What’s the difference between the development team model and staff augmentation?
The dedicated development team model and staff augmentation are two different approaches to outsourcing software development. Both have their benefits, but they cater to different business needs and project requirements.
Dedicated team model:
- You hire an external, dedicated development team that acts as an extension of your in-house team. The dedicated development team is fully committed to your project, focusing entirely on your tasks and objectives.
- Typically better for long-term projects where a high level of integration with the internal team and alignment with the company's culture is needed.
- Works well when the project scope is not fully defined, and changes are expected during the development process.
Staff augmentation model
- Involves adding skilled contracted workers to your existing development team, either on a short-term or long-term basis, depending on your needs.
- More suitable for short-term projects or when the scope is well-defined.
- Beneficial when you need to fill skill gaps in your current team or handle an increased workload.
Read More: Software Development Outsourcing Models — Which Is Best?
What are the benefits of hiring a dedicated software development team?
As you embark on a new software project, one of the most critical decisions you'll make is choosing the right development model. When you hire a dedicated development team, you can expect the following benefits:
Flexibility: With a dedicated team model, you have the luxury to scale up or down, depending on your project requirements. You can adjust the team size, skill-set, and workflow at any stage of the project, ensuring that you're never under- or over-resourced. The level of flexibility that you have when you decide to hire development team is a big draw.
Domain expertise: When you work with the right dedicated development teams, you access professionals who come with vast industry knowledge and skill sets. You won't need to spend time and resources on hiring, training, and retaining in-house specialists. This kind of direct access to expertise can be vital for expediting or up-leveling software projects.
Control over the process: When you hire a dedicated software development team, you get some control of the day-to-day management of the team. In some cases this is preferred over the more hands-off approach of outsourcing a software project. If you do prefer to take a more hands-on approach, the dedicated development team model may be a good fit.
Reduced ramp-up efforts and costs: Dedicated teams often have prior experience together, eliminating the need for a learning phase. This is a key benefit that many companies overlook. When you bring a new team of developers together or even augment your team with a single new developer, you have to plan for the expenses and time it takes to build relationships, trust, and set up logistics. This is simply not necessary when you work with a dedicated software development team.
Reduced risk: Hiring a dedicated software development team can considerably reduce project risk due to their expertise, consistency, and ability to proactively address issues. Their shared responsibility, enhanced communication, and scalability offer a flexible and reliable approach, increasing the chances of project success. Of course this is only true if you find the right development team - but when you do, it can be a huge asset to your company!
Read More: 7 Key Elements of Building Software Development Teams
What to do before hiring a software development team?
To maximize the benefits of hiring a dedicated software development team and ensure a successful partnership, careful planning and strategic steps are necessary. Here's how to prepare your business for hiring a dedicated development team:
1. Define your goals: Start by outlining your project's objectives. These could range from building a new application to refining an existing system or resolving a specific business issue. Involve all project stakeholders, such as your company's leadership, end-users, and customers, or anyone who will directly benefit from the end product. Get really clear on what you’re trying to achieve. This will help your project manager effectively guide the dedicated software development teams.
2. Prepare an SOW: When you're ready to hire any kind of outsourcing company, a well-prepared plan is a must. The team needs to understand your budget and requirements; detailed documentation will communicate this effectively. Collaborate with your stakeholders to create a comprehensive Scope of Work (SOW) to share with potential development teams.
3. Know your technology stack: If your project involves enhancing an existing system, evaluate your current technology stack. Ensure that it can support the new project or if there's a need for new technology introductions. Compatibility with existing systems is critical, and it will also help you identify the right outsourced development team with relevant experience in your preferred technologies.
4. Decide what you want: Understand and define what's most important to your project before you hire a software development team. Consider factors like budget, quality, speed of development, specific skills or expertise of the team, geographical location, time zone compatibility, and scalability potential. Knowing your priorities will guide your decision-making process, helping you select the ideal dedicated development team that aligns with your business objectives.
5. Develop an evaluation matrix: Create a system to assess potential development teams. This matrix should include all vital factors, such as cost, technical expertise, portfolio, communication efficiency, project management style, client reviews, and availability. It will offer a comparative view of different teams and support informed decision-making. Remember, this matrix should reflect your unique priorities.
6. Form a selection team: Assemble a team from your organization to handle the process of hiring a dedicated software development team, especially for larger projects. Members from various departments - like project management, finance, legal, and IT - can provide unique perspectives. The selection team can evaluate potential development teams using the evaluation matrix and make a balanced decision.
