Introduction
In the technology landscape, IT staff augmentation has become a key strategy for businesses seeking specialized skills. Yet, there are instances when organizations hear some myths about losing project control while leveraging IT Staff Augmentation services.
This article will highlight the myths and realities surrounding IT staff augmentation for hiring remote developers.
Before heading into the myths, let’s understand what is IT Staff Augmentation.
What is IT Staff Augmentation?
IT Staff Augmentation is a hiring process where organizations enable themselves to hire remote developers to meet their requirements. By hiring an augmented tech talent the company can scale their team up or down as per the needs and workload.
This model offers flexibility, access to global talent, and cost-effectiveness. Despite a lot of benefits, there are a lot of myths surrounding remote work and IT staff augmentation.
Let’s understand all the Myths & their realities one by one.
5 Myths about IT Staff Augmentation
Myth 1 vs Reality:
Myth:
The IT-augmented staff is less committed as compared to the In-house team.
Reality:
IT staff augmentation team members are highly dedicated and experienced.
The best integration strategies to use while integrating remote teams with in-house team
- Develop an equal company culture
- Setting up goals & expectations
- Provide necessary tools & support
Myth 2 vs Reality:
Myth:
Communication barriers in IT staff augmentation can lead to loss of control.
Reality:
By using proper communication tools, these communication barriers can be easily minimized.
Key communication strategies involve:
- Use diversified communication channels
- Plan an immediate contact point in case of emergency interaction.
Myth 3 vs Reality:
Myth:
By hiring remote employees, work quality gets compromised.
Reality:
External developers are highly skilled and committed to achieving project excellence quickly.
To ensure high standards:
- Implement a thorough onboarding process.
- Establish clear reporting and feedback frameworks.
- Build collaboration between existing teams and augmented teams for knowledge-sharing & problem-solving.
Myth 4 vs Reality
Myth:
IT Staff augmentation leads to a lack of long-term commitment and stability in projects.
Reality:
IT staff augmentation is project-specific, and many external professionals show a level of commitment towards their work. By, doing this the company can achieve long-term collaboration.
Let’s understand how to achieve long-term commitment
- Professional Integrity & Reputation:
The IT-augmented staff strives to achieve a strong professional reputation. This motivation helps them to achieve excellence consistently.
- Opportunity for extended engagement:
Businesses tend to find a greater value in specific remote workers. The company takes the responsibility of ensuring they achieve a higher engagement by rehiring them. Rehiring an existing remote worker will help them build stable working relationships.
- Strategic Resource Planning:
The companies can align their staff augmentation goals by planning long-term project goals, ensuring stability & continuity.
Myth 5 vs Reality
Myth:
The Augmented IT staff negatively impacts the company’s organizational culture.
Reality:
If managed properly, distributed teams can integrate well with the company culture. This integration will bring a fresh perspective to enhance the remote working model.
- Cultural Onboarding:
Including augmented staff in cultural onboarding sessions helps them understand and embrace the company’s values and work ethos.
- Promoting Inclusivity:
The organization needs to promote an inclusive work environment. An environment where all team members are treated equally. A friendly company culture will help the members of the team participate in team meetings
- Regular Culture exchange:
Regularly conducting team-building activities can help the IT-augmented staff align with the company culture by contributing positively.
Now, let’s understand some strategies to retain control.
What are the effective ways to retail project control?
Dedicated Teams that work remotely need to be managed effectively. Remote teams are comprised of IT professionals who are working in different time zones. But, they play a defining role in streamlining the software development process.
Maintaining project control after hiring a remote team needs a high level of efficiency. The below two points will help you regain control over your remote software development project.
Define Project Guidelines & Setting Decision making
- To make any software development project a success, it is important to define proper guidelines. This includes defining the project scope, deliverables, timelines, & quality standards.
- Well-defined project guidelines will ensure everyone in the team understands their roles & responsibilities clearly.
- The company also needs to define the decision-making process clearly.
Regular Monitoring & Performance Evaluation Using KPIs
Implementing a system for regular monitoring & performance evaluation is essential in maintaining control. It is important to develop KPIs to measure the project’s objectives.
