Essential Things You Should Know Before Outsourcing a JavaScript Project

As a flexible, multi-purpose programming language, JavaScript lends itself well to outsourcing. If the objective of outsourcing Javascript is to reduce time to market of your software project without compromising on quality, then it is a good choice of programming language. It’s one of the most cost-effective and time-efficient languages for building software.

This guide covers the five essential things you should be aware of before outsourcing your JavaScript project.

Step 1: Simplicity Is Key

Whether you decide to outsource all or part of your project, the most important rule is to keep coding as simple and consistent as possible. This means dividing your project into single-export files and clearly naming each one. This makes it easier to find them in the future.

It also encourages decoupling, which keeps every part of the code fully independent. Decoupling also ensures that dependencies are passed on via arguments or injections, which makes testing and maintenance more straightforward.

A good JavaScript outsourcing company will use names for files instead of magic numbers or strings. No matter how small or insignificant the value of the code, it should always be put into a variable and placed at the top of the scope. This reduces code duplication, makes it easier to carry out adjustments and gives meaning to the values if they’re ever used somewhere else.

If code extends beyond 120 characters to the right, or over 500 lines downwards, it should be divided. The same applies when an if-statement goes three levels deep.

Keeping things simple reduces the need for developers to provide lengthy documentation and extensive comments. The coding process can also be simplified by using open-source packages located on sites like npmjs.com.

Step 2: Choosing Your Framework

Keeping the principle of simplicity in mind, when it comes to choosing a framework for your JavaScript outsourcing project, the popularity of the framework shouldn’t be the deciding factor.

Instead, identify the specific requirements of your outsourcing project, then find the framework that can do the job best. Here are some of the main options to consider:

React is appropriate for web app projects with built-in components where the priority is having total control over the architecture and build. The main drawback of React is that its ecosystem is time-consuming and demands significant prior planning. Nevertheless, freeCodeCamp’s recent report, The State of JavaScript in 2018 names React as having the highest satisfaction ratio with 64.8% of developers saying they’ve ‘used it and would use it again’.

Angular, VueJS and Ember deploy a black-box approach, which removes the need for architecture planning. Their inflexible structure makes them quick and reliable frameworks for web applications. Their approach is more forgiving of mistakes than React, however, they sometimes offer less freedom.
For projects that require a quicker turnaround, jQuery and Lodash are useful but aren’t recommended as a foundation as they allow unmaintainable code. Vanilla JavaScript, on the other hand, is good for both web pages and web apps, but demand more time for development and planning.

It’s often a good idea to select a more mature framework for JavaScript projects because they tend to be more stable. However, if your project is more experimental in nature, such as carrying out in-depth optimizations or browser animations, a good JavaScript outsourcing company will be able to create a bespoke framework that suits your needs.

Step 3: Employing Version Control

Version control needs to be used from the outset of your JavaScript outsourcing project. Using Git or another form of version control highlights changes that were introduced in the past, and allow past mistakes to be fixed more efficiently.

With version control, your outsourcing provider needs to use commits, branches and be able to merge. They need to know how to resolve conflict and return to previous commits. They should also remember to give meaningful commit messages.

If something goes wrong with your project, version control enables your outsourcing provider to recover previously written code that can save significant amounts of time that would otherwise be lost to lengthy repair.

Step 4: Testing and Configuration

As the code in your outsourcing project becomes more complex, it’s going to become more challenging to maintain and control. A good JavaScript outsourcing provider will run tests at every stage of the project, unless it’s a prototype. Prototypes are an exception because they’re likely to be rewritten over a shorter time period.

In terms of the most popular testing frameworks, in The State of JavaScript Survey, Jest, came out top with 39.6% of developers saying they ‘had used it and would use it again’ and 29.7% saying they ‘had heard of it and would like to learn it’. Be sure to ask potential outsourcing companies what their preferred testing framework is to see how it compares to Jest.

If your application uses global values, API endpoints, feature toggles or third-party credentials, they will need to go in separate config files. Config files make management easier when your application becomes available both on the server and locally. By creating config files early, your outsourcing provider will be able to adjust how the environments behave and select which features are available.

Step 5: Storing Data Responsibly

It’s tempting to be distracted by front-end web development when outsourcing JavaScript development. But data storage is just as important as graphical data display, and much harder to maintain over time.

The challenge of state management is to ensure that the application is synchronized with the data that’s stored in the databases. Components need to deliver the same data sets, synchronize any changes made by the application user and react to any changes that are made on the server. This is easier to achieve if the whole application has a single source of truth, be it a library or a service.

The second way to store data is to avoid all unnecessary complexity in your JavaScript structure. To achieve this, you need to choose the right state management solution. Your choice will be dependent on the kind of framework that your outsourcing provider uses. Here are some suggestions.

Angular, VueJS and Ember provide their own solutions along the lines of Observables. For open ecosystems like React, there are several options that include Mobx for Observable-based architecture, or Redux for Flux architecture. These last two solutions can also be used for Vanilla JavaScript frameworks, but so can many others. A good outsourcing provider should be able to point you in the right direction.

In summary, outsourcing your project using JavaScript gives your collaboration valuable flexibility, especially for server-based implementations. It will accelerate project development while freeing up your own team to concentrate on strategic decision-making.

Before outsourcing a JavaScript project, aim to keep things simple before deciding on which framework to use. Make sure you implement version control using Git, or an alternative and be sure to run tests at every stage of the project. Choose an appropriate state management solution to ensure that all data is stored responsibility. Once these steps have been considered, you can then reach out to potential collaborators.