A Detailed Guide On How To Manage Remote Developers

Your app concept is like your baby. Of course, you won’t want an irresponsible or inexperienced nanny to handle your brainchild. So, after thinking of a great idea, the next thing to think about is how to manage remote developers.  Creating a dedicated team of expert talents is the first pillar of a tech-based company. […]

Updated 20 August 2024

Ajay Kumar
Ajay Kumar

CEO at Appventurez

Your app concept is like your baby. Of course, you won’t want an irresponsible or inexperienced nanny to handle your brainchild. So, after thinking of a great idea, the next thing to think about is how to manage remote developers. 

Creating a dedicated team of expert talents is the first pillar of a tech-based company. Whether a startup or a well-established business, everyone wants highly skilled developers who deliver their efforts best and let you stay ahead of the competition. With the increasing demand for remote revolution, companies of all sizes are exploring the “remote work” style. To get the best results, they are looking for the best remote talents across the globe. 

However, finding and managing an experienced and talented remote employee that has the potential to work according to your concept is a tough nut to crack. It is a time-consuming, costly, and awkward attempt for many techs & product companies who don’t have experience working remotely. And as the market is filled with thousands of remote developers, making the right decision can be a bit overwhelming. So, if you seek the right remote developers for your projects but don’t know how to manage the remote developers, a detailed guide will help you make the right decision. Let’s first start with a remote app developer introduction.

What is a Remote App Developer?

A remote hiring agency employs a remote developer with the same responsibility as in-office developers. The only difference between them is that remote developers work from somewhere else. Remote work is exclusively virtual without any face-to-face contact. A remote employee follows the same procedure as an employee who works in an office. They have a workstation, fixed working hours, and people to report to within a proper organization. Remote developers (whether iOS or Android app developers) use virtual communication such as email, phone, and video conference to receive guidance. 

Although hiring freelancers is also the best option for your app development project, many companies prefer remote app developers. Wonder why? Even both work the same! So, don’t worry, you will know why you should go with remote app developers. 

Why Choose Remote App Developers?

The reasons are shown in the figure below. 

why-remote-app-developers

Let’s have a look at some reasons to choose remote app developers for your Android or iOS app development projects:

Easy Access to the Global Workforce

Location is a big barrier, especially if you are hiring full-time employees for your app development project. It means you don’t have a choice except to go for the available local resources. But, things are different with remote developers. If you plan to go for remote developers, you can find the services of skilled minds without paying any extra. This way, you can easily have access to the talent team across the globe. For sure, it is considered the top reason for hiring remote developers. 

Improved Productivity

Undoubtedly, developers who work remotely tend to be more productive than in-house developers and freelancers. The Harvard Business Review study found that employees who worked in a remote development environment tended to be happier and more productive than others who worked in a traditional office setup. Here are some stats about remote developers:

  • Remote employees completed 5% more calls
  • Remote workers observed less fragmentation
  • They worked for more days with fewer sick leaves

Optimizing Resources for Cost Savings

With remote developers, you can save money (you have to build a solid infrastructure to keep your employees). No need to mention that you will have to provide the space for work if you hire in-house programmers. On the other hand, if you hire remote employees, you don’t have to face such wastage expenses. In this way, considering remote app developers is a great option for companies struggling to keep up with the budget. 

Flexible Working Hours

When it comes to improving employees’ productivity, flexible working hours play a vital role. To get the highest level of productivity and quality, remote developers follow to work under a specific schedule. They select the working hours as per their flexibility which results in an excellent outcome. 

Higher Retention Rates

Developers who work remotely manage to build up a healthier lifestyle and have lower stress levels than others. That’s why people who work from home are not ready to come to the office for work. After hiring your first remote developer, you will be surprised to see their reliability and efficiency. 

New & Innovative Ideas

Remote developers have worked with several global clients that offered them wider exposure which ultimately takes new and innovative ideas. They are motivated, inspired, and enthusiastic about their work. 

Now, one question pops up in business owners’ minds: “How to hire remote app developers?” If you are one of them, you will get your answer here!

Factors You Need To Consider When Hiring An Expert Remote Developer

Ensure you hire a remote development team that will offer expertise and deliver ideas to add value to your software project. Hiring an inexperienced developer for your project can be costly and even ruin your business value in the market. So, it would help if you considered the following factors when hiring the right developer for your project.

Hire the Right Development Team

The future of your software project completely depends on the developers you hire for your project. So, how to hire a mobile app development team? Remote app developers who have experience in the same era are the best choice for your project. Make sure your developers are updated with the latest technology trends in 2021. Plus, you can ask questions about their work ethic, values, communication style, and the development process they follow to ensure you are hiring the right resource for your project.

Go Through their Previous Projects

When it comes to hiring the right remote developers, previous work experience plays a vital role! So, it is important to check the work samples of your potential remote developers in the same niche. In addition, you can ask for documentation and look for their solutions. 

Structured Project Timeline

When you are working with a remote app development team, make sure you create a detailed roadmap that defines the project’s scope and timeline at hand. For that, you need to Also, it is essential to know more about countries and cultures to understand if any national holiday falls between your project timeline to anticipate delays. 