Let’s understand some of the metrics that can help develop the key performance indicators
- Project completion rate
- Quality of work
- Budget compliance
It is necessary to assess the performance of in-house & remote teams based on the KPIs. Doing a thorough analysis will provide a clear picture of the improvisations needed.
Providing continuous feedback will help the team to move forward in the right direction.
Apart, from this, the company should also use effective communication & project management tools for better project management.
Let’s understand in brief some project management tools a company can use to maintain seamless integration.
5 Project Management Tools for seamless integration
Asana:
Asana is a project management tool that helps teams organize & track the progress of their work.
Key features:
- It gives information about Task assignments & due dates.
- It can easily integrate with Slack, Google Drive & Dropbox.
Trello:
Trello uses a card-based system that great for visual task management. It can be easily customized & is ideal for small projects and teams that use simple interfaces.
Key features
- It uses boards, lists, and cards to organize & prioritize projects in the most rewarding way.
- It can easily integrate with GitHub, Evernote & Google Drive.
Jira:
It is mainly used by software developers. Jira is used for bug tracking, issue tracking & operational project management. Jira is known as one of the most agile project management tools.
Key features
- It provides customizable scrum boards & Kanban boards for managing the project.
- It can help in achieving seamless integration with an Atlassian product like Confluence.
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project is a powerful tool for complex project planning & management. It offers detailed project management capabilities and is best suited for larger organizations with experienced project managers.
Key features
- It uses Gantt charts.
- The tool can help in project scheduling & resource management.
- It can easily integrate with Microsoft Office applications.
Monday(.)com
Monday(.)com is a project management tool known for its ease of use & ability to adapt to various project types. It’s suitable for both small teams and large enterprises.
- It provides features of customizable workflows, time tracking & automated notifications.
- It can integrate with various tools like Google Drive, Slack & Zoom.
Now, let’s understand some of the communication tools that can help in managing remote projects smoothly.
By using any of the above project management tools, the company can easily keep track of the project. Using the right tools will help them analyze the progress of the project i.e., goals achieved, KPIs met or not, etc.
5 Communication Tools for Seamless Integration
Having your toolkit flooded with the best communication tools can help in achieving seamless project management.
Let’s understand the best communication tools you can use to maintain control over your project.
Slack:
Slack is a popular messaging app designed for team collaboration.
Key features
- It provides a feature for direct messaging & group chats.
- It helps in organizing teams or topics and helps in receiving & sharing files.
- It can easily integrated with Google Drive & Asana.
Zoom:
Zoom is a popular video conferencing tool that gained popularity for its quality video calling. It is useful for both small meetings & large webinars.
- It provides a feature of High-definition video and audio conferencing.
- It can help in screen sharing, virtual backgrounds, and breakout rooms for smaller discussions.
Microsoft Teams:
Being a part of the Microsoft 365 suite, Teams is an effective communication & collaboration platform.
- It provides a feature for chats & threaded conversations.
- Enables the user to do video and audio conferencing.
- Zoom can easily integrate with Microsoft Office applications.
- It also allows to storage of files and documents.
Google Meet:
Google Meet is a video communication service provided by Google.
- It provides a feature of secure video meetings.
- Provides easy access to web tools, without the need to download the application.
- Enables the feature of screen-sharing & generates real-time captions.
- It can easily integrate with Google Calendar.
Cisco Webex:
Cisco Webex is a communication tool known for its enterprise-grade security & reliability. The tool is suitable for both internal team meetings & external meetings with clients & stakeholders.
- It allows HD video & audio conferencing
- It provides end-to-end encryption for security.
How Acquaint Softtech can help in IT Staff Augmentation?
Acquaint Softtech is a software development company specializing in IT Staff Augmentation Services and custom software development. We are a team of experts having 15+ years of industry experience in helping our clients build custom software. We can help your organization hire remote developers that meet your requirements.
Wrapping Up!
Debunking myths with realities shows that control in IT staff augmentation is not compromised. By using clear communication & strategic integration the organizations can reap numerous benefits. By, using IT staff augmentation the organization can regain the lost control over project management.