Are you an entrepreneur racing to bring a groundbreaking product to life? A tech leader steering innovation in a fast-paced industry? Or a startup founder navigating the challenges of scaling? Perhaps you’re part of an established organization seeking to expand your technical capabilities without the overhead of hiring in-house.
If any of these resonate, this blog is your roadmap.
Here, we’ll dissect the dedicated development team model—a strategy embraced by giants and startups alike—to help you decide if it’s the right fit for your goals.
What is a Dedicated Development Team?
A dedicated development team is a collaborative outsourcing model where a client partners with a team of developers and specialists for long-term projects. This model allows for continuous and close cooperation, as the team works exclusively on the client’s tasks, ensuring full integration with their objectives. A dedicated development team is a complete development team, including all necessary roles such as developers, project managers, analysts, and QA professionals to handle every aspect of a software project.
Standing alongside other engagement models like fixed price (FP) and time & material (T&M), the dedicated team approach offers flexibility, deep focus, and a tailored skill set, making it ideal for dynamic, evolving projects.
Breaking It Down in Simple Terms
Think of a dedicated development team as an extension of your in-house team, but without the hassle of recruitment, management, and administrative overhead. Effective integration and collaboration between the dedicated development team and your existing teams is crucial to ensure smooth operations and project success. Whether you’re a startup looking for cost-effective expertise or an enterprise aiming for rapid scalability, this model provides the best of both worlds.
As the name suggests, “dedicated” means the team is carefully selected to match your project’s needs, working exclusively towards your business goals.
Dedicated Development Team Structure?
A Dedicated Development Structure (DDT) is a team structure in which project requirements are outsourced to remote developers.
Undoubtedly, your technical requirements determine the composition of your dedicated development team. Typically, an ideal software development team structure for a project will consist of the following professionals:
- Product manager
- Project manager
- Business analyst
- UI/UX designer
- Technical lead
- Backend and frontend developer
- Quality analyst
If you are a mobile developer setting out in the technical business, the probability is high that you are not aware of the job roles discussed. Let us have a quick rundown of what each means. Quality assurance professionals play a crucial role in ensuring a complete and effective software development process by maintaining high standards and identifying issues early.
Now, you have an in-depth understanding of the team members you need to onboard for your startup. Let's uncover the advantages of this business model.
Recommended Read: How to hire developers for startups
3 Reasons Why You Should Hire a Dedicated Development Team
A dedicated team model is ideal for complex and long-term projects that can expand in the future. This option is also the best when you lack clarity on your product and need a discovery stage.
Let’s dive into more details of why you need this team model. In the following section, we will explore the benefits and key considerations of dedicated development team hiring.
Reason 1: Fixed Development Budget
As a startup, the biggest challenge is a limited development budget. Thus, it’s best to go for a dedicated team that is friendly to your budget bracket. Often, you don’t require software developers under your arm’s stretch.
Must be thinking, why? Simple, it’s a cost-effective approach.
Compared to other software development teams, dedicated development teams offer greater cost efficiency and scalability, making them ideal for long-term project management. They can act as an extension of your in-house team, providing specialized expertise and flexibility as your project grows.
Hiring a developer in the UK costs around $100-$120 on an hourly basis. While if you hire a dedicated development team in india, it will cost around $25-$49/hr. Therefore, outsourcing seems a budget-friendly approach if you are outsourcing with the right tech partner.
Reason 2: The Expertise Lacking
Imagine you are developing a project that needs skills or some expertise knowledge for a platform that your in-house team lacks. Dedicated development teams provide specialized expertise to address these gaps, ensuring your project benefits from advanced knowledge and skills. Here, you can quickly build an experienced team, save costs, and create your product faster with a dedicated team.
Reason 3: The Lack of Resources
You have enough development budget, and your project shows excellent customer attraction and retention rates but still lacks the available developers to orchestrate development and growth.
Another reason you should think about hiring a dedicated team is the lack of resources in the in-house team to meet the business development roadmap. Dedicated development teams can ensure continuity and efficiency in development efforts, especially for long-term or complex initiatives.
Advantages of Hiring a Dedicated Development Team
According to a report, the worldwide demand for development outsourcing is predicted to scale at a CAGR of 7.7%from 2020 to 2027. And if this is soon going to be a reality, the segment's revenue will be worth $937 billion in the next six years.
