Hiring an in-house development team from scratch takes a lot of time and money. Outsourcing is faster, but it can leave you dependent on a vendor with little long-term control.
You start with an experienced partner who builds and runs the setup, then take full ownership once your team is ready.
It’s a great way to scale quickly while still keeping full control.
In this article, we’ll walk you through exactly how the BOT process works, from early planning, through building and operations, to final transfer, so you know what to expect at every step.
Let’s dive in!
Key takeaways:
BOT gives you a clear path to ownership. Unlike outsourcing, you end up with a team and infrastructure that’s fully yours.
It balances speed and control. You can scale quickly with a partner’s expertise while preparing for full independence.
The process builds long-term value. Each phase – build, operate, transfer – adds knowledge, stability, and processes you keep.
Table of Contents
Why choose the BOT model?
The build-operate-transfer (BOT) model solves a major limitation of traditional outsourcing: ownership.
With outsourcing, the vendor stays in control. With BOT, you get a clear path to building your own team and taking full ownership once the transfer happens.
It’s the perfect balance between outsourcing and hiring in-house.
You get the speed and know-how of a partner at the start, and the chance to fully own the outcome later on.
While it does cost more upfront than outsourcing, it’s usually more efficient long-term than hiring a brand-new team from scratch. Here’s a more detailed overview:
Build-operate-transfer vs. traditional outsourcing vs. in-house development: comparison
Category
Build-operate-transfer
Traditional outsourcing
In-house development
Ownership
Full ownership after transfer
Vendor retains control
Full ownership from day one
Time to ramp up
Moderate, depends on setup
Fastest ramp-up
Slowest, needs internal hiring
Control over team
Shared early, full control post-transfer
Low, vendor manages the team
High, your team and your rules
Integration
Stronger over time, starts gradually
Weak, team stays external
Strong, fully embedded
Cost structure
Higher upfront, lower long-term
Lower upfront, higher long-term
High both upfront and long-term
Scalability
Built to scale with ownership in mind
Vendor-dependent
Slower, takes time
Best for
Long-term capability and expansion
Short-to-mid-term delivery and savings
Full control and building internal expertise
BOT is best fit for long-term strategic initiatives where you want full ownership of the end result.
You get the benefit of external expertise upfront, with a team that becomes fully yours over time.
The build-operate-transfer (BOT) process: step-by-step guide
Next, we’ll discuss the key steps in the BOT process in detail.
Pre-build phase
The pre-build phase sets the foundation for everything that follows.
This is where you test your assumptions, choose the right partner, and put legal safeguards in place. If you skip or rush this stage, you’ll face delays, scope creep, or higher costs later.
You should start with market analysis and feasibility studies.
When done well, they give you a clear view of the technical requirements, potential risks, and how to meet any compliance or regulatory requirements.
A strong feasibility study should answer questions like:
What tech stack best fits your goals and budget?
Which dependencies, third-party APIs, or integrations could slow you down?
How will you adapt to market demands and regulations?
Are your timeline and budget realistic for the project scope?
Then, the next step is choosing your BOT partner.
This decision shapes the whole project because their expertise, processes, and culture eventually become your own. You need to look at:
Proven technical skills with the technologies you plan to use.
Experience in your industry or with projects of a similar size and complexity.
Cultural fit with your company
How they communicate, report progress, and handle challenges
Their financial health and stability
Client references from previous projects
After that comes setting up the contract and legal framework.
BOT agreements are more complex than typical service contracts because they define how ownership will change over time.
Your contract should clearly state who owns the codebase, design assets, and data created during development.
It should also outline IP transfer, regulatory compliance, and what happens if the transfer needs to be delayed or done in stages.
Your contract should spell out who owns the code, data, and processes created along the way.
And if you get it right, you’ll start the build phase with a clear plan, a reliable partner, and a legal structure you can trust.
Pre-build phase: key tips
Validate before you commit. Run small proof-of-concept builds or pilot studies to test technical assumptions before full development starts.
