In-house developers or a remote team? Hire wisely.

Jun 6, 2021 |
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The commitment to hire a full-fledged development team can be hard. You need a large office, you need to pay for their lunch and you need to make sure their work environment is optimal – it’s all up to you. Let’s not even get started about the process of hiring the right developers one by one. Tiresome and time consuming, right?

If only you could have a well-qualified team of developers working solely on your project without going through all that hassle! Oh wait, you can. Through hiring a remote development team.

A remote development team is a team of developers employed to your project from another company. It is usually a remote team of software developers working full time solely on your project and they report directly to your company.

You will actively interact with the team members, monitor their daily activities and overall development progress of the project. That’s it. You won’t have to worry about their contract, salary disbursement, place of work, insurance, holiday allowance, work environment or learning opportunities. The company supplying the team will be responsible for all of that. All you need to do is provide them with a project to work on and manage their development activities.

If your company has a development team already and you just want a few more hands on deck, you can do that too. Just hire a remote team to work as an extension of the in-house one. They can work on the same project simultaneously or on different parts of the project. Communication within the team can be kept through digital tools and regular meetings.

Not convinced yet? Let’s look at a few benefits of hiring a remote development team in 2021.

You’ll save money by hiring a remote development team. If location is not an issue, you can hire the team from a country where wages are lower. Moreover, there will be savings on office expenses, recruitment expenses and taxations.

Your project will take off fast. Starting a project takes a long time. Recruiting a full team of developers takes even longer. Whereas, if you delegate the development to a remote company, you can get started with the actual work within just a few days.

You’ll build a higher quality product. As the expenses were cut in ways we talked about earlier, you are able to hire better developers within the same budget. And overall spend the saved money on improving the project resulting into a higher quality software rich with features.

On another note, hiring remote developers will mean there won’t be any office distractions for the developers. Many developers find very little time to spend on the actual development process after making room for office lunch, hanging out with colleagues and commuting. Whereas, a remote job will let them focus better on their work.

Remote employees are the future. With the pandemic and the digital revolution, working remotely has become the preferred way to work for many. It’s safer right now and it’s convenient, always. If you are going through the process of setting up a digital communication system anyway, why not go ahead and hire a whole team at once?

Hiring will be much easier. We all know how difficult it is to find and hire great developers. When you hire an in-house developer, it’ll take way more effort because the developer has to be right for your company. Both skill-wise and culture-wise. But in case of a remote development team, you can switch it up on a project by project basis. You may need a specialist for your current project who won’t be as necessary in the next one. Hiring a remote development team provides you the opportunity to change your team on a project by project basis.

Now that you know the why of hiring a remote development team, let’s get into the how of it. Recruiting a dedicated development team is a crucial task and sometimes, it can be a little tricky. But don’t worry, we are here to help.

Before you get started with the hiring, ask yourself a few questions.

– What are you looking for in a developer?
– How much time can you spend doing the search?
– How can you create a technical requirement document?
– Can you determine how well the code is written?
– How can you administer collaboration and feedback into the development process?

After brainstorming and planning the answers, let’s get started with step 1.

Step 1: Define your requirements.
To hire the right development team, you need to have a very clear idea of what you want to develop. Once you get all the requirements on paper, then you can move onto step 2.
Step 2: Choose your preferred location for the team to be from.
One of the best things about remote development teams is that they can be from offshore, costing you much less. Asian countries including Bangladesh can be great options for hiring a remote team. Skilled developers can also be found in countries of Easter Europe or Latin America at cheaper wages than the US or EU.
Step 3: Choose the right engagement model.
There are three common platforms you can hire the team from:

– Freelance networks
– Dedicated remote developer networks
– Remote development companies

Once you pick the perfect model for your project, it’s time to start short-listing candidates based on your requirements.

Step 4: Pick your Payment Plan.
It is important that you pick the right payment plan for your project to ensure the best value for your money and to enforce correct risk mitigation. There are four models of billing currently active in the industry.

T&M and the Not-to-Exceed T&M Clause
T&M stands for Time and Management. In this model, the offshore team will provide you with weekly progress reports and time sheets. The not-to-exceed clause will regulate the job’s expenses.

Fixed Price Outsourcing Project
A firm-fixed price based on the hard set of requirements you provide and only a specific level of modifications.

Milestone Based Schedule of Payment
The offshore team receives payments upon reaching scheduled milestones. This model focuses more on results than time spent.

Resource Based Monthly Payment
Monthly bills depending on the amount and level of resources used. In this model, you will have the flexibility to change the project details and specifications if needed.

Step 5: Hire the developers.
It’s time to go through your shortlist and interview the developers in order to find the right match for your project. But if you have picked to work with the remote development companies model, this step will be much easier than it sounds. As the company will recruit the developers for you based on your preferences.
Step 6: Bring the team onboard!
You should try to make this process as smooth as possible. Instruct them on your protocols and discuss the communication methods to avoid future misunderstandings.
Step 7: Set goals, priorities and tasks for everyone.
Just like your in-house team, remote team members should always have a clear idea of what they are working towards and which responsibilities they have.
Step 8: Keep the collaboration organized and efficient
Communication is key while working with a remote team. Establish an open communication channel for your developers and take care of virtual team building. And success will be waiting for you!
Now, nothing in the world is perfect. And so isn’t hiring a remote development team. There are problems that come up sometimes and those problems do have solutions.
How do you make sure the code being written is high quality?
This article from TechVibes recommends a couple of options. You can have the companies do a test project for you. Or you can have the candidates do a technical interview. You can hire someone local to act as a consultant to do most of the work regarding the interview process.
How do you ensure collaboration despite the cultural gap?
First of all, writing extremely specific requirements is the key to having a successful outsourcing project.

When collaborating with a development team, SCRUM is a great solution. Studies say that distributed teams achieve the same goals as local teams while using SCRUM. So, try to outsource to a company that’s already using SCRUM.

How do you work around the different time zones?
One way is to hire a project manager who is in the same or a closer time zone. They can work as a buffer between you and the dev team.

Are you looking for a remote development company to hire your team from? We can help! Contact us today.

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