Unpacking the Dedicated Team Model + 3 Best Practices From Our Team

The demand for skilled software developers almost always surpasses market capacities. When building in-house teams becomes too time-consuming and expensive, companies usually consider outsourcing opportunities. And that's spot on – the most talented engineers have typically employed companies that specialize in outsourcing IT operations by setting up dedicated teams of software engineers or providing team augmentation services.

The dedicated team model is a common modern IT outsourcing method. Companies of all sizes use external expertise to augment their in-house staff, improve their workflows, and quickly deliver critical products to market.

At Sunscrapers, we support rapidly scaling startups, enterprises, and other companies with dedicated development teams that help them achieve business goals faster.

This is how we cooperate with companies from NYC:

Read on to find out what the dedicated team model is all about, its key advantages, and how to make it work for your company with the best practices from our team.

What is a dedicated team?

Companies needing tech skills can cooperate with software development vendors in two different ways: on a team or a cost-project basis.

A dedicated team is a business model where the client and vendor agree that the latter provides software development professionals to the client on a long-term basis. These IT experts are chosen according to their experience and skill sets. The idea is to book talented engineers for long-term projects. However, clients can check whether the team delivers the promised value during the trial period.

The dedicated team model indicates that the duration and scope of the project might change, but it still allows getting talented engineers within a fixed budget. The project's total cost will depend on the tasks assigned to the team, the size of the group, and the potential scaling of the team as the project develops.

5 advantages of dedicated teams

The team model brings organizations many benefits:

• Access to top talent – highly qualified software engineers are never unemployed. The chances of finding one on the market are low, and they usually expect high salaries that might be out of reach for rapidly growing startups. Software development companies like Sunscrapers have scalable teams of specialists available to easily lend their expertise to any company looking for specific knowledge.

• Established work processes – you can be sure that the team provided by your technology partner has completed many different projects before. They know how to deal with different situations and are used to working together. That way, that type of outsourcing model removes the cost of the onboarding process; your team will be performing at 100% efficiency from day one.

• Flexibility and scalability – teaming up with an experienced vendor means quickly scaling your team up or down depending on the changing project requirements. That type of flexibility is precious to rapidly growing companies that require access to top tech skills as quickly as possible.

• Transparent management – a dedicated team works with tools that enable remote task management and time tracking. Clients can manage the team efficiently and evaluate the project's progress independently. Daily communication and reporting over messaging apps and project management tools ensure product owners can stay in touch with the dedicated team.

• Saving on search and recruitment – when hiring a dedicated team, you only need to review a candidate's profile and pick the ones with the skills you need and are the best fit for your company culture. You don't need to source, attract, recruit, and onboard new employees. The vendor will do that for you at no recruitment fees. Moreover, the vendor covers all the costs, such as paid leave, private healthcare, hardware, access to sports facilities, and other benefits.

Who should use a dedicated team model?

If your product is small or its limited scope, the dedicated team model isn't a good choice for you. But it will be the best pick in many other scenarios.

Dedicated teams are a good choice if your product is large and complex. Even if the project's scope and timeline change, the quality isn’t questionable and needs to stay at the same level – and that's where hiring a dedicated team of developers makes sense.

It's also a good idea to employ a dedicated team if you're unsure what your future project deliverables are and when you know that many requirements will be revealed during the discovery phase or Research and Development tasks. This model is a great fit for data science projects where predicting the time required to complete tasks is often difficult.

More knowledge about R&D projects in this article: Outsourcing Research and Development Projects

Another reason for choosing the dedicated team model is the particular staffing needs at your company – for example:

• You have a development team and want to extend it with new skills,

• You have an in-house project manager and need an engineering team,

• You need a project manager and a team of engineers with specific expertise (like a particular technology).

Related article: The Extended Team Model: Here's How to Make It Work

When to switch from the fixed-cost project model to dedicated teams?

Sometimes it's a good idea to switch from the fixed-cost project to the dedicated team model when you've been working with the vendor for some time and know how the team works.

Once you know that the team delivers a fantastic quality of work within the set timeline, you can trust the vendor to make the dedicated model work for you. For example, once your application is ready, you can hire the team to deliver support, remove its maintenance, and continually optimize it.

Now that you know what the dedicated team model is all about and how it works, here are three best practices for making it work for your company, backed by our experience setting up dedicated teams for our clients.

Dedicated team model - 3 best practices

1. Plan communication and establish priorities early on

For the collaboration between your in-house and external resources to go smoothly, you need to make sure that both teams are on the same page, especially about the priorities of your project.

You need a communication plan before your project begins. Otherwise, you risk that the teams fail to synchronize, and you miss out on the incredible value the dedicated team may bring to your company.

Set up tools that help team members to communicate and share knowledge – for example, about new methods or best practices. Include obligatory regular meetings with the entire team to keep the process streamlined and ensure everyone knows the key priorities and goals.

2. Pick the right people for the right roles

Outsourcing a project requires a lot of attention and care when assigning roles and responsibilities. Professional software development companies will always present you with developer profiles from which you can pick and choose to create your dream team.

Another way to hire a dedicated team is by telling the vendor more about your needs - you then can count on the company to set up a team for you. At Sunscrapers, we have a lot of experience in setting up teams for ventures. Only 3% of candidates pass our recruitment process, so you can be sure to get top talent.

Review these profiles carefully and ask the vendor to arrange meetings with developers so you can assess their language skills and check whether they're an excellent match for your company culture.

Hiring the right people will boost your in-house team's capabilities and gain access to new skills for developing a more successful product. Make sure you team up with an outsourcing partner you trust to deliver the best people.

3. Offer growth opportunities

Just like any other professional, software developer wants to be rewarded for their work with more challenging tasks. That's why it's a good idea to plan how you will retain your dedicated team's focus by providing them with space for growth in their knowledge, skills, and value.

For example, assign a dedicated team to your project's experimental phase or Research and Development tasks. They will be thankful for allowing them to play with code and experiment with the most innovative technologies.

Hire dedicated teams instead of struggling to employ talent

If you're like any other company operating on the market today, you're probably looking to launch and test new products as quickly as possible. Time-to-market is essential to business success, and you can be sure that your competitors are busy developing their solutions.

Recruiting in-house software engineers takes a lot of time and resources. Instead, you can hire a self-organizing independent team of top specialists who will work with your in-house teams to solve the most demanding problems and bring your products to life.

Are you looking for and technology company experienced in providing dedicated teams to businesses ranging from startups to enterprises?

Contact us; we have ample experience delivering value to our clients with the dedicated team model.