Flexibility & Scalability

Make your remote team comfortable with a flexible development approach. It will help you think about innovative ways to embed flexibility and scalability in your project from the start. 

Clearly Describe your Development Needs

Before hiring your remote development team, make sure you identify your development needs. The reason behind this is that it will help you decide what kind of resources you need. In addition, ensure that experienced developers will be required to complete your product development quickly and efficiently. 

So, these factors you can consider to hire the best remote development team for your project. Apart from this, you can check out the following skills to hire the best remote workers.

Dope Skills Android/iOS App Developers Must Hone

an-android-ios-app-developer-must-have-these-skills

Crazy UI & UX skills

A developer’s creativity comes with their expertise in UI & UX designs. Let’s separately mention the two:

UI design

Everything matters in UI design, from color and the graphical representation of images to the strange confluence of audio-video and language appeal. Make sure you follow top mobile app UI design trends to build your app interactive. User interface design should be highly interactive to get hooked to the app on the first attempt. Here are some that make a clean, innovative UI:

UX design

The UX design focuses on building apps simple, cohesive, and easy for users to navigate through. Here are some UX techniques to follow if you want a robust application for your platform. 

Gaining Expertise in Different Programming Languages

An experienced and skilled developer means they know different top programming languages. Hiring developers with expertise in several technologies and programming languages provides proficiency in app development over both platforms – whether Android or iOS. 

Modern-day programming languages for Android are Java and Kotlin, While Objective-C and Swift are perfect for iOS apps.

programming-language-for-software-development

Experience in Agile Methodology

Knowing Agile methodology is one of the key mobile app developer requirements. But why choose the Agile app development method? The reasons are expedited development, lowered risk and great quality. Agile methodology is an extensive method of continuous iteration for the entire period of app development projects. It also helps clients to stay updated on all changes that are taking place. This methodology works perfectly for smaller projects where the requirements are not so complicated. 

Having a Creative Business Model

App development is one aspect and marketing is another. So, a remote development team should have a compelling business model that should work on your app promotion. Also, they follow trending app ideas for business models. Proper branding and social media use should be effectively used to make announcements. Ensure your developers are aware of your contemporaries and the changing scenarios to implement new changes and features in your app. 

Efficiency in Cross-platform Development

The more your developers are blessed with knowledge; the better are your chances of getting a successful project. Having expertise over both platforms can help you earn more, save labor, and make you way ahead of those limited to just one platform. So, make sure your remote developers have high efficiency in cross-platform app development before hiring them. 

Awareness of Cybersecurity

Many people are successfully eavesdropping on your product to divide confidential data and intellectual property. A popular incident was the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal that had rocked the whole cyber world not so long ago. You may inquire what an app developer does in such cases. But the main point to be noted is that prevention is better than cure. For that, you should be aware of cyber-security challenges many companies face. So, developers should take every possible safety measure to avoid a data breach. You should hire professionals aware of malware attacks and other malicious software that secretly carry on their witch hunts. 

By considering these factors and skills, you can hire the best remote app developers for your project. Even many popular companies such as Buffer, Mozilla, GitLab and many more have teams of remote developers from different parts of the world. But the main challenge is to manage a remote development team after hiring them. 

What Are The Main Challenges In Managing A Remote Team & Their Solutions?

Bonding with the Team

When the developer works within the office premises, they tend to build some bond with other teammates. It will work towards building a bond and trust within the team. When the developer works remotely within a distributed team, creating a bond between the team is very challenging. 

Solution: 

  • Start the conversation
  • Make it a point to meet the team in person regularly

Getting Feedback

Employees who work remotely rarely get feedback and in some cases, it is nil. Receiving feedback helps developers to know their strengths and areas of improvement. Without any feedback, they may not even know whether they are doing it right or not, which automatically reflects their performance. 

Solution:

  • Offer regular feedback regarding the work received from the remote developer.
  • Plan retrospective meetings with your remote development team daily to find out issues and make improvements.

Time Zone Differences

A common issue that pops up with everyone when they work with remote developers is time zone differences. For example, suppose you have just started your day and want to discuss a basis in the project; you can’t do it as the remote developer has already called the day off. 

If there are only a few hours of differences between the time zones, it will not be a big deal. The issue starts when the time difference is more and the working hours of both sides don’t overlap. In such situations, it is impossible to have real-time communication between the teams. 

Solution:

  • Define time slots for calls and meetings
  • Write it down instead of frequent meeting

A well-implemented time and attendance solution can also play a crucial role in managing these challenges. By tracking the working hours and availability of remote developers, teams can better coordinate and schedule meetings at times that work for everyone.

Focusing & Avoiding Distractions

It can be challenging for remote developers to stay focused, especially when dealing with distractions like binge-watching digital transformation shows on Netflix or spending time with family members. Constant interruptions can disrupt work and potentially decrease productivity. Therefore, it is crucial for developers to remain motivated and self-disciplined to maintain their productivity.

Solution:

  • Remote app developers you hire for your project should have a proper workspace and set working hours.

