Reasons To Look for a Team Extension in 2022

What is an IT team extension?

Staff augmentation is a remote cooperation model that allows you to extend your in-house team with software engineers and specialists in other fields that work on your product full-time. Business owners usually hire an extended team to assist a core team with particular tasks. 

Team extension focuses on the development process from the very beginning, or also can be engaged for a particular period. Software team extension is a great way to get access to the rich talent pool and fill the gap in your in-house team.

For example, Intelvision IT specialists with vast experience in the key industries, and a high proficiency level will jump in to build, test, and refine a product that will create multiplying benefits for every business. Our team includes software developers (front-end, back-end, full-stack), QA engineers (manual and automation), project managers, business analysts, UI/UX designers, DevOps, and more.

Team extension VS dedicated team model

The potential project’s success depends on understanding the goals, committing to the project as one dedicated team, and choosing a suitable collaboration model. We have prepared a short guide that will help you to get the maximum out of your collaboration with an outsource software development company. 

Team extension and dedicated team are two popular engagement models. They are fundamentally different, and both deserve particular attention. 

The dedicated team model implies the hiring process of fully-equipped specialists including software engineers, QA engineer, business analyst, project manager, etc. It is efficient for large, established companies, and complex long-lasting software development projects that need collecting of requirements, product testing, and launch processes. The dedicated team approach means very flexible terms. The lack of flexibility is a 100% guarantee of the inability to implement new ideas in an industry that is as fast-paced as technology. 

The client and the vendor agree on a fixed monthly payment for the entire team—no matter how many hours a dedicated team puts in, the monthly cost is always the same. You do not have to cover administrative costs, yearly bonuses, sick leaves, or vacations too. 

A dedicated development team model will not work if you have a strictly limited budget and a tight deadline. Choose another format of cooperation if your project is very small or short-term. Remember that to fully benefit from a dedicated development team model, you also need to have solid experience in professional project management—otherwise, the development company will only provide a workforce. 

The team extension model is a perfect option to carry out non-core tasks, fill existing skill gaps, scale-up an in-house team to meet strict deadlines, and work on backlogged tasks. Team extension involves the American way of doing business and the Swiss team management approach. 

By choosing this form of cooperation, clients can focus on their core business tasks and processes instead of dealing with a huge project with a need for a helping hand. The biggest advantage of choosing team expansion is keeping control over the whole team, better and direct communication between you, your employees, and the team extension model. As a result, that provides a great team spirit and good teamwork in the client’s organization.

There are a few extended software development team models for the modern customers to choose from: developers who operate on the client’s premises, and remote teams of developers. 

In most cases, the cost of a team extension or dedicated team model will be the same. However, it should not be the main reason while deciding which option is better for the project.

Think about your company’s mission, culture, team attitude, and internal company structures. Are you and your potential partner using similar services and frameworks? Finally, could new members work remotely as efficiently as your team works in the office?

How does team extension work

You can hire, and manage remote software developers with the right set of hard and soft skills directly at Intelvision. With our team extension services, you can take an active part in all of the processes, from interviewing the candidates to managing your software development team.

Intelvision provides extended team members in Ukraine with all corporate perks and benefits—from a comfortable office with the necessary equipment to all-round support.

When starting a new project, we follow a few simple steps. 

1. Gathering requirements and info

Each company needs developers with specific skills—this is why it’s critical for us to understand a project and determine what skills a client needs to achieve his goals. Intelvision’s experts will research a business and the niche, and discuss the role descriptions. 

2. Candidate interviewing

Together we check whether our IT specialists fit the company’s culture and the client’s requirements that go beyond technical skills. The client will be able to interview candidates and decide if they are a fit for a team extension collaboration. 

3. Initiating the project

The client will be able to proceed with managing the candidates he’s previously chosen while we will be taking care of our Technical and non-Tech IT specialists’ performance, as well as their well-being, and talent retention.

Wanna keep an eye on the critical project aspects while we are setting you on a trajectory for success, using just the right tools, and the right developers to wield them? Let’s connect and talk about your project and mission.

Reasons To Look for a Team Extension

There are different reasons why the team extension model might be the perfect choice for your software product. This form works best for: 

• Long-Term Cooperation. The extension team works under the same rules as your team. 
• Getting more for less budget. Development companies such as Intelvision build balanced Agile teams that reach your goals in the fastest way for a guaranteed price, which protects you from running over the budget. 
• Ongoing Bug Fixes and Support. Our specialists will choose the best-suited technologies and provide new features for your product. 

