Dedicated Teams: Why, How & Where to Hire

Before diving into all at once, let’s spotlight the main questions that show up when speaking about dedicated teams:

→ How does a dedicated team look? To whom is it really dedicated?
→ Aren’t all teams dedicated by default? What are other models?
→ I heard about the “augmented team.” Is it the same as a dedicated one?
→ Where and how to find a dedicated team for the project?
→ What does the process of working with a dedicated team look like?
→ Why do businesses and companies choose a dedicated team model?

Let’s see.

One team = one project 

A dedicated team is a group of specialists — front- and back-end devs, designers, QAs, writers, DevOps engineers, and PMs — all working on a single project.  

A client finds a vendor who gathers cool specialists based on the client’s requirements.

A client, Carl, needs to make an application like Uber, but local specialists are either expensive or located far away. Carl comes to a vendor — maybe even this vendor is even Zgraya— and Carl gets a team collected for his project. The team will work only on Carl’s project without side tasks and other apps to develop.

This team can work independently or join an in-house gang if the client has one.

More and more companies are coming to the conclusion that it is much more profitable to hire third-party developers for their projects. Why?

• It is cheaper than having an in-house team, paying for their office, tech toys, coffee, and cookies. Outsourcing means no worries about administrative issues.

Forget about the expensive and tiring hiring process (advertising cost + time spent by recruiters, managers, onboarding time, and so on), finding an office, signing legal documents, and counting taxes. Everything’s on a dedicated team provider, aka vendor. In general, having a dedicated team cuts development costs by 70%.

• It is a super-fast way to launch a project. As soon as the client signs all those contracts, the vendor gathers a hand-selected professional team.

Instead of a laborious hiring process, the client gets a talent pool of specialists. It’s like a frozen dinner. Everything is already in place. You just need to warm it up a little.

• It is the attention of the whole team given to one single project. That means no overworking, no I-have-a-deadline-on-another-project kind of things. Instead, every dedicated team member has one thing to do — work on your fantastic project.

Complete focus speeds up the team’s work and makes it possible to build a better workflow.

• It is a tight-knit team-client work. The client is aware of all the updates and progress, can participate in the planning, and make changes on the go.

And if a dedicated software team works according to Agile (more about it here), the client hits the jackpot. Jackpot, which will adapt to any market changes and give the client a final wow product.

• It is flexibility. The team will not only quickly adapt to new requirements, but it will also be able to expand depending on the needs of the project.

For example, the first stage may require only one dedicated developer, two designers, and a PM. While the second one will need a PM, two developers, and a QA. The beauty of any dedicated team is that its composition easily adapts to the client’s requirements and the project’s needs.

Dedicated teams are perfect for early-stage startups. A startup needs to grow and develop and do that rapidly. A dedicated team is something that lets projects develop with lightning-fast speed. It’s an excellent way to build a team quickly and cost- and time-efficiently.

Tech giants like Apple, Oracle, IBM, Verizon, Amazon, and WhatsApp had outsourced dedicated software development teams. WhatsApp even made an iOS app using a dedicated team.

Let’s say Carl wants to make an NFT game. So he needs a particular dedicated team structure: illustrator, designer, developer, QA, marketer plus copy team, and of course PM to rule ‘em all. 

Carl wants to jump on the wave of hype and release the game ASAP. He does not have many funds for that, but fortune loves the brave.

Carl cares about speed and price. He doesn’t have time to handpick every candidate. He doesn’t have an office for all these people. And he has no desire to figure out how to manage that team. 

He wants his NFT masterpiece. ASAP.

The dedicated team model helps him get it.

Other ways to get it done: Fixed, Time&Cost, Staff Augmentation

To be 100% sure of his choice, Carl needs to know what is there except for this dedicated gang. There are three main models:

• Fixed Cost Model. Used when the budget is limited, and project specifications are well-defined.
  
• Time&Material Model. Used when the scope of the project is not entirely known. Here client pays for the time spent to complete a chunk of work.
• Staff Augmentation or Team Extension Model. Used to expand or strengthen an existing customer team with additional developers.