Simply put, this surge is fueled by the untold advantage of hiring a dedicated development team for your project. And the benefits of hiring a dedicated software development team start here. A successful partnership with a dedicated development team depends on long-term collaboration, effective communication, and aligned project processes.
1. Expertise
Outsourcing the technical requirements of your business operations allow your startup to collaborate with professionals with the requisite proficiency and experience to build your product for optimal satisfaction. Dedicated development teams are composed of skilled professionals whose expertise is crucial for driving business growth and maintaining a competitive advantage.
Mostly, these experts dwell on the exclusive experience of working on similar projects, so they can better help you leverage the benefits of minor details.
Besides, through years of teamwork, the dedicated team already has a proven workflow and is comfortable with task delegation. The best part is you don't have to do all this from scratch and deal with challenges that may arise.
2. Access to a Bigger Talent Pool
If there’s a paucity of talent pool in your in-house team, then a dedicated development team is unquestionably the way to step ahead. Finding local talent can be challenging due to skills gaps, high wages, or recruitment difficulties, which is why companies often consider offshoring options.
Hiring a dedicated team opens your startup to a pool of professionals worldwide, allowing you to pick the best hands at a cost-effective price. For example, industry giants in the tech-savvy world like Google, IBM, Skype, and many more have ridden the bandwagon and cherished the benefits.
3. Quicker Flexibility and Scalability
"Outsourcing is synonymous with unparalleled flexibility and scalability."
Undoubtedly outsourcing is an ideal choice to address your top-notch flexibility in defining your project scope. Also, it eases the process of minimizing or maximizing your team size without breaching any employment laws.
In simple terms, this flexibility feature is intrinsic to catering to ever-evolving business requirements. Dedicated development teams also foster continuous improvement through agile development and ongoing process enhancements.
Though on the contrary, growing your in-house team seems arduous, expensive, and time-consuming. Scaling down your in-house team without a staff-dignifying reason may have an impact on your employee's morale and significantly impact their productivity.
Besides, it can allay your company's reputation as an employer.
4. Saves Money and Time
The secret is out!
A remote dedicated team is a key ingredient for numerous US-based startups' success.
Hiring a dedicated software development team for startups and established organizations is a win-win situation. Primarily this is because the cost of hiring developers varies from region to region.
As this blog sheds light on software development costs, US-based startups are likely to spend $99-$120/hour on a local software developer. At the same time, outsourcing to a dedicated team in India is cost-effective, at around $25-$49/hr.
This substantial difference helps you save $100 an hour.
Also, if you hire a dedicated development team, the complete scope of work is clearly defined, leaving no chance of budget overrun.
This is a rough estimation. Furthermore, when hiring a remote development team, there’s no need to invest in aspects like office space and upskilling. Compared to maintaining in house staff, the dedicated team model offers greater flexibility in scaling your team and significantly reduces the financial burden associated with in house personnel.
However, with advantages, this business model also has its demerits. Here are some disadvantages of remote outsourcing.
Disadvantages of Hiring a Dedicated Development Team
Outsourcing to software service providers has its drawbacks. Some of these include poor communication, time-zone differences, cultural differences, and so on. Establishing clear communication channels is essential to overcome time zone differences and language barriers, helping to prevent delays and misunderstandings in cross-border collaborations. Let’s elaborate further.
1. Numerous Service Providers to Choose From
Planning to hire a DDT (Dedicated Development Team) comes with another set of demurs.
You have to handpick a development team that aligns with your company's objective, but it might seem tricky in itself. So, it's advisable for startups to choose from a local team or outsource to an agency entirely domiciled in that specific region.
Besides this, there are challenges in choosing a dedicated team with an appropriate skill set that can ensure your expected deliverable. So, to help streamline the remote hiring process, it’s recommended to read this article for a clearer vision and better understanding. It is also crucial to select a dedicated development team with a proven track record of successfully delivering similar projects to ensure credibility and suitability.
2. Time Zone Gaps
The biggest drawback to outsourcing is time zone gaps. Hiring an offshore development team can help expand your development capabilities when local talent is scarce, but it also introduces time zone challenges. This can be negligible if your remote team is in the same country as yours or with slight time zone differences. But, with a huge time gap, it’s a significant concern.
