The IT team extension model is a powerful instrument that can help significantly upscale software development projects. The only challenge is to know how and when to apply this model to benefit the most.
We wrote this article to help you better understand how to use such services properly. In it, you can learn everything you need to utilize team extension services successfully in your project.
What is Team Extension?
Long story short, team extension speaks for itself. This software development approach suggests options for extending a team of developers by engaging third-party specialists.
Team extension services can happen in many ways. For instance, you can find and hire freelancers or cooperate with an outsourcing company that provides team extension services on demand.
Team augmentation is a popular solution for cases when businesses need to quickly extend team, lack specific tech expertise, have strict deadlines, or simply require several more developers on board. These are the most popular scenarios for software team extension, yet are not the only ones.
Besides that, IT team extension offers many benefits for businesses and helps cover several software development challenges.
Key Benefits of Team Extension Model
So, what else can team augmentation offer besides being beneficial and convenient to cover the lack of employees? The list of core benefits of team extension model includes the following:
- Access to a wider range of expertise
- Easily adjust team size based on project needs
- Quick adaptation to changing project scope
- Save on operational costs like office space and equipment
- Increase the speed and efficiency of implementation
Access to a Wider Range of Expertise
The first and most noticeable advantage of team extension is access to a wide range of niche-experienced specialists.
Team augmentation services don’t require the physical presence of developers and are commonly found offshore. As a result, the variety of options to choose from is much more comprehensive compared to looking at your local talent pool. To rephrase, the team extension model suggests companies hire developers from any corner of the globe.
As a result, it can help to save costs and find even the rarest tech expertise, making it a popular choice for finding experts.
Easily Adjust Team Size Based on Project Needs
IT team extension is a simple and efficient way to adjust your team size according to software project needs.
When a software project scales, it grows in complexity, increasing the number of tasks. To cover this extension, you can:
- Reassign and share tasks among the team, raising the total number of tasks per employee.
- Find and hire team extension specialists to assign new functions to them.
In the first case, the development becomes more stressful for the team, negatively impacting their performance. At the same time, by choosing outsourcing team extension, you can increase the team's productivity and perform new assignments.
Besides, such an extension of your team allows you to gain more tech expertise and positively impact the knowledge-sharing process within a team.
Quick Adaptation to Changing Project Scope
Software development team extension specialists are highly productive developers trained to be flexible and quickly adapt to new projects or changes during development.
As a result, you won’t need to spend much time and resources on training your team extension experts: they can get into the project independently. Apart from being independent, software team extension employees also increase the flexibility of your project.
They can easily handle unplanned tasks and processes in case of urgent assignments or unexpected changes.
Frankly, these specialists are usually forced to deal with a rapidly changing environment and are commonly reassigned to different projects.
Save on Operational Costs Like Office Space and Equipment
The cost for team extension services is also a significant factor in considering such services.
When you extend team by hiring full-time in-house developers, you target your local market. Most regional markets are highly competitive, requiring businesses to offer competitive salaries and conveniences.
For instance, if you are looking for a US-based developer, you must pay much more than collaborating with software engineers in Eastern Europe or Ukraine. It is no secret that developers from such popular outsourcing destinations offer the same expertise for a smaller fee.
However, in addition to the salaries of outsourcing IT team extension developers, you can also cut expenses on other processes like HR-related activities, office rent, and providing developers with equipment.
Summing up all the above, a software development team extension is an excellent choice when you have a limited budget but demand experienced employees to perform new tasks and help with project scaling.
It is a great benefit for all businesses. Nevertheless, it can become a real deal-breaker for startups and small companies, whose budgets are very limited while ambitions are incredibly high.
Increase the Speed and Efficiency of Implementation
Last but not least, software development team extension is a powerful tool to boost efficiency and development speed.
Once again, reassigning various tasks to new team members helps reduce the stress of the rest of the employees. Besides, “extra hands” are always helpful in speeding up any process.
Combined with the specific tech expertise of an extended development team specialist, it becomes evident that choosing an outsourcing team extension brings too many benefits for project performance to ignore.
How Does Team Extension Work?
So, how do software team extension services work? What steps must you take before integrating such a model into your software development project?
Frankly, software development team extension services share the same steps for all projects:
- Defining Project Needs and Roles
- Selecting a Team Extension Partner
- Onboarding and Integration
- Ensure Successful Project Completion
Defining Project Needs and Roles
Clearly, you should know what to look for before scaling your team. The first step would be clarifying your needs and establishing team roles.
Clarifying your project needs helps narrow the list of potential candidates by creating a checklist of tasks, skills, and technologies required from IT team extensions.
Establishing team roles is an essential factor that helps to improve management and track progress. In fact, before making radical decisions like integrating new team members, you should ensure that the core team is as efficient as possible.
Sometimes, planning and clarifying the project terms and roles helps to achieve much better results, making team augmentation unnecessary.
Selecting a Team Extension Partner
If you still need a team augmentation after managing your team and clarifying the project, you should proceed to selecting a team extension partner.
To repeat ourselves, there are two main approaches to finding software team extension options:
- Hiring freelance developers
- Contacting outsourcing companies
Freelancers are f*aster, easier, and cheaper* to find and onboard. However, it is hard to check their actual development experience and expertise. Additionally, no one guarantees the dedication of such employees or the quality of their services.
At the same time, contacting outsourcing companies might be more expensive. However, such companies provide their clients with the proven experience and CVs of team extension developers and guarantee the dedication and software quality developers offer on demand.
Still, you must also spend time and effort finding a reliable technology partner. The best way to do so is to:
- Check various b2b platforms like Clutch or GoodFirms that gather all essential data on software development companies.
- Examine the company’s experience and case studies.
- Examine the references and feedback of clients.
- Contact companies and set up interviews.
- Choose the best option and sign agreements.
Onboarding and Integration
Creating guidelines and ensuring regular knowledge-sharing practices are the best ways to speed up team extension onboarding and integration. Even if you don’t extend your team, regularly practicing such activities will be highly beneficial.
This will boost employees' awareness and positively impact their performance. It will also help make future onboarding and integration as fast and seamless as possible.
Team onboarding primarily includes explaining the project goals and requirements, defining the technologies and development tools used, describing the company’s culture and values, and clarifying the employees’ responsibilities.
Ensure Successful Project Completion
Finally, after onboarding and integrating the team augmentation specialist, you are left to manage the team and track the project's progress, ensure its success, or make various decisions during development.
Among the best practices to ensure successful project completion are:
- Constant meetings and discussions,
- Resolving conflicts and issues,
- Ensuring internal communication,
- Being available when needed.
Applying all the preceding, you will increase your project’s success probability, both in terms of team extension cooperation and working exclusively with in-house staff.
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