A Dedicated Development Team: A Winning Approach to Outsourcing

DevCom — Dedicated Software Engineers

Every growing enterprise or a startup sooner or later have to decide between hiring a dedicated team of developers or extending an in-house one. In this overview, we will explain when it’s more reasonable to go with dedicated development, do’s and don’ts, how the offshore team works, benefits for this approach and tips how to set up effective remote development.

A dedicated or a fixed-price contract?

There are two ways to work with an offshore software development agency: a dedicated or a fixed-price contract. Much depends on the type of your business model, goals and the purpose.

The fixed-cost contract provides standard technologies and detailed software specifications for a fixed price, means that you have all the requirements defined before starting the work.

The dedicated developer contract allows select IT professionals to join their in-house crew for an extended period of time. Therefore, the total cost of the project will depend on the tasks assigned.

Let’s try thinking of a dedicated model as not fixed price contract but outstaff team, that is a part of the client’s company at a time. Client hires already formed a qualified team of IT professionals (Developers, PMs, QAs, Designers, Analysts) that will concentrate only on his business tasks and goals, share client’s company vision.

The dedicated model has a transparent pricing system: every month the client pays a fixed sum of money, that depends on the size and composition of the team, their experience, skills, and level. The total cost of the project depends on the scope of work and it’s duration.

When do you need services of the dedicated development?

• When it is a long term project that needs continuous updates and improvements.
• When internal developers have no time to carry out the project or have no required expertise in specific areas.
• When the company is on a tight budget and is not cost effective paying high local salaries.
• When the company doesn’t want to waste time on employee hiring and personnel management.

Practice shows that the dedicated teams are useful for complex long-term projects (6 months or longer).

Bezos Rule Still Holds True

The idea of a “two-pizza team” a phrase used byJeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and it’s become something of a mantra in the IT world: If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large. According to Bezos’s two-pizza rule, a growth team should be 4–10 teammates.

There are three priority components of a successful dedicated “Pizza Team”:

1. Developers.
2. Designer (UI/UX).
3. QA.

Optional:

1. Project manager.
2. Product manager/owner.

If applicable:

1. Industry Expertise.
2. Senior Architect.

Dedicated Development Stages:

1. The client sends the inquiry.
2. Provider analyzes need.
3. They conduct initial interview.
4. The client specifies the number and skill sets of potential employees.
5. Provider suggests hiring dedicated IT experts with the appropriate knowledge and potential.
6. Client assign resources and project.
7. The teamwork on client’s assignments during regular hours — project design, development, testing stages.
8. Regular work updates.
9. Clients feedback.
10. Release.

Ready to start with dedicated developers?

If you are still struggling with the challenges of choosing a Dedicated or Time & Material model, the DevCom Customer Success Team will be happy to give you a hand. Just contact us at welcome@devcom.com and we will share our experience.

This post was originally published on DevCom company tech blog, on April 10th, 2019 by Halyna Vilchynska, Marketing Manager.

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Author: Halyna Vilchynska — Marketing Lead at DevCom.

Originally published at DevCom Blog.