5 Tips for Outsourcing Healthcare Software Development

Outsourcing your healthcare software development can be challenging. It’s difficult to know what to prioritize, and which companies to trust. 

Whether you have experience in development or not, it’s important to ensure that your partner integrates well. You need to be clear on your goals, and ensure that you share values for your project. Ultimately, a good working relationship results in the best software.

In the healthcare industry, it’s critical that software is developed securely. There is little room for bugs or errors. Ensure that you have confidence in your outsourced teams, and they are driven to build the best possible software.

Here are our five tips for outsourcing healthcare software development.

Architecture

Company architecture dictates how the development teams are organized, and how they operate. Firstly, assess what staff they have available for your project.

Consider what your development needs. For example, you might just need extra developers to supplement your own teams. Or, perhaps you need business analysts to contextualize your project. It’s important to identify what skills you need, and what a potential partner has to offer. 

You might even need a dedicated team of all of the above, and more. Query what a potential partner can provide to your development.

It’s also important to identify the build structure. You need to know what suits your project. 

This goes for the technology stack and architectures too. You need to take the time to understand your need and what your potential partner offers. As an example, for healthcare software development, microservices architecture may offer a security advantage. This architecture builds in “blocks”, allowing for segmentation.

Often, when we think of outsourcing, we consider offshore, nearshore or onshore. The “follow the sun” method is an innovative approach, that reaps the benefits of both offshore and nearshore outsourcing.

Follow the Sun offers 24 hours of development per day. Teams are based around the world, and projects are handed off at the end of each 8-hour workday. As teams operate in different time zones, the project can be continued around the clock. 

Consider what development methods and business architectures are right for your development. Your healthcare software development partners' methods should align with your requirements. 

Location

This consideration particularly applies to offshore outsourcing. Offshore companies are typically based in countries further away from the parent company. The main benefit of offshore outsourcing is that the work might cost less than in your own country.

However, it is important to bear in mind that offshore outsourcing comes with limitations due to the distance.

Typically, offshore teams will operate in different time zones to your own. This brings challenges in project management. For example, queries will take a longer time to be resolved. Communication is delayed between the development team and your company. 

This also affects QA. When building projects in house, the development process can be monitored from start to finish. 

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to have that same level of quality control over offshore teams. Therefore, it’s critical that you trust your development partner and their quality assurance teams. If not, it will require long-distance travel in order to make checks and audits.

Finally, it’s highly likely that these development teams will speak different languages to your own teams. This language barrier can affect communication within your project. Issues will likely take longer to resolve, and communication errors can result in larger mistakes. Consider how you can mitigate these issues for offshore outsourcing.

Experience

It’s important to take the time to assess and confirm a potential outsourcing partners’ experience. Identify what experience they have in healthcare software development. You might wish to look at their portfolio, or read testimonials from previous partner companies. Importantly, not all industries are the same. Healthcare has unique challenges, so you may want to look for partners who focus uniquely on the digital health software market. 

Take the time to learn more about these projects. For example, were they successful? Do your goals align with those of their other projects?

You need to trust that they can deliver what you’re asking for, and have proved to do so before. 

This is especially important in healthcare software development. Experience in healthcare is key. The industry requires a lot of safeguards, and an in-depth understanding of the requirements in the field. For example, if working with personal data, it is key that the company understands compliance. 

Lack of experience in healthcare could lead to expensive mistakes for your company. Consider your project requirements, and what your partner company has to offer.

Expense

It can be easy to focus on the budget of a project. Ultimately, you want to get the best quality, for the best price. 

However, ‘cheap’ shouldn’t be the priority in healthcare software development. Cheap work can lead to mistakes. This is true for every industry. 

Cheaper companies are also less likely to meet deadlines. If they do, then quality assurance and feedback is likely to take longer. You will spend more time returning the work for edits and changes, and end up behind in the long run.

As mentioned, it is also key to avoid mistakes in healthcare. Consider whether you want to run the risk of mistakes, in order to save money on the development.

Instead, focus on deadlines. Research what outsourcing method, and company, can offer you a quality product according to your deadlines. This might cost a little more money initially, but will ultimately save time.

Make use of performance monitoring tools, to keep outsourced teams on track. This can integrate with existing teams, if you have them. This means that you can maintain some control, and be confident in quality assurance.

Integration

Finally, outsourced teams need to integrate with your organization. This might include your own development teams, or just project management. They need to be working cohesively on your development. It’s important that your company values are adhered to, as well as best practices.

For example, code needs to be clean, and your company regulations and rules need to be followed. This will allow your teams can work on your projects together, without trouble in translation. 

Likewise, it’s important to consider whether outsourcing will offer software support further on. If not, your teams will need to be able to work on the project when changes are needed.

Both your in-house and outsourced teams need to be working towards the same goal. This allows for a collaborative effort, and results in the best development.

At Vertrical, we work with healthcare organizations to produce innovative software and other tech solutions. We utilize a “follow the sun” methodology, to offer 24/5 healthcare software development.

Get in touch to discuss your development needs.