Check local expertise. If you’re strategically expanding into a new region, research talent availability, salary ranges, local hiring laws, and potential partners early on in the process.
Negotiate flexibility. Add review points or milestones in your contract so scope or ownership terms can evolve as the project matures.
Build phase
The build phase is where your new team starts to take shape.
It starts with hiring the right people. Every hire needs to meet your technical requirements and fit your culture.
Your BOT partner manages this process, from sourcing candidates and running technical assessments to checking cultural fit and long-term potential.
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Once the team is in place, onboarding starts immediately.
New members learn your technical setup, tools, and workflows, but just as importantly, they learn how your company works and communicates.
The sooner they adapt to your processes, the smoother the transfer will be later.
At the same time, you’ll also set up the tech infrastructure with your partner.
You need to plan for scalability, security, and long-term maintainability right from the start.
Your BOT partner usually takes care of the local setup, which includes:
Registering a legal entity
Acquiring office space
Meeting local regulations
Setting up secure networks and connectivity
Providing hardware and software
If you operate in a regulated sector like fintech or healthcare, compliance should be built in from the start of this process.
Your infrastructure must meet standards such as ISO/IEC 27001 or SOC 2 and include strong access controls, data encryption, and regular security audits.
The final step in this phase is documentation and standardization. It’s not glamorous, but it’s crucial.
Every workflow, best practice, and operational procedure should be documented clearly to keep the handover process clean and predictable.
Build phase: key tips
Start small, then scale. Build a smaller core team before expanding to help shape culture and processes early.
Create shared visibility. Use one source of truth to track tasks and generate reports so both sides see real progress daily.
Start knowledge transfer early. Assign internal leads to shadow your partner’s senior engineers from day one.
Operate phase
At this stage, your BOT partner manages the team, allocates resources, and keeps delivery standards high.
This phase usually lasts 6–18 months, depending on the size and complexity of your setup.
It gives you time to refine processes, prove the model works, and build confidence in the setup.
While your partner handles the day-to-day, you stay involved – reviewing performance, joining sprint reviews, and gradually taking a more active role.
Performance tracking is essential to keep everything on course. Metrics should reflect both how operations perform now and how ready the team is for independence.
You should track:
Productivity and delivery speed (e.g., sprint velocity or feature completion rates)
Quality of outputs (through defect density or QA pass rates)
Team retention and satisfaction (measured through surveys or turnover rates)
Knowledge transfer
This phase is also the best time to refine how the team works.
Your partner brings experience from other large-scale projects, while you add the context of your product and users.
Together, you can fine-tune development workflows and speed up delivery.
The tech upgrades and process improvements introduced here don’t just make current operations more efficient.
They carry over to the transfer phase, giving you a setup that’s already stable, productive, and aligned with your internal standards from day one.
Operate phase: key tips
Talk regularly with your BOT partner. Schedule short, regular check-ins between your team and the partner’s leads to solve issues fast and build a shared culture.
Spot blockers early. Use retrospectives and delivery metrics to catch problems while your partner can still help fix them.
Write down what you learn. Keep a shared record of insights and process tweaks to make the transfer smoother later.
Transfer preparation
This is where everything comes together.
The focus now is on documenting what’s been built, transferring knowledge, and making sure the handover goes smoothly.
Documentation should be your top priority.
Every process and decision needs to be written down in a way that’s easy to follow. This is how you make sure the team keeps working efficiently long after the transfer.
Every process, decision point, and operational step should be recorded clearly. That’s what gives your team the knowledge they need to work effectively in the long run.
Good documentation should include:
Technical procedures like deployment steps, CI/CD pipelines, and coding standards
Business processes such as release planning, sprint routines, and approval flows
Cultural practices like communication norms or decision-making rules
Visual aids, flowcharts, and step-by-step guides for complex tasks
At the same time, structured training programs get the BOT team ready for handover.
They should focus on technical skills, business processes, and cultural fit, with plenty of hands-on practice.
Cross-training is just as important.
