As the new year begins, it is a good time to overlook the results of the previous period and discuss the latest trends. In 2011 IT sector continued its glorious march throughout the world markets. There were new achievements in the software development industry (including offshore software development), for example the usage of Android phones has grown overwhelmingly. So did the whole mobile apps development branch. But let us investigate the statistic information.

Of course, we haven’t yet got enough data to discover the precise results for the last year. Still different researchers have already been made some rough estimates. For example, Gartner evaluates world’s total spending in IT sector in 2011 as about 3,664 billion USD which makes a 6,9% growth comparing to the 2010 results. It is worth noting that software market makes the biggest contribution into this progress boasting the highest growth rate among all other markets analyzed by Gartner – about 9,6%.

Being perhaps the most innovative part of the world market, software development attracts lots of interest and is therefore a highly competitive field. That is why software projects are so often outsourced to offshore developer team which work remote for project owners. In case of a successful cooperation a project owner enjoys significant project cost reduction. But while the number of software outsourcing companies is boosting in less developed countries with relatively cheap labour, not each one of them can provide really high quality of project management and fast performance. So, it is quite a relevant question today - whether the offshore software development markets worldwide are ready to meet the ever-growing demand of qualified IT professional workforce?

The advantages of offshore software development are quite well understood not only within the ‘demand zone’, but within the ‘proposal zone’ as well (including both its actual and potential members). The main reason is that entering this business sector requires much less efforts and expenditures if compared to other sectors. Especially this is true for countries with poorer economical conditions many of which are core members of the ‘proposal zone’. You don’t need to build a new factory here; you just have to find some good brains!

Of course, some solid base is necessary in order to enter the world offshore software development market. Engineering skills, organizational capabilities and, last but not the least, the culture of informational sharing – these are the key values an offshore software development vendor must possess in order to ensure successful collaboration with customer side. As the competition goes rampant in the global software development market, quality and time are growing more and more important aside from a low overall project cost. The growing need for qualified collaborators and software development consulting companies was the reason why project owners from Western Europe and USA are now more interested in outsourcing their projects to Eastern European countries instead of South-East Asian region.

Working remote is one of the strongest trends in modern world enabling offshore software development companies freer cooperate with their clients. It is evident that in the nearest future (regardless, if not inspired by, any financial crises) the rate of offshore projects in software development will grow even faster, with Eastern Europe quite possibly attracting much more attention from the ‘demand zone’.