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When dealing with high volumes of data and traffic in web application APIs, it is imperative to avoid wasting resources so that end users won’t perceive any slow downs, as well as to reduce costs in the underlying infrastructure. The topic of today’s article is to examine under what circumstances it is possible to cancel already-running HTTP requests before their completion in an API implemented with ASP.NET, and how to implement these capabilities in a few common scenarios.

Motivation

Long running HTTP requests may occur as a consequence of having to deal with an ever-increasing amount of resources for their execution, which is a scenario that can be expected in an active API serving thousands of clients per minute. Under those circumstances, having a way of knowing when the results of such requests may end up being unused would be highly desirable in order to free up server resources, such as CPU, RAM, database locks, network sockets, etc., that other clients may need to use.

Common situations where this may arise are:

• The user starts a search but closes or navigates away from the page before the server finishes serving its results.
• The UI client has a typeahead component that makes requests to the server and updates the results in the page as the user types, replacing old results with newer ones.

What kind of requests can and cannot be canceled?

Short lived requests that consume too little resources are better left alone, as the cost of implementing cancellation capabilities would be most surely greater than any real benefit that could be gained from that.

Requests that can have side effects, such as creating, updating, or deleting data, should also be left as they are, because there is a real risk of compromising data integrity of the system if the request is interrupted at the wrong moment, especially if there are multiple internal steps to the operation.

That leaves us only with nullipotent requests, that is, those that only fetch data but don’t modify anything after they finish, metrics and logs notwithstanding. In other words, if implemented correctly, HTTP GET requests.

Implementation

As an example, we’ll start with a basic ASP.NET controller written in C#:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
namespace Kaizen.Blog.Examples.Controllers;
[ApiController]
[Route("api/[controller]")]
public class CancellationController : ControllerBase
{
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult<string> Get()
{
return "The endpoint was called.";
}
}

The change to allow a request to be canceled is as simple as adding a parameter with type CancellationToken to the endpoint. This type has two useful members that can be leveraged for our purposes:

• IsCancellationRequested: Returns true if the caller asked for the request to be canceled; otherwise, false.
• ThrowIfCancellationRequested(): Throws an OperationCanceledException if the caller asked for the request to be canceled.

With this in mind, the endpoint can be updated to handle request cancellations manually:

using System;
using System.Threading;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
namespace Kaizen.Blog.Examples.Controllers;
[ApiController]
[Route("api/[controller]")]
public class CancellationController : ControllerBase
{
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult<string> Get(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
try
{
cancellationToken.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
return "The request was not canceled.";
}
catch (OperationCanceledException)
{
return "The request was canceled.";
}
}
}

Common Asynchronous Operations

Cancellation tokens can also be used with common asynchronous operations in web APIs. Here are some examples:

Task (System.Threading.Tasks)

// Non-cancellable version
await Task.Run(() => LongRunningSynchronousOperation());
// Cancellable version
await Task.Run(() => LongRunningSynchronousOperation(), cancellationToken);

IAsyncEnumerable (System.Linq)

var collection = GetExpensiveToCreateCollection();
// Non-cancellable version
await foreach(var item in collection)
{
// do something with item...
}
// Cancellable version
await foreach(var item in collection.WithCancellation(cancellationToken))
{
// do something with item...
}

ParallelEnumerable (System.Linq)

var collection = GetCollection();
// Non-cancellable version
var results = collection.AsParallel()
.Where(Condition)
.ToArray();
// Cancellable version
var results = collection.AsParallel().WithCancellation(cancellationToken)
.Where(Condition)
.ToArray();

IQueryable (System.Data.Entity; Entity Framework)

var usersQuery = DbContext.Users.GetAll().Where(Condition);
// Non-cancellable version
var results = usersQuery.ToList();
// Cancellable version
var results = usersQuery.ToListAsync(cancellationToken);

Dapper

using var connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString);
await connection.OpenAsync();
// Non-cancellable version
var results = await connection.QueryAsync(sqlQuery);
// Cancellable version
var results = await connection.QueryAsync(
new CommandDefinition(sqlQuery,
cancellationToken: cancellationToken));

Front-End Perspective

From the front-end perspective, web client applications can cancel API calls before their completion by making use of the so-called “Abort API” (AbortController and AbortSignal). Both the standard Fetch API, as well as popular HTTP library Axios, allow canceling requests this way. An example using the former can be found in Mozilla's dom-examples repository, while usage of the later can be found in Axios Docs.

Conclusion

It should be noted that canceling long running requests in cases where they’re caused by an inefficient implementation is only a stopgap measure. It’s no substitute for a good implementation, but a way of mitigating the damage a bad one can cause. Having said that, I’ve seen situations where the cost of reimplementing an existing piece of functionality is accompanied by a high risk of breaking something, so, as a short term patch to scalability-related problems, request cancellation is a good tool to have in your arsenal.

