Difference Between Outsourcing and a Dedicated Software Development Team
It’s important to understand the difference between outsourcing and hiring a dedicated team. This will help you plan the exact nature of the offshore service you need. We will discuss the definitions, advantages, and requirements for both agendas.
| Outsource Software Development | Hire Dedicated Software Development Team |
| When you partner with another agency to gain help with your software development requirements. | When you hire a team on the agency’s payroll to help you with the project’s requirements. |
| They are responsible for other projects as well. They will not focus on your project alone. | They are dedicated to your project. They will be retained for your project. As the project finishes, they will take over another dedicated client. |
| You can change the team whenever you wish to. | A dedicated team is decided. You cannot change the team. |
| You don’t get a chance to select the team | You can always scan through the resumes and pick the resources you need |
| This is a scalable model; however, the resources will be internal and most likely chosen by the software company. | This model offers scalability – you can increase the number of resources as your need increases. |
| You can appoint a project manager or an in-house team to handle the needs. | You will need a dedicated resource from your side to manage the requirements. |
Benefits of Hiring a Dedicated Software Development Team
There are reasons why you should opt for a dedicated team when partnering with a software development company. Let’s discuss the benefits of this model and how it can help accelerate the work.
- Cost-effective: If you hire the team in-house, you will need to spend on the resources and hiring. You would need the infrastructure as well to carry out the operations. If you have a dedicated team, you can hire resources of your choice while keeping them on the agency’s payroll. Secondly, it will be a lot cheaper, as you will pay only for the services you use.
- Accelerates Development: You can hire the right team and let them act on the project. This will eventually accelerate the launch as they are working on your project. Your dedicated team comprises experts in different segments, which can help you improve the launch time.
- Standard Communication: When you partner with a dedicated team, they will communicate the status to you in real-time. you can take the necessary actions to help you streamline the development processes.
- Focussed Approaches: When hiring a dedicated team, they tend to focus only on your project. As a result, you can stay focussed on your core jobs. This gives more time to improve productivity.
- Expertise in Tech Stacks: When hiring a dedicated team, you hire people with apt tech skills and mastery in development. This can help you identify a solution to all complex problems.
- Quality Solutions: You can rely on the solutions offered by the dedicated team, as they use high-performing tools and quality infrastructure.
A Step-by-step Guide to Hiring a Dedicated Software Development Team
By now, you must be clear on why you need a dedicated development team to work on your software application. Here is our step-by-step guide on how to hire the best software development team.
Step#1: Product Vision + Goals + Requirements
If you know what you want, planning your software development team becomes easier. You should know what you aim to develop. For example, if you are planning a productivity software, you should know the product’s purpose.
Similarly, identify why the users would use this product. Determine the use cases and target audience for the product.
When you narrow it down to requirements and a list of features, you know what experts you need to build the application.
It will also help you know what technologies they should know, and how adept they should be with the development processes.
Step#2: Market Research
Once you know your requirements, it is time to find the best-fit partner for your business application. Research is a key step in finding a suitable hire. It is akin to window shopping, where you will see the quality, the portfolio, and even the budget before finalizing the candidate.
Taking this step early can help you find the right tech partner. As you start researching, you will find newer points to consider.
Here are a few things you should check when researching:
The development company’s location. Are they nearshore or offshore?
What kind of projects have they developed in the past? What are their development style and process?
Do they have experience in your niche? Case studies of the projects they have developed
Security measures that they take to keep the data safe and build a thorough application
Step#3: List of Skills Needed
At this point, you are aware of the requirements and audience for your software project. It is essential to determine the skills you need for the project. It will help you find the right partner, and shortlist the most capable ones.
For example, if you have plans to implement AI in your business app solution, you need someone with knowledge of the technology and experience in offering solutions. If you are developing BigData solutions, you need someone with relational and non-relational database proficiency.
Step#4: Determine the Budget
Before you look for developers and connect with them, define the budget for the app development. It will guide you toward the right company to hire a dedicated development team.
For example, if you are short on your budget, you may not be able to hire someone who is fancy and high-priced. You may also need to go to markets with cheaper labor costs.
The budget will help you answer:
– What type of companies to choose?
– What is the maximum price you can say yes to?
– What type of service to choose?
Step#5: Shortlist the Team
Once you have researched and found a few companies. It is time to shortlist the companies. You should look for their experience, license, and other credentials when shortlisting.
It is important to check if they offer the tech stack or services that you need. This list will help you interview the developers/teams and complete the final hiring.
Step#6: Interview the Shortlisted Candidates
It is important to have a virtual or in-person (depending on the situation and location) meeting with the potential team. You need to know if they are capable of working with you. Ask the right questions to determine their ability.
