What is an extended team?
An Extended Team (also known as staff augmentation) is an addition to an in-house team which usually assumes non-core IT components. Such a partnership between onshore and offshore teams distributes responsibilities and provides better transparency by close cooperation.
How do extended teams work?
Extended Teams (ET) compliment in-house teams but never replace them. ETs add value to the company’s workforce by filling the skill gaps of their onshore team members. If your business calls for additional help in handling an increasing amount of work, developing a particular feature for a specific project or launching a new product, applying the extended teams model is the best solution. Remote teams represent a clear and modern approach.
Alternatives To Outsourcing: Extended team!
In the modern changing environment IT services are taking one of the main roles in a company’s successful development. IT costs on having skillful developers have risen up in the Eurozone or North America. IT outsourcing comes to solve this problem by providing the specialists offshore and saving the skill set of developers. However, outsourcing services involve additional taxes and can take a long time for setting up. You can learn more about the IT Outsourcing model in our article Overview on IT Outsourcing: Definition, Benefits, Services and Trends in 2021. Increasing number of businesses are searching for alternatives to outsourcing.
Extended Teams can be a rapid solution for overwhelmed in-house teams. The extended teams option makes it possible for a company to look for a specialist or a team to bring more value to its project, it is also easy to manage. Moreover, it allows to gain an advantage from cost-effective and flexible IT support.
Difference between core team and extended team
The main differences between core and extended teams are:
- Time difference and accessibility
The core team is always available in your working hours, for that reason, they can always immediately solve the urgent issues or tasks which arise.
While remotely managing your extended team you need to always remember about the time zones and its differences. You might have lack access to your offshore developers and have to wait for refinement. Moreover, their participation in meetings must be planned by taking into account time differences. - Belonging to a company
Internal teams easily feel like they are a part of your company as they physically stay in the building and can easily reach anyone in the office. Taking into account the distance, your remote team might not have a feeling of being a part of the company. So, it requires extra effort to help them find the identity with your company. - Culture
Your core team members are familiar with the corporate culture and will stick to its norms and rules. It means it won’t lead to any problems in terms of communication. When you start working with an extended team, it is important to provide appropriate training for your remote employees, so they can follow your specific cultural patterns.
This information provides you an overview that there are not many differences between managing your core and extended teams. It is easy to prevent those things by putting more effort into creating strong relationships with your remote employees and setting transparent rules.
This information provides you an overview that there are not many differences between managing your core and extended teams. It is easy to prevent those things by putting more effort into creating strong relationships with your remote employees and setting transparent rules.
How to manage a remote team?
Managing remote employees is similar to managing your core team model. It requires similar principles, however, it may take a little bit more effort and time for an offshore staff. Despite the fact that technology companies are good at digital communication, they may still feel a bit frustrated when it comes to remote management. Nevertheless, online communication can erase boundaries and provide a productive remote collaboration.
The working style is a fundamental component of an effective collaboration inside the team. Sometimes, remote developers have different approaches compared to the one your company has got used to which is also easy to overcome with the right training. Another issue you might face is the language barrier. One of the tips in managing remote employees is to simplify your language to them. It will help you to stay on the same wavelength and avoid misunderstandings.
Tools for Managing Remote Employees
Productive communication with your extended team is done by video or audio calls, which is a great facilitation tool for it. Video conferencing and visual contact can be realized with support of the most popular softwares, such as:
- Zoom
- Skype
- Google Meet
- Microsoft Teams
The other means of communication are messengers. They can assist you in speeding up the development process, such as:
- Slack
- Hangouts
- Yammer
- Discord
- Telegram
- Microsoft Teams
Additionally, you can always keep in mind such cloud-base softwires as Asana, Trello, Jira and others, which can automate the workflow management and provide more effective collaboration.
Managing remote employees: best practices
Effective remote management of your extended team can be challenging. Here are some best practices which can help you build a bridge to your offshore staff.
- Great motivation
Employee motivation is your powerful tool of great management which will lead to amazing team work. The main points in motivation should be: a local team lead, training and onboarding, visual communication, presence in the life of your remote team. - Unification
You need to create a unified approach towards all members of your team to make them work as a close-knit family. It is crucial to share your vision, corporate mission, values and culture. - Automatization
Think about what software your new remote team is using. It should be the same for both in-house and remote developers to avoid errors in the system. If for technical reasons this is not possible, take care of the appropriate means of communication. Everyone who makes technology decisions understands the importance of an online management system to good operational performance. - Dedication
Dedication means that your new offshore staff must be committed to the company – and be willing to do whatever it takes for the overall success. The first step should be building strong and trustful relationships.Your remote team should feel valuable which will lead to great results and they will be happy to contribute to the company’s success.
What is the difference between remote and virtual teams?
Remote and Virtual teams are almost the same, they are a group of people who work for common projects and goals via digital communication. However, there is a slight difference.
| Remote Team | Virtual Team | |
|---|---|---|
| GEO | Located in different areas | Can be located in the same zone but work virtually |
| Reporting Model | Each team member report to the team manager | There are several team manager and every employee can report to different one |
Extended Team Model Pros and Cons
Benefits:
- Access to the best international pool of talent
You can spot brilliant developers on the international market and choose from the top tech talents.
MWDN is ready to offer you the best skillful developers to manage your project and meet the objectives. - Supervise the hiring process
You can get involved in the hiring process by personally screening and interviewing potential candidates. MWDN will do all the hard work for you and offer you only the best developers which suit your requirements and you don’t need to spend hours screening all the applications. - Motivated and committed software developers
Your remote team members become an integral part of your company, adjust to your methodologies, management styles, corporate culture and move toward a common goal.
Both in-house and augmented teams adapt to work as a single well-organised machine due to increased shared responsibility. - Flexibility and transparency
You manage your remote employees as you see it. There are no intermediaries between you and your remote team. The communication is direct and all the tasks are given straight away.
Having an extended team model determines the transparency at all levels which helps to manage and monitor the performance of your remote employees. - Easy Setup and Start
The process of extending your team with MWDN is clear and easy. We take all the operational tasks and provide your developers with all necessary equipment in a comfortable working environment.
Despite all the advantages, Extended Development Team has its own disadvantages which are not crucial but still it is good to know.
- Training and Onboarding is more complex
It should be done online. Also you need to reconsider how to manage your meeting due to time differences and digital communication. - Company Culture
As it was already mentioned, you need to highlight the core values and mission of the company to your remote employees. Provide special trainings on your corporate culture and rules.
The Cons of Extended team are not crucial and easy to overcome with the right management.
MWDN has extensive experience building scalable and efficient development teams for startups and businesses worldwide. Using our expertise and direct access to a huge Ukrainian talent pool, we can help you to choose the right business model, set up your own extended team of software developers and refine your operations in accordance to your needs.
If you are not sure about your outsourcing model you can learn more about the STAFF AUGMENTATION model and if it suits your business needs or contact us and our managers will be glad to answer your questions and find the right solution to meet your goals.