Multiple people should be able to handle key responsibilities – like deployment, incident response, or client reporting – so that knowledge isn’t tied to one person.
That flexibility makes the team stronger and more resilient when ownership changes into your hands.
By the end of this phase, the BOT team should be ready to run independently under your ownership.
Transfer preparation: key tips
Run a readiness check. Review legal documentation, access rights, and ownership details before locking in the handover date.
Do a full handover rehearsal. Walk through the entire transfer process step by step to make sure nothing’s missing.
Set clear fallback contacts. Decide who your team can reach out to if issues pop up after the transfer.
Transfer phase
The transfer phase is where ownership officially moves to you.
All assets, intellectual property, contracts, and infrastructure change hands and you take full control over both the team and operations.
Transfer only happens once the team has shown it can operate independently.
Even after ownership shifts, your partner’s support doesn’t disappear right away.
Post-transfer support agreements provide a safety net during the first few months of independent operations. These agreements usually define:
The scope of support available
How long the support period lasts
Escalation procedures if issues come up
Support gradually phases out as your team grows more confident and self-sufficient.
Once the transfer is complete, you need to evaluate how your new team performs. Regular reviews help you measure success and identify what needs fine-tuning. You should look at:
Operational performance (e.g. delivery timelines and incident response rates)
Team satisfaction and retention
Cost efficiency compared to initial projections
Progress toward your strategic goals
When managed carefully, the transfer phase gives you a functioning operation that’s already proven, stable, and fully under your control.
Transfer phase: key tips
Stabilize before scaling. Let the team run at steady capacity for a few months before adding new projects or hires.
Invest in your new leads. Give team leads mentoring or leadership training from the start. They’re key to keeping momentum after the handover.
Start tracking ROI. Compare your new team’s performance and costs against your original goals to measure the impact of the BOT model.
BOT process: FAQs
The BOT model makes the most sense for companies that want to expand for the long haul.
If you’re planning to grow in new markets, need to build long-term capability, or want more control than traditional outsourcing gives you, BOT is a strong fit.
It’s also ideal if you value owning your IP, culture, and processes from the inside.
At DECODE, we’ll build and operate your BOT team from our engineering hub in Croatia, giving you a dedicated, fully aligned team that works as an extension of your company.
You’ll stay in control while we handle setup, operations, and delivery until you’re ready to take over.
Croatia offers access to exceptional engineering talent, a strong tech ecosystem, and great cost efficiency, making it one of the best places in Europe to scale your team.
Most BOT engagements run for 12-24 months, depending on the size and complexity of the team you’re building. Here’s what that usually looks like:
Build phase– We hire and onboard the initial team (3-6 months).
Operate phase – Your team works under your direction while DECODE handles HR, payroll, and day-to-day operations (6–18 months).
Transfer phase – You take full ownership of the team, processes, and IP.
We tailor the engagement to your goals. If you want to scale faster or grow gradually, we’ll adjust the timeline to fit your plan.
BOT makes sense if you’re building a team of at least 5 people. If you’re scaling fast or planning long-term, it’s even better.
Looking for a reliable BOT partner?
The BOT model isn’t a quick fix.
It takes planning and commitment to get right.
But when done well, it gives you something outsourcing never will – a team and setup that’s fully yours.
With the right partner, you’ll move through each phase with ease and end up with a team that’s fully ready to operate under your control.
And that’s where we come in.
If you’re curious whether BOT is the right move for your business, let’s talk. We’ll walk you through the process and show you what it could look like in practice.
A seasoned software engineering executive, Marin’s role combines his in-depth understanding of software engineering processes (particularly mobile) with product and business strategies. Humbly boasting 20+ years of international experience at the forefront of telecoms, Marin knows how to create and deliver state of the art software products to businesses of all sizes. Plus, his skills as a lifelong basketball player mean he can lead a team to victory.
When he’s not hopping from meeting to meeting, you’ll find Marin listening to indie rock, or scouring the latest IT news.
