Soft Skills Are Also A Factor in Giving Staff Augmentation Meaning

Describing the characteristics of a great software developer, Rasmussen University which offers degrees in the field noted that “Great communication, empathy and a knack for collaborating with others is a must.” When selecting additional team members for a software development project, managers may consider something vaguely termed “cultural fit” which is essential for a well-performing team. When the emphasis in staff augmentation is more on skills, this can be a lost opportunity to enhance the value of staff augmentation meaning individuals who have the right “soft skills” as well as technical skills may be overlooked.

Nearshoring for Staff Augmentation Services for Cultural Connection

Nearshoring, which connects team members from nearby countries in similar time zones and with greater cultural similarity to US teams than distant offshore workers, is excellent for hands-on management. Nearshore staff augmentation is a model that allows business leaders to complement their teams with professionals hired from Sonatafy Technology. When it’s important to add talent to your team that connects with them, and also offers the unique skill set you are looking for, nearshoring can be a cost-effective answer to staffing limitations in the local area. As a Forbes contributor notes (1),

“Nearshoring can help you build a team quickly without outsourcing the task at hand, allowing you to get involved with your new hires.”

-Forbes

While companies may hire through nearshoring companies like Sonatafy for the convenience and technical skills of regional talent, they’re often gaining the unexpected advantage of having a team member they can relate to. The staff augmentation model has proven effective by dozens of highly satisfied clients of Sonatafy Technology.

To learn more about our staff augmentation process click the blue link text.

Supporting the Shift to Remote for Staff Augmentation Services

Speaking of the 2021 hiring market, CIO magazine observed that a wholesale shift to remote work not just for software development but for everyone has put a further demand on already strained IT and software development resources (2)

“COVID-19 has shifted the demand for certain roles, with an increased need for developers, as well as help desk and cybersecurity professionals.”

– CIO Magazine

Now is an excellent time to look outside local demand, to thriving markets for technical professionals in nearby countries. Nearshore staff augmentation is a outsourcing model that allows you get highly skilled tech talent needed quickly.

Making the Connection with Staff Augmentation model with Communication Tools

Researchers in the software engineering field have been studying the growth of global teams of developers for over a decade. An article published by IEEE (3) shows how the right tools are making the difference, an important clue for companies incorporating nearshoring in their operations, Study shows the importance of using groupware and other strategies to support distributed teams, a growing necessity as companies seek the software development resources they need on an increasingly geographically diverse basis. Services staff augmentation is often most effective when nearshoring is utilized.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Staff Augmentation Meaning

What is considered staff augmentation Services?

Adding the right team specialists can help a project reach its goals quickly. Many software development companies achieve this using outsourcing staff augmentation meaning they can put their goals first, and acquire any additional skilled team members for their operation to achieve those goals through outside providers.

The additional software development team members are often located in other countries, which for many companies that already have remote employees is still just a matter of welcoming new workers and adjusting their project schedule to reflect the new capacity.

By adding workers to the team that are managed as part of the whole, and selecting these software development workers according to specific skillsets and experience, companies can avoid the typical delays that adding employees involves. Software development companies often gain experienced “quick-study” workers in staff augmentation meaning they have experience in joining teams quickly and effectively, increasing the chances of success.

A software development manager can also use this method to cover for the temporary absence of a regular team member using staff augmentation meaning an employee who takes six months off for an emergency can have their work covered by a skilled temporary replacement, rather than having the team as a whole stretch their efforts to pick up the slack.

Considering how popular this business model is, it’s important to build a stagey to implement it within your company. we’re focusing on the meaning of staff augmentation here, so to not make this article too long, we answered the question: what is strategic outsourcing?

What is the difference between staff augmentation services and managed services?

Adding skilled software developers as team members as opposed to additional service providers lets companies manage workers as they require through staff augmentation services meaning that the workers may wind up in various roles as required, but they are specific workers under contract. With managed services, it is the services provided that is directed, such as network monitoring or desktop support, and the personnel providing these roles may actually vary based on the time of day, workload, or other factors, with the managed services provider responsible for continuity between workers in a particular role.

What is the difference between staff augmentation model and outsourcing?

Outsourcing software development has a project as its deliverable, whereas filling a specific role is the goal of staff augmentation meaning that the company that brings people on using resource staff augmentation are still responsible for the end result. This provides a lot more control over how the work is done, typically, which can be critically important on certain projects. For outsourced projects, the deliverable can be, in essence, the product of the lowest bidder.

