In the IT employment market, staff augmentation is gradually becoming a term, attracting more worldwide companies to recruit remotely. IT service companies have already assisted thousands of customers in augmenting their local teams by employing specialized engineers to scale businesses and development processes.
What Is IT Staff Augmentation and How Does It Work?
IT Staff Augmentation is an outsourcing technique that involves acquiring qualified technical employees from outside your company to temporarily or permanently fill open roles in your team.
It enables businesses to choose just those applicants who meet their needs and to downsize or expand their augmented teams as needed. Staff augmentation is available from a variety of firms. IT staff augmentation companies may assist you to supplement your in-house development team with qualified technical professionals on a short- or long-term basis.
IT staff augmentation is a subset of general staff augmentation. Staff augmentation is a sort of outsourcing service provided by an external supplier on a contract basis to supplement the current in-house team’s expertise and abilities. This technique entails assessing current employee capabilities and identifying what skills are required.
These resources are hired directly by the vendor, which eliminates the expense and risk of creating new full-time personnel. Remote developers engaged via a staffing firm, on the other hand, are committed to just one project at a time.
If you already have engineers working on your product at your local office but want to expand your team by having a team of programmers build another section of the product, augmentation staff is right for you. You need to employ a team of 3-8 tech experts, but owing to a skills scarcity in your area, it’s difficult.
You recognize that local recruiting will take too long, and that, given the dangers and high market demand, this is not a realistic alternative. You’re working on a software project with a group of programmers, and you need to expand your staff with fresh engineers. Because the group of specialists you want to employ is uncommon in your nation, you’re trying to broaden your search.
You work on your product with a project outsourcing business, but this model doesn’t work for you for a variety of reasons. First, you want to connect directly with your team on a regular basis, and second, you want to get to know your remote programmers so they feel like they’re a member of your local team. Both are necessary for remote teams to integrate with the local team and to be motivated to work toward a similar objective with you and your in-house team.
Other Models vs. Staff Augmentation
Personnel augmentation
The Benefits -staff augmentation approach, you have complete control over the candidates you hire and the strategies you use to manage them. Essentially, the vendor handles all organizational and administrative tasks, allowing you to focus on your core responsibilities and engage with your augmented team in the same manner that you do with your in-house engineers.
Services that are managed
The project outsourcing business is responsible for all parts of your project’s development, from forming a team with available developers to overseeing all operations on their own. You don’t require any technical knowledge in-house or to devote time to your remote development team. Customers don’t always know who’s working on their project, what developers are doing right now, or which choices are made along the process when they outsource it.
Own Research and Development Center
You may open your own R&D center in a nation with a more favorable business climate and a larger pool of tech talent if you need to hire at least 40 people. To open your own R&D center, you’ll need to research the country’s legal framework, learn about its culture, and take all of the risks on your own.
What Are the Advantages of Adding More Employees?
Staff augmentation allows for a greater degree of productivity since developers are focused on a single project for 100% of their work time, as opposed to a project outsourcing team that can handle many projects at the same time. Working for a single customer and adhering to their large vision entails a greater degree of drive and commitment.
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
All IP rights belong to you from the start of your collaboration with your dedicated engineers.
Flexibility
You become more adaptable on two fronts:
From UI/UX designers and front-end developers to Scrum masters and product owners, you’ll have access to a diverse pool of IT specialists. It’s considerably simpler to replace a developer since the talent pool is larger, and you won’t have to spend extra money on the transition if you work with a staff augmentation partner like Daxx.
Cost-effectiveness
The cost structure of staff augmentation is quite apparent. You will not be responsible for any administrative or organizational costs, such as office space, workstations, or other facilities. You just pay a price, and the vendor takes care of the rest, allowing you to concentrate on your core business operations.
Your proposal stands out.
Software engineers want to have a say in the development process and have a say in the choices that are made throughout their time at a firm. As a result, many Ukrainian developers desire to work with product firms, which may be done in two ways: directly with a product company or via the staff augmentation model.
How Can Team Augmentation Help You Succeed?