For instance, between the UK and India, there is a time zone difference of 4 hours and 30 minutes. Considering this time gap, a technical glitch noticed by a UK-based startup can't be communicated with an India-based outsourcing company at 5'o clock (UK time). This will be around 9:30 pm in India. Therefore, a crucial update may not get the priority attention it deserves. Besides, there will be differences in public holidays.
3. Cultural Differences
There's no denying outsourcing opens your business to the best talent across the globe, but the only challenge faced is the difference in culture.
After all, culture significantly impacts product development through decision-making, reporting, and what it defines as a completed task. In addition, inherited cultural differences often result in different thoughts about the target audience or project's visual elements.
Therefore, it’s important you hire an offshore developer or choose an offshore development company with a dedicated development team that fits culturally with your corporate culture and your target markets’ culture. Mutual understanding and a collaborative mindset are essential to facilitate quick integration and efficient communication between external and internal teams.
4. A Void of In-Person Communication
A remote team eliminates all the chances of having in-person communication. Therefore, in turn, welcomes a myriad of other challenges.
After all, a team that depends primarily on chats and emails is liable to miscommunication. So, to address the root cause, communicate effectively through different non-verbal cues. A team lead plays a crucial role in maintaining productivity and effective communication in remote teams.
Different Outsourcing Models with Dedicated Development Team
Let’s dive deeper into different outsourcing models of understanding with a dedicated development team. Dedicated software development teams offer cost-effective solutions, specialized expertise, and are particularly suitable for long-term or scalable projects, making them ideal for businesses with ongoing or evolving development needs.
Model 1: Hire a Dedicated Development Team
A dedicated development team is a group of remote experts that help in assisting and developing products that cater to your business-specific goals. A potential tech provider brings this team to work exclusively for your project.
This outsourcing model is an ideal choice for:
- Long-term committed project
- No time to create an in-house development team
- A deficit in technology expertise among the in-house developers
If your business aligns with any of the above criteria, undoubtedly go for this business model. By choosing to hire dedicated development teams, you gain access to specialized professionals who can support ongoing product development and maintenance, ensuring seamless integration with your business.
Model 2: Hiring Resources to Grow Your Team
This business model primarily eclipses adding a deficit skill set in your in-house team from your tech partner. Plus, this approach ensures strategic competencies stay in your office space.
This outsourcing model entails time and material contracts.
To understand better, let's take an example!
Your startup needs one front-end developer with expertise in a specific technology and framework that is missing from your in-house team. Here, it's advisable to think of an out staff. So, you might be wondering what is the difference between an extended and a dedicated team.
Well, an extended team works with your in-house team to help fill skill gaps or temporarily increase resources. In this model, the external resources are integrated with your existing team, working collaboratively under your management. A dedicated team, however, runs independently as a full-time group focused only on your project.
By choosing this model, you can save exponentially on payroll, intake, and project management expenses. Besides, it offers you complete access to the team's productivity and deliverables. In addition, the delegated responsibility reduces employment formalities giving you time to focus on the core development process.
If this scenario is relatable to you, then this is the ideal choice for your startup.
Model 3: Hiring a Dedicated Team on a Project Basis
It might sound the same as hiring a dedicated team. But, the subtle difference here is that you hire a dedicated development team on a project basis for developing a specific piece of product.
For example, your in-house team is all occupied with numerous ongoing products. And, then onboarding another project comes as a big challenge. Here, you can hire a dedicated software team to work on your specific project for a defined time.
This type of outsourcing includes explaining the entire project requirements to an analyst of a tech provider. The business analyst works closely with the project manager to define project requirements, ensuring the software aligns with business objectives and facilitating communication between technical and non-technical stakeholders. These analysts give suitable expertise for the project and keep track of the project.
"Hiring a development team on a project basis meets client's needs and collaborates teams to cater to the development process."
This business model is an ideal choice for startups looking for:
- Cost-effective approach
- Time-saving solution
- One project that needs expertise, skills, and resources
Now you have an in-depth understanding of different outsourcing models, let's dig deeper and understand what distinguishes them from other models.
Difference Between Dedicated Development Team and Other Models
Considering the outsourcing model, you have options of choosing between a dedicated team, a fixed price model and a time and material outsourcing model. But what is the difference between a fixed-price model and a dedicated development team? How do time and material outsourcing differ from the other two models? And what the benefits of each model are. Let's see what exactly distinguishes them.
