Outsourcing part or all of your project development is a valuable resource for your application development team. Contract periods for software development consultants can range from 1 month to 1 year, depending on the scale and scope of a project, but a consultants impact on a project can last for years beyond the contract period.
There are a variety of situations when it makes good business sense to augment your full-time staff with a highly-experienced consultant. Additionally, contract developers provide several benefits to your project.
- Faster Onboarding
Augmenting your staff with skilled professionals allows you to assign projects with confidence. Because consultants come with years of experience and a breadth of knowledge, they can jump onto your project and be up-to-speed quickly, reducing onboarding costs. - Varied Experience
Software development consultants have experience in implementing projects for a variety of different organizations, which means they can bring tremendous expertise to the table. Through the nature of their work, consultants have a deep understanding of the surrounding marketplace. They know what technology and practices have worked for others, what has not worked, and ways to ensure that you are positioned to effectively compete. - Skills You Need
Your employees are very good at what they do, but they might lack the skills needed for a new project. A consultant can step in, get the project moving quickly, and provide guidance and training to your internal team. By hiring an expert to supplement your staff, you will ultimately save time and money. Your staff will learn new skills and best practices from the consultant, making the project more efficient, less prone to fail, and more adaptable for future projects. - Faster Deployment
Expertise and experience lead to faster deployment. Why reinvent the wheel when you can hire an outside expert, allowing your internal resources to be focused on your day-to-day business processes? Because a consultant will have prior experience very similar to your current project, they can help you avoid missteps and common pitfalls, which means you will deploy faster. - Outsider’s Objective Perspective
Due to bias or simply being too close to the issues to see clearly, managers and employees can easily become blind to problems that are often right in front of them. Consultants, free from bias and having fresh eyes, can often spot the true issues holding projects back relatively quickly. They also have the knowledge and experience to provide guidance on the best options to move forward. - Flexibility and Savings
By using staff augmentation, you have more flexibility with your staffing needs. You can ramp up production output for critical projects or fill vacant roles when needed. If you have a large project, you can augment your staff during peak production, and then when the project slows down, the contract ends and your staff levels return to normal. If you have a vacant role, whether it’s caused by an employee departure or you’re unable to find the right candidate, you can fill the role quickly with staff augmentation. This ensures you’re your projects stay on schedule.
While you may pay a higher hourly rate for staff augmentation, in the long run, you will actually save you money by obtaining a more efficient and cost-effective solution.
Do you have a current or future need for outsourcing development? Contact us to discuss your project.