What is Team augmentation? The Smart Way to Scale Software Development Teams

Software development teams face some big challenges, mainly when it comes to hiring in order to keep up with the demands of maintaining code whilst rapidly deploying new features in a fast-paced market, or when they need talent for a short-term project. Team augmentation can make a huge difference by affording the right talent quickly and efficiently. It is a fast and adaptable way to scale the development efforts and keep the team agile and competitive, as opposed to recruiting for the position internally, which takes time and additional effort.

What is Team Augmentation?

Team augmentation is a flexible hiring approach that allows companies to scale up by bringing external developers for a specific project to work hand-in-hand with their internal team. This offers companies a more flexible and adaptable approach than traditional hiring. Instead of going through a long hiring process and having to hire skills permanently for a short-term project, a co-development studio provides experienced people with the skills needed for a specific project.

The Benefits of Team Augmentation

1. Scalability

   
   

Team augmentation allows companies to keep up with new technologies and respond quickly to ever-evolving needs without overworking employees. It helps them scale up by bringing the talent they need without going through a long time-consuming hiring process. By doing so, companies can accelerate timelines, reach the market faster, and be ahead of the competition. It can also help teams respond to shifting project needs, such as in e-commerce platforms that experience higher traffic during some periods.

2. Access to Specialised Skills

   
   

Team augmentation allows companies to provide specialised skills for specific project requirements when it’s impractical to hire these specialists full-time. Hiring them for projects could be challenging, especially when their expertise is needed only for a short period. Team augmentation helps them accommodate project needs, adjust their staffing, and access a global talent pool. It also keeps the work cost-effective as the company pays only for the expertise and duration required for the projects.

3. Increased Flexibility

   
   

Software development projects often take unexpected turns when it comes to workflow and talent needs. They evolve quickly based on the project phase and user feedback. Team augmentation offers businesses the agility to respond quickly and keep up with these changes.

4. Cost-effectiveness

   
   

Traditional hiring often needs higher upfront and ongoing expenses. It involves costly procedures like recruitment, training, and administrative processes. It also comes with longer-term expenses like benefits and taxes. Team augmentation offers a more budget-friendly solution since the augmented members are often project-ready, are only tied to project needs, and do not need extensive training. It helps companies, especially startups, keep up with trends at costs that do not break the bank. Indeed, staff augmentation helps businesses save up to 40% in hourly-rate costs compared to full-time hiring.

How Does Staff Augmentation Work?

Staff augmentation is highly strategic but less costly and time-consuming than traditional hiring. The first step in the process is assessing the needs of your business by defining the scope of work and budget to identify the skills gap and decide on the needed expertise and duration.

The next step is choosing the right partner. A good staff augmentation partner can help you with the first step. The key considerations you need to keep in mind when choosing your partner are industry expertise, diverse talent pool, good reputation, and flexibility. You need to choose the right provider who has a good and extensive network of professionals, good track records, and customisable contracts that support various project requirements.

Once you choose your partner, your next step is to shortlist and select the best candidates. The right partner can also make this step a lot easier and more concise by assessing and shortlisting candidates and selecting only the good fits. The last step is onboarding and integrating the augmented staff by giving them access to resources, familiarising them with your in-house team, and setting clear expectations for their roles.

Key Considerations When Choosing a Team Augmentation Partner

1. Experience and Expertise

   
   

Before deciding on your partner, you need to evaluate whether they have good expertise in technologies and tools, especially those used within your industry. Familiarity with those tools helps avoid delays and compliance risks.

2. Assessment and Recruitment Quality

   
   

Choosing a partner with good recruitment standards saves you a lot of time and resources for candidates’ evaluations and interviews. Before choosing a partner, take time to ask about their screening and recruitment processes, and make sure they have experienced people who are capable of assessing candidates culturally and technologically.

3. Cultural Fit

   
   

Cultural compatibility is one of the biggest concerns in team augmentation. Though technical skills are paramount, the success of team augmentation also relies on how well your in-house team collaborates with the augmented staff, which heavily depends on cultural alignment. You can assess cultural compatibility by checking your partner’s work ethics, communication style, workplace and country culture, and make sure they align with yours.

4. Communication and Collaboration

   
   

The quality of communication is also related to cultural fit. To ensure a smooth collaboration within your team, make sure your augmented team members are fluent in your organisation’s primary language and are familiar with modern communication and collaboration tools like Slack, Teams, and Jira. For a smoother collaboration, make sure your partner’s country has a timezone that overlaps with your working hours. This way, you ensure a smooth workflow and avoid miscommunication.

Case Studies: Success Stories from Our Partners

At Dune Technology, we helped many teams achieve their potential and goals by providing the expertise and flexibility they need.

BeSafe Technologies: Compliance Genie

Compliance Genie is a health and safety compliance tool designed for large businesses. Alongside the in-house team, our team worked on troubleshooting and debugging the platform. We resolved issues related to system slowness, enhanced the process of authentication, built a new cloud infrastructure, and added new functionalities and permissions.

Oka App

Oka is a mentoring app that provides users with various tools to set and achieve their development goals. Through a quiz, the app provides users with an analysis of their personality and matches them with the right mentor to guide them through their personal development journey. Our team developed the app from concept to delivery. We collaborated with Oka to refine their ideas in the design phase and used Agile Scrum methodology to build and deliver the app to both iOS and Android platforms.

Best Practices for Integrating Augmented Teams

Successfully integrating the augmented team ensures seamless workflow and maximises the value of team augmentation. These are some of the best practices for a smooth integration:

1. Clear Roles and Responsibilities Description

   
   

Providing augmented team members with a clear idea about their roles and contributions by creating a detailed roadmap and outlining their tasks prevents misunderstandings and helps the whole team align with project goals.

2. Provide a Comprehensive Onboarding

   
   

Provide augmented staff with a comprehensive onboarding experience by introducing them to in-house team members, providing access to technologies and communication tools used in the project, establishing clear protocols for reporting, and sharing key information about the project and company. This helps them understand the company’s culture and enables them to contribute effectively to the project.

3. Set Performance Metrics and Gather Feedback

   
   

Once your new team members are successfully onboarded, you need to share key performance indicators to measure their success. Implementing clear track metrics like code quality and issue-resolution rates helps maintain accountability and identify areas for improvement. Once the team starts, make sure to continuously gather feedback from both your in-house and external team members to review performance and ensure continuous improvement.

Considering Team Augmentation? 

If you are ready to unlock your business potential through team augmentation, let’s discuss how we can make it happen.