Staff Augmentation Vs Project Outsourcing

Project Outsourcing: The IT industry is like a race track. No one can ever win the race by just standing there and expecting the finish line to come to them. Every company today is on the look for the best use of technology and its benefits to increase the efficiency of their organization. When we talk about an organization, the first thing that comes into one’s mind will be about a team.

Now with the variation curve being so dramatic in the IT sector, it is impossible to maintain a steady team and say that you can meet all the needs of the market. In such situations, organizations usually have two options to help themselves meet the needs of the client in a very systematic way. That is Team Augmentation and Project Outsourcing. This article will provide you with an unbiased review about both the processes.

Basically.

Staff augmentation - Project Outsourcing

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Team Augmentation is the process where you get qualified and skilled workers from an agency that provides you with staff. Let us have a look at the pros and cons of staff/Team augmentation.

Pros:

• Ease of managing staff: With team augmentation, you can keep a close watch on what your team does.
• Integration with internal processes: It is easier for an individual get along with a team rather than a team getting along with another team itself. Thus team augmentation is always chosen when work has to be done quicker.
• Add on resources: Team augmentation ensures that there are more team members available to finish the task. This helps the company ensure that the deadlines are met and the quality of the project is also at par with the expectation of the client.
• Maintenance free team: Team augmentation means that you are not necessarily having the same team employees in your company forever. You can get a new team as per the requirements of the projects that you deal with. This ensures that there is no hassle in the maintenance of the team.

Cons

• Training is still essential: Even though the team obtained from an external agency will be highly qualified and very hard working, it will still be the responsibility of the company to ensure that the team is able to follow the tools offered by the company to get the work done.
• Internal flaws: Any mistakes in the internal team will lead to huge loss in the team that has been bought from the external agency as they are purely dependant on the resources provided by your from your organization.
• Team management: Well with a team that operates out of the office, it is always a challenge to ensure that work is getting done as per the requirement.

Project outsourcing

on the other hand is the outsourcing of the entire or parts of the project to another firm. It has its own advantages and disadvantages as well. Let us have a look at the same:

Pros:

• Reduced training cost: As the entire project is outsourced, the responsibility to ensure the quality of the project will be on the outsourced company and hence the parent company will not have to worry about training their own staff for the same.
• Best practices: Each project will have its own needs. A single company may not be able to cater all the needs. In such a situation, it is always best to get it done by the best in the field for achieving greater client satisfaction rates.
• Team management: Since the entire team will be of the company to which the project has been outsourced, the parent organization need not worry about the team management for that project.
• Be focused: Since a part of the project is outsourced, the parent company can now concentrate on their core business to ensure that the entire project goes well.

Cons:

• Lack of control: You will not have the ability to manage the project from its initial stage to its final project. So only the external agency will know what all was involved in making the project while you will be aware of the final outcome.
• Employee trust: Many a times when projects are outsourced, the internal employees of the team feel a little let down, as they feel insecure about their jobs. It becomes the duty of the organization to ensure that the internal team is also kept busy always.
• Quality: Finding a good organization to outsource the work in itself is a big challenge. As the outsourcer will be entirely responsible for the project it is necessary to choose a good company that meets all the requirements of the project.
• Small projects: Small projects posses two kinds of problem. One, it is not really a good idea to outsource small project as it might be hard on the financial plans of the company. Two, the other companies will not be willing to take up these projects as they are very small and wouldn’t suit their business model.

Thus, it is very important to understand your company, the projects you get and the team you have before you decide to go ahead with either team augmentation or project outsourcing.

You can reach us at contact@yugasa.com for discussing your software app project with us. We shall be more than happy to assist you in your product development.