IT Staff Augmentation: How To Extend Your Development Team With Staff Augmentation In 2022

Published On: 20-03-2022 06:02

IT Staff Augmentation: How To Extend Your Development Team With Staff Augmentation In 2022

There are several vendors providing IT Staff Augmentation Services on a contractual basis in 2022. This guide will highlight the most appropriate ways of using this approach.

For example, you’re building an e-commerce site, and you already have a team of IT professionals in-house. But to launch everything in time, you lack two more developers with specialized skills. In this situation, the following are the three core steps for IT staff augmentation services that you must know to take full advantage of external expertise. You have to discuss and clarify all payment matters before you sign the contract with your vendor, Ideally, the outsourcing company should charge a flat monthly fee for every specialist it provides. You also have to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with your staff augmentation firm. Considering the most common variables, the hiring process may take from 7 to 14 days.

Evaluate the needs.

The initial step towards staff augmentation involves business analysis and defining your outsourcing goals. The solution requires determining the capabilities of the existing staff, defining which skills are lacking, and analyzing what needs you want to cover. Once you start feeling the shortage of resources for your project, it is important that you first have clear thoughts on the qualifications & skills of a candidate you’re looking for and the number of remote resources you need. Are you looking for a specific skill set, or do you want to free up your in-house team for a business-critical project? Note the scope of the work for augmented staff and the possible duration of the project and make a list of qualities you want like years of experience, expertise area, industry domain, and so on.

Find the right IT Staff Augmentation company

Expertise & Reputation

Look through reviews and testimonials from the outsourcing company’s previous clients. Also, pay attention to their credentials and work portfolio using platforms like Clutch, Google, and Facebook. Feel free to ask companies to provide references for their previous projects in your niche and the needed skill set in their stack. Check the staffing company’s reputation as an employer in the local IT market. When a company takes care of its employees, it will be easy for you to control the retention rate within your in-house team. It makes sense to partner with agencies that have a proven track record in developing software remotely. The agency’s experience in working on similar projects will be a huge plus. Moreover, long-lasting partnerships are also a sure sign that an IT staffing company is a reliable business partner. Look for a large or mid-sized outsourcing provider so that you will be able to constitute a development team quickly. They usually have some talent on the bench, and it is easier for them to attract and train new experts when needed.

Location & Timezone

Consider factors such as time zone differences, the numbers of available talent, technology expertise, salary levels, and proficiency in English before you make your decision. Would you prefer to hire nearshore or offshore software development team? Check if the outsourcing company has flexible or fixed working hours to know how long you have time overlaps with your remote team and if you can have real-time communication. A minimal time difference (3-5 hours) will not be a challenge. Simultaneously, you can turn a 5-10 hour difference into your team’s strength. With developers from India, you can set up a convenient work process and hold daily standups at a time that is convenient for the entire team.

Infrastructure & Security

This may sound obvious, however, it is important to make sure that your potential development partner will be able to run processes efficiently and has all the required hardware, software, and network resources on-site to provide staff augmentation services. Security should be a priority for everyone involved in the development process. Today, it’s essential for an outsourcing company to comply with international security standards including ISO, PCI, and HIPAA. Your vendor should have secure office facilities, protected IT infrastructure, and experts to mitigate security risks.

Introduce Remote Developers to Team

Just partnering up with a staff augmentation company isn’t enough, you have to integrate the remote resources with your in-house team. You should enable total support to the new resources so that they stay comfortable with your work environment. It will be easier for you to successfully go ahead with your project if the remote resources are entirely set with your team. Alongside everything, make them comfortable with your organization’s rules, processes, values, and procedures. Regardless of the fact that engineers work for your business and become members of your in-house team, the outsourcing agency is still their official employer. That is why you should discuss the areas of responsibility and agree on specific working terms like vacations, number of days off, etc.

On The Final Note

To conclude, the solution is great for minimizing costs on recruitment, payroll, and project implementation. And it is more scalable than in-house hiring - it is very much easier to end this kind of partnership than terminate an in-house employee.

This also means a much faster onboarding process for expanding or decreasing your team without any need to go with payroll management or worrying about pay stubs, administration of the office spaces, holidays, training, and every other admin and legal issue.

Implemented properly, this model can help you achieve an entirely new level of flexibility and not lose months on recruitment, contracting issues, and selecting a person to fit your team.