August 19, 202012 Min Read

How to hire dedicated developers and manage the team

Over the last years, the landscape of hiring tech-talent has changed drastically. Prevalent globalization and fast-growing software market stimulated companies to work with remote developers and not be dependent on local talent pool only. Today outsourcing IT projects is one of the biggest trends in the outsourcing business industry. Many businesses choose to hire a dedicated development team as it is a cost-effective, efficient and well-tested method of scaling up the development capacity.

But why should your company hire a dedicated team, where do you find dedicated developers? How do you hire and manage the team? In this article, we will answer all these questions and provide a comprehensive guide to hiring dedicated developers.

Why do companies hire dedicated software developers?

The dedicated development team model can bring a lot of benefits to your company. Here are some of the most notable ones:

Instant access to the talent pool

Outsourcing vendors who provide companies with dedicated development teams have access to the broader talent pool. As they specialize in recruiting tech talents, they can hire the most suitable candidates for your business. While sometimes you might have trouble finding the developer with the needed knowledge, background and at a fair price locally, outsourcing vendors can do it quickly and efficiently.

No recruitment issues

Another benefit of hiring a dedicated development team is the absence of issues related to the recruitment process as the outsourcing vendor takes care of it. However, your company will still have full control over the selection of talents. As a result, you will be able to choose the candidates that you find to be the most suitable for the role, while the vendor takes care of the administrative work.

Focused approach and high efficiency

Companies that hire dedicated developers increase their efficiency and have a more focused approach to their projects. A dedicated team will work only for your company, and you can choose which projects are more urgent or valuable.

Full cost transparency

When you hire the dedicated development team, the cost structure is fully transparent. The outsourcing vendor provides the monthly fee that includes salaries of developers, as well as a service fee. There are no hidden fees or questions about the costs.

Flexibility in management

As the dedicated team is the natural extension of your in-house team, you have full flexibility in management. You can manage the project the way you want and have a work-flow suitable to your needs. It also gives you the ability to move from the less valuable tasks to the more core ones as your priorities change.

Reduced costs

One of the main reasons why companies hire a dedicated development team remains to be the deduction of costs. It is especially true for the companies that are in countries, where the cost of hiring in-house developers is usually high. Outsourcing vendors can provide the workforce at a better price. At the same time, your company can save a lot of financial resources as there is no need for an office, technical equipment and other costs that are inevitable when you increase an in-house team.

Faster delivery of the projects

With a dedicated team, your company can accelerate the speed of completing the projects. You can have a team filled with the highly skilled developers that can work independently and efficiently.

Risk mitigation

Another clear benefit is risk mitigation. Outsourcing vendor and your company share the risks related to the project. You do not have to worry about the matters where you do not have expertise. You have professionals who work on your projects considering the possible risks, related to transitions and operations to deliver risk-free results.

Where to find and hire a dedicated development team

In the era of the internet, it is not difficult to find the service you want to get. Multiple websites offer BPO vendors listings, where you can find verified information about the company. On some of them, you can check out the reviews made from the past or current clientele. It will help you create an initial list of the prospective vendors you can hire.

One thing you need to take into consideration is the country where the outsourcing vendor is. Probably, you have heard that some of them are better at providing software development services than others. Famously, countries of Eastern Europe, Asia, and Central America have a well-developed IT outsourcing industry.

When choosing a company to hire a dedicated development team, consider several factors. Where will be the team? Maybe you want to visit them later during your cooperation. Do they speak fluent English? What is the difference in time zones, etc. Asking these questions when choosing the company to work with to ensure that your cooperation will be fruitful and efficient.

The process of hiring dedicated developers

When you find the vendor who you want to work with to provide the dedicated development teams service, the process of hiring dedicated developers starts. Here's how it goes at Flat Rock Outsourcing:

Gathering requirements

On the first stage, we gather the requirements. It includes information about the project, size of the team and the requirements for each developer you want to hire (skills, background, level of education, experience and more).

Recruitment process

We start the recruitment process, during which we carefully select the candidates for your team. We learn the backgrounds of the developers, their tech and soft skills, and English level to create a shortlist of candidates for your project. The representatives of your company will be able to join the process, review the selected candidates' resumes, attend the interview process and choose which ones are more suitable, together with our team.

Onboarding the team

Once we recruit the developers for your project, we start the onboarding of the team. We ensure that the selected developers work smoothly with each other, and together they have what it takes to make your project a success. Our team ensures to hire a dedicated development team you need and integrate into your ongoing project painlessly. You will be able to start working with the team right away, with your desired management approach.

The outcome

As a result, your company has a team of professional tech talents that work on your projects full time and report directly to you. The only difference between the dedicated team and your in-house team is that the dedicated developers are working remotely for you. It is not an issue at all since the outsourcing manager takes care of all the administrative tasks.

Legal aspects of hiring dedicated developers you need to consider

When you are introducing a third party to your business, it is crucial to consider the legal aspects of it. Usually, outsourcing vendor handles legal points of hiring a dedicated development team. However, you still have to ponder some of them to have smooth cooperation with the vendor and the development team.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

A master service agreement is a contract between your company and an outsourcing vendor. It defines the cooperation between you and clarifies the most crucial parts of it, such as intellectual rights, terms of payment, dispute resolution and more. Take your time to go through the SLA and make sure the terms are acceptable and beneficial for both parties.

