Checklist of IT Staff Augmentation: A Complete Guide for 2024 from Mukesh Ram's blog

Introduction

The business landscape has turned upside down in the recent past. Organizations need to cope with the changing needs of the business landscape.

The changing needs have led the businesses to become more competitive.

As per Harvey Nash’s survey, the last three-quarters of IT companies reported an increase in technology expenditure.

Recently, the UK’s tech sector saw six times more growth than the rest of the economy. The same, changes were reflected in other parts of the world.

But, the question remains the same, i.e. are there enough IT specialized professionals available to meet the technological changes?

No, there aren’t many resources available to meet the skill shortage of IT talent. This skill shortage makes a lot of companies think their way out to bridge the skill gaps.

The organizations that look to bridge these gaps have two options, either they should expand their in-house team or hire remote developers.

If they make the latter choice, there is a bigger question to be answered. How to hire the most skilled remote developers to bridge the skill shortage.

We will cover everything you need to know about IT Staff Augmentation in this checklist.

What is IT Staff Augmentation?

IT staff augmentation is a hiring practice that is designed to enhance a company's workforce by integrating external talent to complement its existing staff.

This flexible approach allows organizations to address skill gaps promptly without the commitment of hiring full-time professionals.

In situations where companies experience a sudden increase in demand for specific skill sets but are constrained by time or resources to run an extensive recruitment process, IT staffing augmentation emerges as the most useful solution.

This practice allows businesses to rapidly adapt to evolving needs, ensuring they can meet project requirements and maintain operational excellence without the delays associated with traditional hiring processes.

Now, let’s understand a few advantages of IT Staff Augmentation.

What are the advantages of IT Staff Augmentation?

There are several different definitions of outsourcing. The term can vary from organization to organization & from industry to industry.

Let’s learn a few advantages of IT Staff Augmentation Services.

Infrastructure support:

The external vendor will be responsible for handling every onboarded task starting from legal to payroll.

Relevant experience:

Based on the requirements the IT staff augmentation service can help you hire remote developers that meet your requirements.

Professional Development:

Outsourcing companies are also responsible for upscaling the IT specialists.

Possible Upscaling:

Based on your business, you might need to hire and expand more professionals to meet the changing needs. IT staff augmentation can help you find the right fit that suits your requirements.

Higher employee engagement:

The external agency would be responsible for providing all the employee benefits to the hired team of remote developers. These benefits can include paid leaves, maternity leave, birthday leave, etc.

Now, let’s understand a few disadvantages of IT Staff Augmentation.

What are the disadvantages of IT Staff Augmentation? Dependency on External resources

Reliance on an external team of developers can prove to be a hindrance for the organization.

The organization must find ways to integrate its in-house team and remote team.

Security Risks:

The staff-augmented developers would have all the access related to company data given to them during the onboarding process.

As they have access to all the sensitive information there are chances that they might misuse the data.

Before, onboarding any IT Staff augmentation service the organizations should ensure and analyze all the security measures taken by the vendor company.

Knowledge Transfer & Retention:

Knowledge sharing is one of the most important aspects of professional growth.

It becomes difficult for organizations to integrate knowledge transfer while outsourcing the software development process.

Conducting webinars and sessions inside the organization can help the companies in sharing expert knowledge more smoothly.

Now, let’s understand the different types of IT Staff Augmentation, a company can use to meet its software development requirements.

What are the different types of IT staff augmentation?

Let’s dive deep and understand the different types of IT Staff Augmentation models available

Project-Based IT Staff Augmentation:

This type of augmentation is done when an organization wants to outsource a specific project to an external team of IT professionals.

Skill-Based:

In this type of augmentation, the organization hires a group of skilled IT professionals to form external resources to meet their requirements.

Time-based augmentation:

When an organization wants to hire an external team for a specific time duration then this type of augmentation method would be very feasible.

Hybrid Staff Augmentation:

This method allows the company to hire IT professionals by combining two or more of the above approaches to meet their requirements.

Onshore Staff Augmentation:

By using this model the organization is on the lookout to hire IT professionals from the same country.

It is most useful when you need a high level of communication between the external staff and the organization.

Nearshore Augmentation:

When an external team is hired from a nearby country that has the same time zone then it is termed as a Nearshore Augmentation.

Offshore IT Augmentation:

This refers to the hiring of professionals from a different country, typically with a huge time difference. This is one of the most cost-effective methods of IT augmentation.

Dedicated team augmentation:

In this method, the organization hires an external team that exclusively works for them.

Now, let’s understand the process of IT Staff Augmentation.

What are the steps in IT Staff Augmentation? Step 1: Identify the need:

As the name itself suggests, the organization should first identify the need and based on their requirement should look out for hiring external developers.

The needs can be the following shortage of resources, lack of professionals with specific skills, etc.

Step 2: Determine the Scope:

The second step involves defining the project's parameters, including defining the roles & responsibilities of external IT personnel, determining the duration of the engagement, etc.

Step 3: Choose the Right Candidates:

This can be done through different channels such as based on referrals, recruitment agencies, job postings, etc.

It is important to run an interview process to hire the best fit for the specified role.

Step 4: Onboarding and integration:

In the workforce augmentation process, the fourth stage involves the incorporation of new staff into the current IT team.

This includes granting them access to essential systems, tools, and resources, while also facilitating their introduction to the existing team members.

Step 5: Regular analysis of work:

Throughout the project tenure, it is crucial to supervise and guide external IT professionals.

This involves conducting regular check-ins, providing feedback, and ensuring that they meet expectations and fulfill project requirements.

Let’s finally jump onto understanding “How you can Choose the Best IT Staff Augmentation Service Provider”

How to choose the best IT Staff Augmentation Services?

If you want to make sure that the IT Staff Augmentation provides you the professionals with the necessary skill set then follow the list of seven practices

Look for relevant experience:

While choosing staff augmentation look for hiring an agency that has years of relevant experience and expertise in your industry also it should be the one that understands your needs and provides you with the best team.

Assess Technical Expertise:

An excellent staff augmentation service provider should have a team of skilled professionals and a proven history of successful projects. This guarantees that you'll have top-notch resources for your project.

Check for cultural fit:

This is the most important point in the checklist when choosing an augmentation partner. You need to make sure that the external prospective company’s values align with your company to ensure a smooth transition of collaborative work with your internal team.

Evaluate communication skills:

Hiring an outsourcing partner who has excellent communication skills is a necessity. Both parties should be able to communicate effectively to ensure that both are on the same page.

Review Security and Data Privacy policies:

When hiring technical help, your information must stay safe and confidential. Imagine working with a company that has really strong rules to protect your data. They make sure your data is safe and give you confidence that everything is secure.

Connect with References:

Always have a background check before choosing the right IT staff augmentation company. Talk to the past clients of the vendor and learn about their experiences to rest assured about whether the service provider can provide project completion on time.

Evaluate the cost:

This is the most important parameter to consider. Compare the prices charged by all the prospective service providers to choose the best fit that meets your budget.

Now, let’s understand how Acquaint Softtech can help in hiring remote developers by using IT Staff Augmentation method.

Acquaint Softtech is a Custom Software Development Company. Our team of experts can help you find the best fit for remote developers to meet your software development needs. We can help you hire remote developers using IT staff augmentation, based on your requirements and specifications.

Wrapping Up!

Building an efficient remote team can be challenging for an organization. But, using a proper checklist like the one mentioned above can help the companies in hiring the right talent pool to meet their software development requirements.