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Last year, Gartner named digital transformation and accelerated use of technologies the leading trends of the modern business world for the upcoming years. So, it is not a surprise that numerous companies worldwide now seriously consider custom software development. While some of them already have their in-house development teams that include all necessary experts, others struggle with finding the right technical talents to reinforce their teams that may lack certain relevant experience or skills.
Therefore, we decided to share our own experience and knowledge on effective team expansion. In this post, we will compare different team expansion models, highlight the main benefits of this development approach, and provide you with some valuable tips. Ready to delve into this topic? Then let’s get started!
Main types of cooperation models
To begin with, let’s discuss what an outstaffed development team does and then compare this cooperation different models. Team extension focuses not just on a short-term project but rather on long-lasting partnership and cooperation between your team and hired specialists from an offshore development company.
Although different companies offer different approaches, there are three key pillars of expansion model that are always preserved.
Your team is expanded
This extended team model implies that hired specialists only strengthen your team and not replace it completely. The main goal of such a team is to fill in all skill- and knowledge-related gaps your on-shore team may experience. By being a so-called single development unit, software developers from both in-house and remote teams focus on the result and deliver the solution to meet all your needs and requirements. They can also provide all necessary maintenance services once your solution is released.
Both teams equally share responsibilities
Both in-house and offshore software developers will work on your entire project, handle all development challenges, and are equally responsible for the end result. They establish effective communication, participate in all development stages, schedule all necessary meetings, and provide you with progress reports.
You have control over your project
Your CTO or Project Manager can coordinate and supervise all processes and make sure that all software developers stick to the plan, preserve deadlines, and do exactly what they are supposed to.
When to use team expansion services?
By now, you may be wondering whether a team expansion solution is really a perfect fit for your project and company. Well, we can say that you can extract the most benefit out of this cooperation only if you already have your own cohesive in-house team of developers. And if you would like to enrich your team with extra hands or new talents, then team expansion is for you.
There are also some more common cases when companies and startups should take advantage of this model. The key prerequisites include the following:
- Your project requires expertise or knowledge that your team members don’t have.
- Necessary talents can be found in the local software development market, but their rates seem unreasonable.
- You are building a non-typical project using new technologies and want to delegate some development aspects to other experts to keep your in-house team focused on other crucial tasks.
- You require smooth integration of development specialists at any stage of your software development lifecycle.
- You plan to expand and improve your project in the future using newer technologies.
- The project is big and complex, and you lack extra hands to speed up the development.
- You struggle to find and hire the right experts within the set timeframe and budget.
- You have a small team and strict deadlines when your project needs to be ready.
As you can see from our real examples, team expansion can help you streamline and boost all development processes and save much time and a lot of resources. It is clear that you still may have some doubts, so to dispel all of them, let’s discuss the evidential benefits this model brings.
Top 6 benefits of team expansion
Thanks to this team model, you can get some extra hands for your team easily, delegate software development processes to experienced professionals, and get a high-quality product released on time and within the specified budget.
Believe it or not, these are not all of the advantages you can get if you decide to reinforce your team. Here are some more benefits you definitely need to know about to make the right final choice.
Access to the global talent pool
Team expansion is perfect for those who do not want to choose only local developers and strive to get access to the best tech talents from the international market. You can reinforce your team with developers from any corner of the world without exceeding your budget. For example, Altamira offers development services with different qualifications. You can hire middle or senior specialists working with a range of different programming languages and technologies. Everything depends on your project’s complexity and requirements.
Transparent pricing model
While hiring a development team, you agree on hourly rates and discuss monthly fees that will cover all development expenses. This helps you track your expenses easily and plan further steps or project improvements in advance. Here at Altamira, our Project Managers will provide you with all necessary progress and finance reports, so you will always stay in control of your budget.
Controlled hiring
While expanding your team, you can review all potential candidates and choose the developers with the necessary qualifications and skill set. You also get a chance to conduct an interview with the selected professionals and see how they can fit into your team. We perform prior selection of each software developer and other technical specialists, so you will only need to participate in a couple of interviews and make your decision. No more wasted time or nerves!
