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Know About the Staff Augmentation Benefits in Detail Below
Building a team of tech professionals is quite a difficult job. It requires HR administrators to pay extra attention on hiring the right candidates. However, sometimes, the traditional hiring model do not works for companies. It happens due to various reasons in which short of budget is considered to be the biggest reason. That is where the need of staff augmentation arises, as it helps companies to quickly accommodate the vacant positions. Being a human resource professional, you must need to know what is staff augmentation and how it works to fill up various people spots under a tight deadline.
Nowadays, businesses are focusing to hire external teams to handle specific IT projects. They do this because of various reasons in which short of internal resources is termed to be the biggest reason. Besides that, overloaded work is also a big factor why companies choose external teams and software outsourcing services. The newly inducted teams however work very closely with the internal setup, so that every member can build a strong understanding with all the teams.
Generally, staff augmentation is preferred when companies are given a specific project for a short period of time. They take advantage of the outsourced teams to manage and complete different project tasks. That is how external resources takes off pressure from the internal teams, allowing them to focus purely on the existing projects.
In this article, we will discuss more about what is staff augmentation and why it is important for businesses. But, before jumping straight into its definition, let us first understand why growing businesses must need to have a place for external resources.
Why Businesses Need External Teams?
With the rising challenges in the business industry, every company must need to have a room for external resources. This has become necessary due to various reasons. First of all, it allows companies to manage various tasks easily. It simplifies their hassle to complete different projects that are bit technical by nature. The external teams are hired for this specific purpose, which is why they are also given a tight deadline. It is now their responsibility to complete the project within the given timeframe. Mostly, every project requirement is defined in advance, so that teams can also plan their work accordingly.
Besides this benefit, external staff augmentation assist companies to reduce pressure on their internal teams. It has been seen commonly in different companies that most of their employees are always engaged in different existing projects. In this scenario, any new project becomes unbearable for them, especially when the resources are short as well. This is the perfect case in which staff augmentation comes into play, allowing HR professionals to hire expert software developers for specific projects.
Those businesses that are related to the IT sector precisely need smart prior plans of external staff augmentation. The reason is that their internal software engineers are always lined up with different development tasks. Hence, the need of offsite teams becomes evident when any new project with a tight deadline comes suddenly. This is where staff augmentation fits best for IT companies in terms of managing various projects efficiently.
What is Staff Augmentation?
To understand staff augmentation, you must need to know why businesses often struggle to manage or complete software projects. It is very easy to understand only if you will look at the facts realistically. It happens many times that businesses struggle to complete the projects on given time. There are a lot of reasons behind this failure, but the one most commonly seen is the shortage of resources. It is a fact that no number can be termed definite to complete the team. The requirement of people always changes with the arrival of projects, hence companies can always go out of resources due to this very reason.
Now, coming to the main spot, many businesses do not know what is staff augmentation. They usually get caught in this type of situation, but because of having no knowledge about staff augmentation often fails to get to out of it. For these businesses, it is very important to know what is staff augmentation. It is basically a technique to hire web developers or teams for a specific period of time. These resources work coherently within the existing teams as one of their additional arms. This helps to streamline the project execution, allowing teams to complete different tasks quickly.
Here, it is important to understand that staff augmentation is different from project outsourcing. In this model, teams are hired for both onsite and offsite locations. They work by joining the team, rather than managing everything on their own. This helps companies in different ways, such as enhancing internal education, building a strong team pool and more others. It could be said that staff augmentation is more beneficial for companies as compared to project outsourcing if used smartly to hire talented people.
When to Choose Staff Augmentation Model?
Staff augmentation model should be chosen very wisely after seeing the emerging project scenario. It is not one of those things that you can randomly opt for without having any need. It does require proper analysis, as well as a thorough research of the market. If you will try to do anything in haste, then staff augmentation can only waste your capital resources. It is that type of model that should be chosen after analyzing the project, as well as the people available to manage it.
If you do not have much knowledge when this model should be chosen, take a look at the points given below. It will help you to understand the reasons on which you might need staff augmentation services.
