Mistakes to Avoid while Hiring a dedicated development team

The process of hiring a dedicated development team is not without its challenges. Let’s delve into the key 13 mistakes to avoid while hiring a dedicated development team. This process requires careful consideration, strategic planning, and avoiding common pitfalls that can hinder project success.

Navigating this crucial decision-making process and ensuring a successful partnership will propel your business toward its goals. Whether you are a startup or an established enterprise, these insights will empower you. You will be able to make informed choices and build a high-performing development team that delivers exceptional results. Let’s get into it.

Why is it worth hiring a dedicated development team via IT staff augmentation?

Let us give you a quick snapshot of why it’s worth hiring a dedicated team using 👉 IT staff augmentation services 👈. First of all, you gain pre-vetted software developers when you use a reliable staff augmentation company. Therefore, you can rest easy that the developers you are hiring have proven experience. Moreover, the skills that they claim to have can be backed up by the vendor.

Another reason why’s it worth hiring a dedicated development team via IT staff augmentation is you have an added channel of communication. You have one more person of contact if there is ever a communication breakdown between you and the developer.

One final reason why it’s worth hiring a team of developers via IT staff augmentation is it can help complete your long-term projects. A dedicated team from a staffing agency is committed to the contact & completing your project. Moreover, if a developer needs to leave your project, here at Swyply, we refill that slot ASAP. That way you are not inconvenienced and you don’t have to worry about filling that slot by yourself.

What mistakes to avoid while hiring a dedicated development team?

Let’s explore the mistakes to avoid while hiring a dedicated development team below.

Not researching various IT staff augmentation companies

Some software companies make the mistake of partnering with the first IT staff augmentation company they can find. You can run into various problems when using this approach. The vendor may be unreliable and not have the experienced developers you are looking to hire.

There are some ways to help 👉 find the right IT staffing augmentation vendor 👈 for you. First of all, look through the internet for various companies and read customer reviews. Then chat with the top staffing vendors to see if your expectations can be met. Once you have narrowed down a company that seems to be the right fit, interview potentially suitable candidates to see if they can integrate into your project.

Not knowing exactly what technical skills you need & how many developers you need

If you are turning to a staff augmentation company to hire more developers, you need to know what skill gap you are looking to fill. Moreover, you need to know how many developers you are looking to hire on a temporary basis.

Evaluating your skill gap doesn’t have to be a difficult task. In fact, you can create a quick and 👉 easy skill gap analysis 👈 to help you figure out what you truly need. This way when looking to hire a dedicated team the job is easier for you and the provider.

Shopping around for cost estimations only & ignoring value

You may also find yourself looking to partner with a staffing vendor that has only a fixed price for their skilled developers. This may not necessarily be a mistake unless you are only looking only at the price tag and ignoring value.

In our experience sometimes it’s worth paying a little more and hiring developers who bring actual value to your company. Here’s a prime example:

Many companies will hire junior developers because they are less expensive than more experienced developers. Typically the cost to hire a junior developer will be around 30 dollars per hour. Whereas hiring a mid/regular developer will cost around 50 dollars per hour. Finally, a senior developer will cost over 70 dollars per hour. But it’s important to realize that just because you hire a junior developer doesn’t mean it will cost you less money. Because if a junior developer can complete a task in three hours, a mid/regular developer can complete that same task in an hour. The mid/regular developer will still cost you less money. Moreover, the mid/regular developer will most likely be able to complete more tasks in a day than a junior.

Given this example, it’s important to consider value not just cost. The truth of the matter is that saving money at the beginning does not necessarily mean saving money in the long term. Plus it’s a well-known fact that hiring developers through IT staff augmentation is cost-effective and it’s a 👉 predictable pricing model 👈.

Not checking technical skills & soft skills for yourself

Even with the IT staff augmentation hiring process, you should check the skills of remote developers to make sure that technical skills and soft skills line up. You want to also make sure that the software engineer is a company culture fit. This is something that you can verify and see during the interview process.

When you fail to check these skills yourself, you run into the risk of hiring a developer that is not the right fit for your team. So avoid the headache, and do a quick interview and skill test to make sure that you are getting the right candidate for the job.

Here at Swyply, 👉 our hiring process 👈 enables our customers to vet and check out various candidates for themselves, thus ensuring more satisfaction. Also reducing the hiring risk that is associated with other team extension models.

Limiting yourself to local developers and overall location

Many companies limit themselves to only local developers which can put them in a serious bind. When you hire developers for your local talent pool you can only go so far. You may find that you are not necessarily accessing the best talent. Your local developers may only have certain skill sets. Moreover, your local talent may be saturated with subpar talent, that doesn’t suit your business requirements.

Additionally, with the skyrocketing trend of remote work, why not take advantage of this option and access global developers? Make remote work your best friend and hire the top software developers to join your team. When you use remote developers from IT staff augmentation you can choose 👉 onsite, nearshore, and offshore options 👈. This way you can gain developers from your country, nearby countries, and countries further away. Open your company up to the international talent to fill the skill gaps you have on your team.

Not having an internal project manager & other staff to look after the dedicated development team

Hiring developers from a team augmentation vendor, you need to make sure that you have a project manager to look after them. The project manager will help coordinate everything within the development process. Moreover, they will help augmented team members integrate into the company.

Here at 👉 Swyply 👈, we can provide you with a development team but you need to have an internal project manager, QA tester, and other members that you may need. You want to avoid a situation where a developer is a team all in him or herself.

A single developer shouldn’t have to do and be everything. The developer shouldn’t have to code, manage, create tasks, test their code, etc. This shouldn’t be a one-man show. Unfortunately, we have had instances where companies have hired one developer from Swyply and tried to make him or her a one-man show. This is not to say it cannot be done, it can. But it’s not easy and comfortable for the developer. A developer works best when he or she only has the coding to work about.

