This article was contributed by Dmitriy Umen who is CEO and co-founder of Brights, a product design, and software development company.
What is a dedicated team structure?
The world is constantly changing and throwing us new challenges, until a few years ago, the main alternative to hiring your own developers was to outsource the entire project to an external contractor. But as already mentioned, times change and so do the needs, and now one of the well-known business models is a dedicated team.
Briefly, this is a collaboration model where the client is provided with a software development team for a long-term project.
If we look deeper into this development process, the team works only on one project for a full working day and reports only to the client. In a dedicated development team model, the client has more access to the actions of the performers. He can supervise the daily execution of the assignment and follow the progress of the work. This allows both sides to remain on the right wavelength and rapidly adjust to the situation.
Complete focus helps to increase the speed of the order and achieve a quality result. The customer doesn’t have to care about employees working at the limit of their capabilities – they have set a goal and are moving to meet it. This is why this model is so widely used because in the future not only IT specialists but also others will start to implement it as a convenient analog.
Thanks to Brights dedicated team material, we have analyzed in more detail the concept of structure, strengths, and weaknesses of this model. This will allow you to decide for yourself whether this model is right for you or not.
More about dedicated team structure
So what is a dedicated team structure? There is a simple explanation: each task needs a specialist of its own kind: for writing program code – developers, for creating a prototype and layout – designers, for checking the quality of the product – testers, and so on.
It is the specific set of these or those specialists needed to work on the project that is called the team structure. It’s great if you don’t have the time or resources to hire and train an in-house team. If you focus on countries like India, Ukraine, and Poland, you not only save money but also get responsible and talented workers.
While a dedicated team offers some serious advantages that traditional hiring and development methods cannot match, this model is not ideal and has certain drawbacks. To get the complete picture, let’s look at it from different angles:
Advantages
Focusing the project
It is also important that when specialists are on one project, they feel more comfortable, they don’t have to break from one process to grasp another. Everything is consistent and according to plan. In this case, employees are more likely to take the initiative and offer profitable and systematic solutions. They care about the project, they feel more involved in the common cause.
Cutting cost
It is usually cheaper to go to a Middle Eastern team than to hire a long-term technical expert in your company. In addition, they will do their job with quality so that they don’t lose credibility and reputation. Consequently, this is a great chance to reduce your staffing costs by hiring a dedicated team rather than new employees. You also save on office rent, equipment, and other costs that are inevitable if you hire regular office staff.
Ease of administration
When setting tasks, people who already have experience in this area need much less explanation than a new person. When all team members work in the same direction, instructions are easily conveyed and tasks are completed accurately.
Relief for recruiters
Cooperation with an outsourced team also frees up the resources of the client’s HR department. Recruitment, adaptation, onboarding of new specialists, and motivation are handled by the external development team. The client receives a software development team with the appropriate experience, which is completely ready to work. If you manage to build a relationship with a permanent IT partner, there is no need to train new teams in the same set of rules, standards, and technologies.
Versatile control
If flexibility in management is a priority for you, then a dedicated team is at your service. For this, you may need your own manager to run the team and make sure that everything goes according to requirements.
Iterative development
Every subsequent phase incorporates lessons learned from the development of the previous phase, applies new developments, and adjusts the progression of actions. Maintaining a core of a committed team protects the project from knowledge loss and provides safer and more thoughtful solutions.
We studied the work of dedicated teams and came to the general conclusion that in this format, the customer gets a better and more predictable result. A dedicated team can close them not point by point, but with a full understanding of how it may affect other parts of the project.
Disadvantages
No matter how good the model is, there are always flaws. Maybe some people seem insignificant, and someone will think twice about it. Here are three major disadvantages that may prevent you from enjoying all the benefits of the dedicated team.
Unsuitable for all projects
Employing a dedicated development team for a small project is not the smartest idea, as they typically have specific requirements and timelines, and do not need a large number of staff. A dedicated team is best suited for projects with specific aims and flexible demands that take more than three months to complete.
It takes time to assemble a certain team
As we said, in most cases, you can get a completed team as soon as you partner with an outsourcing vendor. However, sometimes project requirements are so specific that it becomes necessary to assemble a team of hard-to-find specialists from scratch. Indeed, it takes time to find, test, and hire them to fulfill a specific request.
Culture
We can also point out such a disadvantage as a difference in work culture. At first, this may seem like a mere trifle, but there may be pitfalls waiting for you. For example, if you need to have your team working at the same time as the in-house team, keep in mind that in some countries working hours and weekends can be very different. And while you may be in the same time zone, the team may have a Siesta, and they won’t be working. But all these details should be discussed at the beginning to avoid such surprises.
Conclusion
Summarizing the results, we can notice that working with a dedicated team is a handy and versatile option for implementing your software project. You save money, don’t need to expand your office space, and avoid the tedious hiring process. That’s why we recommend software development services as the optimal solution for small and medium-sized companies that strive for high-quality software development but have limited financial and human resources to implement these dedicated projects through their efforts.
Also, this type of service is ideal when a company has a development product inside, whether it is a portal, a startup, or other services, and it needs a team that will dive into that project. The team can be located in one place or be virtual and usually reports directly to the project manager. This is the easiest structure for the project manager because the chain of command is clear and team members can concentrate on the project tasks.
However, you should also be aware of the disadvantages or difficulties that may arise, because this model is not ideal and is not suitable for absolutely any company. Therefore, we sincerely advise you to analyze whether this model suits your company and if so, enjoy all the advantages.
About the author
Dmitriy Umen is CEO and co-founder of Brights, a product design, and software development company. He is a startup-minded entrepreneur with 12 years of comprehensive hands-on experience in business analysis, software architecture, and development.
Last Updated on October 12, 2022 10:52 am CEST by Markus Kasanmascheff
