There are four core cooperation models to choose from, each with its own pros and cons: Fixed Price, Time and Material, Hybrid, and Dedicated Team. Today, we’re going to be talking about the latter — the dedicated team model.

The dedicated team model is an approach to outsourcing product development projects which typically revolves around the collaboration of three parties: the client, the outsourcing company and the dedicated development team.

The dedicated development team is hired on a full-time basis, working exclusively on your project. Once the project is completed, the dedicated team can be assigned to a new project or freed up to work with other clients. Dedicated software teams are designed to be flexible, and while they’re integrated into your business, they’re not extensions of any existing development teams. They work remotely, often offshore, which allows greater focus and flexibility.

The other party in the dedicated team model is the outsourcing company. Your partner in building and managing your dedicated service team, the outsourcing company is responsible for overseeing the hiring, onboarding and set-up processes, as well as advising you on how to get the most out of the dedicated team model. Outsourcing companies have simple pricing systems, covering their fees and your team member’s salaries, meaning you don’t need to pay for office maintenance, recruiter fees or other charges associated with building in-house teams.

The dedicated team model is taking the tech world by storm because of the flexibility it offers. However, there are a huge host of other benefits for you to take advantage of.

Building in-house teams is costly. This is especially true for development teams; in the USA, salaries of around $90,000 are not uncommon for software developers. On top of offering a competitive salary, you can expect to cough up to cover sick pay, health insurance, rent, utility bills, maintenance and buildings insurance.

Building a dedicated development team is a cheaper option for many businesses. As mentioned, dedicated teams typically work offshore in companies such as India, where the cost of hiring software developers is much lower than in the US. India is leaving the way in the software industry, meaning that while their talent may be cheaper, you will not be losing out on quality.

Plus, as your outsourcing company will manage the process of hiring, onboarding and getting your team set up on your behalf, you make significant savings both in terms of time and money.

No project ever sticks exactly to schedule. Requirements change, scope flexes and deadlines move. Dedicated teams are designed for flexibility; with this model, you can scale the number of developers in your team up and down each month as the scope changes.

In the event that the project scope is growing quickly, your dedicated team can quickly scale alongside this. There is no limit to the number of team members you can have, and new starters can be hired and onboarded in as little as two weeks. Comparatively, in-house teams are restricted by the desk space available, the budget for wages and recruitment, and the time it takes to find the right talent.

If you don’t have experience managing a team of developers or simply don’t have the bandwidth to do so, dedicated offshore development teams offer the benefit of delegated management.

Your outsourcing partner takes on the responsibility of managing your team’s HR requirements and can build a full-stack team that includes a range of roles, including project managers, scrum masters and QAs.

In the dedicated team model, the first step is to outline your requirements so your team can be tailored to match your expectations. A dedicated development team is built specifically for your business, so it can be flexible in terms of what technologies, communication frameworks and processes are used.

Your outsourcing partner will have access to a wide pool of vetted development talent which they can draw from when building your team, expediting the process. Whereas building in-house teams can take months, offshore dedicated teams can be assembled much faster. Plus, as your outsourcing team manages the entire process on your behalf, you are spared the hassle of reviewing CVs and attending endless interviews.

Once your project kicks off, dedicated development teams typically work faster than in-house teams due to their streamlined workflows and ability to be flexible when requirements change.

The dedicated team model won’t be right for every business or project. There are other options available, such as hiring freelancers for short-term, small-scale projects or augmenting your existing team with a software development team extension.

If your business and project fit into the categories below, the dedicated team model may be a great match for you.

Long-term projects, such as large-scale application development projects, can go on indefinitely, with the continual need for enhancements and support. In those cases, it’s worth outsourcing the work to reduce the costs of running such a project.

As we’ve covered, building an in-house software development team is expensive. Between the high wages associated with engineering roles and extensive hiring costs, including fees to recruiters, productivity lost due to rounds of interviews and lengthy onboarding processes, a significant investment is required before you can even get your project off the ground.