Choose a provider that will set up separate team rooms for your remote developers with all of the essential amenities. At Daxx, for example, our teams have rooms with the client’s logo to make it easier for the offshore team to work with the in-house engineers.
Ascertain that remote engineers experience the benefits of working with your local team. We install so-called “windows to the client” – a camera in the team’s room and a screen that displays what’s going on in the local office – at the request of certain of our customers.
Inquire with the vendor about the availability of specialists that can assist you in more effectively collaborating with your team. We have HR/Client Managers at Prometteur Solutions that work with your engineers to assist eliminate any possible misconceptions during your collaboration.
What are the benefits of having a remote development team?
It’s not only about the financial reductions that hiring a remote development team may provide. More firms are preparing to recruit remote developers in order to expand their resource pool and obtain a competitive advantage in their industries by integrating ML and AI-based automation, cloud-based solutions, and RPA. In this article, we’ll look at the advantages and impacts that remote developers may have on a company. Read on to learn more about remote development, which is becoming more popular due to the rising demand for offshore software development teams.
Operational and infrastructural cost reductions
As previously said, pricing may be the most important factor to consider when outsourcing technical services. Aside from the apparent cost savings at the facilities and for equipment, wages may have a substantial impact on your budget.
When looking at nations known for their software development hubs, even with identically trained workers, there may be considerable variances in total wages paid internationally.
Even with the cost-cutting advantages of remote development businesses, constantly address the intricacies of engagement models with partner organizations to establish common ground.
Developers’ productivity
Software engineers’ self-rated productivity is more closely connected to job diversity and capacity to work remotely than other knowledge workers, according to research. Depending on your technology partner and the communication mechanisms in place, a remotely working developer might be just as productive as an in-house developer.
When you outsource development, you can discover the perfect people from a large skill pool, no matter how specific your needs are. According to HackerRank’s 2019 Developer Skills Report, talent scarcity is a problem for 41% of organizations when it comes to recruiting developers. You may choose the finest from a global talent pool that isn’t restricted by region or availability with remote development choices.
Availability at all times
Remote teams provide continuous delivery in project development using the application DevOps approach, which reaps the advantages of DevOps.
- Faster repairs and improved operational support.
- A smooth delivery process in IT and across teams.
- Delivery automation and bug fixes
- Improved team agility and flexibility.
- Teams that are highly engaged.
- Self-improvement and cross-skilling
- Working in a group.
In project development, remote workers may provide ongoing technical assistance and delivery. Organizations frequently worry about productivity during an 8-hour workday, but by going remote, one may easily acquire a 16-hour or even a 24-hour workday by balancing the benefits of various time zones.
To promote teamwork, make use of communication technologies.
It’s critical to use the correct tools for your project if you want to finish it successfully. When it comes to collaboration tools, cloud-based applications are much more efficient. Agile methodologies are ideal for projects involving remote or offshore development. It enables product development transparency, agility, and efficiency. Developers are, at the end of the day, tool-based professionals. They’re skilled in utilizing various software solutions to complete various tasks and selecting the best tool for the job.
All you need to do now is connect communication with your remote staff by organizing review sessions. To aid with this, most remote development businesses provide Tech Arch or PM support to their customers. A highly competent technologist understands the value of soft skills such as communication and professionalism in making remote work a success. At Perfomatix, we provide our customers with the option of conducting video interviews with resources from which they may choose the best fit.
Our top selections for team communication tools for distant working scenarios are –
- For morning scrum meetings, use Slack, Skype, or Zoom (remote)
Project management and status updates using Zoho and Jira
CRM monitoring and action item assignment
- Odoo
Scheduled (remote) calls with customers and departments.
- Zoom
Reviewing the state of the project on a daily basis using various methods
- Odoo, G Suite
To sum it up
Remote development teams have the potential to be as effective as in-house development teams. Going the offshore method is particularly useful if you are hesitant about employing an entire technical wing for your company. Offshore development is substantially less expensive and avoids a slew of management and knowledge-related challenges. It is particularly advantageous for startups, since they may be experiencing financial constraints. Remote development broadens your skill set while never sacrificing the ultimate product’s quality.