Further reading

• Cancellation in Managed Threads | Microsoft Docs
• Task Cancellation | Microsoft Docs
• How to: Cancel a PLINQ Query | Microsoft Docs

There is a very restricted talent pool and a massive demand for software developers in the U.S. Companies must do their best to attract the greatest people to their team. The IT industry is highly competitive so attracting and retaining top talent becomes one of the biggest challenges for every tech company.

In this scenario, we are frequently asked how we manage to have such a low turnover rate (10% overall) when IT recruiters are constantly contacting our teams with new job offers. In this context, it is essential to understand the motivations of our developers and the ways we can structure work environments to maximize longevity and career satisfaction.

Now, what is your plan to attract and retain high quality software development talent? We’ve come up with several strategies that have helped us to do so.

1- Promote a collaborative work environment

Creating a collaborative work environment fosters people to express their talents. Developers want to be part of an organization where their voices are heard, where they feel part of the company culture and have an influence on what happens within it.

You should allow your developers to participate in decisions that may affect both the institutional and software development team environment. Encouraging people to participate in the decision-making process that involves aspects beyond the specific tasks of their role, increases the perception of the influence they have both on the team and the company.

In other words, this means allowing and promoting cross-area collaboration.

By listening to and, more importantly, acting on the feedback provided by your developers, you'll let them know that you recognize their talents and make them feel that their contributions have a tangible impact on a team and organization level.

2- Encourage creativity to solve problems

There is nothing more counterproductive than having to solve a problem with techniques that may not be the most efficient ones. So why don't let your developers play with the methods they try and be the ones to come up with effective and creative solutions?

It's important to promote creative freedom to solve important problems. This job is, after all, their domain, which means they must have a responsible level of independence within it.

Also, this will encourage them to be more engaged with the company as there is trust in their work.

3- Offer opportunities to learn new skills

As the technology market continues to grow and evolve, your software developers should have the opportunity to grow with it.

Please notice that continual updating and self-improvement drew many developers to their profession in the first place.

You should offer the suitable training as these tech talents like to be challenged but they may resent being thrown into a new expertise without properly learning it first.

Keep in mind that having suitable resources is a crucial factor in developers' enthusiasm and outcomes. For example, let's say your engineers find a problem and don't know how to fix it. Hitting an obstacle directly proportional to the limits of their experience will end up discouraging them, affecting the project and the company in general.

This is an opportunity to provide enrichment. Empower them to master their skills and encourage them to continually improve by creating a culture where they learn that a long, profitable and fulfilling career comes from using skills to deliver software and create impact.

This fosters a culture of self-determination and adds to employee’s benefits.

4- Salary compensation

A key aspect of a developer's motivation is salary and compensation package for their work. To recognize the market value of a person, it is necessary to carry out labor market research and more importantly, ask yourself what gives them their experience and skills necessary for their job?

It is important to research the value that other companies in the industry provide, to ensure that the salaries and compensation plans offered, such as additional benefits, are attractive enough to keep developers engaged with the company.

A good employee deserves to be recognized for the value of their work and paid according to their responsibilities. Otherwise, they will be open to new opportunities that give them the compensation they believe their work deserves.

5- Connect people with purpose

Purpose has to do with being able to make a contribution to others and pursuing a higher goal. We find more and more professionals who no longer focus primarily on how much they are going to earn or what they are going to achieve, but on one main question: “what am I going to work for?”.

Connecting people with purpose, makes the differences between the technical and human sides of a person disappear. Working and living guided by a purpose benefits people because it gives them the opportunity to look inward and renew themselves by going beyond their own limits. Likewise, it gives a sense of belonging to the organization and reinforces organizational commitment.

Motivate people to ask questions like: why does what we do matter? What difference do we make in the world? What motivates us to continue offering our services? What motivates our clients to hire us?

6- Create a safe space for people to lead by example

The first few years as a software developer might be a stressful time that comes along with different challenges. Going through these early years can be an extremely frustrating experience if developers are not supported by a strong structure. That's why every company needs to have leaders with the experience and vision to support less experienced employees as they grow with the company.

Providing a safe space for developers to teach other team members is one of the best ways to increase team seniority. When developers are mentored, they learn. When they learn, they get involved. When they get involved, they are much more likely to stick around.

Therefore, recognizing and encouraging mentoring within teams and companies is one of the most important things a company can do.

Also, teaching others inspires them to take on new challenges, to share their knowledge and to continue growing from a soft skill point of view since it is an opportunity to develop empathy and improve leadership and communication skills.

