Software companies are always on the move to scale their products, which essentially requires having more hands on deck. Working with dedicated developers can be an excellent way to improve a tech company’s workforce without the burden of hiring individual staff. A dedicated development team is a virtual team of developers integrated into your
software project while working away from your company. Essentially, they work remotely, so you don’t get to collaborate with them physically in-office. So the problem is, how do you ensure your in-house tech team and the remote developers complement each other effectively? Here are tips to help you collaborate with a dedicated development team.
Address time zone difference
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When hiring a dedicated development team, chances are that this third-party company won’t be in the same city as you. Of course, they may even be on an entirely different continent. So you have to make up for the time difference so that your in-house workforce isn’t sleeping through the dedicated team’s work hours.
You have to work around the available hours that overlap between your in-house team and the dedicated developers. For instance, tasks requiring communication, such as synch meetings, would be done during the overlapping hours.
Furthermore, you have to allocate the tasks that each team can do in the non-overlapping hours. Such tasks should be those that do not require communication between both teams.
Minding holidays and off-days
Working with an offshore team means you’d tend to have different holidays, festivals, and off days, especially when the dedicated team lives in different countries.
Collaborating with a dedicated development team, therefore, requires minding their calendars. Ensure you’re abreast of their holidays and off-days, so you are never caught unawares. It wouldn’t be very appealing when you schedule a crucial task for a day, only to find out on that very day that your dedicated team is unavailable.
Complement each other
When integrating your in-house employees with a dedicated team, each team must complement the other. For example, if your workforce focuses on the frontend design of an app, it’s best to go for a backend development company to ensure the smooth running of the project. It will be virtually redundant if you hire a dedicated team of developers who do precisely what your in-house team can already do.
However, when your frontend developers lack the required skill or number to execute a project, you may extend the team by collaborating with dedicated frontend developers. In that case, you are simply increasing the capacity of your current workforce.
Address Language barrier
One challenge of working with an offshore team of developers is language. You may work with a team highly-skilled in software development but one that offers a lower price as it is based in another continent or country. In that case, you have to look for a dedicated team that has at least basic English proficiency for effective communication.
Wrapping It Up
There is so much you benefit from working with a dedicated team: an improved workforce, increased number of work hours, and lower cost compared to hiring and maintaining more in-house employees.
But most importantly, following the above tips will help you get the most out of your collaboration.