Dedicated Teams: Everything You Need To Know

What is a Dedicated Team Model

Modern business has long been preparing for the transition from internal to external development. The pandemic has only accelerated the development of outsourcing services, forcing many businesses to rethink their development prospects and launch the necessary changes as soon as possible.

The project’s size, budget, functionality, timing, and number of improvements affect the choice of financial/cooperation model. There are different payment models in the IT development market. The most popular ones include the Fixed Price, Time and Material, and Dedicated Team model. The difference lies in the work scenarios between the customer and the contractor.

Dedicated development teams are suitable for clients with large projects lasting three months or longer. In this case, the customer himself monitors the progress of work and is responsible for the project. He needs to provide developers with tasks and regularly monitor their progress, intervening in the process, and correcting if necessary.

Depending on the complexity of the task or project, the outsourced dedicated development team may have a different structure. In addition, in the event of a change in the timing or wishes of the customer, the dedicated software development team structure can be scaled by adding or removing certain tech talent. Dedicated teams may include:

• A Project Manager is an administrator who builds effective communication between a customer and a development team. The main load of project managers is at the start of the development stage. After that, administrative functions can be transferred to the outsourcing software development team leader.
• A Team Lead is also a specialist responsible for administrative work. However, his main area of responsibility is not external communication, but the management of a team of dedicated developers.
• A Back-end developer is responsible for writing the code and creating the server side of the software. He is fully involved in the specific project from the stage of drafting the terms of reference to the final release.
• A Front-end developer is the second key developer responsible for creating custom parts of digital services.
• An iOS and Android developer is involved when a software solution needs to be adapted to iOS and Android mobile operating systems.
• The main task of UX/UI designers and web designers is to create user and functional designs of the graphical interface in the early stages of project development. The load of the designer usually does not exceed 50% of the time allocated for the entire project.
• A QA (quality assurance) engineer is also a part-time specialist who tests the quality of a digital service in the second half of the software development cycle.
• A copywriter or technical writer is responsible for filling the project with content and preparing technical documentation. Like a designer, this specialist is not included in the development team, but his project load can range from 50% to 100% of the total development cycle time.
• DevOps engineers lead several projects at once and are members of most of the dedicated software teams. His main responsibility is to ensure security, data backup, and uninterrupted operation of servers.

How Does the Dedicated Team Model Work

The main goal of the Dedicated Team model is to quickly hire a remote team that will fill the gap in the necessary knowledge and work. It allows either to completely replace the development staff or to establish joint work with the internal team.

These are typically dedicated teams engagement steps:

• Requirements gathering: the contractor studies the requirements for project success and preferences for the workflow organization.
• Search and selection of IT specialists: based on the project requirements, the contractor experienced specialists who own the necessary technologies are selected.
• Members’ onboarding and adaptation: at this stage, the contractor chooses the responsible persons, preferred communication channels, and management tools. In some cases, the team leader first dives into the project, and additional team members gradually join later. 
• Project reporting: the contractor provides the client with the necessary reports based on the hours spent on development as well as the achieved results.

The Dedicated Team Advantages for Your Project

If you’re looking to manage a software development team, a dedicated team model can make the process much smoother. A dedicated software development company manages the process and can find you  IT professionals way faster than you could on your own.

We’ve highlighted the main advantages of the Dedicated Team model:

• Estimated, fixed budget.
• Suitable for large/medium-sized projects and long-term projects.
• Any volume of tasks is possible, they do not need to be coordinated with the contractor.
• Since the project’s scope is not strictly defined, the requests can be changed at any time.
• Full control over team management.
• Dedicated team members have a deep understanding of the client’s project and business goals.
• Constant communication with the team is possible through daily communication using web tools such as Skype, Asana, Trello, Basecamp, and more.

A dedicated team model is a holistic and business-oriented approach. As the name suggests, the team is dedicated to one client and has one set of business objectives in mind—your business objectives. Moreover, a dedicated team approach is often more time-efficient compared to hiring an in-house team locally. It usually takes less time for a vendor to put together a cross-functional team using their resources than for a company to recruit, onboard, and train a full-on client’s team.

Yeah, THAT TOO… Dedicated Team Disadvantages and Pitfalls

Attractive and effective in many cases, dedicated teams have their cons and can cause some issues as well. Let’s have a closer look at it:

• The solution isn’t effective for short-term projects.
• All risks (including the volume of tasks for developers and time frames) the client takes on.
• If the project is unfinished or there is no clear task plan, there will be downtime paid by the customer.
• You’ll need full-time specialists who control developers and other tech/non-tech specialists.

Dedicated teams are mostly suitable for large and long-term projects, with an approved task plan for the next month. In addition to developers, such projects also require a full-time analyst who will constantly provide the team with work. Intelvision will help you select dedicated team members to reach your software development goals, achieve great profit, and become a market leader in your niche. Together with Intelvision, you can work on the dedicated team model with maximum efficiency.

Reasons Why You Might Need a Dedicated Development Team

Even though some companies choose to work with freelancers or in-house specialists, the future belongs to dedicated application development teams. Here are the key reasons why you should try a DT model for your next application or website.

