Why Your Business Needs an Extended Development Team?

Let’s take a deeper look at why extended teams exist, for what tasks find out how such a software development team structure we offer can be useful for your business.

The Extended Software Development Team

There are various remote teams of specialists that you can hire to work for your company. They all differ in purpose, functions, and interaction scheme. But what is the extended team meaning? Unfortunately, there is no only one precise extended team definition. Each company can identify its own characteristics of such teams, but the main features are that their work is not built around a specific project. That is, when work on a project ends, the interaction of your main and extended team continues.

So, what’s the difference between the extended team web development and the in-house team? An in-house team is a great thing because they fully share the culture of the company in which they work. They have an understanding, common goals, and values that unite all employees. Moreover, the closer the team works with the company’s products, the more they feel and share responsibility for everything that happens. People more closely perceive criticism, reviews about the product, they are more worried about its quality and customer experience. In addition, each team member plays an important role in organizing the workflow. Each expert in the team is an important detail of the overall mechanism. You have much more control and the ability to make changes and check the status of each task.

What is an extended team? This is your ongoing support that does not replace the staff in the in-house team but fills the gaps in the skills that are necessary to perform everyday work. In addition, communication is not complicated because the main and additional teams can work together smoothly. Control over the project remains at the same level as if only in-house specialists working on it. Based on this, it can be said that each team member, whether internal or external, bears an equal share of responsibility for completing tasks, keeping deadlines, and quality. There are some pros and cons of the extended team model.

pros and cons of the extended team model

Extended Team Model

According to Webinerds Extended Team Model (ETM) is a customized model of interaction aimed to build an additional bridge to access the software development resources of a vendor, which is located offshore, by creating a partnership. Unlike other forms, an ETM based team continue working after the project is finished.

The use of foreign colleagues in extended team collaboration scheme can be extremely useful. While the main team will be busy with key processes being in the main location, the additional team will work on secondary tasks from anywhere in the world. At the same time, communication is as straightforward as possible without unnecessary intermediaries. It helps to put an extended team service on the same level with local colleagues and to simplify work on everyday tasks. The less time spent on setting the task or sending the message and responding to it as a whole, the faster and better the work goes.

What are the benefits of the extended software team model for the business? Well, besides all of the above, it is convenient for the rapid development and expansion of a business. You do not need to spend time and resources on finding additional specialists in your core team, expand your office, and train or test the competence of each new employee. The whole world is open for you to hire extended development team staff and the best employees with advanced skills specifically for your projects will be able to take vacant positions. Startups will be able to hire experienced veterans of the IT sector and use their potential to the fullest in the short term. It is much easier and more convenient than infinitely staffing your home office with new employees just because the control over the implementation of tasks is supposedly higher.

The extended software team model is popular in small startups who have received huge investments and are not willing to spend most of the money on renting an office and creating working conditions for a huge team. A wiser decision would be to find a ready-made software extended team anywhere in the world and then continue to work on the extended team software development of the product with a friendly initial company. In addition, the model is used by large companies that do not want to hire even more employees and deal with issues of additional management and reporting. It is easier to create a remote expanded team that will communicate directly with the main one and will be able to help in case of process overloads or rearrangements in task prioritization.

When Do You Need an Extended Software Development Team?

There are a few basic cases when it is worth asking for help from an extended team. First, when the core team is working on an important project and you do not want to divert more experienced specialists to perform less important minor tasks and reduce overall work efficiency. To do this, it will be easier for you to hire a small extended software development team that can cheaply and reliably take these patches on yourself and does everything you need.

Secondly, if you understand that the skills of your core team are not enough to perform a specific task and there is a certain gap in skills that do not fill anything except hiring new employees or finding an extended team. To do this, you can find only those professionals whose skillset will cover the shortage and help you in successful work on the project.

Thirdly, if your company has grown and it needs expansion, but there is no rush to hire new people to the main team. You can always check whether the company is ready for new tasks and increase the flow of customers, problems, and workflows. The expanded team will be able to take on part of the task and thus increase the possible burden on other specialists and management.

