Better For Betterment: Conclusion, Or A Start?
Get the right people.
Then no matter what all else you might do wrong after that, the people will save you.
Tom DeMarco,
an American software engineer and a developer of structured analysis
Freelancers, shared resources, dedicated development teams are a good way to ramp up productivity. But who will guarantee you the perfect outcome or high-qualitative deliverables?
Price. We state the rating reputation of dedicated development teams, freelancers and shared resources makes their price first.
The thing is not so unambiguous about price. Dedicated development teams commit to long term business relations and sometimes need the clients’ extra costs. It is also considered that freelancers are ready to do the scope of work for a lower cost. But there are quite a lot of mature, skilled, experienced, reputable and business-minded individuals perfect for the job who will cost even more than a regular in-house employee. Offshoring may make the prices lower as location matters much. Load with work also influences the cost, thus sometimes shared resources are considered to be cheaper.
Quality. Quality of the work done is influenced by many factors and can be different. It depends on correspondence to the requirements, the specialists’ professional and personal skills, their dedication and form of collaboration. It is better to be regulated by the quality assurance system and measured by the criteria worked out.
Dedicated teams are easier to organize and make them get to a project fast; besides the company they work for provides them with the requirements for security and quality, as well as culture. That makes team members pay undivided attention to the product development and watch its quality grow long. Moreover, they can quickly react on the problems which arise. Shared resources are usually engaged in several short-term projects at a time. Their attention is usually divided. They don’t follow the progression or witness the consequences of their decisions made. Freelancers need a lot to be cared about by the clients – starting from the process of their selection, risks counting and finishing providing them with security, that could lead to high quality of the product made but usually difficult to achieve in practice.
Skills and expertise. Skills and expertise make the professional reputation of either dedicated development teams, freelancers or shared resources.
Having wider experience with technologies and tools and demonstrating a cumulative effect in the work process, dedicated teams are viewed as more sensitive, sensible and adaptive to new challenges. Besides, they always care about business aims and needs of a client. This makes them a better alternative on the market in comparison with shared resources whose professional knowledge could be sketchy and who care less about business. Freelancers’ skills can be of different levels and usually become clients’ concerns. Surely, clients must think of the technical and collaborative things necessary. They should always explore both offshore dedicated development teams’, freelancers’ and shared resources’ capabilities and their relevance to the projects they are hired for in particular and the company itself in general. Multicultural and language skills should be tested as they are required by the client.
Control. Control usually equips the clients with the data they need to know about the processes.
It is not always tangible but must be. It makes a challenge, as it is hard with freelancers about aims mitigation and future situations predictions and not so easy with shared resources about influence on prioritizing their tasks or time allocation for the work, while it is well-managed with dedicated development teams.
Commitment and dedication. It becomes evident that commitment and dedication are closely connected with personal and professional characteristics, passion to win the project and reputation, motivation to grow expertise, investment of time in everlasting education and sharing experience and energy with team members. But let’s face facts: no matter how much we talk about it, commitment and dedication must be cultivated both by the clients and vendors of the services as they have a strong influence on the final result and have a lot to do with them.
In most cases it is hard to measure commitment and dedication of freelancers, shared resources or dedicated development teams. Due to clients’ testimonials and feedbacks it gets the shape and clear vision. To sum up, dedicated teams are considered to work for future of the clients’ business that makes their priority. They are fully devoted to the projects and responsible for them, especially deadlines and hot-peak situations. Their work is direct and exclusive for the clients’ businesses and their attention to the projects is undivided. While shared resources are less dedicated, as their attention is shared. The clients may have poor control of these resources and / or insignificant influence on them. Freelancers’ commitment and devotion may be lower, as they not always follow deadlines or respond quickly.
Availability. Availability can be different. It may vary from high for the dedicated team, flexible for shared resources to limited for a freelancer.
A dedicated development team’s availability is usually well-managed, regularly supported and under control. Shared resources’ availability is negotiated by the client. Freelancers’ one is less controllable because of these resources’ engagement in numerous projects.
Security. Security must be monitored and IP must be protected.
Security is usually regulated in a format of the NDA, that allows to monitor security of data, ideas and secrets. It can be high or low. Dedicated development team members stand for high level of it, that makes them more reliable and the company more reputed. It is easier to manage security with these teams and avoid possibility of an IP theft. With freelancers this possibility is lower, especially in case of a disclosure or quitting the project halfway; that may lead to legal sanctions. The same goes for shared resources in cases of conflicts of interests.
Communication. Collaboration with clients makes communication unavoidable and inevitable for both freelancers, shared resources and dedicated development teams. People’s attitude and characters influence it. Quality of communication must always be prioritized as it may lead to a new level of business relations development and it is also a powerful tool for finding solutions in urgent situations.
Communication depends on longevity of projects: it can be short- or long-term. The longer the project lasts, the longer communication is supported. Thus, dedicated development teams’ or freelancers’ communication tends to be direct, more personal and imminent. While shared resources’ one is less personal as being mediated.
Conclusion. Choosing freelancers, shared resources or a dedicated development team to start with the project and initiate business relations, find one to satisfy your needs. You’ll have a great chance to think about your business and grow it. Get the right people.
Written by Anna Kotliarova, marketing specialist
