At InnerWorkings, we’ve always said that people are at the heart of software development. Tools, platforms, and frameworks will come and go, and there’s no denying that they play a vital role in software advancements.

But at the end of the day, people foster innovation within the software industry. When it comes to creating business value, software team leads & developers deliver highly effective software projects on time and within budget. It really is that simple…

Serhiy Kharytonov recently wrote an article titled Software Development: It’s About the People — essentially, he argues that while a successful software organization has many moving parts, “people” should be at the top of the priority list. And while this applies to all software organizations, Serhiy contends that it’s particularly important in the context of outsourcing.

So how do you put people at the heart of your outsourced development operation? Serhiy makes the point that “an outsourcing partner should provide its own structured, effective system for training and developing its employees with the education, certifications and experience they need to acquire the most advanced hard and soft skills.”

Of course, you still need to do your homework before deciding to outsource software development in the first place. Serhiy recommends the following questions as a litmus test of an outsourcing vendor’s capabilities:

Is their staff made up primarily of coders or do they have more technical and architectural education and experience? What was the attrition rate on the projects they were involved in? Did the vendor tend to have to replace team members frequently?

He also counsels you to look closely at how outsourcing vendors keep their developers’ collective skills sharp and relevant in this ever-changing technology landscape. Don’t overlook the important question of ongoing, effective skills development and practical learning support:

Ask questions about any additional certifications provided internally and how the company trains and promotes its employees. Does the company go above and beyond external certifications, enriching employees with additional training and internal certifications, and does it make a point of giving them experience with a variety of projects? Are their certifications based on real-world experience and accomplishments or simply course or text book learning?

This last point about focusing on “real-world experience” rather than “text book learning” is particularly astute. At InnerWorkings, this issue of practical, experience-based skills development is a central challenge for so many of our customers.

For a company to be successful (and deliver true business value from its efforts),  there needs to be a rigorous model for advancing developers, teams, and software organizations which puts people at the center of the software function. It really is about people power in the final analysis.

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