There are many different ways that IT projects may be implemented today. Many companies still choose to develop all kinds of business applications and other such solutions using their own in-house development team, but outsourcing is gradually gaining ground. One of the options consists of employing a dedicated team – external specialists delegated to work exclusively on a specific project.
When is such a solution a good idea? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
What is a dedicated software development team?
Any organization that has had the opportunity to carry out a software development project in the past is well aware that it is an extremely demanding and time-consuming endeavor. Among other things, this is due to the fact that the need for specific competencies changes throughout the project life cycle, which means that the internal team might have to be expanded to include additional specialists. This seems deceptively simple, but the reality is quite different. Large projects very often drag on, sometimes their scope changes significantly or they are abandoned after a lengthy business analysis process. IT specialists, meanwhile, need to be recruited well in advance, as there is generally great demand for competent and experienced programmers.
In part due to the high costs associated with recruiting and maintaining internal IT teams, more and more organizations are opting to use the services of outsourcing companies or specialized software houses. An outsourcing company makes it possible to complement internal IT teams relatively quickly and flexibly with specialists required at a given moment, while a software house goes a step further – it independently implements the whole project for the client, using its own team of experts. It is this model of software development that we would like to focus on today.
Dedicated software development becomes more and more popular every day. The idea is to delegate project implementation to external, dedicated teams of specialists. What does this mean for organizations? First and foremost: the ability to create business-essential software (e.g. web applications) without the need to maintain an in-house team of programmers. The dedicated team is thus an external organizational unit that has been temporarily employed to take part in the complex implementation of a project. This support is comprehensive, i.e. starting with defining business goals, through their verification, MVP creation, UX/UI design, and ending with actual programming and testing.
Pros and cons of dedicated teams
The benefits of dedicated teams model are many, but the most important undoubtedly include:
- Lower costs – recruiting and keeping an IT team within an organization is extremely costly and time-consuming. This is one of the reasons why more and more organizations opt for hiring external teams. This applies to entities operating in any country but is especially valuable for those based inexpensive locations (e.g. Switzerland or the UK), for whom project-specific teams working from a country, where labor costs are lower, is a double advantage.
- Project control – a dedicated team, despite working primarily off-site, maintains constant contact with the organization and uses time tracking and task management tools, which ensures full transparency and the ability to monitor the progress on an ongoing basis.
- Higher quality – entities specializing in the execution of IT projects have strong and suitably experienced teams of programmers, whose competencies complement each other. As they are involved in many different projects throughout the year – i.e. projects carried out for various industries, at different scales and levels of complexity, in different technologies – they have extensive experience and a high level of expertise at their disposal. It is therefore highly likely that such an entity will be able to deliver a higher quality product than an in-house development team.
- Shorter project implementation time – on the one hand, experience and the appropriate set of competencies are a guarantee of high quality, and on the other – it is highly probable that the project will be implemented swiftly and effectively.
Why not involve your in-house team or a freelancer?
As a rule, only large organizations can afford to maintain extensive in-house teams of programmers. These organizations are also the ones with especially high demand for IT solutions, while IT projects of various scales are nowadays sought by organizations of practically any size. Thus, developing IT projects with in-house teams is not possible in every case and – more importantly – does not work well in every situation.
Recruiting a team of programmers with the right competencies is extremely difficult and time-consuming. It is also extremely expensive to maintain and continually develop their skills. Despite continuous training, it may turn out that the competencies available internally are insufficient for a specific project. Each enterprise has specific business objectives, the implementation of which requires the selection of appropriate tools and methods. What if Python would be the most efficient way to execute the planned application, and the in-house team does not have enough experience and expertise in this field? Would choosing another programming language to be the right choice? Such dilemmas are not a problem for organizations that decide to opt for outsourcing.
If not your own team then maybe a freelancer? Here, costs will be incomparably lower, but the level of control will also be correspondingly lower, which translates directly into quality. Satisfaction with the end result largely depends on who we invite to collaborate on a project. Bearing in mind the risks, working with a freelancer on large, long or essential projects may not be the most sensible decision.
The dedicated development team is, therefore, the ideal alternative, as it combines the best features of all the above solutions. From an economic point of view, the choice of this method makes perfect sense, and, in addition, it allows a high degree of control over the entire project, which, in hand, translates into a high level of satisfaction with the final product.
How to hire the best dedicated team
However, the mere decision to apply the software development model with a dedicated team of specialists does not guarantee the success of the project. Much depends on the software house you employ. There are many providers of software development services on the market today, so choosing the right partner is a difficult task.
What should be taken into account when choosing the software house to carry out your project? You should focus especially on such factors as:
● specialization,
● reputation,
● experience,
● previous projects,
● communication strategy,
● cooperation model,
● scope of services,
● technological stack, and
● terms of cooperation.
The selection of a software house with a good position on the market and one that is well trusted by its clients significantly increases the chances of success for the entire project. A dedicated project team, i.e. a team of external specialists delegated to work exclusively on a specific task ensures that all the important details and nuances will be addressed.
If you wish to consult your specific project – feel free to contact us. We will gladly answer any questions you might have and help you choose an optimal solution tailored perfectly to your needs.
Andrzej Kopera • Sep 05
