Modern companies, especially in the IT sector, often face a shortage of qualified specialists. When projects require rapid team expansion and hiring employees on a permanent basis takes too much time, the staff augmentation services model comes to the rescue. This approach allows companies to quickly attract the necessary specialists without long-term commitments while maintaining control over the development processes. In this article, we will analyze what IT staff augmentation services are, how they work, and what their advantages are.
How IT Staff Augmentation Works: The Staffing Process
Smart entrepreneurs know that their job is to make their business successful, not to do everything themselves. Moreover, software development is a skill that not everyone can master, so entrepreneurs prefer to hire software engineers either in-house or by strengthening the IT team.
Today, more and more businesses choose the IT staff augmentation model. This is one of the outsourcing models that allows you to find and recruit a team of talents for the specific needs of the project.
The IT staffing process typically consists of three main steps (which, however, vary depending on the project requirements and company preferences).
Step 1: Identify talent gaps
You have your project specifications ready. You know exactly how your project should work. Now you need to identify skill gaps. By the way, you don’t have to be an expert to know what kind of specialist you need. Call the vendor you want to work with and tell them your requirements. Together with the appropriate software engineers, they will suggest you a technology stack suitable for your project.
If you already know who you need or have done an in-depth analysis to identify talent shortages, simply provide this information to your vendor.
Companies, like situations, vary greatly — you may need an entire team of developers to expand your company, or you may need a few engineers to expand an existing team of developers.
You can also write job descriptions, and interview candidates to select those who meet your requirements.
Step 2. Onboarding and work integration
Once the terms of contracts and NDAs have been agreed upon, the new team members will be integrated into your company. Introduce them to your team, provide training if necessary, introduce them to technical concepts, and immerse them in the work environment.
Step 3. Manage the process
The last stage will last as long as you work with the expanded team. Ongoing training and analysis of the value your new team brings to your project will help you motivate your employees and demonstrate whether your investment is worth it. Don’t forget about the management and roles that were defined from the beginning.
Many companies manage the expanded staff themselves, but there are cases where in-house or external project managers are hired. This is necessary for large teams that are not easy to manage.
When Is It Better to Use The IT Augmentation Model?
The popularity of IT augmentation services is huge. However, before you join all those successful companies that benefit from software outsourcing, determine if IT augmentation is really the best option for you.
1. You have an in-house team but want to expand it
One of the amazing benefits of the augmentation model is that it allows you to reduce costs. Whenever you feel it is time to create another department of software engineers or scale an existing team — outsourcing is a great option. You do not need to provide office space or pay for insurance or other benefits. With the augmentation model, many of these things are not needed.
2. You need specialists with a specific set of technical skills
There are many software development companies in the world. Can you imagine how huge the global talent pool is? If you need a developer who specializes in a specific technology, you will definitely find him.
3. You need flexibility
With an in-house approach, you can’t hire an engineer for a single task or a single day, but with a roster model, you can easily rotate your team members as the project demands.
4. You don’t have skilled developers in your area.
You may have the desire and the money to build a larger in-house team, but you may have trouble hiring engineers who are proficient in certain programming languages. If this is you, your best bet is to find an outsourcing or software development team augmentation company to fill the talent gap you need.
Outstaffing and Outsourcing: What Is the Difference?
Do you want to achieve the best possible results in your activities? Then all work should be entrusted only to high-class professionals. However, many companies do not have the financial ability to increase their staff and hire specialists to periodically solve even complex problems. In addition to IT staff augmentation, you should understand other forms of cooperation with specialists.
If you are interested in the smooth operation of even very complex equipment, mastering new technologies, and at the same time want to save money on hiring qualified personnel, use the opportunities of outsourcing.
Outsourcing assumes that the company transfers the execution of certain tasks, and work to third-party performers, including employees of another organization.
Outstaffing is one of the methods of personnel management. At the same time, the customer of the service does not have to waste time directly monitoring the work process.
Outstaffing is characterized by the presence of a certain business process. And its implementation is completely entrusted to a third-party company under the terms of a prepared agreement.
Outsourcing of employees and business processes is distinguished. In the first case, the customer of the service transfers some work to a third-party organization for execution. For example, you can hire a programmer to update software or a tester, etc.
In the case of business process outsourcing, the employer chooses a third-party execution of not a one-time operation, but the entire functionality of a certain department. For example, a company does not simply invite a third-party accountant to close the balance sheet once but completely transfers accounting and often personnel records to an external company. And such cooperation often lasts for years.
Conclusion
Increasing the IT staff with staff augmentation services is a flexible and effective solution for businesses that want to quickly scale their team without unnecessary costs and risks. This model opens up more opportunities for businesses to smoothly adapt to changing market conditions, accelerate development, and attract highly specialized specialists at the right time. Thanks to the services of staff augmentation, companies can focus on the development and implementation of innovations. If you are interested in such a service, we recommend paying attention to N-iX.
