How to Successfully Outsource PHP Development Projects
Whether your business is based on the internet or has an online presence to complement your offline work, your website is critical to your success. You don’t need to think about it all the time, but it has to work all the time, every time. Websites going down or functioning poorly could mean the difference between getting or losing a potential client in a single moment.
When someone clicks or navigates through your site, it needs to look good, and a web designer will be able to do that easily enough. Those front end elements that help people understand your company and make it simple for them to find the important information they need all sit on the top layer of your website.
What about what lies behind that well-designed visage? The infrastructure and language sitting on the back-end of your website is PHP embedded in the HTML code. All of those links, dynamic content, databases, sessions, and interactive elements lie in the PHP elements behind the scenes.
You need them to perform at their best all of the time, and for that, you need a great PHP developer.
What Do PHP Developers Do?
A PHP developer pieces together the script behind the scenes that connects to the front end of your website. So when it comes time to put something online, they often work side-by-side to connect elements and make sure they are functioning flawlessly.
Ensure Application Stability
Each time someone clicks an application or element on your website, it needs to work perfectly. Frustrating browsing is an easy way to turn off your potential clients in a heartbeat. A good PHP developer ensures everything runs well and has the stability you need to clinch the next deal.
Guarantee Performance
Slow-loading websites and slow-running applications are the worst. No one would be blamed for just closing the site if it wasn’t performing well. When you hire a PHP developer, they make sure that doesn’t happen and that your website and applications load with lightning speed.
Why Hire a PHP Developer?
It could be easy to dismiss the role of a PHP developer as unnecessary because a basic site might do just fine for you. You would be mistaken. PHP developers are essential to developing and integrating plugins for many common frameworks.
Some of the most popular are:
- Laravel
- Symfony
- CakePHP
- Phalcon
- Slim
There are numerous others, but it’s best to choose a popular framework because your developer is more likely to be well-versed and comfortable programming within it.
You’re So Busy
Who has time to spend tinkering on the back end of their website? When things go wrong, you just want someone to fix it! Hiring a PHP developer means solving those complex problems in hours instead of days, allowing you to bounce back to normal operations faster. If you can outsource PHP development, even better. Let them take care of it on their own time, faster, and with a hands-off approach for you.
Specialists Know Best
If you outsource PHP development, you can get back to triage and treatment. Whether you are solving a problem or just implementing new applications online, you have other things to focus on while they are working away. Any crisis requires multiple strategies, so send your work to a PHP developer specialist, and you can take care of the other elements of your crisis or project.
You Are Your Website
When existing or future clients visit your website, they assume that this is your company. They know that what you put online is what you want to show the world when you need to explain who you are and what you do.
If the work put into that website is shoddy or even slightly less than perfect, you are going to give everyone the wrong impression. The best websites are effortless and clear, function perfectly, and don’t require an instruction manual to navigate. PHP developers make sure your website checks all of those boxes and more.
What Do You Get From an Outsource PHP Developer?
Typically, there are a few steps to the onboarding and integration of an outsource PHP developer. Including introducing them to the team and any front-end developers they might collaborate with, they will need access to your platforms and tools, and some guidelines about your needs. Once they are set up, they can get to work.
Dedicated Service
Being a PHP developer means knowing your trade from back to front and upside down. Often able to work for hours at a time to implement new code, your value per dollar goes up when outsourcing this work because it means putting together the best elements of your own team with someone who really knows what they are doing.
Dedicated Follow-Up
Your PHP developer is used to handling after-hours requests because things can go wrong at any time, and the rest of your team is always working on something new. They don’t just add their work and then run away. A good PHP developer will follow up to make sure you are satisfied. If you’re not, the company can send you a new developer or send the same one back. Take advantage of that flexibility.
Backtesting
It’s a boring but necessary process. Backtesting is essential before uploading anything. Repeated tests of the applications to make sure they are linked and functional on the front end are a great way to make sure you don’t have to go back and find the mistakes later when something goes wrong. Backtesting makes it less likely that anything will go wrong at all.
By outsourcing your PHP development, you have the resources of the company you hired at your disposal, so if the developer can’t figure out how to implement a fix, there is sure to be someone there who does. You get to expand your workforce without the complications of hiring and onboarding them yourself.
Peace of Mind
PHP development wasn’t taught in business school. If you are running a company, and you don’t have time to teach yourself to code, hire PHP developers that already do know how to code. Programming can be a long slog through complex procedures, but an outsource PHP developer takes it off your hands. You can get back to work on the things you are great at with a guarantee that the job will be done well.
Let’s Get Hiring
You’ve identified the need for a great PHP developer, and you want to hire one. Should you look internally, bring on a new employee for the job, or outsource the work? If you want to make your life more complicated and spend a lot of time through the training process, go ahead and hire them.
Or, you could take a moment to find a digital transformation or technology company that specializes in picking top PHP developers for their projects. Instead of trying to find the perfect developer, just hire the company that already has them!
C’mon Deductions
Wouldn’t it be nice to hire someone, get the job done, and then deduct half the cost from your tax bill at the end of the fiscal year? If you outsource that work to a digital transformation company, you can take that bill and use it as an expense toward your tax deduction calculations. It’s just one of the many bonuses of this method to hire PHP developers.
Track Record
Choose a company that has a proven track record with quality PHP development. They should have some reviews and a portfolio, and if you can find a company with good name-brand-recognition, that company gets extra points.
Quality, Not Size
It’s not about the size of the team, but the quality of the players. Just because a large technology company can deliver the same results with a bigger team doesn’t mean they are the right fit. Sometimes a company that is very selective with its hiring process will end up with the better candidates. This isn’t a rule, so don’t shy away from talking with anyone who can meet your PHP development needs.
You Are Unique
While the scripting language is quite general-purpose, your needs are not. Your company needs specialized attention and a PHP developer that you like working with. Make sure that you outsource to a company that delivers a team player, someone you would want to fire if they worked for your company.
Just because you are outsourcing and not doing the hiring directly doesn’t mean you aren’t the boss. You are still hiring them for the job, and they need to treat the project with the same level of importance as you do.
Variety
Since there is such a variety of PHP applications and uses, you may need more than one PHP developer. Outsourcing your PHP development means that you can hire a team of developers all in one shot and get the job done faster.
Bon Voyage
It’s time to set out to find the right company to outsource your PHP development needs to and get those applications up and running perfectly. The right company will have the right person to execute your vision flawlessly, so take your time, and then don’t hesitate to pull the trigger when you find the right fit. Happy hu