From this article, you will find out who the dedicated developers are, when and why you may need to hire them, and what is the proper way to manage them. So keep on reading!
Dedicated developers. Who are they?
Dedicated developers are skilled specialists who work on a particular project for an extended period of time. Such developers are usually hired on a long-term basis (months or even years) and work exclusively for one company or client for a certain period of time without being hired in-house.
Here are the key characteristics of dedicated developers:
- Full dedication. Just as the name implies, dedicated developers work full-time on a single project, without being distracted by other projects or tasks.
- Specific expertise. As usual, dedicated developers are hired because the need for specific skills or expertise arises. This may be mobile app development, web development, artificial intelligence (AI) expertise, specific programming languages, etc.
- Integration with in-house team. Dedicated developers often work closely with the client’s team. Close communication allows them to become an integral part of the development process.
- Flexibility. The client can control the number of dedicated developers or dedicated developers team, scaling them up and down when needed.
Why hire dedicated developers?
Being interested in hiring dedicated developers for your project, you may be wondering: “Why is it a better option then hiring in-house developers?”. Here is a list of benefits that you can get hiring dedicated developers:
1. Wider talent pool
As we have already mentioned that, as usual, dedicated developers work on a remote basis. This gives you an opportunity to hire a dedicated application development team, choosing from a wider pool of talents, without being limited by your country or region. Besides, according to Upwork’s report, by 2028, 73% of all departments will have remote workers.
2. Cost efficiency
Hiring workers on a permanent basis may be very expensive. You have to pay them a fixed fee independently of how much work needs to be done. Besides, the process of hiring in-house developers is long and expensive. Meanwhile, the option of hiring dedicated developers seems more beneficial financially; you don’t need to involve yourself in the tiring and complicated HR process. Moreover, dedicated developers don’t require office space, hardware or software which also allows you to save more resources and web app development costs.
3. Experience
In most cases, dedicated developers have broad experience in a wide array of industries as they have been working on numerous projects. This is what distinguishes them from in-house developers that usually have deep expertise only in certain types of projects.
4. Responsibility
When you hire dedicated developers, you pay for professionalism. If you find a reliable dedicated developers provider, you can be sure that you involve yourself into a reliable partnership and can be sure of the final result.
When do you need to hire dedicated developers?
There are various scenarios when the need for hiring dedicated developers arises. Let’s explore these scenarios in detail.
1. Large-scope projects
As usual, big and complex projects require additional resources, in one period or another. This is where dedicated developers come useful. Hiring developers for a project-basis collaboration is one of the best ways to fill the gap in your project’s scope.
2. Project’s with unclear requirements
Some projects have unclear or frequently changing requirements which makes it harder to predefine project’s scope, cost, timeline and resources required to complete the project. In this case, hiring in-house developers appears to be a quite risky option as you can’t define for how long you will need their services.
3. Lack of skills
Even if you already have a development team that is ready to bring your idea to life, you may still lack some skills necessary to fulfill your project. That’s where hiring dedicated developers comes useful.
How can you hire dedicated developers?
In this section, we will give a step-by-step guide on how to hire dedicated developers.
1. Choose the way to hire dedicated developers
There are three main sources to hire dedicated developers: freelancers, IT outsourcing, and IT staff augmentation. Let’s explore these options.
Freelance developers
Freelance developers are independent contractors who can be hired to work on projects on the hourly basis. They can be hired on such platforms as Upwork, Toptal, Freelancer, and others. However, note that such an option has a lot of risks as freelancers are not related to any company that takes responsibility for their work and their actions.
IT outsourcing
IT outsourcing refers to hiring dedicated developers or dedicated web development teams on an outsourcing basis, when these teams or developers are managed by a third-party company. Many software development companies provide an opportunity of hiring dedicated developers on the outsourcing basis.
IT staff augmentation
Companies that provide IT staff augmentation services allow hiring dedicated software developers to support the already existing in-house development team. As usual, such developers work on a remote basis and allow increasing the existing in a fast and cost-effective way.
Job boards and social media
You can look for dedicated developers on platforms like Stack Overflow Jobs, GitHub Jobs, and LinkedIn. There, you can join relevant groups and forums related to your industry and approach directly to candidates you are interested in.
2. Evaluate candidates
As you have chosen the way to reach out to dedicated app developers, you need to make a proper choice. When doing so, you need to take into account such considerations:
Expertise
Developers may have different levels of expertise in certain areas. Sometimes, you don’t require great experience and deep knowledge from your candidates (for example, when you need them for small tasks that don’t have a vital influence on the success of your project). However, if your main purpose is to get access to top-notch specialists, you have to look for experienced specialists.
Portfolio is the main artifact that can help you assess the level of professionalism and experience of candidates you are choosing from. But note that collaboration with high-level developers may be somewhat expensive.
Soft skills
The individual’s communication skills, work culture, ethics, and the ability to work in the team is not less important than his/her professional qualities. Soft skills determine the way you will be able to build work relationships with developers and how you can integrate this or that person in your existing team.
Soft skills can only be assessed through personal communication with a potential candidate through an interview.
Compatibility
Hiring a remote dedicated developer from another country, you have to consider time zones, work culture, language barrier, and so on. This will help you make sure that a potential candidate is compatible with your work environment.
3. Make a choice
Considering these three main factors, you can make a proper choice, aligned with your project’s goals. Interviewing potential candidates, you need to discuss your needs and requirements, check their skills, experience, and ability to work in the team.
How to manage dedicated developers?
Once you have selected the developers you want to work with, the question arises: How to manage them? In this section, we will explain how to do that.
1 Set clear goals for your dedicated developers. Developers that will work in your team need to know the scope of your project, your business goals and objectives that need to be archived.
2. Start the onboarding process. This involves organizational introduction to the project and ensuring access to the necessary resources and documentation.
3. Think about communication channels. It’s important to maintain constant contact with your dedicated developers, especially if you hired them on a remote basis. For this, you can use software like Slack, Google Meet, or Zoom.
4. Set the project management flow. This involves assigning tasks to your dedicated developers and progress monitoring. You can use such project management tools like Jira, Trello, or Asana.
5. Establish collaboration. Encourage your dedicated developers to communicate with your team members, share ideas, and discuss solutions. Of course, different project’s goals and tasks require different levels of dedicated developers’ engagement in your team, but communication is always important.
6. Track progress and support the software product development process. As a product owner, you need to make sure that your dedicated developers bring benefit to your project and do what needs to be done.
Conclusion
The option of hiring dedicated developers offers various benefits: wider talent pool, deep expertise in specific industries, cost-efficiency, etc. The most reliable way to hire them for your project is to collaborate with a custom software development company that provides IT staff augmentation services. It’s also important to establish proper communication with your dedicated developers and track their progress to make sure they can fulfill the needs of your project.
