Your Guide to Choosing between Extended, Managed and Outsourced Teams

The challenging requirements in the world of IT today require many organizations to go out of the traditional borders of inhouse teams towards a more generalized and managed outsourcing model. The feasibility of the internet has made it possible for organizations today to work with remote teams through outsourcing and manage their requirements accordingly.

Every organization today tends to have different needs and requirements when it comes to its software solutions. The ultimate objective behind their requirements is to make sure that work is completed by the right personnel, in the quality they require.

When it comes to setting a work arrangement between an outsourcing partner and in-house staff, organizations can go for three different work models. These models include:

• Extended Teams
• Outsource Teams
• Managed Teams

Each of these comes with a different working model and has a different solution to offer depending on the purpose of the work and the rationale behind the workload. In most cases, the working model is determined based on the project’s workload and how much help the project manager working on the software development process will require.

However, regardless of the project requirements and the customized use case feasibility of these models, the question remains: what are the differences between these three models of software development teams and how do organizations benefit from each of them?

In this article, we take a look at these three models of outsourcing software development work and examine the different requirements that organizations have to adhere to for selecting one. Go through the article and make the right choice for your business.

Extended Team

The first one to be reviewed today is an extended team. An extended team, as the name suggests, is an extension of the in-house project management team. The project manager working within the in-house office oversees the project, while they have the additional expertise and reliability of an outsourced team.

Unlike a completely outsourced team, extended teams hire personnel from outside the organization to just assist in the development of the project, rather than working across the entirety of the work done.

Extended teams work together with project managers and usually consist of a small number of personnel, largely determined by the number of individuals involved in the process.

Organizations can extend the team to increase the flexibility, capacity and scale of the work done to complete the project in time and to efficiently meet on the deliverables. Customer requirements are changing every day around us, and extended teams can take charge to align business objectives with those of the organization.

Extending the team allows organizations to remain in charge of all deliverables, while also increasing the pace of the work done.

Managed Team

A managed team is quite similar to an extended team, because of the outsourced solution they offer. The project manager, in a managed team, is outsourced from outside and uses their expertise to develop the project and manage the inhouse engineering and development team.

The outsourced project manager is tasked with reporting to the product owner and for ensuring that all the needs and solutions relating to the organization are met and provided.

The outsourced project manager and in-house product owner sit down to discuss the needs of the project and then take cumulative decisions that can benefit the team. The engineers that make this managed team sit down with the manager hired as a resource to determine outcomes and follow the directions. There are multiple development firms that use this resource to bring experienced project managers within their ranks.

Outsourced Team

An outsourced team is the most convenient and the least hands-on option for organizations that have an appropriate budget ready. The outsourced team goes on to oversee the entire project from start to bottom.

The company also outlines the needs and requirements of the project to eventually deliver a finished project once the deadline is over.

If you go for an outsourced team, you will have little to no work left for the in-house team within your organization. This will allow you to put your focus and attention where it matters most. Communication between the in-house project manager and in-house team will be scarce as both manage their own affairs.

Outsourced teams are the need of the hour today as organizations want the peace of mind that comes with handing over the management of projects to others. With the right solutions organizations can improve their work processes and generate positive results.

Read : Challenges and Solutions of Managing Remote Team

Choosing the Right Team

You can choose the right team for your software development projects by considering a number of factors. Three of these factors include:

• Level of flexibility of the team
• The time commitments they adhere to
• The project requirements of the team

Each of these factors has an importance of its own and should be considered when choosing the right team to work on and develop your project.

If you are still unsure of which option to go for when it comes to a software development project, you should consider your own size and budget.

A startup company, in need of a software can go for an extended programmers team. This allows the company to maintain its core culture within the solution it offers, while ensuring they don’t have to hire additional engineers and members for the in-house team. Larger companies can opt for outsourced teams or managed teams, as they oversee multiple projects.

Finding the right working model and team for your project can be a complicated ask. However, with the information in this article, we hope you are able to differentiate between the options and choose the right one.