But, if your project is highly sophisticated and liable to changing requirements, it’s recommended to hire a dedicated development team. It is crucial to select the right dedicated development team that aligns with your business’s technical needs, project scope, and long-term goals to ensure successful project delivery and cost predictability.
So, let's see what exactly distinguishes them.
Dedicated Development Team vs Fixed Price Model
A fixed price model ensures a fixed project budget, despite the committed expenses and time. The biggest advantage of this model for startups is that they can plan their expenditure wisely. Though, any changes will need added estimation and a new contract.
Before moving further, let’s have a quick look at the difference between fixed-priced and dedicated development team models,
However, the primary requirement is to define the project scope and requirements. This can lead to the slow project launch, which is one of the most common cons of the fixed price model, according to ScienceSoft.
Simply put, if you are working on a short-term project, then fixed-price models make a good choice. It is important to ensure that the chosen model aligns with your business objectives to maximize project success. But, if your project is highly sophisticated and liable to changing requirements, it’s recommended to hire a dedicated development team.
Dedicated Development Team vs Time & Material Model
As the name suggests, this time and material model entails paying for the efforts and time invested in development.
As it's related to web and mobile app development, it includes paying the outsourcing development company on an hourly basis. This is a common outsourcing methodology, as it's deemed convenient, flexible and adaptable.
Let’s have a quick glimpse of the differences between both.
Here, time and material models come to your rescue if all you want is not to burn your pocket. Also, stepping on a long-time project should choose a dedicated team structure. After all, long-time projects have an evolving scope and scale-up potential. Dedicated development teams can handle the entire lifecycle of development projects, improving efficiency and scalability.
But with this, we don’t mean that hiring a dedicated development team structure can be an expensive choice for you. Check out how much having a dedicated development team would cost you.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Dedicated Development Team?
Let's define how much hiring a dedicated development team costs.
An average hourly price for an experienced developer in the US encircles around $53/hour. In Eastern Europe and India, it varies around $25-$49/hr.
Still, if you are looking to optimize more without compromising the lines of code, here's some happy news for you. You can now take a rough estimate for your project cost to define an approximate budget plan with “Your Team” in India’s cost calculator. So, evaluating the IT outsourcing cost is no longer a difficult task.
In a nutshell, this is a huge saving on time as well as money. Investing in a dedicated development team can truly move your business forward by enabling growth, fostering innovation, and supporting international expansion.
YTII Outsourcing Calculator
This calculator will help you determine if the cost savings and increased efficiency are worth the investment. See if you are getting the best value for your money.
Check YTII Outsourcing Calculator to evaluate your cost savings with us.
In countries like India, developers' prices vary from $18 - $39/hour. This is a rough estimation. Furthermore, when hiring a remote development team, there's no need to invest in aspects like office space and upskilling.
In a nutshell, this is a huge saving on time as well as money.
Why YTII Is A Good Choice While Hiring a Dedicated Development Team?
Here are the reasons!
YTII (Your Team In India) has extensive experience in collaborating with global clients within a dedicated development team contract. About 30% of our projects are based on a dedicated development model.
Furthermore, 25% of projects initiated on the other business models eventually switched to a dedicated team.
YTII - is the epitome of hiring a dedicated development team. We have been assisting startups and established organizations in creating products that write an undefeatable success story. We provide tailored, effective software solutions to meet specific client needs and project requirements. We’ve developed apps for social media giants like German Media and Finding You. We have been working with clients from the Fintech industry, like Gettrex and Dorey Financial, for years, and we consider their products as our own. This is what we define as dedication.
YTII Process - Dedicated Development Cooperation
Here’s the insight into what happens when clients hire us as their trusted, dedicated development team: A dedicated project manager oversees daily workflows and ensures effective communication between you and the development team.
#Step 1: Scope Estimation:
In this phase, we evaluate how much work needs to be done and how many resources need to be involved.
A deep understanding of industry knowledge and specific project requirements is crucial at this stage to ensure accurate scope estimation and alignment with the client's needs.
To do so, usually, a business analyst communicates with the client to identify the requirements and wants. Then, based on the information provided, business analysts outline the project's requirements and determine the project's scope.
Here, two scenarios can arise:
- The client has a predefined scope - In this, we discuss the budget with the client regarding their priorities and the estimated timeline.
