8 Questions to Ask a Nearshore or Offshore Development Partner Before You Sign

Where these questions come from

Each question tests one failure mode documented in sourcing research: the Eraneos/Whitelane Dutch IT Sourcing Study 2025, academic studies of offshore software development, and the 2025 warnings from Google and the FBI about false identities in remote hiring. The background is on the page After a bad experience with offshore development: what usually went wrong.

The 8 questions, with Tunga's answers

1. What was your turnover on client placements over the last 12 months, and what happens when someone leaves?

Why it matters: turnover is the most documented failure mode, and in a managed team it often happens out of your sight. A good answer is a number with a definition, and a contractual consequence.

Tunga: in 2025, about 1 in 56 placements ended because the professional left for another job, and none so far in 2026. For comparison, European tech companies lose on average 12% of their engineers a year (Ravio, 2025, all reasons for leaving). When someone leaves, Tunga replaces them without a time limit. As an example of how long people stay: Amos, a developer from Uganda, worked with Provolve IT for 6 continuous years.

2. How many hours a week will this cost us in specification, review and coordination, and which client can we call about that?

Why it matters: the rate is visible, the coordination work is not. Work split across locations has been measured to take about 2.5 times as long.

Tunga: the professional works in your team, in your tools, and takes direction from you, so day-to-day coordination is the same as for any team member. There is no supplier layer that needs its own specification. The first weeks of onboarding do take your attention, as with any new hire; a delivery manager works alongside you in that period. Tunga will put you in touch with a current client.

3. Can you give an example of your people challenging a client's decision, with reasons?

Why it matters: lack of proactive challenge was the weakness Dutch IT buyers named most often (41% of relationships).

Tunga: pushing back on a client comes more naturally in some working cultures than in others, and it is an aspect of cultural difference Tunga pays particular attention to. Selection tests communication and situational awareness, professional and communication skills are part of the Tunga Academy, and delivery managers keep working on it with professionals who are already placed. Many of Tunga's professionals have worked for European or American clients before. From the product owner at Broekhuis: "We especially like to see that the developers are increasingly involved in Broekhuis and come up with solutions that are out of the box."

4. Do I interview the exact people who will do the work, and can anyone be swapped without my agreement?

Why it matters: less experienced people than expected came up in 27% of relationships. The risk is highest when the supplier decides who works on your account.

Tunga: yes. Tunga turns your profile into a briefing and presents a shortlist, usually 3 candidates or more; you decide whom to interview and whom to work with. The person you choose is the person who works with you. A change of person happens when you ask for it or when the professional leaves, and in 11 years Tunga has never moved a professional off a client's team on its own initiative.

5. How, and how quickly, do I hear from a developer that something is not feasible, and who sits between that developer and me?

Why it matters: silence about problems is a documented cause of failure, and it gets worse with every layer between the person doing the work and the person paying for it.

Tunga: nobody sits between the professional and you in the work; they report to you directly, like any team member. Alongside that, a delivery manager checks in with you and with the professional at least once a month, and more often when needed, so that issues one side hesitates to raise still come up early.

6. How much overlap in working hours is there, and does the developer join our daily routines?

Why it matters: overlap drives the speed of everyday questions, and individual professionals in your team depend on it more than a separate managed team does.

Tunga: the professionals work from countries across Africa, within a few hours of Central European Time, so most of the working day overlaps with yours. They join your stand-ups and other team routines.

7. How do you verify identity, location and work history, and how are IP and access arranged in the contract?

Why it matters: remote hiring through freelance channels has been targeted with false identities, and 30% of the data breaches in Verizon's 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report involved a third party, up from 15% the year before.

Tunga: everyone who joins Tunga's pool shares proof of identity, then goes through a multi-stage test cycle with several personal conversations and interviews, a review of their code on GitHub, and screening for cheating. In 11 years Tunga has not had a case of identity fraud. Access runs through your own environment and accounts, under your own security setup, as it would for any team member. IP and access are set out in the client agreement, which you see before you sign.

8. What do you do, concretely, to help the developer land in our team in the first 90 days?

Why it matters: for remote team members, building a connection with the team is the hardest part of onboarding.

Tunga: onboarding is largely personal. A delivery manager with experience in onboarding works alongside you and the professional in the first weeks, and stays in contact with both of you at least once a month after that.

How to use these questions

• Ask every candidate partner the same 8, in writing, so the answers can be compared.
• Look for numbers, names and definitions. "Low turnover" is a description; "1 in 56 placements in 2025, counting only people who left for another job" can be checked.
• Ask to speak to a client, and ask that client questions 2 and 5.