Staff augmentation & Team-based

I understand that when you start to explore IT Outsourcing services and decide which collaboration model is suitable for your business and your strategy, you may consider a lot of options. And, if you are interested in scaling up the team with external employees, there are typically 2 models you might think about both staff augmentation and team-based.

I hope this post provides insight into two engagement methodologies for your comprehension and making the decision.

So, what is staff augmentation?

Here is an example for your better understanding of the staff augmentation model. You have your IT project and need implementation support. You already have your internal team, however, they do not have enough expertise or experience to handle it. Because of this, you apply to an IT Outsourcing vendor that outsources software development rather than going through the standard hiring procedures of looking, interviewing, and onboarding.

If any vendor cares about your requirement with team augmentation, they will prepare talented engineers who have similar experience and send over the CVs for your qualification. Your team can interview, assign the task and then select the expert and sign the contract for having them onboard.

Staff augmentation means that you qualify and choose only the competent engineers.

Besides staff augmentation, how does the team-based model work?

For the team-based model or the other name squad-based, you have a long-duration project and prefer to build a team with very high dedication and maintain the same working organizational culture. Furthermore, the team would have various roles from BA, UI/UX Designer, Project Manager, Sofware engineer, etc in both junior and senior levels; including one or more than 2 key persons who can play a role as the team leaders. They have responsibilities to manage the members’ performance, maintain quality, build connections and enhance motivation in the whole team. The team could be combined with English-speaking and non-English-speaking engineers with a defined ratio when you start to form the team.

Team-based is the approaching method in that you build an external dedicated team within a long-term duration.

A COMPARISON BETWEEN STAFF AUGMENTATION & TEAM-BASED

If both models bring similar benefits, which should you choose?

Let’s take a look with a short comparison of the pros and cons of both options.

-?????????Working organization:?

If you proceed to staff augmentation, which means your external resources will be allocated to different projects like filling out the vacancies. With required skills like stand-alone when joining your project, each resource might have demotivation when they are not in the same team. They have to work with new members and adapt to your working style and your company culture. The outcome right here might cause a turnover rate higher than another one.

Compared with staff augmentation, the same project on the team-based model will help the leader manage overall the team members, they can discuss daily together, support each other to improve themselves, boost up the spirit and build team culture.

The point here I would like to emphasize is a close team ensures better quality and high commitment to dedicate in the long term period.

-?????????Time and cost:

A high turnover rate is the root cause to waste your time and your cost if you continue hiring outstanding engineers for your replacement. You can meet the struggle when this cycle does not ever end due to your high demands.

When running a team with mixed seniority, and mixed English-speaking resources, the benefits you receive are definitely cost-effective, fast ramp up, ramp down and then save time.

-?????????Relationship with the vendor:

Both parties are more committed to long-term collaboration when you go forward with a dedicated team of engineers. A tight working relationship allows for a deeper comprehension of the demands and difficulties that your firm experiences.

In the staff augmentation approach, there is no commitment involved; instead, resources are only provided according to the required number of engineers. This type of business connection is not deep because it may be easily terminated within a short period. The resources just follow all of your tasks day by day, honestly, they can display their low interest in this loop of working.

Both methods have their benefit, but the team-based model brings more value to your business

I believe that you are clear about the benefits of staff augmentation. It helps you increase the IT talent shortage, it could be one of the most efficient ways of handling when your business strategy is just focusing on your core business.

With the very fast development of IT, there are a lot of trusted partners specialized in staff augmentation. In case this is only your demand appropriate with your special situation at this time, you can simply choose any vendor to go with. However, the benefits of this model tend to diminish following the project’s length.

In conclusion, based on our experience, the long-term benefits of IT partnerships maintaining a robust relationship, easily determining the budget, and decreasing stress during working with the vendor.

If you are still confused and need a consultant to understand further, I am happy to discuss should you be interested. Please drop me an email at [email protected].