Development team extension: What is it and who can profit from it?

In today’s tech world, businesses are always challenged to meet project demands. The solution can be a development team extension. This approach helps companies to expand their teams with added skilled developers. This will help them improve productivity and also speed up project delivery. 

Don’t think that a development team extension is just about hiring more people, it’s also about finding the right talent. With this strategy, businesses can scale quickly by getting rid of the lengthy recruitment process. It can help companies tap global talent pools and find the right people for their projects. 

This article will explore what a development team extension is and how it works. We’ll also discuss who may be a good fit to try this approach and why it may be the right way for your company. No matter if you’re a startup or a big corp, understanding this model will definitely benefit you and your project. 

I. What is development team extension?

The development team extension is temporarily recruiting developers from another company’s resources. By using this approach, businesses quickly gain access to skilled professionals without the long-term commitment of a full-time hire. An IT staff augmentation company performs various administrative tasks, including paying salaries and taxes, personnel records, and state authorities. That means you can focus on your project while they work on the details. 

More simply, development team extension is like renting an employee rather than equipment or real estate. In this case, the hired professional brings their knowledge to your team to increase the effectiveness of your project. The IT staff augmentation company has full control and responsibility for organizational matters and ensures the delivery of your requirements. 

As a customer, you might not even talk to the extended team member directly. Often, project managers tend to manage all communications and conversations related to the work. With this setup, skills can seamlessly be added to your existing team without additional administrative burdens. Overall, development team extension offers a flexible solution to meet your project needs efficiently. 

II. Development team extension vs Dedicated development team: Key differences

When you want to expand your development team, you have two options. The first is to bring on just a few specialists for certain skill gaps. The second option is to outsource the development process to an experienced, dedicated tech team with all the required resources and expertise. 

However, these two models do differ in several ways. We can find out what each option involves in the comparison table below: 

For the most part, if you only need a few very specialized people on a project, the development team extension model is your best bet. The advantage is that this method lets you quickly get the needed expertise without a long-term commitment. 

However, a dedicated development team is better if your business wants to outsource the entire development process. This model is especially helpful if you don’t have an internal team or don’t want to hire an in-house team permanently. 

From experience, a dedicated development team translates into higher costs because project management and end-to-end development are involved. Therefore, many companies prefer to hire extra engineers for their tech department rather than outsource everything, as this cost difference exists. 

If you’re considering growing your software development team, consider each approach’s pros and cons. That said, let’s look into some gains and losses of using development team extension in the following sections. 

III. Main advantages of extended development team 

What would be the benefits of adding people to complement your team’s skills while keeping your in-house core competencies? In this section, we will discuss the advantages of the development team extension services! 

1. Access to the Global Talent Pool

Access to a global talent pool is one of the biggest advantages of development team extension. With the help of an external organization, you can quickly find specialized talents without spending too much on recruitment. This allows you to get the right people with the right skills no matter where you are. In other words, if you cannot find or cannot afford local talent, outsourcing lets you call upon areas where particular skills are more readily available and cheaper. 

2. Flexibility Without Compromising Control

Another important benefit is the flexibility of an extended development team. But you still have full control over your project and can add or remove members as needed. It gives you the flexibility to run workflows how you feel necessary for your business, prioritize tasks, and define project goals without losing sight. Although you can scale your team up or down based on current project needs, you only pay for the expertise you need at any given time. 

3. Knowledge Sharing

Collaboration and knowledge exchange enable innovation. Thus, when your extended development team joins your existing workforce, you open the opportunity to share your insights and best practices. This collaboration enriches your project and breeds a powerful team that can be creative and push your digital transformation forward. External specialists have different perspectives that can create new solutions and solve challenges more effectively. 

4. Complete Transparency

Transparency is very important if you have a development team extension model. For the most part, the hiring strategy is predicated on a preset time and material basis, which makes it easy to grasp what it would cost to hire a developer based on his experience level. There won’t be hidden expenses, equipment costs, or unexpected fees. This straightforward financial structure will allow you to plan better and use the resources. 

Extending your development team has benefits that can greatly increase the quality of your project. Using global talent, maintaining flexibility, knowledge sharing, and transparent pricing, you are well set on the path to success in the ever-changing tech landscape. 

IV. Understand the drawbacks of software team extension

Along with the good reasons to extend your software development team, there are some that might hinder progress or add to your costs. We can look at these drawbacks more closely. 

1. Communication Problems

Communication is one of the biggest challenges to the team extension model. While you have a good working relationship with your core team, it will take some time for your additional team members to become comfortable with your current communication standards. Language barriers and cultural differences can easily cause delays and frustration. As a result, they need to learn how to get updates, what meetings are on the schedule, and what the carrier channels are. Defining these processes from the get-go will help you avoid any unwanted ambiguity that you may run into later. 

2. Collaboration Hurdles

Communicating with team members is another major challenge to look out for. Team members and new team members must build trust and understand each other’s work before they can work closely. It can also slow down project momentum, as teams can take time to find their goals and methods. Without a solid base of collaboration around project objectives, there’s a risk of misalignment, inefficiencies, and lowered productivity. 

3. Increased Management Needs

The extension process needs more proactive management towards the beginning to facilitate better communication and collaboration. Establishing conditions that enable existing and outsourced development teams to grow in tandem is a key role for managers. Some of this is having regular check-ins to clarify roles and get everyone on the same page for project expectations. Overall, increased oversight can require more management time and resources and remove some anticipated benefits of expanding your development capabilities. 