In addition, it happens that your regular customer ordered the development of a large-scale project from you and your entire core team is busy with other equally important things. In this case, it is better to widen extended team responsibilities than to refuse a regular customer and risk losing experience, income, reputation, and the customer himself. There are two solutions to the problem. You find an extended command that works on a specific task before it is completed. Or are you this team working on the client’s project until the moment until you need to be free? You need the number of people from the main team who can take care of everything.

hire extended development team

Key Benefits of Hiring Extended Teams

Constant direct communication between all members of the primary and extended teams affects the ability to control workflow. You can know the clear balance of time and effort and distribute tasks between team members to maximize efficiency. Each group of people can work synchronously and without interruption in the processes.

Your core team can easily delegate all minor projects to an additional team. This will help not to distract them from completing key tasks or fill holes in the necessary skills in working on some projects without additional recruitment.

Each member of the primary and secondary team contributes to the development of the company, its success, and shares responsibility for the tasks performed. Each business development cycle depends on the individual investment of team members.

Involving additional specialists instead of replacing allows you to maintain stable workflows. This will help not to slow down the speed of work on projects and improve the interaction between the teams and their members as people gradually get used to each other and working together.

Options to Hire Extended Development Team

Before you find the perfect team extension for yourself is better to prepare the ground for work. First, determine the project that the team will work on or which tasks will be delegated to it. This will help you know which skill sets the team members to need to cover in order to successfully complete the task. Secondly, determine the best candidates. Since the ability to recruit staff in such teams is not limited to the borders of a country, you can choose for yourself the best options available to them. Identify key characteristics such as experience, skills, value, and begin recruiting. When a team is formed, it is necessary to integrate it and smoothly connect it to the main workflow. The faster the main and additional teams get along with each other and are involved in the work process, the better it will be for the company.

For many companies, the key to improving project work has been the development of team members. Of course, every time you can find all the new additional teams and endlessly delegate to them secondary tasks. But ultimately this will lead to a constant process of getting employees accustomed to each other, perpetual tuning of communication and complications of management. If, however, the necessary skills of already established team members who have experience in the company’s projects are developed, this can significantly save time and resources in finding new teams and integrating them into the workflow.

Extremely profitable option to work with extended teams is Ukraine. The country is known for its incredible potential in the field of IT and there is never a shortage of specialists. Every year, universities graduate tens of thousands of technical specialists who are ready to use their skills for the benefit of any IT project, company or startup. They win prestigious contests and coding competitions around the world, which once again prove the profitability of investments in Ukraine. The absolute majority of them are fluent in English because there will be no problems with setting up communication. And the most important advantage of work here is an affordable price. Here the work of a specialist is much cheaper than in the United States and some European countries, although the experience and skill set may be much more progressive and developed. Of course, there are cheaper options for hired employees like guys from India and China, but they will be much inferior in quality.

Hire Extended Development Team in Mobilunity

The Mobilunity will help to extend your team without loss of efficiency in your work processes. You do not need to spend time and resources on the selection and integration of new best employees, because our experts will do it for you at a reasonable price. All you need to do is contact us — extended team consultants — and specify all the necessary details of the project to grow development team. We make our clients happy around the world and our experience makes it easy to create the best possible teams for each individual project.

We will cope with absolutely any request. We will be able to hire extended development team of experienced professionals for you or to find one purposeful promising specialist who will be ready to develop any of the areas of your business. In addition, we understand that in the modern world, a delay is like death and we will do everything so that your request to find the right people is fulfilled as soon as possible.

Ready to hire an extended development team? Contact Mobilunity and we will help to achieve your business goals!

All salaries and prices mentioned within the article are approximate NET numbers based on the research done by our in-house Recruitment Team. Please use these numbers as a guide for comparison purposes only and feel free to use the contact form to inquire on the specific cost of the talent according to your vacancy requirements and chosen model of engagement.

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