- The client has no idea about the scope - Here, we process a discovery stage where we make hypotheses and validate them with a prototype.
#Step 2: Team Selection
Here, we put together a team of skilled, experienced, and motivated experts to work exclusively on your project. Assembling a professional team of domain-specific experts ensures specialized expertise and successful project execution. Here are the criteria we carry for the selection process:
- Quality and service
- Skills and expertise
- Profitability
- Experience
- Morale and motivation of resources
#Step 3: Scope Call
This call discusses the purpose, milestones, and priorities for the client’s initial sprint. Project managers play a key role during the scope call by aligning client priorities and facilitating clear communication between all stakeholders.
#Step 4: Proposition Call
We suggest a solution, expected team composition, timelines, and budget at this stage. The proposed team composition includes skilled software engineers to build and accelerate software products efficiently.
#Step 5: Kick-Off Call
Finally, this is the point where the team gets a kick-off, and the collaboration starts. The call aims to introduce the team, discuss job responsibilities, and assign project and business priorities. It is crucial during this call to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each team member to ensure effective collaboration throughout the project.
Finally, getting the right expertise to create a unique product is essential. And to achieve this, startups like you are usually torn between hiring a full-time in-house team or hiring a remote dedicated development model.
Don't worry! We'll help you turn your project into a success story.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How does a dedicated development team differ from outsourcing?
While outsourcing involves delegating a project or tasks to an external company or team, a dedicated development team is a more integrated and long-term approach. Dedicated software teams are established as complete, independent teams focused on a specific client's project, providing full control and dedicated resources. The dedicated team becomes an extension of the client’s in-house team, working exclusively on their projects, and often follows their processes and methodologies.
2. What are the benefits of working with a dedicated development team?
Some key benefits of working with a dedicated development team are increased productivity, improved collaboration, cost-effectiveness, and access to a diverse skill set and expertise. A dedicated team can handle the technical development work, allowing your in-house team to focus on more business oriented tasks, which enables faster growth.
3. Can a dedicated development team work remotely?
4. What is an example of a dedicated team?
A dedicated development team is when a company hire developers to work solely on one specific software product. To better understand this, let's look at examples of dedicated development teams in the industry.
Suppose, a FinTech startup is creating a mobile banking app with features like real-time analytics, biometric security, and personalized financial advice. To do this, they hire a dedicated development team that includes:
- A project manager for team coordination
- Frontend developers for the app interface
- Backend developers for server and database management
- UI/UX designers for user-friendly design
- QA engineers for thorough testing
Qualified development team members are essential for writing, testing, and maintaining software code, ensuring the project meets requirements and achieves success.
This team works solely for the fintech startup and acts as an extension of its in-house team. They provide regular updates, maintain the app after launch, and can adjust based on changing needs.
5. How do I choose a dedicated development team?
Choosing the right team means finding a balance between skills, reliability, and good communication. To select a dedicated development team, follow these steps:
- Define Your Requirements: Clearly state your project goals, technical needs, and expertise you want.
- Evaluate Past Experience: Review the team’s portfolio and their experience in your specific industry.
- Assess Communication: Check for smooth communication and collaboration methods.
- Check Reviews: Look for client testimonials and case studies to confirm their credibility.
-
Technical Expertise: Make sure their skills match your technology needs. Partnering with a company that provides dedicated developers ensures you have access to professionals with extensive experience across various technologies.
- Flexibility and Scalability: Ensure they can adjust to your changing requirements.
- Cultural Fit: Assess how well their work culture aligns with your team.
6. What is the role of a development team?
The dedicated development team is responsible for the full spectrum of software development, including design, coding, testing, and maintenance. The team manages all aspects of the software development project to ensure successful delivery. The dedicated development team’s responsibilities also extend to understanding client needs and ensuring that the project meets business goals. They focus on delivering solutions that are high-quality, scalable, secure, and user-friendly. After the project is launched, the team provides ongoing support, including updates, bug fixes, and performance improvements.
7. What is the meaning of a dedicated team?
A dedicated team meaning refers to a group of specialist professionals you hire for an extended period to take on specific projects or fill in the expertise gap to perform tasks like software development and web development for any IT development project. Dedicated teams are especially valuable for complex projects that require specialized expertise and tailored approaches to ensure successful completion.
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