Choosing an outsourcing or body leasing partner is a serious decision that may influence the success of your project. A wrong decision may put you behind the eight balls. To make sure you don’t regret it in the future, bear in mind the three key questions when choosing a nearshore or body leasing software development partner.

Let’s get into it:

Do They Have the Experience With Foreign Clients, Especially Clients in Your Industry?
You should never risk being the vendor's first foreign client, but a nearshore partner is very likely to have previous experience with other international clients. To verify this, go to the prospective partner’s website, find their portfolio and look for previous projects to find out who their previous clients were. Then, if possible, reach out to those clients and speak to them – some of them may be willing to tell you more. Chances are some of them will be from your country.
 
Firstly, try to find a partner with relevant industry experience that would be useful for your project. How long have they been around? Can they share any successful case studies? Have they worked with other clients from your industry? If yes, then are these clients’ projects still maintained and successful?

Ask the nearshoring partner if they’ve had other clients with needs and goals similar to yours, and see what level of understanding of your industry they have. 
 
If you’re looking to develop your project in a particular technology, make sure the provider knows it inside out. On the other hand, if you are not sure which technology would suit your project best, it’s still good to talk to the prospective partner and ask them for advice. This will also be a great opportunity to get some valuable information about the technologies they are specialized in. Can they catch up with the recent trends? E.g. Do they offer Progressive Web Apps? Do they master responsive design?

Are they big enough to scale, but still small enough to care?
There’s typically a higher level of accountability when developers work for a company directly. However, partnering with a company exactly the right size can make a huge difference. Try to determine whether the potential development partner typically works with companies that are bigger, smaller, or about the same size as yours. 

You’ll be better off finding a development partner which is big enough to grow together with you and support your business as it grows. Big companies may not treat you with due attention, and have a smaller attention span for each client, and are less likely to treat you on an individual basis. Smaller outsourcing companies may lack the necessary resources to scale. Bottom line: you’re aiming for the sweet spot, i.e. a partner whose size and experience roughly mirrors your own company.
 
Do they offer agile development?
Agile is the new approach to fast-tracking quality software and app development. It breaks the project or application into smaller functionalities via “stories.”
 
Agile offers bite-sized deliverables and faster timeframes and profits. But most importantly, it puts the client in the loop, in charge of decisions as the project progresses. This means greater control over the features and faster return on investment with the minimum viable product.

MVP in Agile development means testing and free feedback from real users. For example, early adopters can use it for free as the MVP slowly fleshes out into a bona fide premium product.

MVP development process allows to test out what works and what doesn’t on real users early on, and scrap the ideas that eat out your budget. Or kill the product altogether without paying through the nose. This can save you some time and allows you to focus on other features or a completely different product instead of the development of a product that is flawed from the get-go.

Final words
When you’re kicking the wheels of nearshore vendors, make sure they are ready to streamline the development process for quicker turnaround and resulting revenue. Do they use an Agile development model for faster results to streamline software development and outcomes?