Information Technology staff play an essential role in contributing to overall business success. However, filling IT staff positions and providing training within a specific time frame can be challenging for companies. In such situations, a strategic approach involves IT Staff Augmentation. When specialized skills in IT staffing are essential, IT staff augmentation effectively enables organizations to enhance their workforce by bringing in external talent with the precise skills required for specific projects or initiatives.
Drawing insights from industry experts and over a decade of successful implementations, VALiNTRY has crafted a comprehensive guide for businesses considering or already engaged in IT Staff Augmentation.
Table of Content
- What is IT Staff Augmentation?
- Types of IT Staff Augmentation Models
- How Does IT Staff Augmentation Work?
- Difference Between IT Staff Augmentation & IT Outsourcing
- What are the Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation?
- Best Practices for Successful IT Staff Augmentation
- VALiNTRY is the Best IT Staff Augmentation Partner for You
What is IT Staff Augmentation?
The 2 Critical Aspects of IT Staff Augmentation
- Temporary Workforce: External personnel are brought in temporarily to supplement the existing in-house staff.
- Project Alignment: IT Staff Augmentation fully aligns the internal team with the organization’s current project needs by addressing skills gaps or enhancing specific skill sets.
Types of IT Staff Augmentation Models
How Does IT Staff Augmentation Work?
Identifying Needs: The organization assesses its project requirements, skill gaps, or specific expertise needed for a limited duration.
Engagement with a Vendor: The organization partners with an IT Staff Augmentation vendor to identify individual professionals for short-term contracts.
Skill Match: The vendor searches for and presents professionals who possess the necessary skills and expertise aligned with the client’s objectives.
Onboarding: The selected external professionals integrate the company’s workflow, understanding project goals, processes, and expectations.
Project Execution: The temporary staff collaborates with the in-house team, contributing their skills to add value and ensure that project milestones and deadlines are met.
Flexible Duration: If the project scopes changes, the temporary staff can be easily extended without the costly expense or delays of finding and hiring additional resources.
Knowledge Transfer: Throughout the engagement, knowledge transfer occurs, benefiting the entire organization.
Project Completion: The augmented staff is easily offloaded once the project is completed, or the specific skill requirement diminishes.
While understanding what IT Staff Augmentation is and how it works is key, you might also be asking what the differences are, if any, between IT Staff Augmentation & IT Outsourcing.
Difference Between IT Staff Augmentation & IT Outsourcing
1. Scope of Activities:
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IT Staff Augmentation
Augmented staff typically focuses on specific, specialized tasks or activities within a specific scope. This group complements the in-house team by providing additional skills for short-term projects or adding long-term skills when hiring FTEs in those specialties is cost-prohibitive.
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IT Outsourcing
Outsourced staff are delegated entire projects or processes through a third-party vendor. The outsourced team is fully responsible for the end-to-end delivery and quality of the project.
2. Responsibility and Result Quality:
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IT Staff Augmentation
The client organization manages and oversees the augmented staff. The client is ultimately accountable for the end result and quality of the product.
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IT Outsourcing
The third-party outsourcing vendor takes full responsibility for the end result and quality of the product.
3. Team Integration:
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IT Staff Augmentation
Augmented staff integrates with the client's existing in-house team, fostering collaboration and knowledge transfer.
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IT Outsourcing
The outsourced team operates separately, rarely, if ever, interfacing with the client's internal teams.
4. Skill Gap Filling:
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IT Staff Augmentation
Augmented staff temporarily fill skill gaps for specific organizational projects or tasks.
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IT Outsourcing
Outsourced teams take on entire projects or processes to solve or update due to resource or expertise limitations.
What are the Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation?
Short-Term Projects: When organizations have short-term projects that require specific skills not present in their current team, IT Staff Augmentation allows them to quickly onboard specialized talent.
Urgent Requirements: In situations with an urgent need for additional resources to meet project deadlines, IT Staff Augmentation enables rapid scaling without the delays associated with traditional hiring processes.
Specialized Expertise: IT Staff Augmentation allows organizations to gain access to a larger pool of experienced and skilled professionals, enabling them to tap into specialized expertise that may not be readily available in-house.
Flexibility and Scalability: IT Staff Augmentation provides the flexibility to quickly scale your team up or down based on project demands, ensuring optimal resource utilization and responsiveness to changing requirements.
Cost Savings: IT Staff Augmentation allows organizations to maximize budgets by hiring short-term for specific projects and long-term workers with highly sought-after skills, avoiding the expenses associated with permanent hiring.
Quality Assurance: IT Staff Augmentation can serve as a trial period, allowing companies to assess potential team members before making long-term hiring commitments, ensuring a good fit for the individual and the organization.
Operational Efficiency: IT Staff Augmentation can reduce operational costs and streamline existing professional teams, contributing to increased efficiency.
While each organization’s needs are unique, this list should help you start to see how IT Staff Augmentation can help your firm. With a firm understanding of what IT Staff Augmentation is and how it can benefit your organization, your thoughts might be turning to what best practices can help you be successful with both an IT Staff Augmentation vendor and the team members they provide.
Best Practices for Successful IT Staff Augmentation
1. Define Clear Job Roles and Expectations: Communicate the roles and responsibilities of the augmented staff to:
- Your IT Staff Augmentation vendor to enable them to find the best talent for your team.
- Your existing team to demonstrate your commitment to providing the resources they need to be successful.
- Your augmented IT staff to ensure they have clear directions and focus on what project success looks like.
2. Maintain Open, Transparent Communication with Augmented Staff Members:
Foster a culture of transparency and open communication to ensure seamless integration of augmented staff into your existing team.
3. Leverage Project Management Tools: Use project management tools like Jira, Wrike, or Airtable to streamline collaboration, track progress, and manage tasks efficiently during the staff augmentation.
4. Provide Digital Documentation of Your Project Processes: Document and share project processes digitally for clarity and reference, ensuring that your in-house team and augmented staff have full access to essential project documentation.
5. Stay Involved Throughout the Project Execution Process:
Maintain active involvement and oversight throughout the project to address any issues promptly and ensure alignment with project goals.
6. Have Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) in Place:
Implement Non-Disclosure Agreements to safeguard sensitive information and ensure confidentiality with your augmented IT staff.
7. Select a Reliable and Reputable IT Staff Augmentation Service Provider:
Choose a trustworthy IT Staff Augmentation provider with a proven track record to ensure the quality and reliability of the staff being provided to your team.
VALiNTRY is the Best IT Staff Augmentation Partner for you
Here at VALiNTRY, we leverage our more than 10 years of experience recruiting for IT roles of all kinds to help you find the best talent for your IT Staff Augmentation needs. This long experience in the rapidly changing IT landscape helps us understand the challenges facing organizations as they seek to make informed decisions, unleash their development teams’ potential, and successfully deliver projects.