However, as with any engagement model out there, it is not universal for all projects. Business and startup clients need to understand this model's peculiarities before using it for a particular case. Let’s review the ways in which the dedicated team won’t work and overview the benchmarks for not picking the model.
What Is A Dedicated Development Team?
A dedicated team is a business model of cooperation between a service provider and a client. The latter hires a team of software developers and other specialists for their projects. Unlike in-house developers, dedicated teams can work in another country or region and don’t require administrative and legal oversight.
When clients hire dedicated development teams, they can obtain exclusive resources focusing on the required tasks with little supervision. A service provider handles talent sourcing, recruiting, and onboarding and builds the entire team as per the project’s requirements. They take care of team retention, motivation, and each member’s professional development as well.
The client can have full control over the deliverables and negotiate the desired reporting and communication routines. As a result, the decision to hire a dedicated development team breeds a transparent partnership between a service provider and a client where a team serves as a standalone unit with little dependence on an in-house staffing hierarchy.
When A Dedicated Team Model Can Fail
The dedicated team model won’t work out when you:
1. Choose A Company Without Proper Research
The essence of hiring a dedicated development team is entrusting an outside service provider with the task of finding specialists, assigning responsibilities, and making them work as a whole without disruptions. Before selecting such a model, you need to be sure that a chosen vendor can deliver on a promise and make everything possible to attain your business goals. However, if you don’t invest time in researching the options, it may lead to mistrust issues and affect the project’s progress.
2. Outsource Core Functions
Another vital benchmark for not choosing to hire a dedicated development team is when you lack specialists to support and develop your essential tasks. Delegating core functions to an outside vendor won’t do a favor to your competitive advantage. Instead, it is necessary to focus on your primary offering and assign third-party developers with non-essential tasks.
3. Have No Clearly Stated Objectives
It is easy to lose focus and motivation for remote and distributed teams when there is no alignment between the overall strategy and day-to-day workflow. If you fail to keep everyone on the dedicated team on track and guide them towards a common goal, it can quickly lose focus and erode with time.
4. Have No Adherence To The Agile Methodology
Agile teams can deliver long-term projects with evolving requirements by developing high-priority features step by step. The dedicated team model works when there is flexibility in a constantly changing environment and room for regular feedback from real-life users.
5. Set Unrealistic Deadlines Or Have Short-Term And Simple Projects
Another point is defining the type of the project and its duration. The ultimate goal of the dedicated team model is to cater to long-term and large projects that require a constant need for quality outcomes. In other cases, it is better to use other engagement models or hire freelancers.
6. Face Communication Or Cultural Hurdles
In a remote-first setup, dedicated developers rely on organized communication using online tools. Additionally, the hired team can work in faraway locations and have different work styles, language peculiarities, and business practices. Failure to set proper communication patterns can lead to ongoing misunderstanding and alienation of certain individuals.
7. Have A Lack Of Motivation And Support
Dedicated specialists are strong team members that can stay productive and laser-focused on your tasks despite working on another continent. However, internal specialists may start to feel superior to outside developers. Dedicated developers can lose motivation to work with your in-house team when treated as outsiders.
Final Word On Dedicated Development Teams
The practice shows that it is essential to know how to hire software developers. But it is even more critical to choose the most suitable engagement model. You need to be sure a dedicated development team model is right for the project and use the benchmarks above to finalize your decision.
