Dedicated Development Team Model Explained

Dedicated Development Team: Why you Need it and How to Build one

A dedicated development team is a viable approach to software development that comes in handy in various scenarios. Some companies hire dedicated software developers to beat the competition to the punch and ship the product as fast as possible. Others use dedicated software development services to cover their sporadic need for resources. Finally, a dedicated software development model is a cost-effective alternative to an in-house development approach.

A dedicated development model suggests expanding your unit by adding dedicated software developers located in a region with lower development rates, such as Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America. Such a team is called “dedicated” because it’s solely dedicated to the client’s project, working full-time. The client usually has direct access to each dedicated software developer. In its turn, the vendor of a dedicated engineering team takes care of recruitment, employee retention, office space, IT infrastructure, HR support, and employee perks.

A dedicated development team vs an in-house team: Which is better?

The most common reason to build a dedicated development team is the lack of local technology talent. Fortunately, a wealth of communication and management tools allow businesses to have a similar level of control over the process as with an in-house team.

One more benefit of a dedicated development team is that it can accelerate software development. According to ITWorld, a company needs 8-12 weeks to build an engineering team on site. Nowadays, the most in-demand skills are cybersecurity, software architecture, AI, and DevOps, which means it’s increasingly difficult to hire resources in the most cutting-edge technologies.

That’s where dedicated development teams truly shine, giving you the best of both worlds – availability of talent and quality of resources, which lets you build a team that would be on par with your in-house one. This fact lends itself to the increased demand for dedicated software developers.

Dedicated software development: How it works

As we’ve mentioned before, a dedicated software development approach lives up to its name. It refers to a model where a virtual team is interweaved into a client’s software project, working out of the vendor’s office. A dedicated development team is typically gathered by the vendor from the ground up and tailored to the client’s project. While the vendor takes care of candidate sourcing, establishing the workflow and synchronizing external and internal teams rests on the client. Below we dive deeper into the benefits of this model.

Advantages of a dedicated development team

Hiring a full-time software developer in the United States or Western Europe costs between $100K-$200K per year, without recruitment, onboarding, administration, and benefits packages. With a dedicated development team, you can forget about added expenses that come with an in-house team, as they are taken care of by the vendor.
There’s always an option to scale quickly with dedicated software developers whenever your project requires extra hands. A dedicated team model is best when you need to bring the project up to speed to meet the timeline requirements.
Get a jump on time-to-market. Speed is another benefit associated with a dedicated development team, as you don’t need to distract your in-house team from the main project to handle your adjacent project.
Access to developers with sought-after expertise. One more reason to work with a dedicated team is a variety of specialists in the global talent pool. For example, in Ukraine, you can find a dedicated software developer with expertise in major verticals, such as healthcare, banking, fintech, and more. A dedicated team can bring the expertise you lack to the table.
Your office will be up and running around the clock. Running a remote team comes with its challenges, but this work model also provides a lot of coverage, given that two teams working 8 hours equals 16 hours a day dedicated to your project.
A dedicated software team gives you much more time to focus on your core business and vital processes. It’s proven that by engaging dedicated teams, numerous companies have managed to bring technology solutions that had a transformative power on their business model.

How to build your own dedicated development team: Step-by-step guide

When building a dedicated software team, you want to source dedicated software developers with the right skills to bring your project to success. There are two major parties involved in this process: Customer and Provider. The responsibilities are typically divided in the following way:

The provider takes care of: talent acquisition, IT infrastructure, office space, dedicated software developer retention, administration, payroll, paperwork, team building, and employee benefits.

The customer is responsible for: providing Project Scope, team effectiveness measurement, communication, company culture.

Now that we’ve outlined the responsibilities of each party, the next question would be where to start?

Step 1. Define your requirements

Before contacting the vendor, your team should decide on a tech stack and prioritize features so that a vendor can build a dedicated development team based on your needs. Giving information about your company will help find developers who would be a good fit in terms of company culture.

Step 2. Interview candidates

Typically, the hiring process included several rounds of interviews. The candidates are initially verified by the vendor’s team, which involves technical and HR interviews. Then, the candidates who’ve made the cut are forwarded to the client for client interviews.

