Team extension or dedicated development team? Which one to bet on?
The market is accelerating towards digital transformation. Therefore, betting on a good partner and a tailored cooperation model plays a fundamental role in achieving business benefits. Fast access to relevant IT experts – programmers, designers, architects, or consultants – allows not only for efficient response to customer needs and changes in business requirements. It also helps the company to fit within the budget and meet deadlines for key projects.
If you consider outsourcing your IT team or looking for a way to scale your business, you will surely come across a range of material related to concepts such as team extension or dedicated teams. What exactly are the benefits and differences between these models?
The importance of choosing a good partner
In every outsourcing cooperation model, the choice of a trustworthy partner is both the biggest challenge and the key to success. In today’s market, when choosing an IT outsourcing company, it is not only technology, specialization, or portfolio of implemented projects that count. The approach to employees plays an increasingly important role as well. It is crucial to choose a partner who cares about the employees’ satisfaction and motivates them to share knowledge and continuous development in the field of new technologies. Building a company culture based on trust and commitment is also equally significant. A strongly ingrained organizational culture and a range of employee facilities result in a very low staff turnover that affects the efficiency of project delivery.
Team extension model in software development
Team extension model of cooperation is the best solution for clients who only need a few developers to join the project and help to speed up the work. It will be the appropriate solution for those who need a specific specialist in a chosen technology. An additional term that runs parallel to team extension is staff augmentation. This model of cooperation is most often used by companies implementing small and medium-sized projects.
What are the benefits of adding a missing skill set to an existing team while keeping the strategic competencies entirely in-house?
Flexibility that comes with control
You have full control over the workflow – project management is on your side, you prioritize tasks and set objectives taking into account the needs of your business. You don’t need to adjust your existing communication model – members of the dedicated development team will adapt to your company culture and way of working.
You are supported by a talent pool
With an external partner’s talent pool, you can recruit niche talent faster and avoid additional recruitment costs. You can respond quickly to changing project needs. But most importantly, you decide who you hire and who does what during the software development cycle.
Transparent billing model
Team extension outsourcing projects are settled on a time & material model. The costs of a dedicated team are transparent and easy to determine based on the competence and experience of specialists. You do not have to contribute to the costs overhead e.g. benefits, allowances, equipment facilities, or unexpected expenses.
Small knowledge exchange market
Innovation requires committed teams that think outside the box. That’s why it’s important to choose a partner building a community that shares knowledge and can solve any problem that arises on the road to digital transformation. The exchange of knowledge between your and a partner’s team that can share diverse technological experience adds value to your project.
Dedicated development team as an equally good option
The dedicated development team model is intended for clients who don’t have a development team and need complex support from not only developers but also business analysts, UX/UI designers, project managers, or testers. The company you decide to work with takes all the responsibility for the project. It provides specialists with relevant skills, knowledge, and experience, carries out the analysis, pricing, manages the project, and finally creates the software – your mobile or web application.
What are the main benefits of such cooperation?
Project management driven by experience
Dedicated teams have their project manager who is responsible for controlling and managing the daily workflow. This person reports directly to you or a designated person. You can check progress as often as you like to make sure it’s transparent and perfectly aligned with the project goals and objectives. With this approach, you can fully focus on your business when your app project is going according to plan.
Outstanding performance based on know-how
You know your business needs and the industry you’re in very well. A good IT partner will help you define your project requirements in such a way that your product generates the maximum business benefit. That is why, with projects in the dedicated team model, it is so important to choose a partner who, apart from developers, also has experienced business analysts, UX/UI specialists, and testers that will ensure comprehensive project implementation.
You retain full rights and ownership of the project
With the dedicated development model, you fully own the project. Your partner provides expertise, specialists who work with software development best practices, delivers the code and design, but at the end of the project, all the artifacts are handed over to you with proper documentation. Partners also provide support and maintenance of the project.
No worries on your digital travel
When commissioning a complex project of a web or mobile application, you do not have to worry about the choice of technology, planning the project phases, selecting the right specialists to join the team as well as ensuring the right architecture, tools and hardware background. It is your business partner’s full responsibility.
DDT or Team Extension – which approach is best?
To briefly summarise, it is not crucial which business model you choose. Both models will get the job done. The key is to choose a reliable IT partner, to trust each other and focus on business benefits.
Each project and each customer is unique, each has different requirements, challenges and specifics. If you are starting from scratch and planning a long-term project, you should probably bet on a dedicated team. If you already have an internal IT team, you can choose between two options – bet on team extension or completely change the cooperation model and outsource your IT department.
At Speednet, from the very beginning, we aimed to support worldwide enterprises as well as local small and medium-sized businesses by providing top-shelf IT services in different cooperation models. If you are looking for a software development consultation – go ahead and reach us!