7- Celebrate achievements and offer a career path

There is nothing more encouraging and fulfilling than knowing that your work makes a difference in your company and also in your client businesses. Let your employees know that their day-to-day work is important!

Implement recognition initiatives, celebrate team milestones, and provide small confidence boosts.

But recognition is not enough incentive to retain talent if you don’t support it with career advancement opportunities.

Career growth can mean fostering a culture of knowledge-sharing, which enables employees to discover new interests within the company, allowing role gaps to be filled internally.

Also, it makes them feel like they’re growing with the company and provides a sense of purpose and belonging, which in turn fosters loyalty and long term engagement.

8- Look into why people leave

Losing a team member can become an opportunity to learn from the experience and mitigate the risk of having the same problem in the near future. Just as not all problems have a solution, you can’t fix a problem you don't know about either.

Conducting an exit interview can help you to learn more about the reasons why people decide to leave the company and their perception of the work environment.

This information works as an opportunity to improve your current talent management process through receiving honest feedback on the true state of the organization, and the problems employees face on a day-to-day basis.

Conclusion

We invite you to reflect on the following questions: what excites your developers to go to work? How does the structure of your organization affect its overall performance? Are your developers surrounded by peers who can encourage and challenge them to improve? And more importantly, can your developers visualize a career within your company?

Whether you’re looking for software developers to take your business idea into a digital solution or want to further expand your current development team, we’re here to help.

In 2021, we had over 302 candidates went through our software developer hiring process.

After carrying out 302 recruiter screens, 177 cultural interviews, 106 technical interviews, 15 new hires were made, resulting in an  investment of more than 400 hours of interviews.

Since feedback on our hiring process from both our interviewees and clients has been highly positive, we’d like to share with you the insights of this valuable journey.

In this post, we will cover our in-house designed 5-step interview process that follows the initial screening all candidates go through. All of our interviews follow a specific objective and a way to accomplish those goals.

Kaizen's hiring process stages

Screening

The screening is the first contact that the candidate has with Kaizen after sourcing, and it consists of a brief call with the recruiter to present them with Kaizen as a company and gather information about the candidate’s profile such as:

• Academic background;
• Motivation & professional aspirations;
• Work experience;
• English level;
• Salary expectations.

If the Recruiting Team agrees the candidate can be a good fit, the following steps are explained to the candidate and they move to the first instance of the interview process itself, the cultural one.

Cultural Interview

At this stage, we focus on candidates' interests, motivations, expectations, cultural matches with our organizational culture and understanding what opportunities are seen as challenges for their professional development and growth.

We are interested in candidates who are confident and convinced communicators that constructively challenge assumptions encouraging collaboration, proactive and independent. But we also look for some aspects that are more specific to the Kaizen culture.

At Kaizen, we value the contributions of all teammates and promote a collaborative work environment. Therefore, teamwork  and communication skills such as expressing their own opinion to help build new knowledge are evaluated and praised. This also means not being afraid to ask questions.

In addition, since our organizational structure is horizontal, flexibility and the ability to adapt to changing environments is considered as valuable. We seek for people who are friendly, passionate about their work, motivated and eager to learn.

Technical Interview

Our technical interview team evaluates the set of skills they understand are a must to fill the position on a certain project.

Although we value expertise in specific technologies, we strongly believe that the ideal candidate must have critical thinking techniques that help him/her to overcome complex problems. In this way, through face-to-face questions we also evaluate if they have a solid foundation in general programming.

Then, we dive deeper and evaluate the knowledge and management of the technology stack required for the project and/or the candidate's area of ​​professionalization.

When candidates without work experience or juniors (with little work experience, up to 1 year) are going to be technically interviewed, they are sent a short test through Interviewzen. This consists of  an online test  of approximately an hour long, which that lasts must be taken before the technical interview, since it is be used as an input for the interview.

Psychometric Interview

If the candidate passes the technical interview, a psychometric appointment is made with a people care specialist, which consists of an unstructured one-on-one conversation. We seek to learn about certain patterns of the candidate’s behavior from a psychological approach to evaluate future behaviors in the work environment.

Team Interview

This stage consists of a conversation between the candidate and the team members of the project position they applied to join.

The goal of this meeting is to ensure the candidate is a good fit for the team, talk about the challenges they will have to face in the project, and also try to assess communication and self-management skills.

Client Interview (optional)

Once the candidate passes the final team interview, we focus on the client’s validation. To ensure this, we always give the client the chance to interview each candidate to get to know each other and provide a space for an open-round Q&A session.

During this last stage of the process we prepare a document called ‘Blind Resume’ which includes the information of the candidate and her/his resume,  but leaves out candidates last names and former work places.

What makes our hiring process a true success?

