IT Staff Augmentation Challenges That You Can Start Solving Today

Businesses around the world are realizing the importance of the custom software for the modern business world. Moreover companies of all sizes are building enterprise cloud software and other apps to use internally that resulted into an intense pressure to develop high-quality applications quickly. Therefore, many businesses have moved their ways towards IT staff augmentation for scaling their existing staff and launching their products into the market at a rapid pace.

Now, as more and more businesses are choosing staff augmentation has led to the staff augmentation service providers to meet the increasing demand. And there some common roadblocks that you might face when you augment your staff.

So, here’s full-fledged insight about those IT staff augmentation challenges and proactive solutions to implement to ensure that your customers remain happy.

1. Communication

The first and foremost challenge of IT staff augmentation is certainly communications in most of the cases. It can be said that poor communication lies at the heart of failed projects. And the explanation for that is that the service provider and outsourcing companies are located in different locations. There will be expectations and dissatisfaction with the ultimate product because of the communication barrier.

Then, what to do?

Don’t worry! There is a solution for every problem so does this challenge.

The best technique to avoid communication barriers is to have a solid communication plan from the start. Ensure that your service provider has communication protocol and commitments are flourished in writing for ensuring surprises down the line.

You should utilize all the collaboration & communication tools so that your project development process goes in a smooth manner.

• Task management tool (Trello, Jira, Visual Studio Online)
• Messenger tools (Slack, Skype, HipChat, Telegram)
• Video conferencing tool (Skype, Zoom, Hangouts, Slack)
• Continuous integration tool (Jenkins, CircleCI, TeamCity)
• Source code repository (GitLab, Github, Bitbucket)

With the use of communication tools you can have the clear idea about the progress of your projects so that you and your project development team will be on the same page. Seems easy !

2. Culture and location

Eliminating the cultural gap is a challenge that is quite tied to communication. Many times You feel that there can be unwanted hindrances to the project because of the Huge distances between locations and time zone differences.

But, if you tackle these challenges appropriately, these cultural and timezone gaps can be managed perfectly. First of all ensure that the outsourcing vendor has an adequate level of expertise in English to eliminate the cultural breach. Therefore, it will be a wiser choice to speak to your outsourcing partner in person like some form of video chat , instead of just email conversations. Typically these kinds of outsourcing vendors are always ready to have video calls where your future staff you will augment will also be present. For overcoming the time zone differences, synchronizing both in-house & augmented teams and scheduling meetings is a better way.

So, while partnering with staff augmentation company, coordinate well & set up the optimal hours for scheduling meetings beforehand. Thus your augmented staff will have sufficient time to attend the meeting and continue with their work undisrupted.

3. Cost and ROI

Let me guess the questions you will be probably asking yo yourself;

• How fast will my new augmented staff adopt my workflow, practices & tools?
• How much will I be spending before they can do the job for what I’m paying for?
• Will this investment be worthwhile for me — or would I just grow my in-house team?

I agree that these questions are important & difficult indeed. But, when you go for IT staff augmentation services there is an answer for all your questions. Usually these agencies work with various clients & technologies therefore those outsourced developers will be familiar with the most up-to-date development tools and practices.

Now, let’s come to the main point that is the cost. You will be paying for the number of hours developers will work for you. On the other hand, let’s take a look at the cost you will incur with the in-house team; Infrastructure, Health Insurance, Retirement benefits, developers compensation, legal requirements and what not! These are just basics. Don’t forget about training & development and other benefits for creating pleasant work environment for your in-house staff.

Now, which option looks better? With staff augmentation you are free from all of these headaches and you just need to integrate the new augmented staff with your in-house staff at a much reduced cost!

Additional benefit with outsourced teams is that you can scale up or down your team as per your requirements. Augmented staff will join your team and as well as leave your team easily. Plus, when you again need more staff in future, you can easily partner with the outsourcing company.

4. Mismatched Expectations

Software development process requires a sheer amount of work. Mangers spend a lot of time in the conceptualization, integrating the right team and testing the quality of software to the point where the final product meets all the end-user requirements. That is the reason why failure is such a disheartening probability.

Mismatched expectations have been the reason for many executives to face failure in their first outsourcing venture. That means, the customer and their augmented teams are having different understanding of how the end product should look and function.

To overcome this challenge and to reduce the chances of getting failed in any outsourcing arrangement, you should communicate clear expectations with your staff augmentation partner from the beginning.

What you need to do is to conduct thorough research about potential companies while taking into consideration factors such as past record, client feedback, and communication record. Once you make the decision for choosing the IT staff augmentation company, make sure to document–in writing–the parameters of the project, response deadlines, and communication schedule.

When you choose the best staff augmentation company, you will get all the updates in the early stages of the project development so that you can get the clear idea about whether they are on the right track and set up for success.

5. Quality of Service

One of the biggest fears you will face while choosing IT staff augmentation services is the quality of services. You may feel that the outsourcing vendor’s work will not meet the standard quality. That’s the reason why quality of service should be your prior concern for you when searching for an IT staff augmentation partner. Because if you overlook this, you might face thousands of lines of incorrect code, cost overruns, project delays & major security vulnerabilities for your customers.

To have the best quality of services and succeed in software development goals, you need to perform due diligence and thorough research of potential staff augmentation companies

You can make your choice of staffing partner after evaluating with criteria like company’s past clients feedback, past projects they have worked on, skills of the developers etc. Only augment your staff from a particular company when you have verified the quality of service.

Wrapping Up

IT staff augmentation is a wonderful choice for you while building custom software destined for your customers & for internal use. However, it is important that you complete your due diligence prior signing a contract with a IT staff augmentation vendor. A poor staff augmentation partner will lead to frustration and unsatisfactory final product.

Though you may feel that there might be various challenges when you go for IT staff augmentation but you are just required to take some things into consideration and you will get all the fruits of IT staffing. Make sure to communicate better, ensure that both parties have the same expectations, and conduct a thorough research before selecting the staffing partner. All these steps will ensure your software development project is set up for success!

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7 Most Common Myths About IT Staff Augmentation Services Debunked