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Managing outsourced projects

6 Easy Tips for Managing Outsourced Projects

6 Easy Tips for Managing Outsourced Projects

There are many reasons why a business might want to outsource work. If you’re too busy, outsourcing may be the perfect solution for your company. There is a lot of responsibility that comes with managing an outsourced project and it can get confusing if you don’t have a system in place.

As a business owner, you should always be looking for ways to make your life easier. If you are currently outsourcing or thinking to outsource projects to freelancers or other companies, then it is important that you are managing outsourced projects effectively. In this blog post, we will discuss 6 tips that will help you stay on top of all the work that needs to get done!

Why is it important to keep track of outsourced projects?

Outsourcing work is a great way to keep your business moving forward while not spending too much money. You can hire an outside company or freelancer for specific tasks and projects that will take less time than if you were doing it all yourself, but this means more responsibility on your end. If you aren’t careful with how many things are going on at once, you will lose track of everything and be left feeling confused.

Failure to keep track of your outsourcing partners and processes can lead to problems like missed deadlines, delayed projects and unsatisfied end-users. This can be extremely bad for you company’s reputation as well your bottom line if the project costs more than it should have because of these things!

That is why it is important to do everything possible to avoid these problems from the start. If your business is already outsourcing, then you need a plan in place to keep everything organized and moving forward easily. So, let’s look at some tips you can use to keep all of your outsourced projects organized, easy to manage and successful!

Choose Your Outsourcing Partner Wisely

choose outsourcing partner

The first step in managing your outsourced projects is to choose the right partner for you. If you are planning on outsourcing ongoing work like marketing efforts or programming, then it’s probably best if you find a company that specializes in this field. This will make things much easier and they should already have experience dealing with similar types of businesses as yours!

Try to pay attention to details like:

  • How long have they been on the market
  • What services do they offer
  • How many clients do they currently have
  • Portfolio of past work experience
  • Staff experience
  • What is their project management process 

These details should be a good starting point to determine if this company is a good fit for you. It’s also important that you schedule a consultation call to discuss the work that needs to be done before you hire them. You can ask about their process and how they will go about completing your project as well as what it may cost!

Just because a company looks good on paper, doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy working with them in person. Sometimes things change once people are actually doing the work and it may not be what you expected!

Pro Tip: During the introduction call, pay attention to whether the outsourcing company is focused on understanding your problem or is simply advertising its services without listening to you. This will help you determine if the company is a good fit for your work or not!

Set clear expectations

Once you have chosen your outsourcing company, it’s time to set some clear expectations so everyone knows what is expected of them. This will help avoid any confusion or miscommunication in the future that can lead to mistakes and delays!

First things first: Be specific about exactly what needs to get done. Don’t just say “I want a new website” because that could include a lot of different things. Instead, try to be as specific as you can about the issue at hand. For example, “I want a new e-commerce website that will allow users to buy products online using my current payment gateway”.

Make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to these details and problems by setting clear expectations for who needs what information from whom in order to get the job done.

Encourage the use of project management software

Project management software will play a crucial role in making sure your outsourced projects go smoothly and on time. If you don’t have project management software already in place, then I highly recommend that you start using one ASAP!

There are many different types of these tools out there for all kinds of needs so it’s important to pick the right one for your situation. Here are some examples of different types of project management software:

  • Trello – A Kanban-style collaboration tool created to manage personal and team projects.
  • JIRA – A project management tool used by software development teams that helps you track bugs and manage the overall project life cycle.
  • Asana –   A project management tool that allows you to track projects, share files and manage your team’s tasks all in one place.  It can be used for teams or individuals as well as your entire business (from accounting, marketing, sales etc).
  • Pivotal Tracker – A project management tool used by software development teams.
  • Monday.com –  A scheduling and time tracking tool that also allows you to create, assign and track tasks. It has a variety of different features such as project templates, recurring events, etc.

These tools will help you document the process, understand what phase of the project you are in, who is assigned to what tasks, how much time is spent on each task, and what still needs to be done.

Stay in constant contact with your partners

Once you have outlined your deadlines, start dates and milestones with your outsourcing company, it’s time to create a communication schedule.

It is important that everyone knows what they need to be doing at all times so staying in constant contact will help avoid any confusion or miscommunication. This includes establishing the best method of communicating as well as how often each party should be communicating with one another.

Creating a consistent communication schedule from the start will not only improve your workflow but can also help you avoid some common problems such as: Delays due to miscommunication, missed deadlines and poor quality of work because people don’t know what is expected of them or how they fit into the big picture.

However, don’t limit communication to scheduled meetings. You should also encourage instant communication and collaboration to help jumpstart your projects. This can be done through business communication platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams or Skype.

It is important to stay in contact with your outsourcing partners as much as possible throughout the project.

Test frequently 

One of the best ways to ensure that your outsourced projects go smoothly is by making sure there are no problems throughout the entire process. This is why testing early and often will pay off in the long run.

Make sure you and everyone involved in the project test the software and identify what needs to be done quickly before moving on to another part of development. This can help you gather valuable feedback, discover bugs or problems right away, identify where things are going, and fix them right away instead of waiting until the end of the project.

Set up specific metrics to measure performance

If you want to make sure your project is going in the right direction and there are no problems along the way then it’s important to set up specific metrics for measuring performance. These tests or measurements can include things like:

  • Percentage of work done – This can help you determine if your team is meeting its goals and whether they are on track for completing all their assigned duties within the deadline.
  • Efficiency rate (i.e. speed)  – This can help you determine how long it takes for tasks to get completed and whether there are any areas where the work needs improvement or if something is slowing down the process.
  • Number of delayed tasks –  This can help you determine how many tasks have been delayed and whether there need to be any changes made to the way things are done.
  • Cost Variance (CV) –  This can help you determine if the cost of work is exceeding or below your initial budgeted amount. If it is on budget, then you know everything is on track and if there are any cost problems, this can help you identify where changes need to be made so that they don’t happen again.

These measurements help you gain valuable insight into how your projects are performing and whether or not they are meeting set expectations. Performance measurement will also show if your project is on track, meeting deadlines, meeting standards, and creating the high-quality work you are looking for.

Conclusion

Hopefully, our tips have been useful and will help you get your outsourced projects on track. Managing remote teams can be a challenge but it doesn’t have to be.

By staying in constant contact, testing frequently, and measuring performance on all of your outsourced projects, you can avoid common problems like delays, miscommunication, or poor quality of work.

And if you are looking for a reliable IT outsourcing partner, contact us today. We offer high-quality work, fast delivery, and competitive prices for all of our services. Just schedule a free consultation with our team and see for yourself!

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© 2021 - MaxinAI | All Rights Reserved
© 2021 - MaxinAI | All Rights Reserved