Thinking to outsource app development? READ THIS BEFORE

The problem here was not with outsourcing as a discipline, it was with lack of experience in outsourcing. The lessons learned in the post are typical of first-time outsourcing attempts, but entirely incorrect if you have an experienced person leading your efforts.

A few tips for OP and others reading:

1) If you are western and it's your first time, avoid suppliers from the Middle East and the Far East (Pakistan, India, China etc). The cultural difference will be too big a mouthful.

Instead go with locations closer to home, i.e. Brazil/Chile for US, Eastern Europe / Russia for EU.

2) Do not use bottom barrel suppliers. $10 suppliers, will deliver according value. If they were better, they would charge more.

3) You need to know about local holidays. Eid in Pakistan, the Chinese new year in Far East, the orthodox christmas in Russia etc.

Good suppliers will inform you of these well in advance. $10 sweatshops will send you the dreaded "Oh btw 14 days national holiday is starting now, thanks bye".

4) Strongly consider time and material pricing model. Fixed-price is appealing. But in usual custom projects, the estimation will statistically speaking be way off. You'll then end up with scope / price negotiations and bad relations.

You'll also be more likely to continue with a bad supplier because of loss aversion i.e. "we've already paid 50% of the total project, let's just see it through". This results in death march projects usually.

5) If you do not have an experienced outsourcing manager, the next best thing is a supplier with strong project managers and experience in outsourcing. Find a consultant or broker that can find you one such supplier.

I had a pretty similar experience, albeit not quite as dramatic. Coordination was difficult. The biggest surprise was them saying "We'll Skype every day", but with their slow internet connection, that really meant Skype IM. Not going to make this mistake again....

Pakistan is in Northern Europe?

That storyboard is epic.