During the hiring process, you may want to take the provider for a spin. Take notice of their company culture, communication style, and the ability to meet your requirements. That will allow making an informed decision. With nCube, there’s no need to pay upfront until you are ready to hire a dedicated software developer. We also are open to signing a non-disclosure agreement before we start our cooperation.

Step 3. Launch your team

If you have chosen the team members carefully, chances are high that your dedicated development team will be a success. At this point, a lot depends on your involvement in the project. Set up the processes and communicate with team members regularly. If you choose nCube, you’ll be working with Ukrainian developers who have high technical proficiency, a problem-solving mindset, and strong communication skills.

Step 4. Pay a visit

How do you know your dedicated development team is effective? You could rely on the criteria proposed by common team effectiveness models (for example, the GRPI model and the T7 model) and carrying out regular surveys. But the best way to know how your team is doing is by visiting our Kyiv office. You’re welcome anytime!

Dedicated software development team: Where to build it?

These are regions that are the most comfortable for launching your dedicated software development team.

Eastern Europe

When it comes to the best countries to launch your dedicated development team, many Eastern European countries (Ukraine, Poland, Romania, etc) are globally recognized as hotspots for this activity.

In Eastern Europe, developers have vast experience working on global software development projects and excel at diverse technologies. Particularly, Ukrainian technologists are well-versed in JavaScript, Java, C#, Python, PHP, Swift, and C++ as well as in-demand fields, such as Data Science, IoT, Blockchain, AI/ML.

When you go for dedicated team development in this region, you can rely on a repository of nearly 1 million expert IT specialists. In this region, the majority of software development providers charge between $25-$49 per hour for their services, excluding fees and taxes. This cost is a bit higher than in other popular tech hubs, for instance, Asia, but the rates of local engineers are still lower than in North America, the UK, and the EU.

Dedicated team development in this region is also a lucrative option thanks to convenient time zone, no-barrier communication, and minimal cultural discrepancies. So, when sourcing dedicated software developers from Eastern Europe, you can optimize your budget without any trade-offs.

LATAM

LATAM is currently a growing tech hub, where such countries as Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil stand out as the most popular destination for dedicated development. LATAM is also a preferred region for US-based companies seeking nearshore opportunities.

Akin to Eastern Europe, LATAM offers affordable software development rates compared to North America. Depending on the country, the rates can vary in the range between $28-$105 per hour.

LATAM nations are close to the US when it comes to time zone, so many businesses prefer to launch dedicated software development teams in this region. Besides that, providers in LATAM are laser-focused on North American projects, which allows them to have a deep understanding of their inner workings, requirements, standards, and goals.

We at nCube focus on both of these regions and will help you set up your own dedicated development team in the destination of your choice.

Our dedicated team model in action

At nCube, we have vast experience building dedicated development teams based on the client’s project. Together with the client, we agree on the profiles of candidates and initiate the search. Then we interview and provide technology specialists that suit our clients’ requirements. We have 15 years of experience building dedicated development teams for clients worldwide.

For example, Flightright is one of our ongoing projects that work within a dedicated software development model. The company is the #1 platform in air passenger rights used by more than 5M travelers. The team aims to build a feature-rich application landscape using a modern tech stack.

Jan Koschitzki, CTO at Flightright:

“As a part of the core team based in Germany, a team of 8 FTE from nCube is working on the main functionality of the platform. The team includes front-end, back-end developers, DevOps specialists and spans skill sets such as Java, Docker, AWS, Kubernetes, and others.

Working on the project, nCube’s team has day-to-day meetings with the core team, regular onsite meetups and training, which results in complete and smooth integration.

The most recent achievement of the team was the implementation of an aircraft leasing investigation that dramatically improved the compensation calculation algorithm.” Read about Flighright-nCube cooperation here.

A dedicated development team: Is it the right approach for your business?

At the end of the day, there is no universal recipe for developing software. In some scenarios, it’s best to go with an in-house software development team. In others, a dedicated team can be a good solution, especially when you want to scale your internal team fast and prune the extra costs associated with an in-house team. Together with a dedicated development team from nCube, you can build long-term relations with best tech talent in Eastern Europe and LATAM. Let’s talk.

MARYNA DEMCHENKO