The success of our hiring process lies in 4 key factors:

• Build a cross-functional hiring team. We have set up interdisciplinary work teams for each stage of the interview process, combining knowledge in recruiting, people care, software engineering and psychology. This helps us to evaluate each candidate from a holistic approach, which allows us to look after our identity and quality value as a company.
• Hire for careers, not roles. We have clear cultural standards to define our identity as a company, which makes it easier to only go through the hiring process with candidates who are eager to grow professionally and are constantly looking to learn and take on new challenges.
• Promote a short and fast process. We very much appreciate candidates’ experience and time. To ensure a smooth and agile process, we have an estimated time of 4 weeks from the first screening contact to the final job offer.
• Give feedback to the candidate. Transparency is very important at all stages, so we make sure to keep the candidate informed about the status of their application, regardless of whether we decide to hire them or not. When a candidate is discarded, we always give personalized feedback. It is important to thank them for having participated in the process and to leave open doors to feedback in order to improve.

After successfully hiring our developers, the next challenge comes in retaining them. True hiring success is also measured by loyalty and a low turnover ratio.

In 2021, we had a 10% turnover ratio overall and 0% on key team members. The reasons that can explain this low ratio will be covered soon in another post.

Ready to extend your team?

We know how expensive and time consuming it is to find candidates with the right technical and soft skills. Companies often have trouble connecting with the right talents because the IT field is in high demand.

According to the US Bureau of Labor,

"the employment of software developers, QA analysts, and testers is projected to grow 22% between 2020 and 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations."

Almost every business needs developers, and each company offers different benefits to attract the best talents, not to mention high salary demands.

Considering an outsourcing strategy could be a good fit to address these software development hiring pains.

Challenges are full of risks, but choosing the right nearshoring partner shouldn't be.

GET IN TOUCH

On December 8, 2021, Kaizen proudly stood in the spotlight at the distinguished Exporting Effort awards, an annual event organized by Banco República (BROU) and the Union of Exporters of Uruguay (UEU). This recognition ceremony, graced by the presence of esteemed figures such as President Luis Lacalle Pou, Vice President Beatriz Argimón, Minister of Economy and Finance Azucena Arbeleche, and BROU President Salvador Ferre, celebrated the outstanding achievements of companies contributing significantly to Uruguay's export landscape in 2021.

The event, held at the BROU headquarters, not only acknowledged the top exporters of goods and services in Uruguay across various categories but also provided a platform for nominees to engage in networking and share experiences during a delightful dinner.

For the second consecutive year, Kaizen was awarded as the Top Exporter of ICT Services (Information & Communications Technology) in the country. This prestigious recognition underscores Kaizen's unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation in the realm of ICT services.

Our heartfelt congratulations go out to the entire Kaizen team for their tireless effort and commitment to excellence. This achievement reflects our collective dedication to continuous improvement, fostering growth, and accumulating valuable experiences and learnings along the way.

As we reflect on this remarkable journey, we express our gratitude to our clients, partners, and supporters who have been integral to Kaizen's success. We remain committed to advancing the standards of ICT services in Uruguay and look forward to even greater milestones in the future.

Beyond our accomplishments in the export sector, Kaizen invites you to explore a world of possibilities with our team – a team dedicated to continuous improvement, quality, and collaboration. Whether you're envisioning a new software project, seeking to enhance your existing systems, or considering expanding your in-house engineering team, Kaizen is here to collaborate and bring your ideas to life.

With a commercial office in Boston, U.S., and the headquarters in Uruguay, South America, Kaizen Softworks is a software development company with a focus on product development from scratch.

At Kaizen, professionals create, develop, and deliver customized software by establishing an effective collaboration in which the success of the business relationship is most important. They create a pillar of trust, transparency, and flexibility; these are the building bricks of the solid and consistent partnership Kaizen offers.

Since the inception of Kaizen Softworks, they have been producing custom applications and have gained extensive experience in developing robust solutions for a wide range of domains. They offer consultancy services in the full cycle of creating software. From research and design, to programming, QA and testing, maintenance and enhancements.

GoodFirms is an online review portal that evaluates various businesses registered with it to receive daily accreditation. The valuation is based on three criteria - Quality, Reliability, and Ability. Similarly, GoodFirms also valued Kaizen Softworks and found it as a leading mobile app development service provider in Boston amongst the listed ones. It also claimed that Kaizen had risen to the top of GoodFirms companies for software development and web design in Uruguay and Massachusetts, respectively.

Thus, providing ever-improving mobile app development services, Kaizen Softworks thrives as one of Boston's best mobile app development company at GoodFirms.

