Why Is The Ukraine A Popular Software Development Outsourcing Destination?

Eastern Europe is becoming an increasingly major competitor in the software development outsourcing market. A growing number of organisations are choosing to outsource their software development needs to Ukraine, rather than India, the usual popular destination. 

BlueOptima’s Key Trends in the Global Software Development Industry Report for Q4 highlighted that although the Eastern European region only consists of 8 per cent of the global total for software developers, it has the most cost-efficient software development. The BlueOptima Global Benchmark’s analysis recognised that the cost efficiency is 9.56% higher India, which has the lowest cost for developing software and is a usual go-to for companies. 

In particular, Ukraine was identified as the most efficient at producing high-quality code. It is widely reported that Ukraine has become one of the top software development destinations. The 2019 Kearney Global Services Location Index pinpointed that Ukraine has better financial attractiveness than India, China and Poland. 

Ukrainian software developers are hailed as the ideal software development outsourcing destination as more Western European and North American businesses choose the country to expand their development capability. This popularity is expected to grow in the coming years. According to PwC analysis, the Ukrainian IT market has recently increased by 2.5 times. In 2011-2015, it increased by 150 per cent, and it’s predicted to reach $5.7 billion by 2020.

To better understand the factors making Ukraine the new go-to country for software development outsourcing, we will explore what is making Ukrainian developers a valuable asset.

The country has a great focus on education, with more than 70 per cent of Ukrainians having a secondary or higher education. 

The IT Ukraine Association reported that Ukraine produced 20 thousand technology graduates each year. There are immense opportunities present for STEM programs and a great number of STEM degrees available. A survey by tech portal Dou.ua. found that around 82 per cent of men and 87 per cent of women in IT hold a higher education diploma. Admittedly 61 per cent of men surveyed have a STEM degree compared to only 41 per cent of women. 

2. A large software development talent pool present in Ukraine 

Despite the degree gap between female and male software developers, it is reported that a large amount of development talent resides in Ukraine. According to Idap, a StackOverflow report found that 166,000 software developers reside in the country and around half of Ukrainian developers currently work in software development outsourcing. 

Furthermore, software development talent present in the country, according to N-iX, was set to approach 200,000 in 2019 and reportedly has not declined in the years following. Therefore, software development outsourcing companies in the country have a vast pool of software development talent available year on year.

3.Ukrainian software developers are among the most experienced globally

Aside from an abundance of software development talent, reportedly, Ukrainian developers are among the most knowledgeable in the industry. The same DOU.ua survey on the nation’s developer community discovered that only 1 per cent of technology specialists had just a year’s worth of experience, compared to 29 per cent of developers on average having 3 to 5 years of experience, and 17 per cent of developers having 6 to 10 years of experience. 

4. Ukrainian software developers are producing high-quality code 

Not only are they recognised as the most experienced, but they also are highly proficient in coding, which is an attribute of having a deep working knowledge of their craft. HankerRank data highlighted their coding abilities, revealing that Ukraine developers scored 88.7% on HackerRank Challenges. 

Our Key Trends in the Global Software Development Industry report, comparing the Q3 2020 industry trends with the Q4 2020, highlighted that Ukraine developers are the most productive in Eastern Europe. They represent 11 per cent of the region’s workforce. Despite having 73 per cent fewer software developers than Russia, the country leads the region’s average developer, delivering highly maintainable code at a rate of 42 per cent higher than their Russian counterparts.

The combined power of a large development talent pool, along with a well tailored education system with strong industry ties, is reflected in Ukrainian developers’ value offering. 

Why Outsourcing To The Ukraine Can Be A Beneficial Option For Large Companies?

While the country is mired in political tensions with Russia which is a risk for organisations considering the Ukraine, it is worth noting this conflict is not affecting the country’s technology sector. As CIO.com summarised, when looking into the country’s thriving technology sector pointed out that all companies in Ukraine we’ve contacted report no disruption in their ability to deliver services. Additionally, Forbes further emphasises this point, by stating that the country’s technology sector is thriving due to the industry has benefited from a close cultural fit with European and Western markets and a central time zone.

Experienced software developers who have deep development knowledge are capable of providing professional software efficiently, at a lower cost. It dramatically benefits an organisation with access to necessary technology stacks.It gives an organisation added access to experienced developers capable of applying the right approach as needed for the company’s product.

The business value is gained with products that meet the organisation’s expectations. Such as the beneficial impact more maintainable code has for an organisation’s bottom line. We cover this in more detail in our article on Eastern European Developers Produce The Most Maintainable Code. 

About The Key Trends In The Global Software Development Industry Report 

Based on BlueOptima Global Benchmark analysis done on a sample of 200,000 software developers in global enterprises across the globe. BlueOptima uses a sampling technique to calculate software engineers’ performance across various geographical regions and industries globally. 

BlueOptima has estimated the global software developer population using a combination of accredited sources and predictive modelling.

Our Developer Analytics platform calculates Coding Effort (CE), which sets a global standard for measuring software developer productivity.

CE is a metric derived from objective measures of software developer work outputs, specifically source code changes, based on decades of academic and industry research. Large global enterprises use Coding Effort to understand software development teams’ productivity across technologies and software development methodologies.