Does anyone have an experience with managing an online outsourced software team?
I would like to learn from anyone's experience on that subject: How to find the best coders, how to manage their work, what those coders will need as an input, how to manage latency in their delivery etc.
I'm managing such a team - COAX Software. Answering your questions, from the perspective of remote team:
How to find the best coders Trial for at least two weeks will work best of all. Also, you need to have someone technical on your side to help you interviewing them before trial.
How to manage their work The best way - regular daily standups, Jira with tasks, Scrum as methodology, timetracking in Tempo ro Harvest
How to manage latency in their delivery Daily standup at a time convenient for both of you. Have weekly planning and demos. Keep all discussion in Jira tickets.
Hi savigdor, I have constructed and exclusively manage an outsourced team for my day job.
You need to understand how to construct a team that works exclusively off your strengths and weaknesses.
Are you a great developer? Then it might be better to hire less skilled & cheaper developers, task them to build smaller/well defined components of the website, while managing the process and building out more difficult aspects yourself.
Are you a medicore developer or not familiar with the technology at all? Play a support role, get them everything they need immediately, jump in where you can (write tests, perform basic research, be available to talk through the problem's they are facing).
Payouts
Structure payouts based off of milestone completions and fire quick, hire quick. That way if it isn't working out, and you're halfway through the first milestone, you aren't losing a lot of money finding a great developer for the project.
However, a lot of developers don't like working off milestones, so when you find a great developer, make the next project an hourly project, if you can afford them.
I hardly conduct any interviews, as I've found them a poor use of time. The best indicator of a good developer is previous experience doing something MORE difficult.
If this development project is the most difficult project they will ever be attempting, that is a good sign to stay away. They can learn on their own time, they should perform on your time.
Delivery Times
Set up any task management tool, talk to your team about due dates and expectations, factor in worst-case scenarios.
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