Project Length
The analysis of a project length should always be done before starting to work on it. This practice is necessary because it lets you know number of things. First of all, it defines whether the project can be managed by your internal resources or not. Secondly, if it does, then how much lengthy the project is and whether allocating internal teams for a long time period would be a good idea or not. Most of the time, the second clause creates trouble for the companies, hence they try to manage that by taking staff augmentation services.
It has been commonly seen that companies hire expert .NET developers to manage lengthy projects. They know that their internal teams could go out of fire if lengthy projects are given to them. Hence, to control the situation proactively, they opt for external teams to manage these projects. It is certainly a right call that allows companies to reduce workload on internal teams.
Project Deadline
Having a tight project deadline is also one of the reasons why you should opt for staff augmentation. It is a common fact that suddenly accepted projects cannot be handled easily. They cannot be also replaced by existing ones, as they are also marked with a particular deadline. This makes confusion for management how to allocate resources for multiple projects. Obviously, every project is important, but the priority goes to them that have come with a close deadline.
To deal with this precarious situation, it is advised to take route of staff augmentation. It is the best way that allows you to manage new projects with relative ease. You don’t have to allocate any internal resources to these projects when external teams are hired. They can take care of the specific project on their own without disturbing any schedule of the internal teams. This makes them very handy for businesses, especially when they have got good management skills.
Enhance Internal Education
Sometimes, companies also take staff augmentation services to enhance the learning of their internal teams. They clearly want to take advantage of the experience and skills of the skilled market professional by inducting them into the existing teams for four to six months. It is indeed a nice strategy to enhance the internal talent pool by inviting industry’s trained professionals. They provide valuable knowledge to young guys, as how to manage deadline, learn new development methodologies and more other helpful tricks.
Considering the short time period of these external resources, it is a good idea to build a strong internal team plan as long as they are working in the office. It is a tried and tested method that allows your juniors to learn from the very best by working side by side. This is how every great team builds, provided they are given the right platform.
Types of Staff Augmentation
Staff augmentation is divided into different types. This is precisely done to let the business owners understand what type of IT project outsourcing they require for their business. If you do not know about these types, take a look at the categories defined below.
Commodity
Commodity is one of the most common names in staff augmentation services. It refers to a model in which companies hire temporary workers to complete any specific project. This hiring is done for a very limited timeframe, aimed to just complete the project or task that has been assigned with a tight deadline. Mostly companies go for this model because it fits best to their needs.
Skilled
Another staff augmentation type refers to hiring those professionals that are skilled in particular areas. In this model, organizations have to first identify the skillset they require for the given job. Based on that, they can hunt for the right candidates that fits suitable for the role. It will lead to a skill-based hiring, allowing organizations to briefly look for appropriate work expertise.
Highly Skilled
Going one-notch above the basic skills level, managers now need to perform staff augmentation by looking at advanced skills. These properties are not present in every single person, as most of them have intermediate experience. To manage critical projects, you need to find highly-skilled people who can take care of those jobs efficiently. This type of staff augmentation requires an eagle eye to find the right people from the market.
Final Words
That takes us to the end of this article in which we have discussed what is staff augmentation services in detail. Being a business owner, you must need to know about this technique because it comes very handy in managing advanced level projects. We all know that every organization can face shortage of resources at different times. To handle that, you must need to know what is staff augmentation and how does it work to fulfil that gap in your company efficiently.
Meanwhile, if you are looking for top class software outsourcing services, get in touch with us today. We have got plenty of skilled developers who can help to manage your software project as per the given demands.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
| Why is staff augmentation important? There are many reasons why staff augmentation is important. First of all, it helps to manage critical projects when the internal resources are short or less skilled. Secondly, it enhances the internal education of employees by bringing in top industry talent. |
| What is the difference between staff augmentation and freelancing? There are many differences between staff augmentation and freelancing. Staff augmentation brings the external resources straight into your team, whereas freelancers are not part of your company. They are just assigned particular projects for a limited time and budget. |
| What are the different types of staff augmentation? Staff augmentation has been divided into different types. From commodity to skilled and highly skilled, these categories are made to simplify outsourcing hassles for various companies. |
| What are the staff augmentation benefits? Staff augmentation offers a lot of benefits to the companies. It gives them ease to handle new projects that have come under a tight deadline. Furthermore, it also reduces pressure from the internal teams by letting them focus on the existing projects. |