Signs You Should Hire an External Team
The benefits of an external team are clear, but how do you know if it is time to hire one?
Typically, bringing in an external development team is the solution to a problem that crops up in your development process. Whether you have your own development team in–house, are trying to build one, or have never thought of touching software development before, an external team could be the answer to your woes.
When to Turn to an External Team
An external development team could be the answer to a number of problems in your development cycle. You may already have a strong, dedicated development team, but just need more bandwidth – or specific skill sets your team lacks. You may be considering building your own or expanding your current team but realize that that is actually pretty difficult. Or, maybe, your company has never had to have software developed before and, you don’t even know where to start.
Pain points can crop up in all of these scenarios, and a good external software dev team can often be the answer. Here are a few problems that we often see our customers trying to address when they bring us on as an external development team.
Lacking Bandwidth
You may already have a development team, but an external team can still help. Have any of the following scenarios happened to you?
- An important customer demands a new feature, but delivering it would derail your roadmap.
- Your current team is skilled in a given technology, and bringing them up to speed on a new necessary or desirable teach would take too long.
- Your team is focused on the main product, but an adjunct product or tool still needs to be delivered.
- Your work is “lumpy” – sometimes you need much more bandwidth than normal, but not often enough that you can staff to that level.
An external development team can help you tackle projects outside of your current team’s bandwidth, whether that’s creating a new feature for a client, a less important though necessary tool, or something with a new technology that your team doesn’t have time to learn. You may consider partnering with an external software development group to be on-call for these small roadblocks.
Hiring Trouble
Whether you already have a team established or you are trying to build one from scratch, you know that hiring can be extremely difficult. Here are some common problems our clients face.
- They want to build or expand their team, but finding good developers is a huge challenge.
- Too many boom-bust cycles makes them hesitant to hire more employees, even though they need more manpower.
- They have tried to hire offshore team members or consultants, but found that managing them is a full-time job.
Though hiring can be a huge challenge, Calavista can quickly put together strong offshore teams because we have spent decades building relationships and growing effective teams. We will also manage these teams, so when partners work with us, they can rest easy. Working with a development partner outside of your organization can help take hiring trouble off of your plate.
Custom Software
Creating something from scratch has a lot of benefits, and a lot of room for failure. An external team can be a good solution to some of the following problems related to creating something custom.
- You have identified a new technology you want to try, but are afraid of sinking too much of your own resources into something that may not work.
- You have a new idea, but need a working prototype to know if it’s worth following up and investing in.
- Your idea requires custom software that your organization is not equipped to build.
Turning to an external development partner can be a great solution if you aren’t sure how to get started or if you have a project that you’re not quite ready to go all-in on. By investing some time and money into an external team, you can save your own people time, hours, money, and headspace before diving in to something new.
It’s Important to Hire a Team
Beware consultants and external partners that will simply provide you with staff augmentation. While sometimes staff-aug is all you need, it is not the answer to all of the problems outlined above.
Calavista’s model uniquely solves many of these problems, because we do not have random developers and QA people sitting on a bench we’re trying to farm out. Instead, we maintain the most senior people as permanent employees: Directors of Development, Senior Software Architects, Business Analysts, Senior DevSecOps staff, and UX/UI designers. Using them as a core, we draw on our well-established partners around the world to flesh out the personnel necessary for a given project. Our network provides us with a virtual bench of over 10,000 developers – so you can be sure we can staff your project with the best. But because we don’t have to keep a permanent bench, we can pass the savings on to our customers.
Building a custom-tailored team from a deep bench of partners enables us to recommend technologies and approaches based on your needs, not based on the skillset we have on the bench at the moment.
A complete team means you will get developers, testers, business analysts, and any other roles (such as UI/UX, QA) you may need managed by Solution Directors and led by Senior Architects. This will let you get the most out of inviting an external group into your organization. A comprehensive team that works together to understand your business needs, the project and your own organization is much more likely to succeed at solving those problems outlined above.
Conclusion
If you have faced any of the issues above, such as running out of bandwidth, struggling to hire new team members, or lacking resources to take the risk on new custom software, then hiring an external software development team might be the answer. You are most likely to get the help you need if you partner with a group that can deliver a comprehensive team that can scale with the project and meet your specific needs.
At Calavista Software, we like to say we provide a Development Group in a Box®. If this kind of solution sounds valuable to you, reach out to us at info@calavista.com. We’d love to talk about your needs.