About the Author

Working as a Content Writer at GoodFirms, Anna Stark bridges the gap between service seekers and service providers. Anna's dominant role lingers to form every company's achievement and critical attributes into words. She strongly believes in the charm of words and equips new approaches that work, always with concepts, something new to create, and something original to define the firm's identity.

Kaizen Softworks has been recognized as one of the top ranked Software Development Companies in 2021 by DesignRush. Among the different services offered, we were recognized in the following categories.

Enterprise Software Development Companies. Whether our clients are dealing with a new product inception, legacy systems maintenance and migration, process automation, new features implementation or API integrations, our solutions are purpose-built to assist their processes in a productive and rapid way. Understanding their business goals and the right problems are key to meeting specific requirements at a competitive cost to build, maintain and modify software solutions, helping our clients to gain independence, scalability and achieve lower integration costs.

Software Testing Companies. We have strong workflow processes in place to ensure the operational efficiency and productivity of different solutions. With cutting-edge technologies and the latest resources, we help our clients  to properly maintain their solution and perform regular quality assurance services such as performance and error monitoring. Through this ongoing work, we will consistently bring and deliver new solutions onto the table to help our clients to stay competitive in an always evolving market.

.Net Development Companies. From front end work to back end and database coding, our .NET developers are capable of adding immediate value and capacity with the flexibility and availability to fill short-term positions.

Nearshore Software Development Companies. When projects require a little extra expertise, we are able to add professional resources. We respond to changes as they occur and take immediate action and our clients know it. We are committed to work as partners with our clients in order to create new strategies without the high risk costs associated with in-house development. While conversion rates from the U.S. dollar to our local currency are favorable, the real value comes from our passion and eagerness to transform your ideas into quality work.

Special congratulations to our team, who are always challenging assumptions and bringing innovative ways of thinking onto the table. We live and breathe what we do. Amazing things can happen when our team are great people who truly enjoy our work, taking pride in learning how to give our best.

We'd love to learn about your software development needs

GET IN TOUCH

Hello there, our valued friends, clients, and everyone who's been a part of our amazing journey! We're absolutely thrilled to share some truly fantastic news with you. Kaizen Softworks has earned its place as one of Clutch.co's top Software Development Companies in the United States for the year 2020. For those not familiar with Clutch, it's a B2B platform renowned for providing ratings and reviews for top IT and software companies. 🎉

This recognition is more than just an accolade; it's a testament to the incredible dedication and hard work of our entire team. It's a reflection of the mission we set out on six years ago. Back then, our mission was simple but powerful: we wanted to step into our clients' shoes, deeply understand their needs and aspirations, and then go that extra mile to help them achieve their goals.

As we look back on our journey, it's truly heartwarming to see how that early-stage mission has evolved and become an integral part of our company culture. Yes, we've grown as a company, but the most remarkable growth has been that of our clients. It's a profound joy for us to witness the success and progress they've made with our support.

However, it's essential to remember that none of this would have been possible without our incredible team. They are the backbone of our operation. Their remarkable talents, unwavering focus, and unparalleled commitment are the driving forces that have shaped Kaizen Softworks.

So, what's next? We're filled with anticipation about the path ahead. We can't wait to see how this recognition propels us into the future. We're committed to pushing the boundaries, continuing to support our clients and partners, and striving for even greater heights.

Our journey is just beginning, and we're elated to have each and every one of you join us on this incredible ride. We're deeply grateful for your unwavering trust in us and for being an integral part of this exciting adventure.

Check out our Clutch profile here: https://clutch.co/profile/kaizen-softworks

Across the internet today, we can find websites with many different types of features: sliders, videos, images, animations, and more that make them attractive to end users. However, all of these features can have a negative impact on one major factor: performance.

But wait, why should I care?

According to DoubleClick by Google, 53% of mobile site visits were abandoned if a page took longer than 3 seconds to load. Also, it was found that sites loading within 5 seconds had 35% lower bounce rates, 70% longer sessions, and 25% higher ad viewability than sites taking nearly four times longer at 19 seconds.

The performance impact can be measured in revenue too. DoubleClick found publishers whose sites loaded within five seconds earned up to twice as much ad revenue as sites loading within 19 seconds.

So you should care, and a lot. Performance can be the one thing that is making users ignore your website. It plays a major role when it comes to retaining users, user experience, and revenue. It also affects Google Rankings. That means performance is taken into account by Google when positioning your website in the search results higher (or lower) than your competitors.

So, how can we improve it?

Removing Render and Parsing Blocking Resources

A browser’s rendering engine is in charge of displaying what you see on the screen. In order to accomplish this, it has to parse HTML and create a DOM tree with all the existing HTML elements, render tree construction combining CSS attributes and the DOM tree, figure out each element’s position (layout process), and then paint the page.

When rendering a page, the rendering engine considers CSS as render blocking resources and scripts as render and parsing blocking resources.

