What is Staff Augmentation?

Today we would like to drag your attention to software development staff augmentation so that you may consider a new style of collaboration for your upcoming project. We will also touch upon its benefits and some false impressions. Let’s go!

The notion has already become popular with international companies benefiting from hiring remote developers, from Ukraine in particular. 

How to get the most out of IT staff augmentation? The answer to this question we are going to find out here soon, but first, let us define the term. It is an outsourcing scheme of hiring tech experts in a remote manner to fill the gap of crucial talents in your in-house team. Augmentation may be for a limited time either or last for long. 

This way you as a company owner can select only the candidates you exactly need for some narrow field skills or enlarge your team depending on how the project evolves. This kind of IT service is not something rare and hard to find. There are many vendors that help you to find the right professionals, and ZenBit developers are not an exception.  Just have a look at this picture, here are some of the reasons why you should consider going for IT staff augmentation services.

What is nice about your remote employees is that they boost your daily work capacity especially during “hot seasons” or strict deadlines, etc. Besides, you get full dedication from them as they are working on a separate project at a time, so the focus and effort is on your business needs only. As shown above, this way of partnership may be a part of your long-term strategy as well as a wonderful access to a rich talent pool. 

Here are another 4 benefits to consider:

It Is The Right Model For You When… Some Factors And False Impressions

• Project Duration

This model can provide a special way of how your business faces the demands. Yet, it’s not an ideal solution in every story line. 

Augmented staff (AS) shows its best in smaller projects, as a rule. With long lasting projects that need months or years to fulfill, things are different. But a lot depends on the effective negotiations with the provider company.

• Confidentiality

Some deals are of a hush-hush kind and embrace intellectual property (IP). This is where staff augmentation tools must be thoroughly estimated. Nevertheless, the motives for that choice are more often relevant to emotional ease than hard proof. Without prejudice, a signed contract with a remote developer is as invincible as one with an in-house workforce. The insight: you have to be alert and move slowly when choosing staff for projects which imply confidentiality.

• Step up Time

When dealing with random and unforeseen personnel, most companies complain. Mixing up the context may be one of the most probable causes for this. And their management policies are not often perfect. Step up time is the period when a developer gains context of work specifics. It is a truly important thing that is often left aside. So mind that intricate projects will mean a longer step up time for your augmented developers. 

False Impressions

There are some misunderstandings in this sphere too, and we would like to clear out some key points.  

• This model requires little expenses 

Some recruitment managers think it is possible to avoid the cost of extra expenses for an in-house employee by bringing in AS instead. The truth is, the provider is covering the benefits budget. This false impression may often result in spending more than expected, and a full-time model would have suited the project better. 

• It is more costly

Another confusion is about the additional hiring costs. But when comparing to a full-time developer you should always remember about expenses on vacations, health insurance, training, etc. After a detailed thinking it gets pretty much obvious that AS partnership is quite smart and budget friendly, and any IT staff augmentation company will prove you that. 

• SA vs Managed Services

A great part of definitions used in the workforce sphere is rather new and naturally gets blundered. Like in the case of confusion between the two similar models – SA and managed services (MS).

A MS model is about a specific and well-defined result, probably with a clear-cut quality standard. In case of a SA, the concern goes to a task requirement and the price depends on the time and resources spent. 

An AS developer might be hired to improve code for a specific solution and would get his salary per hour. A MS employee would be invited to build that specific solution that faces a list of requirements and will be paid after the work is done.  

Choose this model If: 

We have a checklist for you to understand better if staff augmentation is something your business will benefit from. Answer these questions for  yourself honestly. 

• You’ve already got developers in your office, but you feel like it would be nice to enlarge the team to reach your goal faster? Time is money, you know, and wasting it on recruitment doesn’t make sense at the moment? Besides, you realize there may be no narrow field developers around in your country, unlike looking for remote professionals neverending talent pool.
• Do you feel like you want to control most of the processes and have constant communication a