Staff augmentation is a cost-effective way to bring in the capabilities your firm requires. Your organisation’s augmented dedicated software development staff will be controlled directly by your firm, just like your employees, but with substantially lower hiring and maintenance expenses and responsibilities. Staff augmentation is typically utilised to satisfy a temporary requirement for a certain resource.
Staff Augmentation vs. Managed Services vs. In-House Staffing
The distinction between staff augmentation, managed services and in-house staffing is explained by two factors: control and accountability.
- Control
You have complete control over the duties performed by the enhanced employee while using staff augmentation. They will essentially function as your own employees, thus they may require training to integrate into your company’s operations or project.
Managed services, on the other hand, entail completely outsourcing one of your departments to a third-party business. This means you’ll have little to no say over who is hired and how they’re used. The advantage of this method is that it allows you to focus on your company’s core skills while the managed service provider handles day-to-day operations and staff management.
Even with in-house staffing, you will have tight control over the process.
- Accountability
Because you have complete control over staff augmentation, your organisation is totally accountable for the performance of the augmented workforce.
In contrast to managed services, the managed service provider is held accountable. Typically, MSP clients are covered by a service level agreement (SLA) that guarantees the managed service provider will meet specified goals and objectives.
The in-house team will be held totally accountable for each task done.
Why Should You Consider Staff Augmentation?
With regard to the knowledge that businesses may lack in order to meet the requirements of their numerous ongoing and prospective initiatives, staff augmentation is the most effective solution to be relied on for a variety of reasons. In today’s world, the bulk of IT organisations have revolutionised their methods of assisting their clients; staff augmentation assists them in this endeavour.
- Extensive Knowledge
As previously said, the most major benefit of an increased team is the enormous expertise that it brings with it. Hiring dedicated software development resources can help a corporation find a skill that it lacks.
Furthermore, it assists you in filling specialised tasks, as in some circumstances, competency is required for a short-term or one-time only. Staff augmentation enables you to locate a certain skill without committing to using it again in the future. In this manner, you can save both money and time that you would have spent on competitive recruitment research for that skill.
- Extended Flexibility
An offshore crew significantly improves your organisation’s scalability. Because augmented staff allows you to adjust the size of your job according to the requirements, the Yes/No uncertainty in large projects can be fully eliminated. In addition, with the support of your offshore team’s experience, you may add diversity to your services and solutions.
- Improved Management & Control
Staff augmentation, as opposed to full outsourcing, allows you to retain control and management of your project. This is due to the fact that when you entirely outsource a job, you lose control over the project. With staff augmentation, however, you can delegate authority to the dedicated software development team just when it is required. As a result, you have far lower privacy and security risks than with traditional outsourcing.
Checklist on When to Use Staff Augmentation
Here are a few circumstances in which you should consider employing this method:
- You need a specialised skill set
Perhaps your organisation has taken on a significant project that necessitates a skill set that your in-house IT team lacks. Of course, getting the right competent people to complete the project in the shortest amount of time can be difficult.
An IT staff augmentation allows you to bring on engineers and individual developers who have high-level talents that require time, training and experience to perfect.
- If you want to grow your current team
As your company expands, you may come across a client with a long list of requirements. In this case, you may not have enough time or money to hire new employees to supplement your current team.
With the staff augmentation strategy, you may locate new members fast and get expert advice that will help the new partnership succeed, all while extending your workforce.
- Looking for Low-Cost IT Solutions
Hiring a full-time staff to focus on a given project requires more time, money and energy than is usually required. Staff augmentation provides a transparent cost structure and allows you to harness highly qualified IT personnel without incurring the costs of hiring and training in-house workers. There is no need to invest in workstations, extra office space, or other amenities.
The Flow of the Staff Augmentation Process
Finally, the basic flow of the staff augmentation process can be split down into four easy components, which we detail below:
- Determine Your Requirements
Before you start looking for a dedicated software development team with the necessary abilities to join your team, you must first determine the skills you need to introduce. Understand the criteria you’ll use to choose candidates, such as their skills and experience, as well as any unique requirements. You will also need to decide how many of these qualified persons you wish to hire.
- Examine and Search
After you’ve determined the type of individuals you’re looking for, the obvious next step in the process is to start looking for which staff augmentation firm will carry out the task on your behalf based on the information you’ve acquired about your needs.
- Welcome New Team Members
After you’ve assessed and identified your new team members, the onboarding phase of the process begins. The new team member will need to meet the other members of the team as well as learn about your company’s principles as well as your daily operations and procedures.
- Provide Staff Assistance
Following the integration of new team members into the workforce, continuing support should be offered to ensure that cooperation is as efficient as feasible. Allow for feedback to aid in the development of a strong and ever-improving relationship with your augmented staff.
What Are the Advantages of Using Staff Augmentation?
The five primary benefits of staff augmentation to consider before your next large-scale software rollout or upgrade are as follows:
- Exact knowledge for your specific workforce requirements.
- A more cost-effective alternative to hiring additional full-time staff.
- Work with your specific timetable.
- It can be used in conjunction with other services or on its own.
- Faster path to achieving your objectives.
Concerns About Staff Augmentation and How to Address Them
- Communication Problems
This obstacle can be addressed by deciding on a workflow with comfortable communication channels for all parties, holding routine communication meetings at least once a week to ensure everyone is on the same page, and dealing with any problems as they emerge.
- Misaligned Expectations
Overcoming this difficulty requires communicating clear expectations with your partner from the start. Collect feedback from previous clients, check reviews and look for correspondence records. Document your project criteria, timelines, and communication schedule once you’ve chosen your outsourcing team.
- Cost
When you engage with a dedicated software developers team, you can be confident that it has already worked on a number of projects comparable to yours and is thus familiar with the best tools and methods for getting started as soon as possible. Also, consider all of the expenses associated with an in-house development team.
- Legal Concerns
Penalties for noncompliance with contract conditions by either of the parties, data protection rules, and non-solicitation clauses are proposed to handle this difficulty. Continue your participation in accordance with NDA standards.
Cost and Payment Model for IT Staff Augmentation
The IT staff augmentation strategy typically entails you and your development partner agreeing on a predetermined monthly payment for a single full-time engineer. For example, if you require two full-time backend engineers for your project, you will pay for 320 hours of development services every month. There are no fees, leasing prices, insurance, training or other costs.
You can’t afford to recruit an in-house engineer in the short term. However, with the IT staff augmentation model, you can work with specialists for as little or as long as you require. You may cut costs by investing properly in IT personnel augmentation.
Conclusion
Despite all of the advantages that staff augmentation gives to numerous businesses throughout the world, it does have some drawbacks that you should be aware of before pursuing technology staff augmentation. Keeping in mind all of the potential challenges that may develop while searching for and dealing with an outsourcing team can transform staff augmentation into a win-win approach for your company, allowing you to become more successful in the market if you hire dedicated developers through staff augmentation.
