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September 16, 2022

A dedicated development team and its benefits for your business

The global IT outsourcing market is predicted to grow by $97.51 billion by 2024. The time, cost-effectiveness, and ability offered to entrepreneurs to focus on core operational activities make this business practice so popular these days.

A proven way to get the most out of outsourcing to grow your business is to hire a dedicated development team.

At Syndicode, the dedicated team model is the widely used format for client collaboration. Based on our vast experience in this field, our technical team created this blog post covering the key aspects of this digital transformation model. 

Here we will highlight its difference from other models and describe its main pros and cons. Also, you will get a step-by-step guide on finding the best dedicated development team for your software project.

A comprehensive overview of the dedicated development team model

To explain why the dedicated development team model benefits your business, our expert team came up with a complex review of this business model.

Definition

The dedicated development team model is a partnership model that implies long-term cooperation between a client and an outsource dedicated software development team. The specialists included in the dedicated team are chosen based on the customer’s request for a specific experience or skill set.

The model works best for projects where the scope and requirements are not fixed but can change drastically over time.

Difference between the dedicated development team and other engagement modes

Below you can see how the dedicated development team model differs from other client collaboration formats.

Dedicated development team vs. fixed price

When you choose the fixed price model, you agree to pay a pre-arranged sum of money, irrespective of the amount of work done. The main risk associated with this model is overpayment. Such a situation may happen when you cannot estimate the project scope accurately. With this being said, the fixed price is not suitable for long-term projects. 

On the contrary, it works best for short-term projects with precise requirements, specifications, and deadlines. An excellent example of such a project is MVP development.

In contrast to the fixed price model, the dedicated development team format gives you enough freedom and flexibility regarding the project scope or requirements. You can change them whenever you need without overpaying.

Dedicated software development team vs. time & material model

This popular model implies paying for the actual amount of time and effort the development team spent to deliver a completed solution or implement a particular feature. 

The solution works best for complex projects where requirements are constantly evolving. Besides, you should consider this option if you have not determined your market fit and have not explored the target market yet.

While the time and material model gives you enough time and space to conduct profound research, no one guarantees that the software development team working on your digital product remains intact throughout the entire project. 

This aspect makes this option completely different from the dedicated software development team. The latter will be assigned to your project solely and will not take on any other tasks. Hence the term “dedicated”.

Dedicated software development team structure 

Now that you know what the dedicated development team is and how it stands out from other collaboration formats, let’s talk about the specialists included in such a team and their responsibilities.

The dedicated development team composition may vary depending on your specific project requirements. However, a traditional dedicated team consists of the following specialists:

  • Business analysts create requirements for a future digital product and coordinate them with a client to ensure their compliance with the company goals.
  • UX/UI designers are responsible for creating visual designs that represent the business and technical requirements for a future solution.
  • Technical lead creates user stories, uncovers potential bottlenecks, offers the best possible solutions, defines the most suitable technology stack, and leads the front-end, back-end, and mobile development teams.
  • Back-end developers deal with business analytics, architecture, databases, third-party integrations, and everything related to the server side of software solutions.
  • Front-end developers create buttons, search bars, navigation, and other web page elements to provide users with a seamless experience.
  • Mobile developers are responsible for creating a mobile version of a software solution.
  • Quality assurance engineers test the requirements received by business analysts at the discovery stage and the solution’s architecture. They also test the solution’s architecture and provide manual and automated tests to ensure each feature works as it should and verify that the product meets all technical requirements.
  • DevOps engineers handle infrastructure setup and management to help businesses achieve continuous automated delivery and streamline cloud adoption.
  • The Project Manager monitors the overall software development process, assigns responsibilities to the dedicated development team members, keeps track of the project scope and budget changes, and communicates with the client’s team.
The structure of a typical dedicated development team
The dedicated development team structure

As a reliable digital transformation partner, Syndicode provides clients with the services of all those specialists. Our primary goal is to provide businesses with professional assistance at each step of the custom software development process – from idea validation and early planning to the after-launch maintenance and support.