Keeping your Personal & Working Time Separate

For a remote developer, there is no fixed schedule to work on. So, they may work from morning to night due to several careless reasons, which lead to burnout. Your professionals need to know when they should stop and disconnect. 

Solution:

  • Set working hours and set an alarm
  • Log off during the lunch hours
  • Keep devices different for personal and professional use.

How To Manage A Remote App Development Team?

Now, the acceptability of remote work via mobile app development companies is gaining popularity. It now leverages modernizing working culture and also, the extent of the remote work process provides good results. So, it would be one of the best decisions to execute your plan by hiring a remote app developer team. But what about those who don’t know how to manage their remote team efficiently? Here are some important leading remote team best practices. 

  • Tip 1: Schedule continuous communication with your remote team member for better results.
  • Tip 2: Ensure your experienced remote team possesses a set of tools, project management software, email service and video conferencing. In addition, they follow the right roadmap for a well-structured app. 
  • Tip 3: Offer clear project guidelines to ensure high productivity from your remote teamwork.
  • Tip 4: Get involved in the entire development phase for better result
  • Tip 5: Give consistent feedback to your remote developers to achieve desired results.

While you can follow these remote team best practices, you need tools to manage your remote work and remote team. Remote work management tools simplify teamwork, ensure better time management and let you control your team’s performance efficiently. The market is flooded with several tools, including email services, file-sharing capacities, instant messaging networks, video conferencing and many more. Now, the main concern is which tools you need to manage your project? Here are some tools that can help!

Tools To Manage Remote Employees

main-tools-to-manage-remote-employees

Important remote employee management tools are shown in the figure. Some tools are mentioned below that you choose to manage your remote development team efficiently:

Remote Development Team Collaboration Tools

If you want to store, edit and share documents with your team members, especially those working remotely, development team collaboration tools are the Best Choice! Unlike Office experience, these tools help you work together on the same project in real-time instead of sending files back and forth. These tools are the right solution for those who don’t know how to manage remote developers. Here are two best collaboration tools for remote teams are Google Drive and Dropbox

Screen Sharing Tools

Often showing how to do something is more natural than explaining it. So, you will need to screen-share or even remotely manage your employee’s computers. Team view and Join are the two best tools if you don’t know how to manage remote developers. 

Remote Project Management Tools & Task Assignment

These tools allow you to manage your remote team’s productivity, such as time-tracking and assigning tasks to all team members. Some important tools for remote development services include Basecamp, Jira, Asana, Trello, Hubstaff Tasks, and Connecteam.

Video Conferencing Tools

One of the best ways to get a feeling for the team’s mood and engagement for your remote team members is video conferencing tools. Here are some tools on how to manage your remote developer, such as Appear. Skype and Zoom. 

Remote Communication Tools

Instant messengers – have revolutionized communication and corporate messengers – are essential at any workplace with many locations. Slack, Krisp.ai and Troop Messenger are some remote communication tools.

Calendars & To-Do Lists

It is essential to include a customized calendar in the group of your remote team management tools. Calendars are the core of effective time management as they maintain the dates of scheduled meetings, send notifications, and keep to-do lists. Google Calendar, Microsoft To-Do, and Todoist are some tools you can use to manage your remote developers.

Security

Security is vital when working on sensitive projects. But, security shouldn’t become the key point, interfering with simple development. You can follow some steps to enhance mobile app security. Some security tools such as LastPass and Cleverfiles are the best answers on how to manage remote developers.

Monitoring Tools

If you are working with a remote team, you need to track the actual hours on the project. It will help you manage your remote development team. In addition, some tools monitor computer activity. The tools are TimeDoctor and Toggl. 

As you now have an idea about how to manage remote developers, it’s time to know the cost of hiring and managing remote app developers.

So, How Much Does It Cost To Hire and Manage a Remote App Developer?

As per the Society of Human Resource Management, the average cost of hiring remote app developers depends on between $3000 and $4000. Here is a list of costs that you may have to pay to hire a developer in different locations:

1. US: $82k and $180k per annum

2. UK: $47k and $92k per annum

3. Australia: $50k and $100k per annum

4. Netherlands: $37k and $67k per annum

5. Germany: $49k and $68k per annum

6. Mexico: $4.4k and $29k per annum

No wonder if you find more companies coming forward and selecting remote developers for software development needs. They are affordable, offer quality services, and provide the flexibility needed for your software development project. Are you still in a dilemma to hire remote app developers? If so, get in touch with Appventurez!

Why Choose Appventurez For Experienced Remote App Developers?

Appventurez is a reliable mobile app development company with many years of experience in delivering successful app development projects. Whether you need Android or iOS apps for your business, we are here to help! Here are some reasons to choose us for experienced remote app developers:

  • Flexible Engagement Models
  • Easy team scale-up
  • Experienced developers
  • Excellent communication
  • Save up to 70% of costs
  • 2x Faster project delivery

Reach our experts and give your business the push it needs to grow and reach another level!

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    Ajay Kumar
    Ajay Kumar

    CEO at Appventurez

    Ajay Kumar has 15+ years of experience in entrepreneurship, project management, and team handling. He has technical expertise in software development and database management. He currently directs the company’s day-to-day functioning and administration.