In a fast-paced and demanding IT industry, your team might find itself struggling to secure the expertise necessary to bring an important project over the line. Maybe you're finding the hiring landscape difficult to navigate, the resource requirements to develop your own experts in-house too expensive, or you just need some expert assistance for a short, fixed-term window. In this blog post we'll help you understand whether team augmentation is right for you.

What is team augmentation?

Team augmentation is an outsourcing strategy. Companies use team/staff augmentation as a way to work with contracted experts to add to your existing team. These experts typically come battle-hardened and can help your team execute quickly on their goals.

I've compiled a list of reasons why team augmentation might make sense for your organization.

Flexibility/Scalability

Hire for 3 months or 2 years

Need to push a project across the finish line and meet your deadlines? Work with an individual or a team for a flexible duration that is customizable and tailored to your needs. As your product grows, you may find yourself in need of a sudden burst of development resources. This is where team augmentation can shine, allowing you to quickly and easily extend a team for months.

Quantum Mob has provided developer augmentation for our clients from 3 months to multiple years. Find what works for you.

Experience

Onboard pre-qualified engineers

When you team augment with a company that has worked with established brands across their core products, you get an experienced team that knows how to deliver and adhere to strict code quality standards and processes. Engineers are ready to hit the ground running with minimal training and onboarding. Skip a cumbersome recruiting process to find what you need and work with battle-hardened experts.

Quantum Mob rapidly delivers production ready software for clients that require strong security and a maintainable lifecycle.

Geography

Sit and whiteboard with your team

Do you believe in pair programming or white-boarding a solution in person? A major advantage of augmenting locally is the ability to sit down with every member of your team and hash out problems together. Rally the troops in a room when you're close to a deadline to keep communication completely open.

Objectivity

Benefit from objective and fresh opinions

Working on a project with the same team can often prevent the introduction of new ideas. When everyone tackles the same problem every day, the knowledge pool is restricted to those problems. Introduce a mix to the environment by augmenting your team. Access opinions and views from another perspective to assist with technical decisions.

Training

Bring knowledge in-house

Training sessions can only provide so much. We’ve seen companies in the past that have undergone expensive technical training sessions, only to reach a conclusion based on incorrect assumptions about that technology. Working with engineers that have production experience with these technologies can provide a battle-hardened perspective that is crucial in meeting the needs of your organization.

Speak with us to address any concerns about a technology and work alongside our team to bring the knowledge in-house, permanently.

Seamless Integration

Use your own management processes

Are you using git flow internally? Does your team like code reviews and pull requests? Do you perform daily stand-ups? Stick with familiar processes and your existing managers to leverage augmented team resources.

We love providing transparency to our clients, but you can't get more transparent than controlling your own project board and code repository.

When to consider team augmentation

You should consider team augmentation if you:

need to meet aggressive deadlines

require technical expertise that is unavailable in-house

have an interest in bringing knowledge gaps in-house

Alternatives to team augmentation

Quantum Mob provides services in three major ways:

A team of developers that can augment an existing client's team and work alongside their developers. A dedicated team of designers and developers to build web and mobile applications independently. Monthly-based retainers for infrastructure or application support.

Quantum Mob has successfully engaged our clients in team augmentation on multiple occasions and under a variety of circumstances. Utilizing team augmentation can help your team or company hit timelines, meet (and exceed) expectations, and leaves your team with valuable experience and knowledge gained from working daily with experts.

Speak to us today to see what we can do for you. We hit our deadlines. We can help you hit yours.