Start a Nearshore Project: Practical Guide

Before You Start: The Right Expectations

Starting a nearshore project is not a procurement decision — it’s a partnership decision. Success depends less on the number of profiles than on the quality of collaboration, the clarity of requirements and the willingness to treat the external team as part of your own.

This guide walks you through setting up a nearshore project professionally — and which mistakes to avoid.

Phase 1: Discovery (Week 1)

The First Call

A good first call takes 30–45 minutes and answers three questions:

What is the goal? Not the technical goal, but the business one: what problem are you solving? What value does the project create?
What does the current setup look like? Existing team, tech stack, processes, architecture.
What are the constraints? Budget, timeline, compliance requirements, stakeholders.

Model Selection

Based on the first call we recommend one of three models:

Model	Suited for	Typical team size
Dedicated team	Ongoing product development, long-term collaboration	3–15 profiles
Product development	End-to-end ownership of a product or feature	5–20 profiles
Managed services	Ongoing operations, support, maintenance	2–8 profiles

The models are not rigid — many projects start as a dedicated team and transition to managed services after go-live.

Phase 2: Team Setup (Weeks 2–4)

Profile Definition

Together we define the required profiles: technology stack, seniority, language requirements, industry-specific experience. The principle: better a smaller team with the right profiles than a large team with compromises.

Candidate Introductions

You meet every candidate — via video call, with a technical assessment and references. No anonymous CV matching, no surprises. If there’s no fit, we present alternatives.

Contractual Foundations

In parallel with team setup we address:

Framework agreement with Klarnode GmbH as German contract partner
DPA (data processing agreement) for GDPR compliance
NDAs at team level
SLAs for availability, response times and escalation

Phase 3: Integration & Sprint 1 (Weeks 3–5)

Technical Onboarding

In the first week the team familiarizes itself with your environment:

Repository access, CI/CD pipeline, deployment process
Architecture documentation and coding standards
Tool setup: Jira, Azure DevOps, Confluence, Slack or Teams
Access to staging and test environments

The First Sprint

From week two the team works productively in your sprints. The first sprint should be deliberately kept manageable — the goal is not maximum velocity but:

Working delivery process: Code is committed, reviewed, merged and deployed
Quality proof: The first pull requests show whether code standards and architecture understanding are right
Communication patterns: Stand-ups, sprint reviews and retrospectives are established

Phase 4: Steady State & Scaling

Continuous Improvement

After the first 2–3 sprints the team has found its rhythm. Now it’s about optimization:

Stabilize velocity: Sprint capacity becomes predictable
Address technical debt: Plan deliberately in the backlog
Knowledge transfer: Documentation, pair programming, architecture decision records

Scaling on Demand

If you need more capacity for a release or critical phase, we add profiles within 2–3 weeks. Existing team members handle onboarding — ensuring quality and culture even during growth.

Model Transition

After go-live many clients switch from a dedicated team to managed services: reduced team size, defined SLAs for operations and maintenance, proactive monitoring. The transition is seamless — without new contract negotiations.

Checklist: Start a Nearshore Project

Conclusion

Starting a nearshore project doesn’t have to be complex. With the right partner, clear expectations and a structured onboarding process, you go from first call to productive team in 3–5 weeks.

Learn more: How we start a nearshore project →

Understand costs: Nearshore costs compared →