Software development has become crucial to any modern business scaling and improvement. Yet, many companies struggle with choosing a proper way to hire and extend teams.
Thus, we created this brief guide on an extended development team and software team extension model to explain the core aspects that identify when to choose a certain team management approach.
Comparing the Extended Development Team Models
First of all, what is an extended development team?
Unlike a dedicated development team model, which assumes hiring a full-fledged outsourced team for an entire development cycle, team extension is targeted at scaling an in-house development crew.
To put it another way, choosing a software team extension is possible only when a business already has a development team on board but lacks expertise or available developers to perform certain tasks.
Simply put, it is an alternative approach to extending an existing team by hiring outsourced developers instead of finding new full-time employees for your business. What are the advantages of hiring an extended development team over in-house developers? To answer this, we should first explain the core pros and cons of each approach.
Hiring In-House Developers
Maintaining in-house developers is one of the most popular and common approaches among modern IT businesses.
Pros of In-House Hiring
The most common advantages of in-house hiring include:
- Full control over the development process and team management.
- Strong company culture and long-term commitment.
- Deep knowledge of your product and business objectives.
In other words, having an in-house team simplifies the process of onboarding and managing new employees. It helps project managers and other high-ranked team members track new employees’ performance, incorporate more seamless knowledge-sharing, and ensure their commitment to company culture or other business requirements and demands.
Cons of In-House Hiring
Nevertheless, when you extend team by in-house hiring, you will also face certain limitations and challenges:
- High recruitment costs
- Longer recruitment process and onboarding.
- Limited flexibility and scalability.
In-house hiring assumes finding developers locally, i.e., in your city, country, or region, with relocation options. As a result, it decreases the flexibility and scalability of your hiring options: local talent pools are limited, making it harder to find more experienced developers.
This limitation also results in a longer recruitment and onboarding process, making it harder to find the needed specialist. Finally, hiring locally commonly raises recruitment costs and other expenses, especially if your company is located in developed countries like the USA.
Partnering with Team Extension Company
On the other hand, partnering with an outsourced company for software team extension covers most of the mentioned drawbacks but also brings some other tough challenges.
Pros of Team Extension Company
Core benefits of using outsourcing for extended development team include:
- Immediate access to a global talent pool.
- Cost savings on hiring and operational expenses.
- Flexibility to scale up or down based on project needs.
One of the most significant advantages of team extension services is access to a global talent pool. As a result, it directly impacts several other aspects, such as hiring and operational costs, scaling flexibility, hiring and onboarding time, etc.
An extended software development team is faster because the global development services market offers many more hiring options, significantly decreasing candidate research time. Additionally, hiring globally unlocks popular outsourcing destinations like Ukraine or other Eastern European countries, where developer salaries are much lower than in different regions. Besides, the outsourced extended development team requires no extra expenses like sick leaves, health insurance, bonuses, etc.
Finally, such an approach helps to find niche-experienced developers and cover precise and rare tech demands and expertise, making it easier to find ideal candidates for your project needs and demands.
Cons of Team Extension Company
Among the few significant challenges of outsourcing IT team extension, we can name:
- Potential communication and time zone barriers.
- Limited control over project management and quality assurance.
- Risks of misalignment with company goals and culture.
The main drawbacks of such extended software development teams result from outsourcing the location. If you choose team extension services from a remote region, you will need to make some efforts to plan your working routine. This commonly includes planning daily meetings to cover the time zone differences.
Besides, finding a reliable development team extension requires evaluating their tech expertise and paying attention to various soft skills, language barriers, and other aspects impacting team cooperation and communication.
Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Team Extension Model
When considering a development team extension, you should consider its potential advantages and drawbacks as well as some software project requirements. Long story short, the primary project specifics worth examining before building an extended software development team include:
- Budget and Cost Implications
- Project Complexity and Timeline
- Control and Flexibility
- Long-Term vs. Short-Term Needs
Budget and cost. In most cases, development team extension is cheaper than hiring in-house employees. Thanks to outsourcing and other practices offered by IT companies, finding developers with a higher level of expertise is more affordable. It is beneficial for all types of businesses. However, it can become a real deal-breaker for startups and small businesses with minimal budgets.
Project complexity and timeline. Additionally, you should scale your development team by choosing extension services for projects with tight deadlines or complex tasks. As was mentioned before, outsourcing IT team extension is a much faster process, which also gives access to industry experts for a much smaller price. This allows you to hire a few experienced developers for a fair price compared to your local market.
Control and flexibility. In such scenarios, you must decide which is your priority. Despite countless best management practices, it is hard to deny that in-house developers are much easier to control and manage. However, outsourced experts are much more flexible and can cover multiple project tasks thanks to their rich experience. Sometimes, finding a golden middle between control and flexibility is possible, but it is not common practice.
Long-term vs. short-term needs. Frankly, an extended development team is an excellent solution for both cases. Still, choosing to outsource team extension is primarily used for short-term needs until the company finds a requested developer for an in-house team. Nevertheless, if needed, you can easily scale your development team using outsourced engineers for long-term projects. The only issue in such cases is properly integrating an extended development team into your workflow for the long run.
How to Integrate an Extended Development Team Into Your Workflow?
Frankly, the best strategy for proper extended development team integration includes three main steps:
- Establish communication
- Using project management tools to enhance collaboration.
- Regular check-ins to ensure alignment with business goals.
Despite its straightforward and general advice, don’t underestimate its importance. Common communication channels help keep the whole team on track and informed about current affairs; project management tools for collaboration are used to improve and establish the proper division of tasks; regular check-ins help keep outsourced team member checked and monitored, discuss their progress, etc.
Combined, these simple yet efficient methods allow the company to ensure that the in-house team and team extension professionals are on the same track and provided everything they need for efficient work.
With over a decade in the tech field, Bogdan blends technical expertise with insights on business innovation in technology.
A regular contributor to TMS Outsource's blog, where you'll find sharp analyses on software development, tech business strategies, and global tech dynamics.
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