As a result of the partnership with our dedicated development team, clients get a full-cycle turnkey software solution that efficiently addresses their business challenges and solves technological issues.

When you should hire a dedicated development team

The time has come to discuss particular situations and projects where hiring a dedicated development team is the best solution.

  • Limited internal resources. If your project grows fast and you lack the resources to scale it in compliance with your business development roadmap, consider hiring a dedicated development team. It will be the best option provided you have enough budget and a product that shows a high level of customer satisfaction.
  • Lack of specific knowledge. If your project requires particular expertise or skills that are not cultivated in your company, the partnership with a software development company offering dedicated team services is a sound idea. By using the services of qualified experts, you will save costs and build your product much faster.
  • Early-stage startups. The dedicated development team is the most reasonable option for fast-growing startups. The specialists there will help ensure that your project is headed in the right direction. They will take over the technical part so that you can focus on the core business-oriented activities and tasks.
  • Long-term project. To launch a complex software product successfully, you need a highly skilled team that will work on your solution from start to finish. The dedicated development team model guarantees such support along the way.
  • No clear requirements. The dedicated development team is exactly what you need if the product market fit and target audience are yet to be defined. This model will provide you with enough resources required for in-depth research.

When is hiring a dedicated development team not the best option?

Be aware that there are cases when you should think twice before deciding to hire a dedicated development team:

  • Short and middle-term projects. When the project scope is strictly defined, and requirements are clear, there is no sense in investing in dedicated development team services. As we have said before, the fixed price model will be a more suitable option in this case.
  • Limited time and budget. All your effort to get high-quality, dedicated development team services without adequate funding will be futile. Besides, your project may not need additional specialists such as DevOps engineers or business analysts. That is another case when the fixed price is preferable. 

Hiring a dedicated development team: pros and cons

To make the final decision regarding hiring a dedicated development team, we will provide you with the main strength of this format and the weaknesses you should bear in mind below. 

Advantages of hiring a dedicated development team

Expertise

By entrusting your software project to a dedicated software development team, you increase your chances of getting a high-quality solution that will satisfy your end-users and bring you a stable cash flow. 

The thing is that these specialists have already developed similar solutions so that they know what technologies, approaches, and functionality to offer. Furthermore, they can enrich your product with out-of-the-box ideas to help it stand out from the competitors.

Cost-effectiveness

It is not a secret that hiring a dedicated development team will cost you less compared to building and maintaining an in-house team. You do not have to pay salaries, sick leaves, holidays, and compensation. 

Besides, renting office space and purchasing expensive hardware and software is no longer necessary.

Furthermore, based on their relevant experience, a dedicated development team will offer you approaches and solutions to build your digital product in the most cost-effective way.

Greater flexibility and scalability 

Seamless flexibility is another strong reason why a dedicated development team is the best option for projects with changing scopes. You can easily increase or decrease the team size to accommodate your evolving business needs better.

Advantages of hiring a dedicated development team
Benefits of hiring a dedicated development team

Disadvantages of hiring a dedicated development team

Though the dedicated team model brings your business multiple benefits, this option is not flawless. Below you can see the main demerits of hiring a remote development team.

Selection problem

The number of software development companies offering dedicated team services is constantly growing. They have different sizes, experiences, technology stacks, and geographic locations. Businesses can choose any technology partner, from a small local software development agency to a big international software development consultancy. 

The same goes for technologies. You can opt for a vendor specializing in mature, proven technologies and emerging programming languages and frameworks.

This abundance of choices makes finding a dedicated software development team challenging.

Lack of in-person communication

Collaboration with a remote development team in another region leaves no room for in-person communication. Consequently, you have to rely on chats and emails. While they are fast and convenient ways of communication, there is always a risk of miscommunication.