That means that, by default, the page won’t be painted until the CSS and javascript are loaded, parsed, and executed. That presents a problem if your website has lots of CSS and javascript blocking parsing and rendering on your website, since performance can be affected dramatically and the site will take a long time to load.

Loading your website resources at the right time is essential to improving your website performance. If you load resources that avoid blocking parsing and rendering, your site will display much faster and the lesser critical content can be loaded in the background while the user interacts with the page. There are several ways to do this:

Using media print and onload=’this.media=’all’ to load non critical CSS (or loadCSS as an alternative)

Loading CSS with media type ‘print’ will tell the browser that the resource is not important because the media type doesn’t match the current environment (screen), and will load the stylesheet asynchronously without blocking page rendering.

<link rel="stylesheet” href="style.css" media=”print” onload=”this.media=’all’”>  

loadCSS is a popular library that also makes this possible.

<head>  
   <script id="loadcss">
     // load a CSS file just before the script element containing this code
     loadCSS( "path/to/mystylesheet.css", document.getElementById("loadcss") );
   </script>
</head>  

We also can combine this with ‘rel=preload’ (in supported browsers) if we want non critical CSS to be loaded as soon as possible.

<link rel="preload" href="style.css" as="style">  

This approach has a major downfall if applied to all CSS on the page: the browser will show a Flash of Unstyled Content (FOUC) before loading the CSS. This means that some essential CSS needs to block page rendering in order for the page to be displayed with its proper, critical styles. But asynchronously loading the remaining styles is a must for improving performance.

Efficiently loading JavaScript with defer and async

In order to load javascript efficiently without blocking HTML parsing, it’s very important that the scripts are placed in the right position. If placed in the header with no async or defer attributes, a lot of delay will occur because the browser will have to load and execute the script before continuing with HTML parsing and rendering. In order to avoid this, a common practice is to place the script tags before the  tag. However, async and defer are better approaches:

Async is a boolean attribute that you can place in a script tag that allows the browser to load the script in the background while it keeps parsing the HTML, and then execute the script as soon as it is loaded. This blocks the parsing if it happens before the browser finishes parsing. Async scripts are executed in random order as they become available.

Defer is also a boolean attribute that you can place in a script tag that allows the browser to load the script in the background while it keeps parsing the HTML. It then executes the script after the parsing is done. It’s similar to placing the script at the bottom of the page, the only difference being that it’s loaded in parallel while the HTML is parsing content. It also allows you to execute all deferred scripts in the order in which they appear on the document.

Note that both of these attributes are only useful if the scripts are declared in the header, otherwise they won’t do anything.

Comparing both attributes, async may block html parsing but defer guarantees not to. Neither of them guarantee anything on blocking rendering (however that can be done with the onLoad event).

Furthermore, their biggest difference is the execution order. Async scripts are executed in a random order as they become available, while deferred scripts are executed in the order of their appearance.

I recommend to use async loading in third party scripts where the loading order isn’t important (i.e. Google global site tag) and defer loading for scripts that need the whole DOM loaded and/or their relative execution order is important.

Comparing script loading performance, we obtain these results:

These techniques (along with image lazy loading which is a critical performance improvement that we will comment on in a future post) were implemented on our site in order to improve its performance.

For comparison, the performance of the site’s old and new versions was measured locally using Lighthouse version 6. In the results shown below, we see a clear improvement in performance with the first contentful paint rendering almost four times faster in the newer version and the largest contentful paint rendering almost six times faster.

Mobile Version

Old Sit

New Site

Desktop Version

Old Site

New Site

Bibliography

• Flavio Copes (2018). Efficiently load JavaScript with defer and async.https://flaviocopes.com/javascript-async-defer/#async-and-defer
• Scott Jehl (2019). The Simplest Way to Load CSS Asynchronously.https://www.filamentgroup.com/lab/load-css-simpler/
• DoubleClick by Google (2016). The need for mobile speed: How mobile latency impacts publisher revenue.https://web.archive.org/web/20161007165422/https://www.doubleclickbygoogle.com/articles/mobile-speed-matters/
• Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (2020). HTML Living Standard. https://html.spec.whatwg.org/

‍

Why Outsourcing?

Outsourcing is a powerful weapon, but if you don’t know how to harness its power, it might end up backfiring.

Offshoring or nearshoring software development tasks could prove very profitable for your organization and professionally enriching. We believe that anyone should be able to get the most out of an outsourcing experience.

Thus, in this post series we will be helping you understand whether to offshore or nearshore software development, with whom, and how. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be able to make an educated decision on whether to embark on this journey.