Not to mention, the process of building an excellent in-house development typically takes more than three months. And the cycle begins anew every time a permanent employee leaves the team, or you need to scale. When you consider assembling an offshore development team through an outsourcing firm takes a month, it’s a no-brainer.

Building an in-house development team is a costly and time-consuming venture, so innovative businesses are turning to offshore development teams to get new projects launched faster and stay ahead of the competition.

If you don’t already have software development support in-house, integrating a new team into your operations can be a complicated task. This would include training your staff on managing software projects or hiring additional specialists to manage this process.

Even if you already have access to software development resources, they may not be equipped with the skills to deliver the project. If your engineers are experts in web app development, they’re not best placed to tackle a new mobile app development project.

Finally, if your business is scaling quickly and looking to embrace challenges, your in-house team likely lacks the capacity to take on new projects. The dedicated team model allows this team to focus on managing your core product, with new initiatives outsourced to your offshore development team.

Let’s look at how the dedicated development model works in practice.

An important difference between a dedicated team and an in-house team is the presence of a middleman, meaning there are three key players:

• the client (you): the client defines the project, outlines expectations and signs off work. They work closely with the development team to reach their goals
• the outsourcing company: the outsourcing team advises the client on the best way to achieve their goals, sources the talent, and manages all admin associated with the team, including HR and ongoing support
• the dedicated development team: just like an in-house team, a dedicated development team is made up of talented software developers, each with their own responsibilities. The team works exclusively with one client on one project until it is completed

A dedicated team can be made up of a huge array of individuals, including:

• Product owner, managers and scrum masters
• UX/ UI designer
• QA engineers
• Front-end engineers
• Back-end engineers
• DevOps engineers
• Business analysts

The roles you hire for will depend on your business and your project. You may require multiple people to cover the same job functions but are unlikely to need to recruit for each of these roles.

Interested in building a dedicated development team and making the most of the dedicated team model? At WeAssemble, we’re experts in creating talented and flexible offshore teams for innovative businesses. Let’s take a closer look at how we do this.

The first step is for us to become familiar with your business, its challenges and your goals. Likewise, we want you to get to know us, what we offer and how we can work together to achieve those goals.

We need to understand your timelines, budgets and scope, so we can assess what is feasible and advise you on the best course of action. You need to understand our methodology, so you can decide whether we’re the right offshoring and outsourcing partner for you.

Next, we discuss your project goals, clarifying the roles to fill, your technologies, timezone and culture. This includes working together closely to write or develop existing job descriptions and detailed specifications for each role.

In this stage, we produce a pre-agreement, in which we outline the project framework, number of roles and timeline, allowing you to decide whether to proceed.

Once you’ve approved the job descriptions and pre-agreement, we begin our Filtered Talent Process. This process targets the top 3% of developers in India; our expert recruitment team are looking not only for talent, experience and knowledge but also individuals that align with your company’s culture and ways of working.

We source a number of candidates based on your job descriptions and project requirements, typically screening 100 candidates per role.

The testing and interview stages see the initial 100 candidates slowly reduced until we have found our three top candidates for each role. They are put through several tests which review their logical skills and technical expertise using custom software and are interviewed by our CTO and CPO to assess their character and how they approach developing solutions.

This rigorous approach to talent sourcing means that when you meet with the three top candidates per role, you can be confident that they are experts in your technologies and will make fantastic additions to your team.

In the final stage interview, you meet and interview the best of the bunch.

Finally, we get your new team onboarded and set up. This includes verifying their identities, setting them up with first-rate equipment, connecting them to your technologies, project management and communication tools, and training them on your processes.

Our talented and multilingual Europe-based Account Managers are on board throughout this process to offer advice and to keep communication as smooth as possible.

The big day is finally here. The project begins with a 2- week trial, offering you time to make sure you’re happy with your new team. From this point on, you can scale your team up and down each month as needed.

Our pricing is designed to be flexible, just like your team, and we think you’ll be pleasantly pleased with our competitive costs. Get a cost for your dedicated development team today!