Companies in the UK, Europe, the US, the Middle East and Australia regularly add developers from India to their teams. Done well, a dedicated developer works as a long-term member of your team: they attend your stand-ups, use your tools and learn your product. Done badly, it becomes a cycle of missed expectations and rewrites. Most problems can be avoided by asking the right questions up front. This checklist covers what to check before you sign, during onboarding and over the life of the engagement.
- Interview developers yourself and run a short paid trial if you can.
- Contracts should assign all IP to you; code lives in your repositories.
- Agree overlap hours, replacements and exit terms in writing.
Dedicated developers versus project outsourcing
It helps to be clear about the model before you start:
- Project outsourcing: a vendor delivers a defined scope, usually at a fixed price, and manages the work.
- Dedicated developers: you get one or more developers working full time on your product, and your team directs the day-to-day work. You are usually billed monthly.
The dedicated model suits ongoing product development where priorities change. It needs someone on your side who can set priorities and review work.
Checklist 1: Define what you need
- Skills: languages, frameworks, cloud platforms and tools, separated into must-have and nice-to-have.
- Seniority: whether you need someone who can work independently and make design decisions, or someone to work under your existing lead.
- Time-zone overlap: how many hours a day you need them available for meetings and questions.
- Communication: spoken and written English level, and which tools you use (Slack, Teams, Jira, GitHub).
- Duration: a few months or an open-ended engagement.
Tell us the skills, time-zone overlap and team size you need, and we will propose developers and terms.
Checklist 2: Vet the partner
- Can you interview the developer yourself? You should be able to review profiles and run your own technical interview.
- Is a short paid trial possible? A week or two of real work tells you more than any interview.
- Are the developers employed by the partner or subcontracted further? Ask directly.
- Who supports the developer? Is there a senior engineer or manager on the partner's side who can help with reviews, leave cover and escalations?
- How are replacements handled if a developer leaves or is not a fit?
- Can they show relevant work in your stack, even if client names are confidential?
Checklist 3: Contract essentials
- Intellectual property: all code, designs and documentation are assigned to you.
- Confidentiality: an NDA covering the partner and each developer.
- Billing: monthly rate, what it includes, how leave and public holidays are handled, and the invoice currency.
- Working hours and overlap written down, including Indian public holidays.
- Notice period and exit: how either side can end the engagement and how handover works.
- Non-solicitation terms, if any, so both sides know where they stand.
- Governing law and dispute resolution.
Checklist 4: Security and access
- Code lives in your repositories (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) under your organisation.
- Cloud accounts, databases and third-party services belong to you; developers get individual accounts with the least access they need.
- Use a password manager and single sign-on where possible; never share credentials over chat.
- Production data access is limited and logged; use anonymised data for development when you can.
- If you handle personal data of EU or UK residents, make sure your data processing terms cover the partner.
- Have an offboarding checklist to remove access the same day an engagement ends.
Never let a partner host your code or cloud accounts in their own name. Give each developer individual access with only the permissions they need, and remove it the day the engagement ends.
Checklist 5: Onboarding well
Most failed engagements fail in the first month. Give your new developer what you would give any new hire:
- A written overview of the product, architecture and coding standards.
- A working local setup guide, tested by someone recently.
- A named person on your team to ask questions.
- Small, well-defined first tasks that touch different parts of the code.
- Invitations to the same meetings and channels as the rest of the team.
Checklist 6: Working together day to day
- Short daily check-ins during the overlap window.
- Code reviews by your team, especially early on.
- Clear tickets with acceptance criteria rather than one-line requests.
- Regular feedback, both ways, at least monthly.
- Treat them as part of the team: developers who understand the business context make better decisions.
Red flags to watch for
- You are not allowed to interview the developer.
- The partner insists on hosting the code in their own accounts.
- The rate is far below the market with no clear explanation.
- Developers are frequently swapped without notice.
- Nobody on the partner's side can answer technical questions.
Dedicated developers from Job Vista
Job Vista combines a recruitment business with a software development team, so we understand both how to find developers and how to manage software work. We provide dedicated developers to companies worldwide, let you interview candidates yourself, keep code and accounts in your control, and agree overlap hours, replacements and exit terms in writing. Learn more about our dedicated developers service.