Luckily, today we have numerous video conferencing tools such as Google Meet or Zoom that can successfully address this issue. They enable you to communicate face-to-face with the vendor and, thus, increase communication efficiency.

Cultural differences and time zone gaps

These are other issues that may arise in collaboration with a remote dedicated development team.

The issue of time difference can be fixed by finding the overlapping times when both the vendor and your team are available for communication.

As for the cultural differences, before you start collaborating with an offshore software development company, ensure that the dedicated software development team that will work on your solution is culturally compatible with your corporate culture and the culture of your target audience. 

How to choose a dedicated development team: a step-by-step guide

So you have decided that the dedicated development team model is beneficial for your business. Now you may wonder how to find one. To answer this question, we provided you with specific steps to hire dedicated developers for your software project. You can find them below:

Step 1. Conduct market research

Your first step is to collect and analyze information about major global companies offering dedicated development team services to find the most suitable one for your project. 

For a start, enter the “dedicated development team” keyword in Google and study the search engine results carefully. Visit the websites of the software development companies you find there. Research their Home pages to find out about the services offered, solutions delivered, approaches, industries, technology stack, etc.

Step 2. Study the company reviews

Suppose you have selected several potential technology partners for further consideration. Now you need to check customers’ testimonials to make the right choice. By reading social proofs, you will find out how the collaboration process went, what issues customers and the vendor faced (if any), and how the services delivered helped clients solve their issues and satisfy their needs.

You can search for customer testimonials on Google. Besides, software development companies often publish them on the company website. Finally, it would be a sound idea to visit rating and review platforms like Clutch that publish lists of the most reliable software development, marketing, and business services companies.

Step 3. Check the previous projects of the vendor

Another proven way to ensure the vendor’s expertise and qualifications is to check the portfolio on the company website. This way, you will better understand the projects they have delivered and the industries the vendor works with.

Apart from that, it would be helpful to visit platforms such as Behance and Dribble, where UI/UX designers showcase their works. Software development companies often publish their prototypes and clean designs there.

Step 4. Conduct an interview

So you have chosen a potential vendor. You have studied their case studies, customer testimonials, and reviews and were satisfied with the results. 

Now you need to interview the technical specialists you will partner with to test their hard and soft skills.

The hard skills include the profound knowledge of certain programming languages, frameworks, tools, and approaches required for building particular types of digital products. For example, if you are planning to hire a dedicated development company to make a mobile app, your vendor must have vast experience working with Kotlin and Swift.

As for soft skills, you should pay immediate attention to communication skills, creativity, conflict management, and teamwork.

Step 5. Sign the documents

This step implies signing the required documents to kick off the project. The main document is the contract, covering the full name of services, project timeline and cost, acceptance testing, intellectual property rights, and confidentiality.

Make sure that you own the source code. Thus, you will have the right to modify it as you wish. If the contract is terminated, you should own those pieces of code that had been completed by that time.

Besides, do not forget to sign a non-disclosure agreement or NDA to protect your information. This document regulates the processes of data collection, transfer, and access. When vendors sign this agreement, they undertake not to disclose the project details to unauthorized parties.

Step 6. Choose the right KPI

As the project progresses, you will need to measure the productivity and performance of your dedicated dev team. Key performance indicators, or KPI for short, will help you with this task. It would be a helpful practice to calculate the relevant KPIs at the project kick-off and check them at the end of each month to keep track of the project development.

Conclusion

We hope our extensive guide on the dedicated development team model will be helpful for you. Now you know the pros and cons of this format and the main reasons to consider hiring a remote team for your project.

If you are looking for a technology partner offering dedicated development team services, feel free to contact us. Syndicode is a digital transformation & products delivery company that builds online marketplaces, SaaS solutions,  LMS and CRM systems, and mobile applications. 

We will provide you with an expert, dedicated software development team that will eagerly transform your ideas into a working software solution.