the outsourcing model.

Budget optimization

Nearshoring 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 cost 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.

READ ALSO: How Software Team Augmentation Helps Achieve Sustainable Results 

Autonomy

Some firms prefer to build a nearshore unit to execute a certain type of task, for example, cloud migration or Quality Assurance. Nearshore Agile software 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 techniques, 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

Nearshore Agile software 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 external unit in a neighboring location 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 outsource software 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. We typically build nearshore Agile teams in 2-4 weeks, compared to the 3-6 months required for in-house hiring.

READ ALSO: Five Software Development Success Stories by nCube 

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.

1. 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 for 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.

2. Ensure a smooth collaboration process

All team members of your nearshore development center 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 development team. Thus, it is crucial to ensure transparent communication channels from the beginning.

3. Maintain agility throughout the project

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

4. 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 nearshore software development company that provides nearshore Agile teams for businesses worldwide, let us share more details about how we work.

Agile nearshore software development services | nCube

At nCube, we provide nearshore software development teams 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 17+ 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, Greenpeace, doTerra, and Dentsply Sirona, to name a few. When it comes to nearshore staff augmentation, 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 software development project while adopting your company’s best practices when it comes to collaboration and communication.