Extended Team Model – Why Is It the Best Way to Hire Developers?

Extended Team Model (ETM) or team augmentation is a software development team model that is gaining rapid momentum. Many people consider it as an innovative alternative to outsourcing. The best approach is to consider it as unique nearshore or offshore software development model that still needs collaboration with an external partner.

Finding an offshore team and/or outsourcing your software development project can seem to be pretty easy and cost-effective. But what if you already have some technical staff in-house and they lack some extra skill sets? It is here that the extended team model fits in perfectly. A fully-staffed in-house bench is great to have, but too expensive to maintain. What you actually need is to fill the skill and experience gaps. Getting hold of an extended development team or adopting a team extension model is the best option to do it.

Team extension is simply the hiring of an additional, cost-effective wing of proficient personnel who can work as an in-house extension of your organization. The process of team extension assures great perks to one’s projects.

Well, it is important to know what team extension is, or a distributed development team is, and how it contributes to project team organization and adds value to your organization. So, hook yourself onto this blog and make better decisions on outsourcing software development. Let’s start with the basics first.

What Is Meant by Extended Team Models?

Even though extended development teams and dedicated teams seem similar they do differ in the following ways.
Extended teams focus on enhancing prime aspects of client projects such as their potential and performance. Meanwhile, a dedicated team model focuses on enhancing the benchmark quality of projects with strategies that make it one-of-a-kind.

Team extension or the need for roles distribution in distributed software development originated as a way for meeting the dynamic needs of today's business environment. It could be for any enterprise type - a small-scale startup, an SME, or an enterprise. The objective of such distributed development teams is to provide businesses with dedicated developers that have a certain skill set. This enables the IT project team to support the company's goals for extended periods.

These extended teams employees become a part of the project team organization. They will also be frequently, highly integrated into internal corporate structures, for effective internal collaborating and across the organizations.

Working of Extended Team Models

Extended team services are often provided by established organizations that have been in the business of an extended team model for many years. They will have an excellent IT project team reputation among local developer circles. As a result of all of this effort, such extended team agencies have access to a large pool of software developers with varied skill sets. This, in turn, enables the rapid formation of the appropriate distributed development teams.

Team extension aims at the strategy for establishing long-term relationships with diverse project team organizations relationships. The collaborative roles distribution and aspects of extended teams are always laid in place to address client issues helping software developers to flourish and increase talent retention.

team extension model or the distributed software development model is based on the most recent team management method. This allows for the rapid formation of distributed development teams while also ensuring that every team member is motivated and pleased.

Benefits of Extended Team Model

Extended development teams provide the following advantages:

1. High Flexibility

• A great degree of flexibility will be offered by distributed software development models in terms of personnel type – freelancer or full-timers.
• Terms of cooperation can be easily negotiated with the client or project team organization to allot the best personnel. 
• The right blend of the distributed development team will be provided to clients

There are three extended team models for the client to choose from:

• developers who work near the client
• developers who operate on client premises
• and remote team of developers (offshoring software development scenario)

Based on these flexibility factors clients can finalize on their best IT project team.

Read more: How to organize offshore and nearshore collaboration?

2. Niche Skill Access

• Clients can access a diverse number of unique, extended team skill sets.
• Clients can gain a competitive advantage with extended development teams. This is because they can meet modern customer demands using high-result-yielding, and promising latest technologies.
• The right blend of hard and soft skills of distributed software development teams can resolve the shortage of talent capable of operating nascent technology

3. Scalability

• The access to large, experienced, and expert roles distribution of quality-rich team extension model services make it cost-effective
• Future scaling of extended development teams can be easily done as per changing business requirements.
• Unique client requirements can be exactly met by team extension solutions as per dynamic changes in the business realm.

4. Loyalty

• The culture followed in the team extension model is client-oriented meaning it delivers enhanced customer and client satisfaction levels
• This is why more investments are being poured into the distributed development team culture
• Team extension reduces breakdowns in a software development team to highly benefit long-term projects with more than a year of timeline
• The availability of highly-experienced extended development team service providers make it a highly preferred choice of client organizations

Step-by-Step Method to Hire the Right Extended Team Model Provider

Apart from ensuring the team extension provider’s profound field expertise, and personnel suitability, there are other steps you should be aware of. They are:

1. Assess Team Member Potential

You should evaluate your distributed development team members by talking to them in person, or online. Ensure they can deliver their unwavering attention to your project without taking up other projects. This will ensure easy integration and a good culture fit.

2. Team Member Experience

Always anticipate project challenges or issues as there are no two ways about it. But you could reduce this to a great deal when you have the right team with the right expertise and experience. This will highly elevate your overall project effectiveness.

3. Remote Team Extension Monitoring

4. Establish Project Goals and Requirements

Always have a mechanism in place to assess your extended team’s efficiency and performance so that you have better project visibility.

• Maintain complete transparency about your business objectives and preferences

Look for specialist organizations that have been providing team extension models in the IT sector for more than five years to obtain the finest outcomes. While the team extension service varies significantly from one firm to the next, you will undoubtedly find what you need.

5. Onboard New Members

• Using Cloud-powered tools can empower your project management to bring better and faster results. It can ensure transparency for your extended development team and for onboarding new members.

Extended Team Model: Closing Note

Now that you know all the important things related to the extended team model, all you have to do is hire the right extended team to ensure your project's success. With ample, thorough background research on your distributed software development team, you can gain massive benefits and value to your organization.

With an envious experience in the software development industry since 2005, we, at Bridge Global, can help you pick your extended teammates in a smooth and hassle-free manner. It’s as simple as you letting us know the skills and proficiencies that your in-house team lack, and effortlessly hiring the rightly-skilled team members from our huge and competitive talent pool. Call us to boost your in-house team with additional competencies to successfully deliver your project.