Nowadays, many companies don’t have IT expertise and skilled resources in-house. Therefore, IT outsourcing based on suitable engagement models has become an obvious choice for many. This brings the dedicated team model to the spotlight, which is in high demand globally.
In today’s competitive world, IT services are highly popular in all business sectors. Consequently, companies want a higher reach which is why they constantly develop products that can help them maximize their potential. Speaking of 2024, developing software products – be it web-based or mobile app isn’t an easy task.
How is the Dedicated Team Model defined?
The dedicated team model (DTM) helps companies in hiring exclusive IT resources from technology service providers on a long-term basis. This business model has specific terms and conditions like working hours, payment rate, and how the team will work.
The dedicated developers have to work on-site at the client’s office in some instances. While for the majority of the time they are working on the vendor site. The client can deem fit to have their project manager for a higher oversight of the team’s activities.
Tech resources are selected according to project needs as well as the requirements of the client. So, the vendor then searches for team members that match the criteria of the client.
Since this is a properly contracted agreement between the two parties, every nitty-gritty must be clearly negotiated. This includes the recurring payment method for the hired resources, and any overhead charges (including the administrative costs). Even cater for any perks or rewards awarded to specific team members who are encouraged to keep working per requirements.
Pros of Dedicated Team Model
These are the benefits of having a dedicated team model and exclusive developers for your project.
- You are the Boss
- Handling Changing Requirements
- You choose the Resources
- Saving Money
- Risk Management
- Greater Oversight
Let’s round up on the rewards of the dedicated team model for the companies outsourcing their software projects.
You are the Boss
As part of calling out all the shots, you make the decisions about the requirements, design, and product validation. This makes you in charge of all the important decisions, while the vendor manages the “how” part. So, you focus on a lot of other aspects to build a greater repo for the product in the market.
Handling Changing Requirements
This type of engagement model works best when the development plan isn’t clearly defined. Nevertheless, it also functions where requirements are broadly defined but need more elicitation and changes in them.
You choose the Resources
Since the exclusive developers are just like part of your team, you decide which resources will work for you. After assessing the productivity of the resources, you can keep using them accordingly.
Similarly, you can also demand resource replacement in case of bad performance. The vendor complies because they are in a contractual agreement and will ensure that you remain a happy customer.
Saving Money
Thanks to COVID-19, it is necessary to innovate, while keeping the budgets low. The dedicated team structure is all about cost-effectiveness for technology solutions in 2024.
Think about it while subcontracting your software solutions. It’s correct that you will be paying for the resources but you minimize the administrative costs on your part.
Risk Management
When you opt for this kind of engagement model, you are transferring all the risks to the development team. So, you minimize the risks on your end, as the IT vendor will single-handedly steer the project.
Greater Oversight
You can appoint a project manager from your side to have greater oversight on the project milestones. This enables you in having recurring checkpoints with the dedicated team and keeping a check on their activities.
It helps you in having a broader perspective of the software development project. You are the one who takes the ultimate decision on how things should proceed.
Cons of Dedicated Team Model
Now we go through the disadvantages of the dedicated team model.
- Scope changes increase Costs
- Cross-Collaboration is Challenge
- Dependence on Resource Quality
- Gradual Learning and Adapting
We briefly explore the drawbacks of the dedicated team model.
Scope changes increase Costs
What happens if you keep on changing the requirements now and then? You pay the price in terms of an increase in project costs. This may happen in this model and eventually, you get hit by the fact that you have overrun the budget.
You may wonder that we first say that facilitating modification of business requirements and cost reduction are advantages of DTM. But, keep in mind that there is a limit to every feature. Every scope modification eventually increases the project duration, thus snowballing the price.
Cross-Collaboration is Challenge
The dedicated team needs to stay connected with the client to ensure that everything stays in-line. Both sides need to have complete understanding of what needs to be done.
But what if this doesn’t happen? A single communication glitch can derail the direction of the software project.
Dependence on Resource Quality
You want the best exclusive development team on-board, but you are reliant on the vendor resource pool for the same. It is likely that with some good resources; you can also get average, mediocre, and weak resources during the project. These underperformers are payable at the same rate and their quality negatively impacts the project.
You can identify these resources and can request a substitution. But swapping them means the new resource will take time to come to par level in performing in the project. So, this will cause a lot of issues in the overall health of the software project.
Gradual Learning and Adapting
The client is learning and so are you adjusting for advancing with the best way forward. This requires extensive effort to ensure that both parties can manage requirements for the product backlog.
At times, some features are on a backburner and suddenly surface for attention. Not only does this hamper the project but also causes friction between the client and the vendor. Because they had already planned and are working on the product roadmap.
Conclusion
If you are incorporating the dedicated team model in your project, then you must prepare for the overall product direction. Have patience for managing communication issues that may affect your project.
Eliminate inter-dependencies so that the development team is not too reliant on your input for their tasks. Supervision of dedicated team is necessary, but micro-management is counter-productive.
Work together with the vendor developers so that you are getting the project timelines met without any slippage. Manage the overall costs and ensure that you don’t run out of budget midway in the project.
If you want consistency in the project steering, then team engagement models are best for establishing a great working combination. The dedicated team model allows you more control over the project management aspect of your product.
Are you looking for top-notch IT staff to be part of your software product team? But you are not sure if the dedicated resources will be as promised? Contact Techliance for a very upfront discussion about your business needs today.