By following these steps, you can ensure that you hire a dedicated software development team that aligns with your project needs and contributes to the success of your project.
Read More: How to Hire Dedicated Developers: Offshore Talent Step-by-Step
What to look for when hiring a software development team?
After you have thoroughly documented your software outsourcing needs, you’re ready to start finding potential software outsourcing companies. But, the stakes are high when you’re investing significant capital, resources, and time into hiring an offshore software development team. You want to choose the right vendor, but with over 23,000 companies offering software outsourcing services on Clutch.co alone, the sheer number of options can be overwhelming.
We recommend that you hire a dedicated development team that:
Focus on your success: The dedicated development team or outsourcing company should be able to guide you through the whole planning experience. This includes wireframing, cost estimation, sketches of the UX and UI design, and the software development itself. If they can’t do all of this, then you can do better with your selection!
Experienced engineering leader: Look for a dedicated development team with a comprehensive portfolio that displays their proficiency and experience in providing custom software development services across a wide range of projects.
Process excellence: Choose a partner that has a clear software development team structure and that has an agile software development process, based on adaptive planning, early delivery, and project updates. This will ensure you are up to date with what's happening at any stage of project development.
Effective communication skills: Strong communication abilities are essential to ensure seamless collaboration and successful project execution. The software development company’s in-house project manager should be prepared to provide the level of communication you desire. When in doubt, ask detailed questions about the level, type, and frequency of communication that they can provide.
By considering these factors, you'll be better equipped to hire a dedicated software team that can not only meet your needs but also contribute to the overall success of your business.
Read More: How to Hire the Best Outsourced Development Team for a Startup
Why hire a software development team in Poland?
Poland offers an attractive blend of value and quality for teams looking to hire an offshore software development team. Some of the top draws include: competitive rates, a culture of innovation and self-reliance, and convenient communication by way of English fluency and overlapping time zones with the US.
Top software developers at competitive rates
Poland provides excellent value for the money. You can expect Polish developer salaries to be around 50% lower than developer salaries in the US. While wages in Poland are rising, when you consider the skill level of technology professionals in Poland, their cultural proximity to Western European and US markets, and top-notch service quality, Poland still provides incredible value for the money.
Business leaders confirm it. Take a look at the results of business consulting company EY's survey on Poland's attractiveness to tech companies looking to outsource development.
The Polish market’s top three assets to businesses are:
- Labor skill level (81% of survey respondents)
- Potential for productivity increase (78% respondents)
- Labor costs (listed by 45%)
That's a powerful combination of advantages for teams looking to hire a software development company in Poland.
A culture of innovation and self-reliance
Any tech leader understands the indispensable worth of software developers who can innovate and work independently. Poles, known for their resourcefulness, have a history of thinking unconventionally, driven largely by economic constraints during the communist era. This has uniquely shaped the country into a breeding ground for innovation.
The IT sector in Poland, particularly the financial services industry, exemplifies this innovative spirit. Polish banks have been at the forefront of IT innovation, bagging 24 awards across 12 highly-regarded international contests from 2012 to 2015. This achievement is rooted in the societal embrace of innovative solutions and the country's rich reservoir of outstanding IT professionals and software development experts.
Effective communication and project management
The prospect of outsourcing in Poland becomes significantly convenient due to the high English proficiency, with nearly 30% of the population being fluent English speakers. It's common to encounter project managers and software developers who excel in English communication and project management skills. If you're in search of software development companies offering comprehensive project support, Poland proves to be an ideal destination.
Moreover, Poland's time zone aligns favorably for collaboration with US-based teams. Polish software developers can schedule meetings during late afternoon hours, covering all US time zones. This allows for smoother project management, as you can coordinate with your team during hours that work best for you.
Read More: Software Development in Poland - Hire Team in 4 Simple Steps
What methodologies and tools does your software team use?
Our team at SoftKraft utilizes a combination of technologies to provide exceptional, future-oriented web development services. We'd like to introduce some key technologies that underpin our development process:
Backend Technologies: We mainly leverage Django, a dynamic open-source framework built on Python, for a substantial part of our projects. Python is widely appreciated for its syntax and superior control over processes. Here are some key features that make Python stand out:
- Clarity and simplicity: Python boasts a clear, straightforward syntax that makes it a favorite amongst developers. Its uses are widespread, ranging from web and software development to data science.
- Efficiency and quick development: Python permits complex functionalities to be written and executed with fewer lines of code, encouraging rapid development. This is a feature that both startups and large enterprises value.