- Methodology: Check what is their preferred methodology. Ask them how they attain successful development and deployment. For example, if they work with an agile methodology that delivers faster results, and it works for you, you can choose them.
- Technology Stack: We have already laid the premise for this by planning the requirements and defining the audience. If they are proficient with the tech stack you have strategized, you can go ahead with them.
- Testing Process: Every dedicated development team should have a QA engineer. They should offer complete testing solutions that help remove bugs, test quality, and assess performance. Check their testing methods, processes, and tools before you shortlist them.
- Communication Protocols: It is very important, especially when outsourcing, as you won’t have a direct connection with the software development team. Ask them how they communicate (means of communication- Slack, Email, or project management tool). Check how they maintain the process visibility. Know if they have a project manager who faces the client’s questions.
- Culture Fit: The communication, organizational structure, and working methods differ from country to country. As a result, it is important to determine a cultural fit and identify ways to merge the cultures before you can hire them. this is an important consideration, one that you can discuss during the in-person meeting.
- Time Zones: If you are operating in different time zones, you might want to discuss whether or not it works for both parties. You can determine if it will be advantageous for you or not.
- Price and Payment Terms: Make sure to involve the legal aspects during your conversation. Find out what is the total estimated price for development. Check the payment terms and legal concerns before you enter into a contract.
Step#7: Draw the Contract
Before you enter into execution mode, make sure you make a legal contract between both parties. You should define all the terms and conditions during this point. You can include the work scope, the requirements, the tech stack and other minute details in the contract.
Make sure to mention the budget breakdown, payment terms, and legal aspects within the contract. Once both parties have signed the contract, you can move to the next step.
Step#8: Determine the KPIs
It is important for you to measure the work of your dedicated software development team. For this purpose, you can work together on identifying the KPIs that help measure productivity.
Ensure your KPIs help you realize if the development is achieved within the stipulated time. It should check for errors, timeline issues, and development problems as well.
Who is Part of the Dedicated Software Development Team?
When you are hiring a dedicated software development team for your business application, you should know all the members who will form the team.
1. Project Manager
They are responsible for seamless communication between the client and the team. They will ensure all the requirements are fulfilled and the client has complete visibility in the project.
2. UI/UX Designers
They will handle the interface design and experience of the application. They are responsible for the interactions, smooth movement and frictionless usage of the application.
3. DevOps Engineer
They will ensure that development and operations are integrated for a high-quality and tightly driven development environment.
4. Frontend Engineers
They will translate the UI/UX goals into a well-coded and highly interactive interface
5. Backend Engineers
They are responsible for the communication between the servers and client-facing application. The inputs move from the interface to the backend with the help of logic and code built by these engineers.
6. QA Team
The quality assessment executives and the testing team work on removing bugs, improving app quality, and enhancing the speed for better usability.
How to Manage the Dedicated Software Development Team?
It isn’t enough to build a strong team of developers and engineers. You need to manage them as well. Here are the top 3 tips that can help you set the best practices and manage them effortlessly.
1. A Single Project Management Tool
It is important for you to have a single project management tool for communication and managing the work. This will help collaborate faster and ensure better development.
The managers can schedule and assign tasks with ease. You can ensure improve remote working with this.
2. State the Goals
Make sure you state the goals and discuss the purpose of the app from the start. It will help the developer and the business align the development goals and business goals before creating the applications.
3. Define the Structure
This is important when implementing DevOps in your development. It will help manage the distribution of load properly. You can incorporate agile methodology easily.
Cost of Hiring a Dedicated Software Development Team
The average cost of hiring a dedicated software development team is $20 to $45 per team member*
The cost of hiring a team depends on certain 3 factors:
Developer Expertise: If you want senior or highly experienced developers, you may need to pay more. However, if you plan on developing an MVP, you don’t need very senior developers. As a result, the cost of hiring the team goes low.
Tech Stack: If you want an iOS developer on your team, the cost may be higher when compared to a Java developer. The tech stack plays a pivotal role in determining the software development team’s hiring cost.
Complexity: If you want an advanced app with AI features, you need to hire an expert team. This can cost you more than a team that works on basic app development.
Top 10 Tools to Manage Dedicated Software Development Team
Effective tools to handle the dedicated software development team:
- Slack
- Jira
- Trello
- Asana
- Basecamp
- Figma
- Invision
- Miro
- MicrosoftTeam
- GitHub
Conclusion
Hiring a dedicated software development team requires a lot of planning, research, and an effective approach. Make sure you incorporate all the points mentioned here when choosing the partner.
It will help you shortlist and identify a partner with the culture fit and can perfectly manage your development and operations.
Best Remote Teams has incorporated all these practices to vet the perfect team for your business needs. If you want to hire a dedicated resource, or team, connect with our specialists by filling out the contact us form.