But the model that is suitable for

a) a startup
b) a long-term project
c) a project with changing requirements

– is a dedicated team. The best option. Therefore, let’s dwell on this model and move on.

Building the dream dedicated team: 101 for software makers 

Here is a quick how-to on collaboration with a dedicated team:

1. Find a service provider company. It’s challenging but super important. Your best bet is to find the right company on a review website like Clutch and look at a company’s previous work on sites like Dribble or Behance. After looking at all sources, you can choose the winner and hire a dedicated software development team for your project.
   
2. Figure out project requirements and main outlines. As a client, you should share your thoughts on the number of developers, and discuss payment and project duration. It’s all about those organizational things.
3. Build the team. Where suppliers, aka vendors, take everything into their own hands: depending on client requirements, they will select candidates and send the final options for their clients to approve.
4. Launch a dedicated team. The approved candidates go through onboarding with Service Provider’s (not yours) HR and receive all the information about the project and all the necessary things for work. You, as a client, have nothing to worry about.
5. Yay! The team is assembled and ready to work on the future Facebook killer or whatever it is you’re making.

Now it’s up to Carl (or the PM he appoints) to define a scale and strategy, focus on day-to-day tasks and manage teamwork. He should observe, give feedback (better high-quality one,), and do not forget that the role of the client is super important. Without the regular participation of the client-side, even professionals with 100-year-experience will not make a masterpiece. 

Hourly cost… or not?

A user from Reddit asked one important thing about money. How do all these business people usually pay for dedicated teams? How much do teams cost?

There are usually two scenarios:

1. salary + office + payroll + other expenses + vendor fee = billed amount
2. the hourly cost of the developers in which all services are already included

Both scenarios are OK. In any case, the client pays the amount, which includes not only the developer’s salary. 

The only difference is that in the first case, you know how many percent goes to different admin things (usually it is from 20% to 40%, depending on the company). 

In the other case, the sum is a mystery. 

Where Do I Hire Dedicated Team

We want to build a team of 5 (initially; in 2 years up to 20) software developers in Poland or Ukraine. By u/pitdk, the guy from Reddit

When thinking of hiring a dedicated team in Poland or Ukraine u/pitdk is not the only one to turn his gaze to Eastern Europe.

There is one logical explanation for that attention. Based on State of European Tech 2019 data, Ukraine was 9th among European countries in the number of software developers. Poland is also on this list, as you understand. So every year Eastern Europe only strengthens its position in the top countries to go for outsourcing.

Stackoverflow shows that 17.4% of software developers in Ukraine are individual contractors, freelancers, or individual entrepreneurs. And they work not only for the internal market. See the outsourcing statistic:

Such studies show quite extensive statistics about the digital employment of Ukraine. Summing up all those five pages of text – 30 sources used! – Ukraine is the first in Europe and the fourth in the world in terms of the number of freelancers. And these guys and girls are cool and inexpensive specialists.

Why cool? Ukrainians are chosen by companies from all over the world. Why else are there all these R&D offices here?

Why inexpensive? According to a survey of the Ukrainian tech market, in 2020, the average salary for junior software dev is $800 per month and $4,000 per month at the senior level. Middle developer earns between $1,500 and $2,600 per month. Salaries grow every year, but the difference between Ukraine and USA is significant.

At Zgraya we dedicate teams

A dedicated team is our love. How could it be otherwise? 

The team has a project they are completely focused on; they pay all their attention and give their soul to the project. It is 100% the perfect recipe for a great website or cool app.

For example, look at SHOPADVIZOR. Our dedicated team made an aggregator of ratings and reviews for supermarket products. Tripadvisor from the world of rice, peas, and biscuits.

We provided a dedicated team of FIVE people (designers + devs + PM)  for ShopAsvizor and they created a platform using

• React 
• NodeJS

The platform got cute illustrations, re-thought UX, and a more attractive look. ShopAdvisor adapts to any device and guards the healthy diet of users.

And we have enough bright minds & skilled hands to do something similar — or drastically different. Simply speaking, if you have a project in mind that needs a great team, feel free to reach out.