Restricting access to tools the developer needs to do their job

Developers shouldn’t be in a situation where they have access to something and then it’s taken away. This is incredibly frustrating for the developer and slows down the entire process.

If the developer needs access to various tools, give them access, and don’t just randomly take it away. Have trust that the developer won’t mess something up. Also, don’t slow down the process by giving and taking away access to various tools. The developer should have access to all tools they need for their job.

Not having internal processes & procedures to onboard the dedicated software development team

From the common mistakes we previously mentioned, another one is failing to 👉 onboard your new hire 👈. Your company as a standard practice should have internal processes and procedures to share with any new team member.

These processes and procedures can be about company culture. They can be about the tools you use internally for communication and organization. Moreover, there can be information about your workflow and who is responsible for what tasks.

Another word from the wise is if you ask a staff augmentation partner like Swyply, for a developer that you need like yesterday. We can provide someone like that for you but be prepared to onboard them right away. Also, be prepared to establish that line of communication right away as well.

Not creating a strong bond with your dedicated development team

Another mistake to avoid is not creating a strong bond with new developers. Your existing team should work to integrate the new developer(s). This will help with collaboration and teamwork throughout the development process. Your project manager & human resource manager should take charge here and 👉 help integrate all team members 👈.

Communication is oxygen for any company, team, relationship, etc. Without good communication, you can expect a world of trouble. Your company, team, relationship, etc. will slowly die without it.

It’s important to establish good communication with your new dedicated team. Moreover, if internally, your company communicates through certain communication channels, it’s important to make that clear.

When you set the expectation of how your team communicates, collaborates, and exchanges information you can be sure that your development process will be easier.

Another way to create strong bonds is by organizing group chats via Google Meets or Zoom. During this chit-chat, all team members can get to know each other during a coffee chat. Allowing for small talk will enable better communication and stronger bonds among staff.

Picking a development team that doesn’t see the bigger picture, such as the business side of the product development process

So, it’s not always enough to pick developers to simply code your project. They should be able to see the big picture and the business side of project development. It’s not enough to just pick developers that can code your project. They should have some idea of the business side of things.

Swyply developers can do more than just code your project. They can see the big picture and provide you with technical advice. Moreover, they can explain hard technical concepts to you or your customer. Additionally, they can offer new solutions that will make your project better.

Lastly, programmers should be able to suggest things that will make sure the project is more successful. For example, if you are creating an eCommerce app, they can be sure that the checkout process is no longer than 3 steps. This is optimal to create a positive user experience. Therefore, your project is more successful.

Select the best developer for the job, don’t just look at the position

Some hiring managers when approaching the 👉 recruitment process 👈 with a set checklist. When evaluating candidates for the job they may take on an all-or-nothing approach.

They may only select developers who have all the skills they require. Moreover, they may also select candidates that have been in a similar position previously. Both of these scenarios can cause hiring managers to miss out on candidates.

Sometimes it’s worth looking past one missing aspect to gain a really awesome developer, then sticking strictly to your checklist. It’s also important to remember that some things can be easily taught.

Also, have priorities within your hiring checklist what are some must-haves for the candidate and what are some nice to haves. Perhaps some of the nice-to-haves don’t need to be there, in order for the developer to be the right fit.

Provide feedback to the developer don’t just end the cooperation because something is wrong

So we have experienced this situation a few times, where a customer contacts us that they want to let one of our Swyply developers go. But there were no prior signals that something was wrong, The customer failed to talk to the developer, and they failed to provide us with any feedback. And now all of a sudden they want to let the developer go.

As we mentioned previously communication is important and so is feedback. Talk with the developer or team that works with you. Provide feedback on what is going well, and what can be done better. This way the developer can adjust to your needs and the whole process can run smoothly.

Moreover, open feedback and communication can allow for better collaboration. Try to iron things out before making the decision to let a developer go. Certain things are easily fixed if you just communicate.

Setting your dedicated development team up for failure with unrealistic deadlines

Another mistake that companies make when hiring a dedicated team is setting unrealistic deadlines. If you set deadlines for tasks unrealistically you are automatically setting up your development team for failure.

Here at Swyply, we always recommend having a buffer for various tasks within a project. Furthermore, the same applies to the entire project. There are things that can go wrong, that are out of the control of the developer. These aspects can cause delays. So it’s better to provide a buffer than have tight deadlines that will ultimately set up the team for failure. Impossible deadlines can make the dedicated team feel discouraged from the beginning. You want to encourage them not discourage them.

TL;DR: Summary mistakes to avoid when hiring an augmented development team

Let’s do a quick summary of the 13 mistakes to avoid when hiring a dedicated development team. The common pitfalls to avoid include:

1. Not researching various IT staff augmentation companies
2. Not knowing exactly what technical skills you need & how many developers you need
3. Shopping around for cost estimations only & ignoring value
4. Not checking technical skills & soft skills for yourself
5. Limiting yourself to local developers and overall location
6. Not having an internal project manager & other staff to look after the dedicated development team
7. Restricting access to tools the developer needs to do their job
8. Not having internal processes & procedures to onboard the dedicated software development team
9. Not creating a strong bond with your dedicated development team
10. Picking a development team that doesn’t see the bigger picture, such as the business side of the product development process
11. Select the best developer for the job, don’t just look at the position
12. Provide feedback to the developer don’t just end the cooperation because something is wrong
13. Setting your dedicated development team up for failure with unrealistic deadlines

Did we miss any mistakes to avoid while hiring a dedicated development team? Or perhaps you want to chat about one of these mistakes in more detail? 👉 Drop us a line 👈 and let’s talk. We can have a free no-obligation consultation about mistakes to avoid while hiring a dedicated development team using IT staff augmentation.