The is a shortened answer to a pretty complicated question. We tasked our writers to do the research and they put together an article that goes deeper into the subject.

How much does staff augmentation services cost?

Staff augmentation companies charge in various manners. The basic billing process is “time and materials” for staff augmentation meaning that companies are charged an hourly rate for a given worker, which could be as low as $18 per hour, for example, or as high as $300 an hour depending on the worker’s background and experience. These details would be defined in your staff augmentation contract.  This also means that companies managing these additional team members are paying for them to add to the overall team effort, for example writing or testing parts of an application and participating in design and code reviews, rather than simply delivering a finished product. This can be a big advantage for companies using processes such as Agile software development where the project is dynamic and the desired end results may change over time.

How does staff augmentation services work?

A company that required a specialist developer that has skills beyond their in-house expertise, for example who is familiar with interfaces such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, can add their services to their team through staff augmentation meaning that the provider company would employ the worker and contract their software development services to the client company for as long as their specialized skills were needed. Augmented staff for your software development can be a great solution for US based teams that are dealing with resource constraints.

How do I start a staff augmentation business?

Staff augmentation is a form of outsourcing professional labor that requires the client company to select and manage the professional, while the provider company recruits and handles the employment of the worker.

Staff augmentation begins with an experienced staffing firm adding this option to their repertoire, and for the client company using this approach is similar to hiring a direct worker for the project manager, but usually faster and involving purchasing rather than human resources for the business side.

Is staff augmentation consulting?

Consulting skills could be a part of staff augmentation meaning that the worker, often a specialist in a particular area, could offer expertise in that area to the project team as part of their assignment. Consulting, though, is not an accurate term for staff augmentation, since consultants typically operate with a different business model focused on being an external resource rather than an integrated part of the project team.

Is staff augmentation time and material?

Yes, staff augmentation is based on time and material billing, providing hours of work and related expenses on an ongoing basis as long as is needed by the client company.  Staff augmentation provider can also provide dedicated team including developers and designers on a project basis vs. time and material.

What is the opposite of staff augmentation pros?

Classic outsourcing is basically the opposite of staff augmentation meaning instead of managing the team member and obtaining skilled labor, an outsourced project requires managing a provider and obtaining a specified, usually custom product.

What Project Outstaffing means?

Outstaffing is an older term that is used to describe forms of subcontracting that add to a company’s abilities. One possible use of outstaffing would be when a company wins a contract to provide a custom software product or project for a large retailer and uses outstaffing to perform installation of the product at hundreds of the retailer’s locations, something their internal organization is not scaled to do.

What do you mean by outsourcing?

Outsourcing is the method a company can use to perform some of its internal operations using external resources or solutions, for a variety of reasons but most commonly to reduce costs or expand capacity. Outsourcing is often performed using overseas specialists and providers.

What is resource augmentation model?

The resource augmentation model provides a method for companies to staff and complete a project whose goals or timeline are beyond their internal capabilities. They use a third party to contract the additional resources, or skilled workers, from a global pool that allows them to match their requirements fairly closely.

What is difference between recruitment and project staffing?

Recruiting is the process of adding employees to a company, usually on a full-time basis. Staffing is the process of contracting with and using a provider to temporarily add workers to client company’s project.

What is IT staffing solution?

An IT staffing solution uses an external company to recruit skilled workers to fill their team positions, ideally requiring very limited time from the busy company management. The IT staffing provider handles the process and provides carefully screened candidates, so the hiring manager doesn’t face a large pile of resumes every time they need more team members.

How do I move from staff augmentation to managed services?

Since managed services are more defined by outcome, the process of moving from adding resources to relying on a provider for outcomes is a shift in perspective. There are four typical steps involved:

• Defining the scope of services required, the quality needed, and types of vendors to consider
• Identify the appropriate managed services vendors
• Transition from internal operations using staff augmentation and internal resources to managed services
• Continue with ongoing oversight of the managed services
• Staff Augmentation services may be similar to outsourcing staff augmentation.

What is meant by managed services?

In order to cut or control expenses and improve outcomes, a company may turn to managed services for the provision of specified IT services and related planning as an alternative to having a fully staffed internal IT department.

What is the difference between managed services and outsourcing?

Managed services provide an integrated set of IT services to meet a company’s IT management and planning needs, whereas IT outsourcing is used to offload specific IT activities to external providers.

What is meant by managed services?

Managed services are skilled IT activities such as cybersecurity, network monitoring, and desktop support that are supplied to the client company as a package of services with the provider invested in the client’s overall IT service quality.