In this first part, we will explain the most common risks and rewards associated with outsourcing, define what SMART objectives look like, and understand expectation versus reality so you can check if outsourcing is what you need to achieve your goals today.

Risks and Rewards

Does outsourcing seem like an appropriate technique for addressing your personal goals and professional objectives?

Chances are that if you survey your organization, you will find that some people say that outsourcing steals jobs and destroys organizational culture. Others might say that it could help the company stay in business and beat the competition.

Each side has valid points. Rather than debating, let’s explore some of the risks and rewards of outsourcing to see if it could work for you.

Risk types

Starting with the negatives, we can classify risks into three categories: external, internal, and personal.

External

External risks are related to factors outside your organization’s control. These include: geopolitical instability, intellectual property loss, inadequate vendor capabilities, and failure to meet joint responsibilities.

One of the most dramatic scenarios could involve a terrorist attack in “safe” offshore destinations like Mumbai or Moscow, which underscores the importance of understanding different countries’ political stability.

A less dramatic example would be when an unexpected change in tax regulation at an offshore location suddenly jeopardizes your investment.

Your potential partner’s financial stability, organizational maturity, technical skills, and ability to acquire and retain qualified talent are key to fully understand the situation you are getting into.

Internal

Internal risks are associated with factors your organization can control. The most notable ones include: unrealistic expectations, lack of organizational preparation, and negative staff impact.

Sometimes even the expectation of outsourcing, if incorrectly managed, can create organizational adversity by declining employees’ morale and productivity. Also, outsourcing initiatives will likely imply some degree of changes for existing processes and roles.

Maybe the most important internal challenge will lie in the unrealistic expectations that some organizations set about the end result. Exceptionally high-cost reduction expectations are one of the most common reasons for dissatisfaction.

Personal

Outsourcing can affect you personally in many ways, introducing changes to your lifestyle, career, and reputation.

Outsourcing may require you to increase the percentage of time you spend on activities you don’t enjoy or to shift working hours to cope with different time zones.

The very nature of outsourcing means that someone else does the work. In many cases, this will be someone whom you have little control over, but it is your name that will be in the line.

Moving from the role of individual contributor to representing an offshore or nearshore team might mean becoming a bearer of bad news. And that will have an inevitable impact on your reputation.

Reward types

With all the risks listed above, why would anyone want to outsource abroad anyways?

The answer is that competition is hard, the market is demanding and outsourcing could give your company a competitive edge. We can divide outsourcing benefits into organizational and personal ones:

Organizational

Cheaper salaries, a strong exchange rate between the US dollar and almost any other currency, lower overhead, economies of scale, controlled operation costs, productivity, and quality improvements all contribute to increased profit through resource efficiency and savings.

At the same time, outsourcing allows you to reallocate the workload during your busy season and shift less critical services abroad. This will help you meet deadlines faster and focus on disruptive innovation projects to gain a competitive advantage.

Outsourcing broadens your recruiting horizons. Having access to a huge staffing pool gives you access to hard-to-find personnel and the opportunity to team up with international experts. In addition, many outsourcing providers have a tremendous work ethic and drive to succeed.

A shortened time-to-market can be achieved as well. Having access to specialized skill sets, unique expertise, and certified processes can improve your competitive advantage.

Personal

There are several key personal benefits to choosing an international team.

From your career’s perspective, consider running an outsourcing engagement as a productive training session for developing management and leadership abilities. These are skills you can add to your resume and you would be surprised how often recruiters and companies look for outsourcing management abilities.

The skills you develop like negotiating, learning foreign languages, managing remote teams’ day-to-day, and assertiveness are invaluable skills that will benefit you in the long run. Accomplishing successful outsourcing engagements could catapult your career forward and open new doors.

Let’s not forget traveling! Seeing new places, meeting new and interesting people, experiencing foreign cultures, and trying new cuisines without spending your own money are major perks.

Having discussed outsourcing risks and rewards, you now have a better picture of the potential it has. But before deciding whether it’s for you first let’s consider which objectives you want to accomplish through outsourcing.

Defining SMART Objectives

This might not be the first time you’ve asked yourself if you should outsource a project, an initiative, or a company function.

Each time you face this situation, always remind yourself: you should only offshore or nearshore either when it is the only tool you have at your disposal or when it is the best tool for the job.

Consequently, you will first have to understand and determine what the “job” is in the first place.
When determining the “job,” you shouldn’t settle for broad goals like “need to reduce cost” or “put local staff to better use”, since ambiguity and lack of specification are lethal to success.

Specify your goal applying the SMART business management technique

Defining SMART criteria objectives help you stay focused on your goal and make good decisions. For instance, let’s check this objective: “Outsource to substantially improve quality assurance (QA).”