Excellent project management
What’s most exciting about it is that you can choose whether you’d like to manage the project from your side or delegate this task to our project manager. Whatever decision you make, the management will be flexible, transparent, and smooth. Our developers can adapt to the workflow of your team, as well as our project manager can help you monitor all processes and unite your team members with ours. Check out our post about project management in our company and how we handle everything.
Motivated developers
The specialists we provide for your project work with you full-time. Therefore, we can guarantee their involvement, dedication, and work quality. Our developers blend in with your team, collaborate on solving all issues, share the best practices they know, and contribute to the same extent as other development specialists from your internal team. This is definitely a win-win cooperation.
Some startups and businesses require fast project delivery. Tech experts from our outsourcing company can help you speed up the development of your project and release it faster than you expected. We have 100+ developers who have previously worked on different projects in different business industries. By selecting the right ones for your particular business goals, we help you speed up your project delivery and time-to-market.
You may be wondering what team you should choose to achieve the best possible development outcome. No wonder, as there are so many software development companies to choose from. Therefore, we have decided to help you and make an overview of the best companies located in Ukraine.
Check out this post here and find out what criteria to take into account. Ukrainian development partners are reliable and highly experienced, and they offer a wide range of services.
Our guide on external development team integration
Once you’ve selected a vendor, it is time to think about the proper integration of the external development team into your core team. To integrate new members into all processes, you need to complete certain steps. As usual, everything starts with analysis and planning, which are followed by the next actions.
Define what specialists you need
Before team integration, you need to spend some time on pre-planning. First of all, you need to think about the scope of your project and define the main roles. Secondly, you have to define what tech experts are missing and what part of the project should be delegated to them.
Perhaps you may need some assistance with pre-planning – in this case, you can contact the service provider directly. For example, our Business Analyst will help you with your team composition and selection of developers with the necessary qualifications. We can analyse your tech department’s needs and put together a team able to meet them.
Set clear requirements and goals
After the pre-planning, you need to discuss your project, ideas, functional and non-functional requirements with your vendor. Together, you will be able to define your project goals and key performance indicators. Based on these two aspects, you will be able to evaluate the work of your team in the future.
You can also ask our Business Analyst to help you with market research, writing of specifications, or any other technical documentation you may need for your project. It’s a common practice, especially if you do not have your in-house specialists for that.
Complete candidate screening
As soon as you have formulated all your project requirements and got specifications, you can proceed with selecting suitable candidates to augment your team. The developers you choose should be proficient in the required technologies and possess all the necessary tech and soft skills to cooperate with your team members.
With our team, you can save a lot of time since we can help you pick developers who will become a valuable addition to your team. We provide software engineers of middle and senior qualifications who have worked on lots of projects.
We know what the specialists from our development team are capable of, so we will definitely suggest to you the most suitable candidate for your project. You can hire:
- Business Analysts;
- DevOps;
- Web developers (who work with PHP, Node.js, Python, and many more);
- Mobile developers (specialists that crate native and cross-platform solutions using Java, Kotlin, Swift and Flutter);
- UI/UX designers;
- Front-end coders (who work with JavaScript, Angular, React, and Vue.js);
- Quality Assurance Specialists (experienced in manual and automated testing of solutions);
- Scrum Masters (who perform project and team management using all necessary tools).
Our main tech expertise includes but is not limited to the following technologies:
Whatever app our developers create, their goal is to make it work for years. Therefore, they are always guided by the key principles of the development process and the latest trends. They preserve high coding standards and perform thorough code reviews and version control. Security is also our number one priority. Therefore, we follow the rules provided by OWASP and make sure that key industrial standards are preserved as well.
After you’ve completed screening and selected candidates for your project, you will need to complete technical interviews and soft skills evaluation. Our team will help you with that, so you will definitely end up having all the necessary experts to expand your team and begin working on your solution as soon as possible.
