Remote team extension:

Best practises  

   

Whitepaper by:

 

Intro Extension of you tech team, though it is a good

sign for company, may easily turn in

nightmare. Month or months spending on

searching of a right candidate, CVs reviews,

endless interviews, skill testing and then

reviewing it - it seems like lots of work for

everyone - you, your HR department and even

your technical leads.

And what about senior developers or finding

person with specific technology skills, is it

easy?

If you fegh a sigh at this point, keep reading

this article. Of course, I haven’t got a panacea

from your «hiring headache», but I can tell you

something that might be considered as a good

alternative in this issue.

This whitepaper covers the topic of hiring

remoted developers, as well as some general

aspects of team building. And lastly, it includes

several real examples of successful team

extension.

So, let’s go on.

 

 

 

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About hiring remote developers

So let’s talk more about hiring remote

developers. Can it be really good alternative to

local developers? Will it make recruiting

process easier? And so on.

But lets start with beginning.

It’s all about the money

It’s naturally that first and main reason

according which companies use the remote

developers is saving money. Most of remote

developers have lower rates, than local.

Especially, if developers are located in Asia or

in post soviet countries, such as Ukraine,

Belarus, Romania. Also the use of remoted

developers allows to cut off your

administrative costs - no workplace needed, no

paid vacations, medical insurance and no other

related expenses.

Your time

Can the use of remote work be timesaving?

Definitely, it can. As you are not limited in

terms of location, you reduce time for the

search process. It’s much more easier and

faster to find great candidate from worldwide

technical specialist pool, than to find someone

good enough nearby. Also remote developers

usually can start their work immediately

without any delay and work adaptation

process.

And if you cooperate with IT staffing company,

the process can be even faster: your service

provider will take care of all recruiting issues.

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Risks and fears

“I can’t see my developer, so how I can control

his work?” - physical presence is not the main

in coordination process. Is watching your

developer drinking coffee give your confidence

in his skills? If you don’t see the process it

doesn’t mean you won’t get the result. In case

with remote developers you pay for his work

only, no work - no payment. And control

process can be easily done by implementing

project management system or by regular

reports and Skype meetings.

“How I can be sure that remote developers will

deliver a good quality work?” - idea of cheaper

workforce suggests thoughts about bad quality.

The same risk you have when you hire local

developer: you can’t be sure that he won’t

failed. But the difference between local and

remote developer is that refusing from remote

one is much more easier.

Some ideas for reducing this risk:

- Cooperate only with reliable developers that

have approval of their experience and/or

references.

- Fix service delivery terms in contract

- Use services of IT staffing companies - in

such case this risk goes under their

responsibility.

Of course, remote developers can’t substitute

your in-house team, but it can be effective

option for fast business growing.

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Tips on building your project team

Creating the plan  Of course everything starts from plan, from

primary resource plan. Before starting to form

your new team, sit down and try to understand

what work has to be done. You have to define

number of team members and approximate

work hours that are required for your project.

After that you have to design roles and

responsibilities.

Selecting your team So, now the details of your goal are set: you

know whom you need and what for. Now you

have to take care of finding right people.

Everyone wants to see only the best person in

their team.

But the main idea is that “ the best” means not

only a person who is brilliant in everything but

the person who is the most qualified for your

specific project.

And it’s better to have a mix of people with

different skills and qualities, then with the

same skills. Ensure that being taken as a group

they all together represent the skills in that

proportions that you need them.

Setting rules and goals  Do it on the first meeting. Gather all your team

members (for remoted team you can organise

video conference) and spend time by

explaining and sharing your plan, team roles

and responsibilities with. And of course don’t

forget to make sure that your team clear

understand the main goal of project and what

you are expecting from your team in whole and

for individuals in particular.

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On this meeting is also need to be discussed

communication and reporting issues. Spend as

much time on this meeting as you need, at the

end of it you must be sure that everyone

understands their roles and goals.