Statement of Work (SOW)

This document defines the requirements of the future project. It includes the scope of work, schedule, deliverables, acceptance criteria, duration, terms and conditions. Shortly, the statement of work should specify every detail of the future project, to ensure that the outsourcing vendor and dedicated team meet all the requirements and expectations adequately.

Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

As usual, when the outsourcing vendor recruits' developers for the project they sign the non-disclosure agreement, that states what information is confidential and for project purposes only. It is crucial to have this agreement if you are going to share some sensitive information when you hire a dedicated development team. The document should define the confidential information and the penalty related to disclosing it.

The dedicated team onboarding process

You just hired a dedicated development team! The next step is to onboard and integrate it with your in-house developers. As your dedicated and in-house team will have to work on projects together, you need to ensure that they get along and can work towards success together.

Get to know the team

During the interview process, you will meet each of the candidates online and have a conversation with them, but you still need to get to know them as a team. It would be best to meet the team personally as during the face-to-face meetings you are able to learn more about the people you will have to manage in future. If a personal gathering is impossible shortly, an online meeting can do too.

Share the information about your business.

The dedicated team works for you as your in-house team, just from a different country. You should explain your company context to the team members the same way you would do it with a new employee at your office. Make sure to provide all the necessary information about the industry, your company, its vision, goals, strategy, competitors, market etc. On the one hand, it will help the team feel like a part of your company. On the other hand, they will work smarter, taking into consideration your goals.

Prepare your in-house team

Your in-house team might understand the need for hiring the dedicated development team, but they might not be happy about it. The change can bring tension between these two teams. Before you introduce them to each other, talk with the in-house team members. Explain the situation, communicate the need of the dedicated team and ensure them, that you do not doubt their expertise.

Provide project documentation

Before the dedicated team starts working, ensure that the developers have all the necessary documentation related to the project. However, share the obligatory ones at first, such as technical documentation, code repository, and backlog. You might have more resources to share, however giving all the information at once might make them feel overwhelmed. After sharing project documentation, you must feel confident that team members can start working on the project independently, and they must feel the same way too.

How to manage a dedicated team effectively?

When you first hire a dedicated development team, managing it might seem like a hard task. How to manage a team that is not at your office, but maybe miles away, and you only communicate with it online? It is not that hard as it might seem from the beginning if you establish a good management strategy and trust the team.

Define work procedures

Establish work procedures right before your team starts working on the project. Developers should know how to act in different situations that might arise in the working process. Who is responsible for task delegation, or who is responsible for the specific tasks? What are the communication methods between the team members? What tools are you using? These are the questions that you should ask yourself before the team starts working so that everyone knows how the work goes.

Set up a communication flow

Set up a communication flow beforehand and follow it to have smooth communication and collaboration. Schedule daily morning meetings so-called standups where you will review the daily work of the developers.

Gather the team online and ask the following questions:

What tasks did you do yesterday, what has been completed so far?
Where there any issues you have faced?
What tasks are you going to do today?

These meetups will not only update you but other members of the team too. It is a great way to keep the team on some page and plan the upcoming tasks. The good thing about standups is that they do not take much time. Keep it very short and precise. If you see that any of the developers have issues that need further discussion, have individual calls with them.

Use collaboration tools

Do not underestimate the effectiveness of different collaboration tools. If your company is not using any of them, it is a great time to start using when you hire a dedicated development team. Different tools will help you in the process of task delegation and tracking, communication, files sharing, and project management. Some of the tools offer all these features together, while some focuses on one. Decide which one will be most suitable for your projects and help the team (both dedicated and in-house) to start using them.

Provide feedback

Feedback is crucial for completing projects successfully. Constant feedback will help you keep your team motivated. Being responsive will help you understand how your software engineers are working, and at the same time, it will let them know what exactly you are expecting from them.

Avoid micromanagement

Sometimes it is hard to avoid micromanaging your team, especially when you do not have so much control on them (that you have on your in-house team). However, you should not forget that software engineers in your dedicated team are experts in what they do. It is why you hired them in the first place. Listen to the perspective of your tech-experts, consider their ideas and take their opinions into account. They might have tremendous value for your ongoing or future projects.

A dedicated team will help you accomplish your goals more efficiently

Here you have a complete guide on how to hire a dedicated development team and manage it effectively. The outsourcing vendor of your choice will recruit the expert tech-talents for your team, and help you onboard and integrate it within your company smoothly and painlessly. It will help you scale up your development team and accelerate your project development.

Have Questions?

Whether it's about this article or your next project, our experts are here to help.

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How to hire dedicated developers and manage the team

Why do companies hire dedicated software developers?

Instant access to the talent pool

No recruitment issues

Focused approach and high efficiency

Full cost transparency

Flexibility in management

Reduced costs

Faster delivery of the projects

Risk mitigation

Where to find and hire a dedicated development team

The process of hiring dedicated developers

Gathering requirements

Recruitment process

Onboarding the team

The outcome

Legal aspects of hiring dedicated developers you need to consider

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Statement of Work (SOW)

Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

The dedicated team onboarding process

Get to know the team

Share the information about your business.

Prepare your in-house team

Provide project documentation

How to manage a dedicated team effectively?

Define work procedures

Set up a communication flow

Use collaboration tools

Provide feedback

Avoid micromanagement

A dedicated team will help you accomplish your goals more efficiently

Have Questions?

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