What’s the goal here: to use outsourcing or to improve QA? What does “substantially” mean? How long should it take for improvement to occur? This objective is too vague, doesn’t guide you towards actionable steps, and generates more questions than answers.

Now, let’s compare it with this other objective: “Reduce my department’s budget expenditures by 20% next quarter by nearshoring the maintenance of a legacy asset while my in-house team develops a new one”.

This one appears to be SMART since it’s specific and measurable (20%), it defines an action (nearshoring the maintenance of an asset), it focuses on results (reduce my department’s budget expenditures), and it’s time-bound (next quarter).

Defining a SMART goal is the first step when deciding if it makes sense to outsource work. But first, you might want to compare some financial and practical considerations to avoid common mistakes.

Expectations Versus Reality

Offshore outsourcing has been called one of the greatest stories ever sold.

Like many products today, outsourcing comes with a lot of fine print. The pain for smaller companies is that they don’t have the bandwidth even to read it.

However, understanding the fine print is important in these three areas: cost savings, vendor’s ability to scale, and quality of deliverables. Let’s check them out.

Cost Savings

How much money can you save by outsourcing? On the surface, it seems obvious. Even with wage inflation in India, China, and Eastern Europe, rates there are still substantially lower than in the United States.

For example, a mid-level Java developer in San Francisco earns roughly $75 per hour, compared to $25 per hour on average in Bangalore, Shenzhen, or St. Petersburg. At first glance, this lower rate translates into savings of more than 65%, or a 3:1 ratio (for every on-site Java developer you can get three offshore Java developers).

Is it that simple? Will getting three developers for the price of one give you three times the productivity? Unfortunately, no.

Hiring cheaper offshore developers doesn’t mean they will be as productive as local ones. Due to productivity issues, the difference in hourly rates could not necessarily translate into overall cost savings.

Overhead

Overhead expenses related to management, communications, and risk mitigation can eat away what you save in low hourly rates.

For example, if you outsource a small QA team, for example, you’ll probably need both local and offshore QA leads. Without outsourcing, a single lead is enough.

Moreover, if you distribute teams across multiple time zones, language and culture differences could significantly increase the volume of communications required to minimize misunderstandings.

Turnover Ratio

This one is an important expense to keep in mind. Losing a tech team member can be very expensive — as much as three to twelve months of employee salary. The turnover costs come from loss of productivity, hiring fees, training ramp-up, and other factors.

The degree of turnover is typically measured by turnover ratio or the number of lost employees divided by the team size over the course of the engagement. For example, a loss of two developers from a team of ten over the course of the engagement would be a 20% turnover ratio.

Ability to Scale

Many organizations face the challenge of adding personnel for an increased workload and ramping down when demand reduces. Outsourcing seems to be the perfect solution to this problem. Yet some staffing issues are inevitable:

Finding staff with specific skills, especially for cutting-edge technology, can be extremely time-consuming even for a top-tier vendor.

In your search for qualified personnel, consider which country you are outsourcing to and how the government supports young IT professionals.

Quality of Deliverables

There is a strong perception in the industry that the quality of deliverables produced by offshore personnel is inferior to that of local staff.

This perception is deeply flawed because outsourcing partners can either deliver higher or lower quality products and services than those of local employees. The challenge in getting quality deliverables lies in understanding all the aspects of communicating quality expectations to your partners and overseeing their work.

Summary

In this first post of these series, we have brought you general info and insights on outsourcing to help you check whether outsourcing software development is what you need to accomplish your goals.

First you have to be aware of the risks and challenges that come along on this journey. Some of them are external and out of your control, while others are internal to your organization and can be directly dealt with.

Of course, there are plenty of rewards as well like cost reduction, shortening time-to-market, improving workforce usage, improving your management skills, traveling around the world, and increasing productivity and process agility.

Second, you have to ask yourself what your goal is and what you want to accomplish by outsourcing. Remember that ambiguity and lack of detail are lethal to success. Thus defining goals with SMART criteria will go a long way in helping you establish realistic and actionable objectives.

Last, don’t forget to compare expectation versus reality. You would be better off bringing inflated expectations down to earth and taking into account factors like overhead expenses, vendor turnover ratio, scalability, quality of deliverables, and cost-saving versus productivity.

In the next installment of this series, we will be talking about what, with whom, and how to offshore or nearshore software development so you can make an educated decision on whether to do it.

We hope this post has been useful! A special shout-out to Daniel Castro who collaborated in the creation of this post.

Bibliography

• Nick, K. (2012). Outsource It!: A No-Holds-Barrel Look at the Good, Bad, and the Ugly of Offshoring Tech Projects. Pragmatic Programmers, LLC. https://www.amazon.com/Outsource-No-Holds-Barred-Look-Offshoring-Projects/dp/193778505X

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