1. You have a plan in mind to grow and expand quickly.
2. You work on large projects. In this case, your internal team will work on more important, business-oriented/strategic tasks, while the dedicated development team performs additional work.
3. Your in-house team does not have the relevant experience and expertise to embark on the project.
4. You need a great deal of flexibility. 
5. You need comprehensive after-release support and maintenance (adding new features, updating the existing ones, and ensuring a failure-free operation). 

If you are still in two minds about whether you need dedicated development team services, contact Intelvision for a free consultation. You will get full attention to your project, frequent and transparent communication via several channels, the ability to track the development process in real-time, full control over the staffing process, easy scalability, after-release support, and other benefits.

How to Run a Dedicated Team Model to Your Advantage

Everyone wants to have a successful software development team. However, building a dream team requires planning and time. We’ve compiled the important criteria to consider when choosing the perfect dedicated software development team.

First of all, you need to have a clear idea of what you are going to develop. Determine the solution architecture, the features to be included, and the time frame needed to build the high-quality product. Once you have determined the specifications and project scope, you can start looking for a team to bring the project to life.

First of all, let’s discuss some important points that are usually overlooked:

• Consider IT specialists’ personalities, not just their tech skills.
• Build a diverse team, hiring both men and women whenever possible.
• Trust the programming experience of your team.
• Provide the tools your team will need.
• Create a reasonable work schedule.

Create a plan for your dedicated software development team

As we mentioned earlier, you need a clear plan. It will determine which professionals you will need, how many, and what hard and soft skills are required. 

Consider common issues with remote teams

To start, project managers need to understand the factors that can make remote dedicated software development teams work particularly challenging. The problems in remote work include:

• Lack of personal control.
• Lack of access to information.
• Social isolation.
• Distractions at home.

However, most well-established organizations are already made up of remote employees. While remote work can be challenging, there are also relatively quick and inexpensive things managers can do to make dedicated development teams highly productive.

Schedule regular online meetings

Managers who have succeeded in their remote leadership efforts are moving towards more frequent use of video conferencing to establish face-to-face interaction, which is currently lacking in the business environment and development process.

Take advantage of technology 

Digital tools like Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Trello, Jira, and others that most of you already use daily provide simple platforms for effective communication and regular checks.

Set KPIs for team members and the project as a whole

Development processes become more efficient when managers set expectations and indicators that show how the work of team members and the project as a whole is effective. KPIs help you understand how current results are in line with global business needs, what are the pain/weak points and how best to eliminate them. There are no universal KPI templates, they are individual for each employee.

For example, Google has an internal performance evaluation system called OKR (Objectives and Key Results). Each employee sets a goal every quarter and defines three results that he hopes to achieve. At the end of the quarter, each result is scored from 0 to 1. The expected result is 0.6–0.7. If the employee received 1, then the task was too easy for him. The result 0.6–0.7 is an indicator that a person thought big and set the so-called moonshot goal.

In software development, specific metrics are divided into two types:

• those that show the profitability of the implemented solution;
• those that show how popular this solution is and how much it is possible to keep the target audience.

Focus on visible results, not activities 

This is widely recognized as the best practice for increasing employee engagement and empowerment. Clearly defining goals and outcomes, and then allowing employees (who have the training and resources to execute) to develop an execution plan increases creativity and accountability.

Be flexible

The manager should be aware of the unique circumstances of each employee. Knowing that it won’t be perfect, anyway, is the new normal.

Each of the above tips falls into the category of simple, but not easy. Each of them requires time, attention, and consistency. However, your team will thank you and the organization will only benefit if you manage to follow these recommendations.

In a Nutshell

We offer you an opportunity to get down to development projects without wasting time and money on looking for human resources by providing you with a dedicated development team of highly skilled professionals such as developers, designers, and engineers exactly for your needs that will work on your projects exclusively.

Intelvision always strives to build long-term mutually beneficial partnerships with customers. Wide experience has proven that dedicated teams allow you to achieve win-win cooperation. Our mission is to prove that the external team is not inferior to the in-house employees and can be loyal and receptive to your corporate culture. 

SAY “YES” TO:

✅ The easily scalable dedicated development team working only for you

✅ The possibility to fully control teamwork and project budget

✅ Communication process transparency

✅ High level of project security control and confidentiality

✅ No expenses related to HR processes such as hiring social benefits, bonuses, etc.

SAY “NO” TO:

❌ Unpredictable additional costs

❌ Long and complicated communication chains

❌ Lack of control over the team’s work

❌ Staffing risks and problems

EMPLOYEE LEVELS

Non-tech and tech experts of the required level of expertise and in the required quantity will work only on your projects. In accordance with the experience and skills of our employees, we divide them into three groups:

• Junior Specialist up to 3 years of experience.
• Mid-level Specialist over 3 years of experience.
• Senior Specialist over 5 years of experience.

If you need a team of highly skilled IT specialists, just fill in the form and briefly tell us about your project to hire a dedicated development team. Our specialists will contact you within a day. To receive more detailed information about the dedicated team model, its pros and cons, and the work process, you can read one of our previous posts.