Why Hire a Dedicated Development Team

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Key Takeaways

• By outsourcing software development, companies can tap into a large talent pool where top-notch expertise meets quality and fits the budget.
• Dedicated teams allow businesses to skip the time-consuming talent acquisition and onboarding processes while focusing on primary business goals.
• Companies are eagerly embracing outsourcing: the global spend on IT services is estimated to reach ~$1.42 trillion in 2023.
• Outsourcing software development is a great way to overcome the global talent shortage and hire professional developers affordably.

Working with dedicated software development teams offers a number of advantages over building a software development team in-house. In particular, you get immediate access to a well-crafted development process and deep expertise in specific areas, such as fintech, hospitality, or healthcare. You can cut straight to the chase and save money and nerves.

This article will be a lifesaver for those who still hesitate about whether a dedicated software development team can free them from ever-shifting milestones, missing deadlines, and poor talent. It focuses on what such collaboration brings to different types of projects. But first, let’s look at the definition of a dedicated team and a dedicated project team structure.

What is a dedicated development team?

A dedicated development team is a group of specialists assigned to work on a specific project for a specific client. This software development model, just like the other type of outsourcing, is very popular with businesses: a whopping 60% of companies outsource software development. But why would they do it?

Until recently, the price was the most critical factor in outsourcing projects to external providers: in 2016, 63% of companies viewed outsourcing primarily as a means of cutting costs. But in 2022, the focus on core business and access to talent became the key drivers for companies to outsource software development to dedicated teams. Other factors were faster time to market, better quality, and the ability to focus more on innovation.

So, overall, this partnership model allows companies to solve two problems with one solution: find software developers with rare expertise on the other side of the world — at a reasonable price. With so many dedicated teams globally, you can always find a programmer with a verified specialization in your type of project.

But do you always need a dedicated team? Here are the main sorts of projects that will benefit from this outsourcing arrangement.

Types of projects that can benefit from a dedicated development team

An efficient dedicated development team can help companies get the right solution. These are the cases where this scheme would work best.

Startups

If you are an emerging business relying heavily on investors, you may not have the time or money (or both) to hire a large in-house team or, worse, face the consequences of hiring the wrong experts. Here’s how hiring programmers for a startup can cost you a business.

A dedicated development team can be a lifesaver or, rather, a business saver. First, there’s no need to invest in in-house infrastructure from the get-go. A remote development team has all the equipment needed. Second, startups can use outsourcing to avoid hiring permanent employees they won’t need on a long-term basis.

So, the company can enjoy dedicated development team services cost-efficiently and begin operations as soon as possible.

Projects with changing requirements

If your project has shifting needs, you might not know for sure which specialists you’ll need tomorrow. In this case, you risk getting bogged down in recruitment and perpetual waiting until your new hires reach their full productivity.

A dedicated team is an ideal solution when it comes to unpredictable environments. Unlike a fixed internal team, a dedicated partnership offers space for rotation. The software development process becomes more flexible as you can scale your external team up or down or swap employees on the fly.

Improvement of an established solution and modernization of big old projects

Legacy projects often need a makeover. For example, a project might be limited by the existing technology and unable to scale. The only way out would be to migrate to another system.

Which system should you choose? A ready-made answer might not be available because it’s a complex undertaking that requires thorough consideration. The same goes for internal expertise that just might not be there. This is where a dedicated app development team comes in to advise on a new system and get it up and running fast.

An external vendor can still be helpful even if a large project doesn’t require sweeping changes. A company can hire designers to redesign its website or developers to audit its code. In that case, the client pays only for the time and talent used — no more, no less.

Long-term projects with regular updates

Short-term cooperation is not the only option. Dedicated development teams can work with clients for years as their trusted partners. Some of them offer subscription-based cooperation.

This arrangement is a win-win. Clients benefit from having a partner familiar with all the ins and outs of their business, the preferences of stakeholders, and the overall goal. What’s important, in case of emergencies, on-site availability is guaranteed. In this respect, a reliable dedicated team is in no way inferior to an in-house team.

As a bonus, you do not have to rent an office or pay for equipment or vacations, no matter what type of project you’re running. You entrust all concerns to your remote development team. They are also responsible for recruiting candidates and finding a developer for your company. Now that we mentioned candidates let’s explore what types of specialists a typical dedicated team can offer.

Dedicated software development team roles and responsibilities

A dedicated team typically consists of software engineers, business analysts, project managers, UI/UX designers, and QA specialists. The number of specialists will vary based on the project’s scope.

Let’s take a look at each role in a software development team.

Software developers

Software engineers design, develop, and deploy computer software. But here’s the rub: with so many programming languages and tech trends, you can rarely meet a jack-of-all-trades among developers. Some specialize in frontend development, while others are responsible for the app’s backend. Some work closely with AI, while others focus on other technologies. The key is to find software developers with the right expertise for the project.

Software engineers play the core role in the team, but they usually don’t manage complex web development projects independently and get down to coding only when business analysts have had their last say.

