What is Staff Augmentation?
This is a short-term outsourcing model, where you access resources to fill out the temporary gap in your resources.
For example, while working on a project, if you face a resource crunch, you can overcome it with staff augmentation. For this purpose, you will evaluate the existing resources, identify the skills needed and accordingly scale the resources.
| Pros | Cons |
| If you get competent staff for the project, they will start the work immediately and direct the project along the right path. | When you need relevant developers with niche knowledge, the staff augmentation may not work. |
| You can choose to hire the staff with the skills that you need to move ahead with the project. | In case your team is working on long-term projects, you should hire regular staff. Staff augmentation can increase project costs. |
| You can scale the resources at your will. If you don’t need extra resources, you can take them off the project. | You will be dependent on external organizations to help find the right resources for your requirements. |
| You can use staff augmentation to determine the full-time resources. If they are working well with your company, you can go full-time with them. |
What is a Dedicated Developers Team?
This is a partnership model where the client (the company developing the mobile application) and the developer’s team (the mobile or web app development company) join hands to deliver the software solution. This is a long-term collaboration model where the cost of hiring and timelines are fixed for the particular project.
In this model, the client company pays for the services availed without worrying about HR, tax, and admin costs. The team members are specially selected per the project’s skills and requirements.
| Pros | Cons |
| It is a cost-effective option as you pay for the services you avail. Additionally, you pay as per the hourly rates of the country. | If you outsource to offshore or nearshore companies that speak a different language and have a distinct culture, you might face issues. |
| You gain access to the skills that are needed to improve the mobile/web app development process. | If they don’t have a smooth process to manage the data and keep up with the security requirements, you will notice data breaches. This can lead to trust issues. |
| The turnaround time concerning app development and launch is reduced with dedicated teams. They work on your projects and handle them. | The team will operate in a time zone different from the others. As a result, it can lead to issues with communication and collaboration. |
| The increased flexibility that comes with the dedicated teams allows you to handle small to large and complex projects. You can scale up or down the team to suit your project needs. |
In-depth Comparison of Various Factors
We have seen both staff augmentation and dedicated teamwork. Let’s take an in-depth look into the differences between the two engagement models considering different factors.
1. Cost
| Staff Augmentation | Dedicated Developer’s Team |
| You will be hiring the resources per the project’s needs. When you need more resources, you will seek help from agencies to find people with the skills. You need to pay the hourly rates plus the commission to the agency. | You hire a dedicated team that works on the particular project. You will be fixing the rates and hours before starting the project. |
The Winner + Reason: The rates are fixed when hiring dedicated teams, which means you spend less than staff augmentation. Hiring a dedicated team is cost-effective.
2. Hiring Efforts
| Staff Augmentation | Dedicated Developer’s Team |
| You will outsource the hiring efforts to the staff augmentation agencies. However, you will be spending on the commission per hire and other recruitment costs | You will be recruiting the team or company with the right team. However, the recruitment efforts are one-time. The team would be responsible for adding the required members. |
The Winner + Reason: The dedicated developer’s team is a winner in this case, as the recruitment efforts and costs are effective. You don’t spend a lot of time or money on hiring extra hands.
3. Communication and Collaboration
| Staff Augmentation | Dedicated Developer’s Team |
| As the staff will be working in-house or onsite, you will not face communication issues. The in-house team will be managing them. As a result, collaboration is effective | You may be working with a remote team on another continent. At such a time, communication, language and cultural barriers play a critical role in collaboration. You may face issues if there isn’t a project manager manning the team’s project. |
The Winner + Reason: Staff augmentation is best suited for proper collaboration and seamless partnership. However, if you have a project manager or a single point of contact, you may find that the dedicated development team can help you.
4. Accessibility
| Staff Augmentation | Dedicated Developer’s Team |
| You gain easy access to the skills needed to develop the project. As the name suggests, you can augment the staff as per the requirements | The company with whom you have entered the contract to work will need to access the resources needed for the project. You will work with a dedicated team that comprises the resources already onboard |
The Winner + Reason: In both cases, you do have access to new resources. However, there is more accessibility with staff augmentation as it has more to do with individual developer hiring.
5. Flexibility
| Staff Augmentation | Dedicated Developer’s Team |
| When you need skills or resources to man a particular task, you must begin hiring. This may not be a flexible or cost-effective approach for large-scale projects | The dedicated developers can handle multiple things in the projects with ease. They are pretty flexible with the needs of the project. They can complete all types of projects, including large-scale ones |
The Winner + Reason: Dedicated developer team is more flexible and can help you handle multiple project types and purposes. Staff augmentation doesn’t offer the same level of flexibility.
6. Management
| Staff Augmentation | Dedicated Developer’s Team |
| The in-house teams will need to manage the project. As a result, the in-house team focuses on multiple things, including delegation and ensuring the resources have work. | The project manager at the dedicated developer team’s company will communicate between the client and the team. They will be responsible for ensuring the quality and timeline requirements are met. |
The Winner + Reason: The client’s resources are freed up to focus on their work with the dedicated team hiring. However, staff augmentation will need the in-house team to collaborate. As a result, dedicated hiring is a good way to handle projects.
7. Visibility
| Staff Augmentation | Dedicated Developer’s Team |
| You will recruit the resources, and the in-house team will manage the project. | The development company is responsible for hiring new people for the project and managing the project. |
The Winner + Reason: You gain better visibility into the project when you incorporate staff augmentation. In the case of a dedicated developer’s team, you will need a proper process and a transparent methodology that will give you better control and visibility into the development.
8. Onboarding
| Staff Augmentation | Dedicated Developer’s Team |
| Every staff or recruit added to the project is onboarded separately. This can increase the pressure on the in-house teams. It will mean continuous onboarding. | The client team will onboard the dedicated developer team once. After that, the dedicated development team will be responsible for onboarding the newer recruits to the project. |
The Winner + Reason: Dedicated developers team is a winner in this case. It is a one-time onboarding; after that, the in-house team will not be responsible for the work, thus saving a lot of time.
9. Skills
| Staff Augmentation | Dedicated Developer’s Team |
| You can recruit new people according to your skills. So, you don’t need to wait around to get new skills for your project. | You will depend on the development company to hire new resources for the skills required. They may hire new ones or use people from other projects. This could be a complex process. |
The Winner + Reason: Skill accessibility is higher and better with staff augmentation as you have an idea of which skills to add and how.
Conclusion
The engagement model is crucial in ensuring the project’s success. The model you choose should fit your project needs, budget, and expected outcomes. Staff augmentation works when you have an in-house team and want to support them with the necessary resources and capabilities.
However, you can opt for dedicated hiring if you don’t have an in-house team and need help with your technology requirements. You can partner with a software development company that can help enhance the user’s experience and offer you control of the project.
Depending on what works best for you, you can go with nearshore or offshore outsourcing. Best Remote Team helps you with recruiting and staffing needs. We can help you with staff augmentation and hiring dedicated teams for your needs.
If you need help or want to partner with a company, connect with our hiring experts by filling out the form.
