Web Development Outsourcing: the Gist
Web development outsourcing allows businesses to hand over all or some development activities to a self-managed vendor while preserving the desired level of control over the web development project/projects.
- Types of web development outsourcing: staff augmentation, dedicated team, full web development outsourcing.
- A team for web development outsourcing: a project manager, a business analyst, a software architect, UX and UI designers, web developers, DevOps engineers, QA and testing specialists.
Web Development Plan
Below are described the typical steps we at ScienceSoft take to deliver corporate web applications and customer-facing solutions, web portals, ecommerce applications and SaaS products. The development plan can vary depending on the complexity of the future software, the required level of security, and more.
Step 1. Discovery
Duration: 20-30% of the project.
- Getting a clear vision of major business needs (e.g., facilitate communication among employees, systemize corporate data, improve the brand’s image, attract new prospects).
- Identifying the target users.
- Drawing up high-level functional and technical requirements to web software.
- Conducting a feasibility study. Creating a business case including NVP and ROI.
Step 2. Web application planning
- Defining and prioritizing detailed web software functional and non-functional requirements.
- Creating a software requirements specification (SRS).
- Deciding on the architectural style (modular, monolithic, cloud-native, serverless, etc.) of new web software.
Here is a quick overview of common architecture types:
Monolithic architecture
Key benefit: Units are closely bound, making it is easy to test, debug and maintain software.
ScienceSoft recommends for: Simple software with few modules unlikely to be scaled.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA)
Key benefit: The enterprise service bus (ESB) serves as a point of touch between all services, so a damaged service won’t affect others.
ScienceSoft recommends for: Complex enterprise software with a priority on high reliability (healthcare, financial services, etc.).
Microservice architecture
Key benefit: Software components can be developed, tested and deployed simultaneously.
ScienceSoft recommends for: Complex systems with services built in different languages and likely to be scaled.
Cloud-based architecture
Key benefit: Decreases or removes a company’s dependence on the on-premises server, storage, and networking infrastructure.
ScienceSoft recommends for: Evolving mid-scale and large-scale projects.
Serverless architecture
Key benefit: Hosted by a FaaS provider, each function can be scaled automatically upon calls. Payment is charged only when a function is called.
ScienceSoft recommends for: Software with considerable traffic fluctuations, so there’s no need to pay for services during idle time.
- Choosing the technology stack.
- Drawing up an integration plan.
- Planning the QA process:
- Outlining the scope and types of testing (functional, performance, usability, compatibility, security, compliance).
- Defining the testing schedule and a test team lineup.
- Deciding on the ratio of automated and manual tests.
Step 3. Project planning
Duration: up to 5% of the project.
Note: Thoroughly performed discovery can significantly reduce project planning time.
- Creating the software development project roadmap with major milestones, established timeframes and budget.
- Setting KPIs to assess project health.
Step 4. UX and UI design
Duration: 10-20 % of the project.
- Researching wants and expectations of the target audience via focus groups by employing questionnaires or conducting interviews.
- Building UX wireframes or mockups.
- Working out GUI elements.
Step 5. Front-end and back-end development
Duration: 50-80% of the project.
- Establishing development and delivery automation environments (CI/CD, container orchestration, etc.).
- Writing server-side code and APIs.
- Turning static user interface mockups provided by UI designers into the fully functional GUI.
- Conducting unit tests.
Step 6. Quality assurance
Duration: up to 20% of the project.
- Preparing the test environment and test data.
- Creating test cases and combining them into test suites.
- Setting up test management and defect tracking software.
- (if needed) Developing test automation scripts and configuring test automation tools.
- Running tests and reporting the results, sending the revealed issues to developers for fixing.
- Retesting.
Note: Testing usually runs in parallel with development.
Step 7. Deployment, stabilization and preparation for maintenance
Duration: up to 10% of the project.
- Deploying software in the production environment.
- (often for enterprise web apps) On-site user training sessions.
Step 8. Web app support and maintenance
- Selecting and configuring tools for continuous monitoring and testing of web app performance and availability.
- Establishing support and maintenance activities for the new web app.
To ensure trouble-free operation of a new web application, ScienceSoft usually offers three support levels:
Step 9. Further web app evolution in iterations
Note: An iteration typically lasts from 2 weeks to 3 months.
The development and delivery of new working software modules continue iteratively according to the following scheme.
Consider Professional Web Development Services
With expertise in over 30 industries, https://inemac.com/ can get down to the core of your business objectives and come up with a tailored web solution. Recognized in the 2022 Global Outsourcing 100 list by IAOP, https://inemac.com/ provides full-cycle web consulting and development services.