How to Hire a Dedicated Software Development Team

First of all, you need to understand the whole concept. A dedicated software development team is a business model that involves hiring technical experts from a vendor for your project. Dedicated teams generally do not cooperate with internal staff and are managed from the client-side.

Clients can choose engineers based on their skills and the project’s technology stack. They can manage the contracted team alone or cooperate through the supplier’s project manager.

When do you need a dedicated software development team?

A dedicated team is the best option when you need a team of technical specialists for specific tasks. It is often used for side projects and to relieve stress on the main team. Also, this template is useful when a project does not have well-defined requirements.

Three main points indicate that you need a dedicated software development team:

Budgetary limitations

Hiring internal developers can be too expensive for startups and small businesses. Engineer salaries are high, while the hiring process also requires resources. Dedicated specialists are always ready to intervene on the project and cost less than their internal colleagues.

Delays

It takes a long time to staff your own team. Even though recruiters are looking for talent all day and finding candidates with the required experience, they may not be a good fit for the company with soft skills or a cultural fit. So if you have strict time limits, you better find a dedicated software team. You don’t need to spend a lot of time recruiting, while the hired specialists will go to work under your command.

Direct management

With a dedicated team model, you can gain full control over the specialists you hire. With other outsourcing models, you will cooperate with project managers.

Preparational steps to follow before hiring a team

Before contacting a dedicated software development team, there are several important steps you need to take. To hire a team, you need to be well prepared and understand the requirements of your project. So let’s go over the tips that make the hiring process easier.

Market study

If you are a startup owner, you should have a clear idea of ​​what your project will look like and what problems it will solve. You can’t just hire a dedicated software team and expect them to create high-quality software based on fuzzy expectations and unclear requirements.

Also, for the sake of your own project, you need to analyze your competition and make your product unique. Do not make a complete copy of other software. Your product will most likely be overshadowed by the one with the most users and the best app store rankings. Only products that add value to users will be successful.

Also, find out about the company you are hiring. Use the services listed above to explore customer reviews and view their portfolio to gauge the experience. A dedicated software development team is the key to any startup’s success. On the other hand, if you have a well-established company and need a dedicated developer to complement your existing team, review their resumes and decide if their experience is enough to keep up with the in-house team.

Platforms

Depending on the platform, developers will use different technology stacks. Therefore, to find a team that can develop the required software, you have to decide the platforms in advance. The two most common platforms our developers work for are Android and iOS. Also, your software may have a web version and different applications for Android / Apple TV, portable devices, and desktop versions.

Dedicated software development teams use Java / Kotlin for Android and Objective-C for iOS. In addition, there is also the option to create a cross-platform application. This development approach can save you resources due to the improved development speed. While native developers will complete the Android version, cross-platform developers will have the Android and iOS versions ready.

Feature list

As a product owner, you must provide a preliminary list of features to a dedicated software development team. Developers need to know what tasks they will face to understand if they can deliver a quality solution. The list of initial characteristics is approximate and can be changed after contacting business analysts. After estimation, the software may seem too expensive and some features will be excluded.

Also, business analysts can give you some tips on features. Some of the initial functions may be unnecessary for your application, while others may be replaced by those that require less development time. The main goal of business analysts is to help the product owner create a plan for future software that meets customer needs and fits within budget frameworks.

How do you choose the right dedicated software team?

After all the steps you’ve already taken, it’s time to get in touch with the team and discuss your project. This step is the best time to realize if this business can meet your expectations and create a unique product. Let’s divide this process into several parts and examine each of them.

Initial video conference

During the first contact, you must clearly explain the requirements of your project. Based on the information you provide, the company will establish a dedicated software development team. Depending on the number of specialists you need, the time to organize a team varies.

For example, if you need multiple developers, the company can assign them right away. However, if you need a team of 20 engineers with different skills and experience, it takes more time.

The company may not have as many vacant developers at this time. In that case, your technology partner can research bosses, interview, and hire new developers to build a dedicated software development team for you in the shortest time possible. While it appears that the process can be slow, it is still faster and cheaper than hiring developers yourself. Plus, you don’t have to worry about new workplaces, hardware, and onboarding processes.

When the company informs you that the team is armed, you can request the CVs of the members and interview each of them personally. However, if you do not have technical experience, you can hire an independent technical consultant. However, we have created a list of questions for interviews with software specialists:

• Node.js programmers technical skills
• Technical skills of JavaScript programmers
• Angular programmers
• Frontend programmers
• Android application developers
• IOS developers
• Flutter programmers

Discuss business needs with a dedicated software team

When your team is organized, you need to educate members about your business goals and describe your business in detail. Share with them the results of the competitor analysis, talk about your target audience and explain all the details related to the software. It is important to keep the new members of your team aligned with each other. Remember, even though your dedicated software development team is in multiple time zones from you, they are still a part of your business. That is why to get the most out of cooperation, you should treat a dedicated team as part of your internal team.

Host an offline meeting

An offline meeting is the best opportunity to get to know your team better and understand your company’s workflow. A one-on-one meeting allows you to establish a strong bond with your dedicated software team and better understand the strengths and weaknesses of your employees. Also, if you are satisfied with the team, an offline meeting is the best opportunity to discuss cooperation aspects and sign the contract.

There are several options for organizing a personal meeting. You can visit the partner’s country on your own or invite him to visit your country. Although it can be expensive, it will be a worthwhile investment.

Establish a communication bridge

Finally, you need to organize stable communication between your dedicated software development team and an internal team. First of all, your internal team needs to understand that dedicated developers are your colleagues, so they should treat remote developers equally. If internal developers feel superior, a dedicated team is likely to feel left out, and this can affect the quality of cooperation.

Also, pay attention to communication channels. If any questions arise from your dedicated software team, there should be an easy way to contact an internal employee who can clarify the issues. Based on our experience, we can recommend Slack for team cooperation. It is a simple application for business communication with great functionality.

Also, you should introduce the senior managers from both sides and explain how they will distribute the workload. It is essential to distribute the tasks well so that each employee knows their responsibilities and does not take over another employee.

How to manage a dedicated software development team

Finally, it is time to discuss organizational matters. There are different aspects of managing the work of employees located in different parts of the world. But with the right tools and the right approach, your workflow won’t be much different from your internal work.

Video conference

If you are going to manage the team through the supplier’s project managers, conference calls are the key to successful cooperation. The project manager will oversee the work of the dedicated software development team, provide their requirements to the engineers, and keep you informed of the project status. When hiring a team, make sure the supplier’s project managers have strong English skills as they are the ones who will always be in contact with you.

On the other hand, if you have decided to manage the team yourself, you will get in touch with the superiors of your team. Suppose you have hired several Android specialists, QA, and design departments. In this way, you will stay in contact with each employee responsible for each department to keep abreast of the status of the project. This approach requires more time and effort, so we recommend that you hire a project manager who will provide you with all the information you need faster.

Use project management tools

Today’s market offers various tools to organize the workflow of your employees and make all processes transparent. Slack is one of the best communication tools between employees. Provide your employees with all the functionality they may need. Video calls and audio calls, text chats, image sharing, channel sharing, and syncing with Google services will help your employees cooperate effectively and solve problems faster.
The next collaboration tools are Jira and Trello. These tools help dedicated software development teams implement an agile software development methodology. Now project managers can divide a large task into several smaller tasks and assign them to developers. Engineers can find their tasks on Kanban boards and track the time spent on each task. With access to Jira, you can track the daily activity of each developer and see the changes in your project.

As for document management, Google’s G Suite will be more than enough. Google provides an all-in-one solution for creating presentations, collaborating on documents, creating tables, and storing created files.