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HOW TEAM AUGMENTATION CAN HELP WITH PROJECT SCALABILITY IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
The talent shortage crisis has significantly worsened in recent years, particularly in developed countries like the United States of America. For instance, according to a recent study, about 85 million jobs could go unfilled in the coming years due to an increasing global talent shortage. Apart from the growing talent shortage, many companies are understaffed. This means that the expertise of their staff cannot fully undertake specific technical or large-scale projects. Such situations can be detrimental to the growth of a business. Staff augmentation was primarily developed to solve this problem. Essentially, companies that are short on staff expertise can easily "augment" available expertise. This will help such companies undertake projects that would have ordinarily been impossible to undertake on the strength of available staff.
There are undoubtedly numerous benefits companies stand to gain from staff augmentation. However, before getting into the intricacies of such benefits, let's clarify what staff augmentation entails.
What is Staff Augmentation?
Staff augmentation is an outsourcing strategy where a company hires external personnel temporarily. It is a staffing model that enables businesses to add skilled and experienced professionals to their teams without giving full-time commitment. As the software development industry continues to change rapidly, the skills needed to compete effectively are also evolving. This means that companies have to adapt the expertise of their workforce to the changing needs of the industry.
However, this will require large-scale capital investment, which many companies cannot afford. Thus, staff augmentation provides such companies with the option to hire skilled workers (temporarily) to fill their skill gaps and scale their projects. The staff augmentation strategy became popular during the outbreak of the pandemic. Many companies were trying to adapt to the new normal, and skill shortages were rife. In no time, specific providers started to offer highly skilled and experienced workers to ease the shocks experienced by these understaffed companies. Today, staff augmentation remains a widespread phenomenon because the skill gaps persist, and companies have to find ways to navigate them.
How Staff Augmentation Promotes Project Scalability
One of the significant upsides of staff augmentation is that it promotes project scalability. There are instances where companies need to undertake large-scale projects in order to expand. However, their ability to execute such expansion plans is often hampered by the limited expertise of their staff. In this case, staff augmentation helps such companies significantly expand their workforce and scale their projects to support operational expansion. However, apart from the added workforce that staff augmentation provides, there are other ways through which it supports project scalability. Some of such ways include the following:
1
Saving Time and Costs
Staff augmentation enables companies to hire for shorter periods. This also means that companies do not have to expend potentially productive hours on extensive recruitment exercises. This saves time and ensures that the company's work hours are put to productive use. On the other hand, staff augmentation reduces project costs. As stated earlier, if a company intends to execute a large-scale project and it lacks the resources to undertake full-time hiring, staff augmentation allows such a company to hire experienced professionals without the costly commitment of full-time hiring. Such pricey commitments include insurance costs, social security, and tax expenses.
2
Access to a Larger Talent Pool
Staff augmentation gives you access to a vast talent pool unrestricted by geographical limitations. Many staff augmentation providers regularly hire the best professionals from hiring coverages that extend to numerous regions, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. This provides you with a diverse and highly competent capable enough to deliver a quality project.
3
Objective Project Evaluation
The success of every project is driven by fresh, objective, and unbiased insight. However, it might be challenging to get such insight from your existing workforce. This is because many of them are likely familiar with the processes your company adopts. Thus, they might be desensitized to errors or improvement opportunities. Staff augmentation provides your company with new staff that can deploy the "third eye" needed to set your project right.
4
More Room to Focus on Strategic Decisions
Staff augmentation significantly solves your cost and human capital concerns on your project. This gives you ample opportunity to focus on devising strategies to push your product to the market and achieve your goals for the project.
Tips for Choosing a Staff Augmentation Provider
Identify Your Company's Needs
This step cannot be overlooked. This is because you cannot effectively outsource your staffing needs without knowing precisely what those needs are. Thus, you can work closely with your human resources department and staff in technical roles to understand where your skill gaps exist. The skill gaps could be the lack of frontend developers, designers, or even project managers. When you ultimately identify your needs, let them be the basis for your choice of a staff augmentation partner.
Research the Agency's Competencies
You must be sure that the agency you eventually opt for is competent enough to deliver highly skilled professionals guaranteed to deliver quality output. Look through the portfolio of your prospects, and check out their past clients and reviews. This will give you enough information to decide whether or not to hire them.
Prioritize Security
Security is a vital and indisputable aspect of any form of outsourcing. You must ensure that your staff augmentation partner takes proper precautions to ensure data security. This will prevent avoidable security breaches that could potentially leak sensitive data. At You Digital, we are particularly intentional about implementing data protection measures. We also conduct background checks on staff to prevent data compromise.
Limit Language and Cultural Barriers
While an international talent outlook can be beneficial, language and cultural barriers can pose a massive problem for your project. Thus, endeavor to opt for staff augmentation providers with a company culture that generally resonates with yours.
Conclusion
Staff augmentation has proven to be a beneficial strategy for companies seeking skilled talent. However, companies that intend to explore the staff augmentation option must conduct due diligence to ensure that they opt for the most suitable providers.
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