Shift from Offshoring to Globally Distributed Engineering Teams

Steve Andriole, a business professor at Villanova University, has likened outsourcing to marriages, with a failure rate of 25% within two years and 50% within five years, as per Dunn & Bradstreet.

IT staff augmentation companies may hire temporary workers, freelancers, or contractors, outsourcing the work or project management to a business in another time zone. These methods often prioritise short-term, detached management of projects at the expense of a client’s objectives as the tasks may be entrusted to individuals without a strong commitment to long-term goals.

According to Andriole, cost-cutting is the driving force behind all outsourcing partnerships. However, managing projects and programmes poses the most significant challenges for these arrangements.

When clients outsource their software development to external providers, they are taking a significant risk by ceding control over the final product. According to Andriole, these companies essentially hand over the keys to their competitive kingdom. Before making the decision to outsource, it’s crucial to weigh the potential cost benefits against the risk of giving up ownership of the intellectual property.

Traditional Approaches to Outsourcing Software

The Software as a Service (SaaS) model, which emphasizes continuous integration and delivery, has made traditional outsourcing methods for software development obsolete. In this approach, software is never truly “finished,” as individual components are continuously refined and improved. Additionally, successful teams require regular members who possess specific skills, rather than temporary substitutes. However, finding highly skilled senior engineers can still be a challenge.

With the current shortage of engineers in North America, businesses must quickly adapt to a rapidly changing market. To address this issue, Upgraded Helping Hands has developed a new version (2.0) of their software outsourcing model aimed at providing internal software teams with highly skilled engineers capable of committing to long-term employment. These engineers are sourced from countries with abundant tech talent but limited job opportunities. The primary aim of Upgraded Helping Hands is to create strong, integrated teams capable of delivering superior products efficiently, in contrast to traditional outsourcing approaches that prioritize cost-cutting or using freelancers for staff augmentation.

Staff Augmentation 2.0: Building Globally Distributed Teams

Staff Augmentation 2.0 places a strong emphasis on delivering resources to help teams achieve exceptional results. In addition to hard skills, soft skills such as leadership, creativity, and problem-solving are also taken into consideration when assessing and prioritizing engineers. After the evaluation process, engineers are assigned to client teams that match their technical and cultural backgrounds. The staff augmentation company is ultimately responsible for managing and compensating the engineers. This allows companies in need of software developers to promptly engage skilled engineers while reducing operational expenses.

By utilizing Engineering Staff Augmentation 2.0, you’re not outsourcing work to an external company, but rather bringing in the expertise your team needs to achieve sustained success without the additional overhead of managing a full-time staff. This approach is ideally suited for agile, forward-thinking teams that prioritize continuous integration and delivery. Additionally, in the current environment, with pandemics and mandatory shelter-in-place orders, it is an excellent strategy to follow. Software engineers working for staff augmentation companies have experience collaborating with remote teams and developing software remotely.

Finding exceptional engineers, particularly those with the specialized skills and knowledge that a particular team requires, can be challenging. With Engineering Staff Augmentation 2.0, organizations have access to a pool of highly-qualified engineers who are prepared to contribute to their projects. This method makes it easier than ever to collaborate with developers from all over the world and benefit from a diverse range of expert knowledge, perspectives, and ideas. This differs from past outsourcing approaches, as it prioritizes the creation of robust, cohesive teams rather than relying solely on external sources for specific tasks.

You may also be interested in reading: Should You Hire Developers In-House or Outsource Them?

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