- Broad adoption: Industry giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, Dropbox, and Spotify have integrated Python into their tech stacks, demonstrating its widespread acceptance.
Python's flexibility and cost-effectiveness make it an excellent choice for software development projects. It's capable of supporting a wide array of solutions, from cross-platform and web app development to data analysis, machine learning, and AI.
Frontend technologies: On the frontend, we primarily utilize React and Vue.js. These JavaScript libraries bring several significant benefits to your web applications:
- Fast development: Ready to use UI components approach promotes rapid development. Teams can reuse, modify, and implement components from a library throughout the development cycle.
- Consistent user interface: The component library provides a reference for business, design, and quality assurance teams. It's version-controlled in the repository, enabling you to track the exact user interface version used across different applications.
- Reusability across projects: The component-based UI structure ensures your web application's architecture remains relevant and can be reutilized over time. This allows the construction of multiple applications in alignment with your design principles without starting from scratch.
By employing these technologies, SoftKraft assures the efficiency and reliability of your software applications. Additionally, we make sure it's future-ready and capable of adapting to your changing business needs.
What types of projects can your software team handle?
Our software team at SoftKraft is equipped to handle a diverse range of projects, thanks to our expertise and experience in various fields of software development. Here's a brief introduction to the types of projects we can effectively manage:
- Web application development: We create easy-to-use web applications that can integrate effortlessly with other systems and ensure cross-browser compatibility.
- Software product development: We convert your innovative concepts into functional products, managing the entire lifecycle, from ideation and design to testing, deployment, and updates.
- MVP development: Our team builds Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) to help you test your business ideas in the market. MVPs contain core features needed to solve a problem and provide immediate value, quickly, while minimizing costs.
- SaaS application development: We specialize in developing Software as a Service (SaaS) applications. These cloud-based apps can be accessed anywhere, offering cost-effective solutions that are easy to scale and maintain.
- Enterprise software development: We develop robust software tailored to meet the specific requirements of large businesses. These help in improving efficiency, productivity, and overall business operations.
Not sure what you need? Or have questions about our hiring process? Feel free to reach out to our team, and we’d be happy to help!
How much does it cost to hire your software development team?
The precise cost to hire a dedicated development team is determined by skills, experience level, and number of staff you need. The dedicated team model provides flexibility to scale up and down depending on your project budget. Acknowledging the importance of a well-defined project scope and budget, we offer our clients the following as part of our software development services:
- Detailed budget forecasts: We equip our clients with detailed cost predictions, enabling accurate financial planning for their software development projects.
- Experienced project management: Drawing on our extensive project management experience, we provide clients with essential budgeting tools and management tactics to ensure their software development project remains on course and within budget.
- Value-driven investment: At SoftKraft, we pledge to deliver maximum return on your investment. Every developer on our team gauges their success by your level of satisfaction.
Ultimately, our objective is to deliver top-tier custom software that aligns with our clients' needs and budget constraints, meeting their technical and business requirements - all within budget. We invite you to reach out to us for a detailed cost estimate based on your needs. Contact SoftKraft today to kick-start your journey toward hiring a dedicated development team!
Read More: Web Application Development Costs in 2023 + Estimation Template
How can I minimize the costs when hiring a software team?
Optimizing your spending during the process of hiring an external software company is crucial for maximizing your returns and ensuring the long-term success of your project. At SoftKraft, we advise our clients to follow these principles to help them minimize their spending when working with dedicated development teams:
Begin with an MVP
An effective way to reduce costs is by starting with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This approach allows you to focus on the essential features of your product, saving you from excessive and unnecessary expenses. Plus, an MVP lets you test the potential of your idea and the capabilities of your software developers without a substantial upfront investment.
Finalize the UI prior to development
Ensuring your User Interface (UI) design is finalized before development begins is crucial. It gets everyone on the same page about the design and functionality, eliminating expensive changes later on. Invest wisely in top-notch UI/UX design upfront – it pays off in the long run.
Consider Eastern Europe for outsourcing
Eastern Europe offers a rich talent pool for software development, coupled with affordable rates. Working with an offshore dedicated team from Eastern Europe allows you access to high-quality resources at a fraction of the cost, compared to hiring locally.
Keep change requests in check
Limiting change requests during development helps you maintain focus on your original goal, saving time, resources, and ultimately, money. Sticking to your initial plan ensures your project gets completed within the estimated timeline and budget.
At SoftKraft, we're here to help you get the most value out of your outsourced team. Reach out to us to discuss how we can make your next software development project a cost-effective and successful one.
