How to Hire a Dedicated Development Team

More and more ISVsand SMEs decide to hire a dedicated development team. Often, they’re encouraged by the competitors’ success and positive experience. Sure, many of the software companies are familiar with this process. But how to start if you’re doing it for the first time and what’s even more important, how to make the right choice? In this article, we will give you some general advice on how to hire a dedicated team as well as explain nuances and the process of looking for offshore development team that’ll become a valuable addition to your business.

List of the Content

• Hiring a dedicated development team
• Why hire a dedicated development team
• Successful examples of hiring a dedicated team
• How to hire a dedicated development team
• Things you look at when hiring a dedicated development team
• In conclusion

HIRING A DEDICATED DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Let’s start at the very beginning. Hiring a dedicated development team is one of the engagement models where a client and the software development company have a contract on a project with specific requirements for its development process. The outsourcing company looks for the development resources that suit the client’s project scope and framework among other requirements.  The client, in turn, provides the necessary resources for the project such as; information, payment of the team’s salary, provider’s fee which includes the overhead, administrative and infrastructure expenses. In general, the client has full control of the project as well as the team, while the outsourcing providers hire a dedicated team of developers, house team members, and provide administrative support.

This business model is mainly used for long-term projects which over time are expected to have different thus, very dynamic requirements in terms of the scope. Also, the dedicated development center is a suitable approach when the client’s core team lacks specific skills and experience to work on the project, or it is a challenge to acquire such full-time developers from the client’s residential country. Therefore, the general idea behind hiring a dedicated development team is for a client to acquire quality, unique and project-specific solutions from the offshore developers.

From the start to completion of the project, the communication between the dedicated offshore developers and the client, directly or through a project manager, is usually frequent and very interactive. This allows the client to assess the progress of the project while the offshore team gets to learn more about the project requirements.

WHY HIRE A DEDICATED DEVELOPMENT TEAM

It’s become a popular approach to outsourcing among software companies to hire an offshore development team. With today’s technology, access to solutions for office problems is easy, efficient, and cost-effective. With communication and collaboration enabling software such as Trello, and project management software like Jira, employees can collaborate in real time, hold online conferences, present business plans, discuss and approve them at the comfort of their couches.

Such mobility has enabled any company to hire a dedicated development team from remote areas with ease.

Dedicated development centers have become very popular among software companies for the following reasons:

Significantly Lower Developers Cost Expenses and Product Development Time

It is tedious and expensive to either hire new staff or train the current employees for a project, while there is a global talent pool of ready-made skilled and experienced resources out there. Thus you hire a software development team that can work on your project and still is part of your product team from the collaboration with the full-time staff. While hiring a dedicated development team is also working, they can train your local employees equipping them with the necessary skills to take part in the project especially, if it is too vast.

In addition, you do not have to tire yourself in searching and recruiting the resources for the project instead, the offshore development company is the one tasked with hiring a dedicated team to meet your project’s requirements. Also, you incur zero expenses on office expenses and availing workplace.

The Flexibility in Hiring a Dedicated Development Team

You can divide the project into different tasks and from the constant and interactive communication you will be having with the dedicated development center, it will be easy to determine task priorities and communicate on changes in project requirements. Also, the offshore developers can openly inform you about any problems they would be facing in product delivery.

Better Staff Management

As a client, you have full control and the option of managing the team in whichever that suits you, just like the in-house team. You can choose to manage it on your own or appoint a project manager from the outsourcing software company or your organization to represent you. Either way, you will have complete hands-on the dedicated developers and the project and you can scale it by adding or dismissing members, for the team’s proficiency or according to your actual development resources needs.

SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLES OF HIRING A DEDICATED  TEAM

Let’s consider some of the best practices to hire a development team and how those businesses have benefited from it.

• Marine software used at the Norwegian Research Institute and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation. Its development was first initiated in-house. Afterward, they decided to hire a dedicated software development team to continue with the development. Together with the in-house scientists and interactions with users, the software is now a highly specialized product or database tool used during fisheries research and surveys.
• UK Promotion Group LLC has also had a chance to hire a dedicated development team for creating an app whose time to market was essential because of a fixed launching date. However, the offshore team managed to complete the project ahead of the deadline with 20% expenses off and the app was flawless.

HOW TO HIRE A DEDICATED DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Product development requires intensive planning and comprehensive details that cover the project’s purpose, goals, principles of implementation, the time needed for the offshore development, expected results, and any additional technical requirements for the efficient development process. Without a detailed Product Requirement Document and Functional Specification Document, there will be misunderstandings between the client and the development team; a lot of time will be wasted as well as finances.

• A Product Requirements Document (PRD) is an initial document, outlining all the project’s functionality, requested features, mock-ups work scope, and duration. The PRD is what enables the client and the developer to come to an agreement on the outsourcing project and ideas behind it. The document helps reduce the chances of major changes in the future as a result of the procedural prospective amendments to the project.
• Functional Specification Document (FCD) is a formal statement between the outsourcing development company and the client. This is a very detailed description of the software system’s functional requirements. It includes the development sprints description as well as the order of the tasks, and conditions of the project. As a rule, FCD is used as an attachment to the contract where the outsourcing company takes a commitment to provide the capabilities described in the document. The client agrees to consider the project as completed if it provides the functionality specified in the FRD.