Building communication

Communication inside team is one of the most

important moments. So make it your duty to

ensure that everyone within your team knows

what is going on. Make sure that everyone

knows of outside events that will affect the

team. Make sure that everyone knows their

own goals and objectives and those of the

team as a whole. Make sure they know the

objectives of those interfacing to them and of

any potential conflicts. Make sure that a

problem or a delay in one area is immediately

communicated to those whom it may affect.

If you agreed that you have regular checking

progress meetings - follow the schedule.

As for managing remoted of mixed teams -

organise video calls and use different

communication tools such as Skype,

Messengers, Hangouts, Viber and so on. Be

sure that remoted team or members of it get

all the information they need in time.

Encourage and foster co-operation, not

competition. Make sure it is in no-one's

interest to keep information to themselves.

Communication will come naturally if it is in

everyone's own interest - and this will be the

case if you have earlier ensured that you all

have common mutually interdependent goals.

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Success stories

Team for business intelligence startup

Team: DevelopEx set up a team of 8 senior

and intermediate developers, 4 QA engineers

Technology: PHP, Java, Python, MySQL,

Hadoop, BigQuery, QlikView

Project duration: The team started with three

people and after four years of work, it has

grown to 13 people in Kiev office.

Expertise required: Team leader who fit the

customer team was crucial. Strong technical

skills in PHP/MYSQL.

Interesting fact: This client has a product

owner and architect. In-house engineers also

made an appearance for technical sales and

support.

Team for ERP software company

Team: Developex set up a team of 4 senior and

intermediate developers

Technology: .NET, nHibernate, MVC4, MS SQL.

Project duration: 2 years and expanding.

Expertise required: Client needed strong,

industry-leading developers and held a

rigorous interview and screening process.

Interesting fact: Client company has very

strong technical in-house team with excellent

processes in terms of code reviews and

continuous integration practices. Developers

all feel like they received great experience and

the team experienced no turnover.

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Success stories Team as a Service

Team for Ecommerce company

Team: 10 to 15 full-time employees, including

a team lead and manager, all working directly

with French sales managers. The team was

expanded or reduced based on changing

needs.

Project duration: 7 years and going despite

acquisition by a larger French company.

Expertise required: Customer projects required

strong managers and multiple affordable

resources dedicated to working on

ecommerce/wordpress/joomla and other

non-demanding technologies.

Interesting fact: Client required complete

financial transparency and control over all

salaries and expenses.

Team extension is quite challenging task. But

as you might see from our cases studies right

organised and well-managed remote team can

be efficient solution for your business. That’s

why more and more consulting companies

provide complex solution called Team as a

Service.

Team as a Service - it’s a type of outsource

cooperation,it means that Vendor provides the

Customer with remote team of software

developers (as well as any other type of

specialist) that meet all Customer’s

requirements (amount of people, skills and

expertise, education and so on) and work on

Customer’s projects as a part of his (Customer)

own team. More read here: goo.gl/L0uJyX.

Team as a service includes:

● Recruiting services

● Administrative and operational services

● Workplace arrangements and set up,

office and workstation management;

● Security set-up and maintenance and

High intellectual property protection;

● HR support for your team.

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About us

Developex is comprised of an outstanding

team of IT professionals with extensive

experience in custom software development.

For over 14 years, our team has gained a

reputation of reliable and efficient partnering

and has built strong relationships with

numerous companies around the world.

Developex’s greatest asset to our partners is

our unique recruiting and team building

strategy. Combined with full transparency, our

partners can demand any level of control

making our services entirely unique in this

area.

Year founded: 2001

Current team size: 100+ full time specialists

Contacts:

Email: service@developex.com

Phone:+38 (044) 221 78 12

Website: http://developex.com/

Benefits

● Stability - more than 14 years on market

● Secure - high intellectual property

protection

● Experienced - more than 100 completed

projects

● Agile - modern development processes

● Reliable - consistent communication

and reporting

● Mobile -available for onsite visits/work

● Cost effective - most affordable

expertise in the market

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