Start team integration process
The onboarding is probably one of the most important steps of team expansion. It is necessary to make sure that hired specialists are fully integrated into all processes and are ready to work and follow the lead of your project manager.
Here are some tips from Altamira on how you can make team expansion and integration seamless:
- always have all communication channels opened and available at any time;
- use time and progress tracking tools;
- don’t forget about project reports;
- sync up your in-house and extended development teams so that the latter can be up to date with your team practices, approach, methodology, and even corporate culture;
- equally, share responsibilities between in-house and external team members to keep everyone motivated and involved;
- schedule kick-off, weekly, problem-solving, and feedback meetings to unite both teams.
Integration of the extended team can be a little bit challenging, but you should know that you are not on your own. For example, our team is always ready to step in and handle any issues you may face while uniting two teams.
Why choose our company
Now we’d like to point out some more advantages our outsourcing company offers. The first one would be the usage of the RACI matrix. This helps our team and software engineers to clearly define and document all project roles and responsibilities.
It’s not a secret that software development success depends on knowing who is going to be responsible and whose role is to consult and inform others. RACI matrix maximizes the chances of project success and makes the development process more transparent and understandable. If you want to take a closer look at the example of the RACI matrix we use, you can download it right here.
As our client, you will be provided not only with the RACI matrix but also with a detailed communication plan. While creating a communication plan, we specify who will be your direct contact person, what kind of documentation and reports you will receive, what meetings you will participate in, and how often they will happen. We also use convenient direct communication tools to keep you constantly updated. Here is what that communication plan looks like:
As you can see, everything is quite clear, and in case you have any questions, you know to what person you can address them. Our communication plan always adds transparency and flexibility to the cooperation between your team and ours.
When you hire our software developers, you can be sure that you get specialists that offer the perfect price/quality ratio. The rates of our development specialists differ depending on their seniority.
The prices are very general, so if you have a project in mind and need this or that team member, it is better to consult with us and ask about the rates directly.
Apart from the reasonable rates and all the things mentioned above, we offer more benefits that our clients already appreciate. Our developers reinforced many in-house teams and developed projects for fintech, real estate, food and beverages, hospitality, manufacturing, and many other companies.
We have received only positive feedback so far from our clients. They really like to use our services, and here is what they highlighted as our main pros:
- Scalability – the team that was selected could be easily expanded or narrowed without influencing project deadlines or cost.
- Focus on end goals – our specialists demonstrated total involvement in the software development delegated to them and were able to troubleshoot any arising issues easily.
- Cost efficiency –our clients paid for the actual hours specialists spent on their projects.
- Huge talent pool – all our clients had 100+ middle and senior-level tech specialists at their disposal able to do exactly what was required.
What criteria to take into account while hiring a team extension company?
First of all, you need to check the experience of the specialists you are hiring and ask whether they’ve worked on similar projects before. Take a look at the company portfolio and list of technologies they work with. Pay special attention to your vendor’s reputation and check such review platforms as Clutch and GoodFirms to see what other clients have to say about your potential partner. Find out what delivery and security standards the company of your choice preserves. And last but not least, look for a vendor that offers long-lasting partnerships.
How long does it take to set up an external team?
On average, it takes several weeks to integrate new software developers into your in-house development team. The process is usually seamless, especially if you’ve selected the right vendor and specialists of the necessary proficiency. It is really fast as opposed to local hiring, which, with all candidate screening and technical interviews, can take months.
To conclude
Any project idea needs a cohesive team of software developers to make it a reality. These days, many companies have their own IT team. But sometimes it’s not enough. Sometimes, you need to hire new team members, people with specific knowledge and technical skills, to accomplish complex software development. And there is no better way to expand your team than using extended team services.
The team expansion can become your magic wand that is able to deliver the desired solution, save your costs, reduce the time of the hiring process, and boost your time-to-market. All you need to do is select the right vendor, sign a contract, integrate extra tech members into your in-house team, and let them do their best job.