Speaking of the dedicated projects, as the developers are managed directly by the customer, both documents are used by the customer for internal needs.

As the client has full control over the remote team, both documents are used by the customer to manage offshore developers.

Even though having a list of the required development resources and their skill set is enough to start to work with the team, it is highly recommended to have both documents prior to the launch of the development center.

When you have decided to hire a dedicated development team, you can easily set it up in the following ways but first, you need to know what type of a client you are as far as having is concerned.

The Client with The Detailed Scope Of Work

This is a client who has the whole Product Requirement Document (PRD) and/or Functional Specification Document (FSD) in his hands with the detailed functionality of the product to be developed, planned sprints, technology stack, ready and just requiring to hire a remote development team to work on it. Such a client has the full scope of the project, knows the specific number and skills the team members should have. Thereafter:

• • The client negotiates the pricing, project scope, and requirements needed for the project, with the software development provider.
  • The outsourcing company searches for the required number of skilled individuals then avail candidates’ CVs and certificates to the client who determines whether they fit the description of what he/she is looking for. The client goes through the individuals’ resumes and further organizes interviews either, face to face or remotely with the developers to determine if they fulfill his description. For more tips and tricks on reading the developers’ CV check our article “How to Hire a Programmer: CV Interpretation“.
  • However, if the provider’s workforce cannot fulfill the client’s requirements, the outsourcing provider searches for other professionals on behalf of the client. The individuals have gone through the developer, the client also assesses them through interviews and from their CVs and certificates.

The Client with The Pure Idea and Need

This is a client who has some of the outsourcing project’s specifications but has very little know-how of the product delivery process and in turn, the project’s workforce size and member’s expertise is also unknown.

Nevertheless, from the outsourcing provider’s experience from working with previous clients with various project requirements, they can help you put down the initial document all in accordance with the product development and its requirements.  This will help the client save time and extra costs plus, there are much higher chances for project success with a more specified PRD. One of the main benefits to hire a dedicated development team is that you are free to choose the software development company that has already accumulated experience of the previous customers and outsourcing projects thus bringing extra perks to the development process. Their expertise will become your keys to success even in new business verticals and technologies.   

After the outsourcing provider, has helped the client in mapping out the PRD and/or FSD, the process is the same as that of the client with a detailed scope of work.

THINGS YOU SHOULD LOOK AT WHEN HIRING A DEDICATED DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Geographical Location

Eastern Europe

The most popular locations to hire a development team in Eastern Europe are Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Russia. Eastern Europe has grown to become an arresting offshore location for Western Europe and the USA. For example, if you hire a dedicated development team in Ukraine, you’ll get access to a great talent pool of high-quality skills, low labor costs, and good production quality.

Pros: There is the physical closeness to Eastern Europe, business relationships, and high-quality developers that companies can benefit from.

Cons: The cost of outsourcing in Western Europe could be more expensive as compared to the Middle East and Africa.

Asia

China and India are the two most known countries in Asia as the places to hire an app development team. The region has a growing and developing IT sector whose majority of customers are Western Europeans.

Pros: Low cost of outsourcing services.

Cons: Lack of Intellectual property security. Thus, the products would be easily duplicated with a low comeback.

Middle East

Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the Middle East countries competing with Tunisia, Ghana, and South Africa. The region is also appealing for outsourcing teams by multinationals like the Indian companies which have expanded by outsourcing from Egypt.

Pros: Large multilingual population which as a result brings competition, therefore, the labor is cheap and of relatively high quality.

Cons: Most part of this region is politically volatile thus could be unappealing to foreigners with interests in outsourcing there.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF EACH LOCATION

Technology Expertise

Contact, meet and discuss with the prospect developer as well as the development team to evaluate their technical expertise. The best way to get the idea about the outsourcing development company’s technical expertise is to have a look at their previous projects build on required technology and request references from their customers. Also, it is worth checking if you and the dedicated development service provider share the same vision of the project implementation roadmap. This will show whether they’re experienced in your business vertical, technologies and how likely are you going to get the synergy with contractor’s management staff and how to hire the right app development team they will put together.

Pricing

The dedicated development model should be a win-win situation for you and the developer in terms of finances. They should provide services worth your investment nevertheless, prices as well as the quality increase by the order: Middle East, Asia then Eastern Europe.

Culture and Language

It is essential to hold a meeting with the remote programmers to determine that communication between you them, should go on smoothly or you will have to add a Scrum Master/ Project Manager as part of the team which means incurring extra costs.

Speaking of the language, most of the Eastern European population is well acquainted with the common languages: English, French, and German unlike in the Middle East and India. In this case, the Eastern European outsourcing companies are in the best position, because in most cases you don’t have to hire an interpreter and be afraid that some technical details can be lost in translation and will cost you extra time and money.

IN CONCLUSION

When you hire a dedicated development team, it might seem like an overwhelming task only at first look. A reliable outsourcing service provider will accompany you on every step of establishing the offshore development center. It includes product specifications, hiring the right people, and planning development sprints. 

EXISTEK is an offshore software development company offering the best developers for our partners. Hire a dedicated development team with us and save up to 50% of your expenses since we offer: free recruiting until the team starts to work, transparent management, and full control of the project. Visit our contact page or use the chat widget on the right for further assistance.