Business analysts

Business analysts ensure that projects align with business goals and are technically and financially feasible. To this end, they evaluate client needs to create detailed specifications guiding the app development process. Business analysts can also contribute to testing and QA to make sure stakeholders are happy with the result.

Project managers

While business analysts communicate with clients about the technical side of the project, project managers handle organizational issues. Just like business analysts, they are the key link between the development team and the stakeholders. Project managers plan and oversee projects, monitor milestones, communicate progress, and ensure that the project is completed on time, matching the client’s preferences.

UI/UX designers

This creative team understands perfectly well how color psychology and button shapes affect marketing. But their essential skills don’t end there.

A UI/UX designer is responsible for designing user experience and user interface of a website or mobile app. They do competitor research, create wireframes and mockups, and test design with users. The ultimate goal of a UI/UX designer is to design a product with an appealing look and is easy to use.

QA engineers

These professionals take care of the overall quality of a software project. Their job responsibilities include:

• Creating and executing test scenarios
• Identifying and reporting bugs
• Working with developers to resolve issues
• Making sure the product complies with relevant industry standards and regulations

Clearly, team members complement each other, so a good dedicated team functions as a single unit. How would it benefit your business?

Main benefits of hiring dedicated software development teams

As we said, companies choose to work with dedicated teams because this type of collaboration is cost-effective, provides broader access to talent, and accelerates time to market. Let’s look at these and other benefits in more detail.

Faster development lifecycle

A dedicated team already has an established workflow, so you can start working immediately. With an in-house team, it’s the other way around — you must curate the process from scratch. A dedicated development team also adapts easier to change, and you can quickly add or replace specialists when necessary.

This speeds up the development cycle and adds significant value to the project. You can roll out new products or features sooner, capturing market share and staying competitive.

Unlimited access to expertise

Let’s say you need to develop an AI-powered enterprise chatbot. You immediately bump into two problems. First, your in-house developers lack skills in AI, and you need to look for the programmers. And second, the demand for AI engineers is high, and your regular market experiences a talent shortage, too.

The talent gap is no longer an issue when you work with a dedicated project team. You can easily access the global talent pool and leverage valuable technical skills to empower your project.

Focus on core business activities

When you delegate work to a reliable outsourcing partner, you can dedicate more time to strategic planning, innovation, and progress evaluation. That’s the beauty of delegation: you focus on the core of your business while your remote software development team takes over other tasks — the technical execution of your ideas and plans.

However, this doesn’t mean your dedicated developers are selling you a pig in a poke. You can always keep an eye on the project progress.

Cost-efficiency

When you work with an outsourced development team, you don’t have to worry about the cost of hiring, onboarding, regular training, specialist turnover, and benefits. Moreover, you can hire a team from abroad and save a significant chunk of your budget — hourly rates of specialists vary depending on the country. That’s how you get the same quality or even better, but at a more pleasant price.

How much does hiring a dedicated development team cost, and why does an offshore dedicated development team help you save money?

Did the list of benefits make you curious about the cost of this type of arrangement? We know that feeling. We compiled a table with software development hourly rates in various countries based on stats from Glassdoor, Payscale, Talent, Dou, DevJob, and SalaryExpert. It’ll help you evaluate the state of affairs and find dedicated offshore developers.

Since the price varies significantly by location, hiring dedicated offshore developers can reduce your project expenses. Engagement models are the second most important factor affecting the cost of hiring a team. For example, under the time-and-material pricing model, the customer pays for the actual time spent on a project and the materials used. Meanwhile, under the fixed-price model, the customer pays a fixed amount for the entire project.

Partnership with Acropolium — a dedicated development company

Whatever project you have in mind, we are at your disposal. Acropolium has been developing bespoke software solutions for almost two decades. As a dedicated development team provider, we are confident that software development is all about synergy when everyone contributes to smooth operations and excellent quality according to ISO certification standards.

Acropolium offers a variety of dedicated development team services, from IT consulting and custom software development to a subscription-based service that covers all the everyday needs of a software development project for a fixed monthly fee. We have worked with 148 partners worldwide and garnered dozens of positive reviews, which you can find at Clutch and GoodFirms.

Our collaboration workflow can be briefly described as follows:

1. Evaluating the project (getting information from the client, estimating the project scope)
2. Selecting talent (estimating the team size, curating specialists)
3. Preparing a final project estimate and budget based on the anticipated duration, required talent, roles, and software development expenses.
4. Creating a monthly breakdown of payments (if a client opts for a subscription-based dedicated team model, monthly software development expenses can be easily combined into a recurring lump sum).
5. Coordinating the estimate and budget with the client
6. Starting a project

Here you can find a list of questions to ask before hiring a dedicated development team.

Final thoughts

Working with a dedicated development team can open up new horizons for your project potential. With access to global expertise and flexible workflows masterfully adapted to your needs, you can forget about the day-to-day management of your in-house team.

Still, it’s crucial to find the right software developer. With our subscription-based offer, you can reap all the benefits we mentioned today. Contact us for more information!

Sources of information

1. https://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm
2. https://uk.talent.com/
3. https://www.payscale.com/
4. https://jobs.dou.ua/salaries/
5. https://www.salaryexpert.com/aboutus