One of the most common reasons to choose the team extension model is also a quality assurance expertise. Intelvision’s IT specialists lower your risk of releasing an immature digital product and protect you against additional expenses.

Advantages of the team extension model

We have already described some of the advantages of the staff augmentation collaboration model in the article above. Still unsure if you need to enhance the strengths and skills of your in-house specialists? These are some of the benefits you can get if you start working with our software development team.

1. Niche Skills

Even if you have a clear project roadmap and a strong core team, an extra top-notch talent pool will help you reach your business goals faster. For a couple of years, Intelvision has helped companies augment their development teams with top IT specialists with diverse skill sets from Eastern Europe. Our Middle+ level employees with years of experience in new technologies and domains will help you to boost a project by keeping to the planned budget and delivering a product without delays.

2. Cost-Effectiveness and Flexibility of Development Teams

Team extension offers access to experienced, and expert roles. As a result, you will get a quality-rich, cost-effective team extension model service. Future scaling of extended development teams can be easily done as per changing business requirements.

3. Better growth opportunities

If your in-house development team works on current projects, you can forward your new projects to the extended team.

How to hire the right IT team extension

Besides the technical experience, you must choose the right software development partner. Discover our step-by-step method that will help you to check whether IT specialists have the right expertise and whether they will easily integrate into our in-house team. 

Step 1: Check the culture fit of potential team members

Since team extension targets a unique project, the chosen developer will be dedicating their full attention to creating your solution, without switching between different projects. You will be working side-by-side for several months or even years, so cultural fit is a must here. A team member who doesn’t share your values and product mission will never be effective.

Step 2: Define project goals and requirements

According to Officevibe, only 40% of employees are aware of their software development project goals and strategy. Convey to the team the values, mission, and clear vision of your business. This will give people a sense of belonging, and increase your extended and in-house team’s efficiency.

Step 3: Establish methods of controlling the team’s work

Find also a way to measure the speed and effectiveness of your software development team. This is especially important if the team extension is situated in another office. You should be ready to manage the remote flow of technical improvement, as well as different types of strategic and tactical decision-making. You will also have full control over the development process, and even performance evaluation. 

Start by determining the roles in your team to avoid the ambiguity that could hamper productivity. Set milestones for your software development project and create an assessment plan for each new team member. Use a smart approach to setting goals and providing feedback to your new team members. Research shows that feedback reduces stress, builds trust in the team, and helps to deliver projects at a high level.

Step 4: Onboard and integrate new developers into your team 

Onboarding impacts productivity and reduces churn. According to Glassdoor, onboarding programs in the companies increase new software developers’ retention by 82% and their productivity by more than 70%.

Be patient, and introduce new team members to your company culture, management style, and way of communicating. Share the info about the tools you will be using during the project. 

To achieve the best results with team extension, look for software development companies that have been operating in the IT market for more than four years. Many of them offer team extension services (as well as a dedicated software development team), and while the service usually differs slightly from company to company, you will surely find what you need. 

Tip: you can also check the company reviews on Clutch, Trustpilot, Techreviewer, DOU, and Upwork. Building long-term relations with clients’ needs at the forefront is Intelvision’s primary goal. We listen to requirements and adjust to the client’s mindset. Each project is the most important for us. We solve any problem with maximum dedication, whether it is a website for a mega-corporation or a landing page for a promising startup.

Tips on how to integrate the team extension model into your company

The core metric of every successful team extension integration can be summarized in one concept: trust. It is an integral part of every cooperation model that translates to results and value for a business.

New team members should be people that you can trust. You need to know exactly who you’re working with and communicate with your extended team on a one-on-one basis. You should also be provided a PM to coordinate with your extended software developers and other specialists.

Your extended team members should also be fluent in frameworks and daily communication. They should be just like your in-house staff: able to suggest software solutions, make arguments for their decisions, and be able to switch from business language to technical terms. This means each software developer must also be proficient in English—a source of pride for us at Intelvision.

Moving Forward

If you’re investing in a dedicated development team or the extended team collaboration model, bring clarity to every team member and process point to avoid confusion. Who owns each component? How does change happen? Keep your new software developers and the in-house team moving in the right direction. 

Grow your team and expand your software development capabilities with a reliable tech partner by your side that communicates openly (even when he has bad news), and always looks for ways to improve.