Scale up your team with staff augmentation services

Staff augmentation is a software development outsourcing strategy that allows companies to extend their in-house teams by hiring external developers and expert workers on a temporary basis.

Staff shortages are commonplace in today’s IT industry. The demand for qualified software developers increases day by day, exacerbated by the challenges of the global pandemic.

Many companies struggle to find experts, especially in niche domains, with the skills and experience required to complete projects on time and within budget.

Staff augmentation is the software development market’s response to these common issues. It allows companies to benefit from both worlds: the advantages of software development outsourcing and the convenience of having an in-house team.

Staff augmentation cuts project costs related to recruitment, payroll, and implementation. It also offers great scalability, as contracts can be commenced or terminated conveniently, as required.

With staff augmentation services, companies can quickly hire developers for a specific project, in accordance with their requirements.

In that way, they expand their existing in-house teams with experienced experts. The specialists become part of the in-house team for a period of time specified in the contract.

Staff augmentation allows companies to integrate external specialists into their in-house teams. IT outsourcing, on the other hand, involves transferring a business process or a project to an external subcontractor.

Staff augmentation focuses solely on filling specific skill gaps organizations may find in their in-house project team. Staff hired as part of this model become the hiring organization’s employees, even though they work on a temporary contract.

This means that the hiring company is responsible for project management and can decide how it wants to achieve project goals.

In contrast, IT outsourcing focuses on taking over the responsibility for the project, or some of its aspects, from the external company. As such, the outsourcing company is accountable for project management, delivery and results.

Staff augmentation is a good solution for companies who want to remain in control of the project. They manage the team, the project scope, and the backlog in full.

Such organizations typically have strong in-house teams and management capacity. It is up to them to decide how to best utilize the developers’ time.

IT outsourcing, on the other hand, is a better option for companies who want to take care of other aspects of the business or the bigger picture while a project is being delivered by an external company.

It’s a good solution for organizations in which an IT team already works on a project at full capacity or when internal management is reduced.

An effective IT staff augmentation hiring process will be much shorter than full-scale recruitment. Typically, the process consists of the following stages:

Identifying requirements

The hiring company should identify their requirements by preparing detailed briefs and job descriptions for the roles they would like to fill.

Market research

The IT staff augmentation service provider verifies the available market resources against the criteria specified in the job description. Pre-selected CVs are scored for relevance and submitted to the hiring company for further verification.

Skill verification

The hiring company selects a number of CVs from the pool provided by the staff augmentation service provider and carries out test assignments with the selected candidates.

Feedback on the tests and interviews

The hiring company provides feedback on the tests. Selected candidates are invited for an interview.

Decision

Following the interviews with selected candidates, the company decides who they want to hire.

Signing the contract

Both the hiring company and the staff augmentation service provider negotiate contract terms and the length of cooperation. The service provider prepares the contract for signature.

Once the contract is signed with the Staff augmentation service provider, the hiring company can proceed with onboarding the new team member.

Staff augmentation services are perfect for businesses that want to scale their teams quickly, on an ad hoc basis. It’s an effective way to respond to workload spikes or staff shortages while remaining flexible.

This model allows businesses to benefit from external talent for a short period of time when they do not have the resources to offer permanent employment contracts.

In addition, staff augmentation services can help businesses in the following scenarios:

• When they lack talent in-house: businesses increasingly struggle with finding and hiring developers with skills critical for project delivery. Staff augmentation facilitates access to the global talent pool of experts in diverse development fields.
• When they look for cost savings: staff augmentation cuts costs stemming from recruitment and payroll, as well as project management and implementation.
• When they a need new, temporary workforce: staff augmentation facilitates hiring for a limited time period (for both short-term or long-term) when businesses launch new projects. This employment model offers great flexibility and scalability.
• When they look for specific, niche expertise: Staff augmentation services are a great solution for companies who struggle with finding talent in a specific programming language or niche development domain.
• When they need additional testing capabilities: dedicated Q&A testers can help solve issues and ensure the best product quality before releasing a new product.