According to a CNBC survey, 57% of technology executives have expressed concerns regarding the recruitment of qualified employees as the topmost challenge for their company. To tackle this issue, businesses worldwide are increasing their budget allocation for outsourcing.
IT team augmentation for software development has emerged as a popular outsourcing model, which helps address skill gaps, boosts the in-house IT team's capabilities, and reduces development costs. Experts from Belitsoft explain how IT team augmentation works and the advantages it can offer.
What Does IT Staff Augmentation Mean?
IT team augmentation for software development is a type of outsourcing strategy that enables companies to access additional technology talent and capacity for their team as and when required. This approach is useful for filling challenging or temporary positions, which can help enhance project development scalability and efficiency (QA experts, DevOps team, etc.).
IT team augmentation services from software development companies provide businesses with additional resources to expedite software development or acquire specialized tech skills that their in-house development team may lack. This approach has proven to significantly reduce development costs. It primarily matters for businesses in the US, UK, Israel, Canada, and Australia.
This partnership with a staff augmentation company could be for a specific project or a continuous duration.
Advantages of Software Development Staff Augmentation
Access to top tech talent and expertise to fill skill gaps. Access to top tech talent and expertise to fill skill gaps. Staff augmentation companies have a reserve of top-tier professionals, including software engineers, UX designers, SCRUM masters, and developers with expertise in various technologies (.NET, Java, PHP, Python, React Native, Xamarin, Node.js, etc.). Also, it can be expertise in particular domains such as eLearning and AI in education. When businesses identify a lack of specific skills, staff augmentation is a quick way to integrate the appropriate specialist directly into their internal team's processes to contribute to their project.
Fast recruiting and onboarding of experienced developers. Businesses only pay for the service they need and can turn it on or off as required. Since staff augmentation companies provide experienced developers, onboarding them is usually a straightforward process.
More control over the development process. The added developers become a part of the internal team. They are supervised by the management and engaged in regular project status meetings. Since the developers work in-house, they can handle concerns like IP security through the business's internal governance procedures.
Scalable resources. Businesses can easily add or remove team members with the required skills. The staff augmentation providers only charge for the resources used by the clients.
Profitability. Staff augmentation is cost-effective compared to hiring in-house developers full-time. That is because the salaries of dedicated specialists are generally lower, and the recruiting and onboarding processes can be skipped. As a result, businesses can save on development costs.
Meeting tight deadlines. A team of dedicated developers with additional technical capacity who put forth their best efforts can help ensure project delivery on time.
How to Implement Software Development Staff Augmentation Model
Opt for the right partner
When looking for an outsourcing company to partner with, it's important to evaluate them based on the key aspects:
- reputation in the industry;
- their history;
- their case studies;
- their areas of expertise;
- their hiring policies.
Describe your goals
It is essential to establish these criteria from the beginning and monitor progress continuously to keep the project on track and make timely adjustments before investing too many resources. IT staff augmentation teams can offer valuable insights and recommendations based on their knowledge and experience.
Build transparent communication
In staff augmentation, the practice is to hire professionals with diverse experiences across various projects and organizations. To maximize the benefits of their expertise, it is essential to have an open mind and be receptive to their ideas and recommendations. Establishing clear communication channels and feedback loops can promote collaboration between team members. Working closely with project managers can streamline workflows and messaging channels, and contribute to timely updates, feedback, and issue resolution.
Empower new team members
To ensure successful cooperation with new team members in the staff augmentation model, it's crucial to integrate them into the company culture and business processes. That can be done by providing them with access to necessary information and resources (a knowledge base or library). It will help them deliver professional services alongside full-time employees.
