Looking for outstaff team of developers? Check out a thorough how-to guide composed by MWDN experts. This guide is based on the questions most frequently asked by our clients. See the steps that you should take to hire a development team with a unique skill set, find out how much that might cost you, and make sure that managing a distributed team of developers is not as hard as it may seem!
How do I find a developer team?
There are several ways to create a software development team for your project. First, you can research the labor market, headhunt, and hire the people you need with your company’s in-house HR and recruiting assets. The whole process might take up to several months.
You can also choose between several ways of cooperation with your new employees. You can hire an in-house team of experts, you can opt for distributed teams, work with freelance developers, or outsource your software development entirely to a company with fixed bids.
Meanwhile, if you decide to cooperate with an outstaffing or outsourcing company, the process of searching, finding, and headhunting the best tech talents will be their task.
How do I hire a software development team?
If you decide to opt for a strategic partnership with an outstaffing company whose tech talents would reinforce your in-house team of developers, there are still several steps that you will have to take.
1. Analyze the needs of your project.
Determine the strong and weak points of your in-house team. What other skills do your employees need to bring your strategic vision of the project to reality? Think of the technologies you’re about to use for your software development and innovations you would like to implement.
2. Describe your perfect candidate.
Now think of what kind of person should be able to meet the business needs of your project. What’s their level of seniority, skill set, expertise in your field, and soft skills? Give your IT vendor a detailed portrait of your new teammate, so they can start looking for your perfect match.
3. Conduct a technical interview with top applicants.
After some research on the labor market and its inner databases, an outstaffing company will provide you with a short list of top applicants for your job opportunity. Make sure that the person your team will work with is exactly whom you need for the project. Conduct a technical interview with them.
4. Send a job offer to your future employee.
Make a final choice between the applicants and send your future teammate a job offer. This person will still be de jure an employee of your partnering outstaffing company, however, de facto, you will manage their time, give them tasks, and evaluate their performance.
5. Get help with the onboarding of your remote teammate.
One of the greatest benefits of staff augmentation with an IT vendor is that you don’t have to worry about the technical equipment, internet connection, and other office supplies of your remote teammate. All the HRM processes, including working hours monitoring, sick leaves, vacations, insurance, onboarding, taxes, and payrolls are on the side of the outstaffing company.
What is meant by outstaffing?
Outstaffing (also known as staff augmentation) is a business cooperation model which offers its clients to reinforce their in-house staff with distributed teams of technical or digital specialists. This is one of the most affordable ways to get IT services, especially when compared to fixed-bid outsourcing.
Your outstaffing company can be situated in any country of the world and even have several offices around the globe. Choose what suits your business the best:
- offshoring (remote employees can be the residents of another continent),
- nearshoring (your new teammates live in the bordering countries), or
- onshoring (your new workers live in the same country as you).
The main difference between traditional outsourcing and outstaffing is that with outsourcing, you fully delegate the whole software development process to a third party. You pay money and receive ready-to-made software.
Meanwhile, by choosing outstaffing, you solely reinforce a team of tech experts that already work for you in-house, with unique talents with rare skill sets and expertise. Your outstaffing team is fully engaged in your project, communicates with your managers and developers directly, and is a part of all your Agile/ Scrum/ Kanban rituals.
They’re just like an ordinary remote team, but they can live all around the globe, and all taxes that should be paid are paid by their official employer – an outstaffing company.
How much does it cost to hire a team of software developers?
For sure, the answer to this question strongly depends on the number of tech talents you need and their seniority level. Another factor that immensely affects the final price is the country of residence of the outstaffing company you’re working with. As a rule, companies that operate in India, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe, charge you less than companies from the USA, Canada, or Israel.
Let’s take MWDN fees as an example.
– A full month of work with a Middle Unity Developer might cost you around $4,000.
– A Private Cloud Architect will ask about $4,500 per month.
Let’s presume that you plan to work with them for six months.
An approximate sum of your cooperation and the unique expertise of our specialists that will bring innovation to your project and boost its efficiency will cost you $51,000 for the whole period.
How to manage a team of software developers?
Months of isolation and Covid restrictions taught us how to work remotely. IT companies came up with tools for communication, efficient work, and even team building in remote conditions. Managing a distributed team of software developers you’ve hired from an outstaffing company doesn’t differ much from your previous experience.
- Organize repeated meetings. Everyday standups, weekly plannings, monthly retrospectives – all of them are great tools for communication with a remote team. When you set a time for a meeting, take the time zone of all your employees into consideration.
- Encourage communication between the members of your in-house and remote teams. Studies show that people with interpersonal relations within a team are more productive and effective as they’re afraid of “setting up” their mates.
- Start your work meetings with small talk. Show your remote teammates that you care about them.
- Pay attention to the documentation. Though it’s not an agile approach, thorough documentation becomes way too important when your team members live in countries with different time zones.
Summing up
Augmenting your staff with the help of an outstaffing company is a trendy approach to software development outsourcing that is here to stay. This business model is relatively affordable and has multiple other benefits. The most challenging task you will have to face before hiring new teammates is to choose a trustworthy and reliable outstaffing company. Before signing an agreement, check out the portfolio of your future IT vendor, scan their reputation, and see what their previous clients tell you about their expertise.
If you have any other questions about building your own developers team, contact MWDN and let our managers tell you more about our tech talents and their skills.