Advantages and Disadvantages of Dedicated Teams of Developers

Dedicated teams are the mainframe of modern IT outsourcing. Companies of all sizes employ external expertise to augment their in-house staff or improve their workflows.

A dedicated team is one of the basic models of IT outsourcing when the customer delegates to the contractor the task of composing a team of professionals for performing certain services for the customer remotely. Such dedicated teams usually work from the contractor’s office and can be managed by the customer’s representatives remotely, or by the contractor’s PM and/or Team Lead.

We will briefly list the pros and cons of this approach.

Advantages of working with a dedicated team:

• Affordability of services
• Professionalism
• Transparency of management

Shortcomings of the dedicated team model:

• Can be time-consuming
• Doesn’t fit short-term projects
• Flexibility of specifications

Below we describe each of the points in more details.

Advantages

Affordability of Services

As Eastern Europe is one of the best IT outsourcing destinations, the costs of hiring a dedicated team of software developers there are much lower, as compared to building an in-house software development team in the US or EU. The best part here is that the quality of their services is on par with the US-based IT companies, so any business can save significantly without compromising the product quality.

Professionalism

The biggest advantage of hiring a dedicated team of developers is that you are hiring a team. They already know their background and skill levels and are able to delegate the tasks adequately. They have their workflows polished already and the risk of workplace conflicts is significantly lower than when you have to build a team from scratch. Working with experienced teams means working with professionals.

Transparency of Management

Dedicated teams are used to remote control of their project progress. The customers receive a transparent access to task management and time tracking systems and are able to evaluate the project progress themselves. Daily reports and communication over Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber, or other messengers allows the product owners to stay in touch with their teams at all times.

Shortcomings

Time-Consuming

This shortcoming is the consequence of the previous advantage. The customers can keep their hands of the pulse of the project, but it will take much time. When the customer is afraid that the dedicated team will chill, instead of working on the tasks, they will devote too much effort to controlling the process and regularly syncing up with the team. Unfortunately, such a control can be too tight and can be damaging for the project outcomes.

The only way to avoid this situation is establishing trust from the very first steps of the project. If the customer goes for a partnership with any of the reputable Managed Services Providers and actively participates in the process of choosing the project management team, interviewing the candidates and onboarding the team to a project, the rest can be left in the trustworthy hands of a PM and Team Lead. When the customer knows that daily/weekly reports are full and true, they can concentrate on their business tasks, not on controlling the remote development team.

Doesn’t Fit All Projects

Hiring a full-scale dedicated development team for a pilot project is not the best idea. Short-time projects usually have clear requirements, deadlines, and specifications, do not require many employees, and work better under a fixed-price or time and material pricing scheme.

A dedicated team approach is best applied to the projects with definite goals and flexible requirements, that take 3+ months to accomplish. This approach is ideal for long-term partnerships, like the ongoing product support and development.

Flexibility of Specs

This is the logical outcome of the previous point. The best ways to reaching the defined goals in conditions of uncertainty are unknown, and the team has to experiment. This means that the project specifications are subject to change any time, and the dedicated team will suggest their own vision of the ways to deal with the challenges. This might result in the final product differing from the customer’s expectations.

This point is actually more of a benefit than a shortcoming — in case you work with the leaders of IT outsourcing market, who know how to deal with various issues best. This means the final product will be great, even if it will differ from the initial specifications.

Final Thoughts 

We have listed both the advantages of dedicated team workflows and the points to be aware of. While none of the shortcomings are really dangerous, keeping them in mind helps better evaluate the project progress and act accordingly. The main condition for finishing the remote software development project successfully, though, is hiring your dedicated team from a reputable IT services provider.

Did we miss any crucial advantages of working with a dedicated team of software developers? Would you like to add more pros and cons of this approach? Please let us know in the comments below!