While software team extensions will make your project more flexible, they also have some downsides you must be ready for. To overcome these challenges, good communication strategies and collaboration must be fostered, and proactive management must be implemented. If we prepare for these issues ahead of time, we can create a well-formed working environment to take advantage of development team extension. 

IV. Who should consider development team extension

Development team extension has great potential for transforming business practices of various sectors, as well as for startups and large corporations alike. The ability to quickly adapt and drive innovation makes this approach especially valuable when your project requirements are constantly changing.  

Let’s explore some types of organizations that can benefit the most from this strategy: 

1. Startups and SMEs

It accelerates startups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to innovate quickly and develop products. Often resource-constrained, these organizations need help recruiting full-time specialists. That means startups can benefit from development team extension to obtain the particular skill set and technological know-how on a need basis. This flexibility allows them to allocate their resources to core business objectives to help them speed up their time to market. 

2. Large Corporations

Development team extension allows large corporations to boost their operational agility and respond quickly to changing market needs. Through development team extension, they can have specialized talents to augment their in-house teams. This allows them to build a collaborative system encouraging innovation and successful problem-solving. Remaining flexible allows them to quickly take on complex projects and give quick responses to a business challenge without the full-time employee process. 

3. Consulting and IT services firms

Development team extension has great potential for consulting and IT services firms. As these firms bring in some additional expertise, they can cater to customers’ needs in a wider range of services. This flexibility provides an opportunity for project success and client satisfaction since firms can respond rapidly with the right skills present. Thus, development team extension helps them handle bigger projects without overstretching their earlier resources. 

4. Brands

Development team extension from brands operating on eCommerce helps improve website functionality and user experience and provides additional service offerings for a competitive advantage. Using the benefit of the development team extension by outsourcing developers, you can get fresh perspectives and more skills from them. Ultimately, they make for a better, more appealing, and more productive online shopping experience. Therefore, it can result in higher customer satisfaction and increase the probability of retention, contributing to increased sales growth. 

5. Healthcare 

Development team extension is also very important in the healthcare sector. In particular, this approach will enable the development and improvement of digital health solutions, patient management systems, etc. Many extended teams understand the importance of healthcare technologies supporting the quality and efficacy of digital health offerings. This expertise is required to be able to meet regulations and patient needs that are driven by the digital world. 

6. Educational institutions 

Development team extension can help educational institutions hire additional developers to enhance their educational technologies, online learning platforms, and administrative systems. Extended teams can help find innovative solutions that improve people’s experiences while learning. Academic institutions can better support students and faculty by leveraging specialized skills via development team extension to the educational outcome. 

7. Non-profits 

Development team extension can be useful for nonprofit organizations in building their digital presence, donor management systems, and online community engagement. Through development team extension, NPOs can hire the specialty talent necessary to drive their digital strategies the furthest and most seamlessly. This approach enables them to attain their missions and maximize the impact of their initiatives through better technology and outreach initiatives. 

All in all, development team extension is a flexible solution with numerous potential applications for organizations across various industries. It gives your company the right skills at the right time to drive innovation and success in today’s fast-paced digital world. 

VI. Tips to integrate extended development team and dedicated development team into your business

Once you’ve made the decision to work with external developers, you have to go through the selection process of either an extended or dedicated development team. If you went for the development team extension model, here’s what to do next: 

1. Specify Your Needs: Describe the roles and skills you need before searching. 

2. Look for Relevant Experience: As always, pick candidates who’ve had experience with remote work or development team extension. 

3. Assess Communication Skills: When in the hiring process, make sure to look into the candidates’ capability to communicate clearly in both written and verbal form. 

4. Trial Projects: You could assign short trial projects to promising candidates. It can help decide their abilities and how well they fit in with your crew before a long commitment. 

5. Understand Time Zones: Always keep time zone differences in mind when you hire globally. They can expand business coverage with staggered working hours. 

However, if you opt to hire developers from a dedicated team, these are some of the tips that you should keep in mind: 

1. Define Clear Objectives: Make sure you’re very clear with how you communicate your goals and objectives for the project to the dedicated team. It guarantees that they know what they are supposed to be doing and striving for. 

2. Communication Channels: Establish good communication channels that ensure regular feedback and updates for smooth collaboration. 

3. Set Realistic Deadlines: Sit with the dedicated team to create realistic milestones and timelines. The approach uplifts productivity and keeps the team energetic. 

4. Encourage Collaboration: Build an environment where team members can collaborate and develop ideas to resolve problems. 

5. Monitor Progress: Make it a habit to check in with the team and give them good feedback. It helps to find things early and to make adjustments in time.  

VII. Dedicated development team at Adamo can boost your business’s productivity 

Adamo Software’s dedicated development team can greatly help your business grow. Implementing a dedicated team model gives companies access to a development team providing specialized skills and expertise based on the company’s project needs. It is quick to scale, meaning the necessary resources are ready when needed.  

With this approach, you have dedicated professionals working on your project to complete tasks more efficiently and effectively. In addition, this process promotes working together and communicating more effectively between the team and your business goals. You can thus focus on core activities and leave the technical problems to experts.  

Partnering with Adamo Software for your dedicated development team today is a brilliant way to increase productivity and achieve faster results! Contact us today!