Team Extension Model

Team extension, often referred to as staff augmentation, is a strategy for integrating highly skilled technology professionals into an existing in-house development team to enhance the value of specific projects. This approach leverages external expertise in the extended team model to bolster the internal staff, particularly when there's a deficiency of certain software development skills needed for complex tasks.

Rather than working in isolation, outstaffed team members are seamlessly woven into the internal team, sharing equal responsibility for the success of the product. This model facilitates effective control over the developers through well-established communication channels.

Advantages of Staff Augmentation

• Global Talent Accessibility: Staff augmentation allows for the selection of top-tier experts globally, enhancing your company’s competitive edge.
• Cost Efficiency: Employing external software engineers can reduce costs associated with employee salaries, retirement benefits, and insurance, while maintaining software quality.
• Rapid Staff Scaling: The model offers swift and efficient recruitment of specialized talent tailored to your project’s evolving needs.
• Complete Project Control: Augmentation grants you full oversight of the development process, including budget, quality, and timelines.
• Quality Assurance: The augmentation partner assumes full responsibility for service quality, ensuring your project meets desired standards.
• Objective Insights and Advice: External professionals can provide unbiased opinions, suggest improvements, and identify errors potentially overlooked due to internal biases.

When to Opt for Team Extension?

Team extension is ideal for enhancing your internal software engineering team with new talent. It’s particularly beneficial when:

• Your team lacks specific development skills or expertise.
• Local developer rates are prohibitively high.
• Your internal team is preoccupied with crucial tasks, and you need external experts for unique project challenges.
• Your project’s complexity requires additional developers to accelerate progress.
• Your team size is insufficient to meet project deadlines.
• There’s a need to hire top professionals within a specific budget and timeframe.

Implementing Team Augmentation

To integrate an extended team, you need to select a suitable vendor for seamless integration of outstaffed developers into your internal team.

Integration Process

1. Planning: Establish the project scope, development needs, and necessary skills.
2. Candidate Screening and Interviews: Based on project requirements, the vendor selects and assesses candidates with the required technical and soft skills.
3. Team Onboarding: Align the extended team with the company’s methodologies and development cycle.
4. Scaling and Support: Adapt the team size as project needs evolve, adding or removing developers as necessary.