In the demanding and fast-paced world of software development, being given the green light for a potentially lucrative new project can be both exhilarating and daunting. As a hiring manager, you are presented with a formidable challenge: constructing the best software development team your organization has ever witnessed. The mission is not only to gather the best in the field but also to ensure that this ensemble hits the ground running. The stakes are high and the pressing question that keeps you awake at night is this: what makes a team excel while others flounder?

Exceptional software development teams share several distinguishing traits. Among these, a shared vision, robust communication, a clearly defined hierarchy, and a well-rounded skills base are the key factors that contribute to a team’s success. Identifying these traits can guide you in sourcing the ideal candidates and effectively pairing individuals to create a synergistic team.

1. Common Vision: The Foundation of Successful Teams

For a team to function seamlessly, the team members must feel a genuine sense of belonging. This sense of unity propels individuals to work towards a common goal and fosters a healthy team environment. Remember, each team’s chemistry and dynamics are unique, much like the gears of a clock; some teams naturally operate like a well-oiled machine, while others need an extra push to work as an efficient, cohesive unit. For such teams, engaging in team-building exercises or reshuffling team members can ignite the sense of unity, leading to a boost in productivity.

Moreover, it’s crucial to consider the individual team-playing abilities and preferred work environments of each candidate during the hiring and team assignment process. Failing to do so could result in incompatible team compositions. For instance, a candidate who thrives in small groups may find themselves lost and unproductive in a larger setting.

2. Effective Communication: The Lifeblood of Agile Development

In any project, communication stands as the backbone of success, but in the agile development world, it’s absolutely paramount. Agile methodology, by nature, necessitates high degrees of collaboration and superior communication skills. Modern project management portals like Jira have simplified the process of communication and collaboration, but ultimately, the effectiveness of communication comes down to individual styles and capabilities. Hence, it’s essential to assemble a tech team that communicates effectively and understands the nuances of project management communication.

3. Comprehensive Skill Set: Maximizing Efficiency and Productivity

The division of labor and the specificity of roles and responsibilities is a critical determinants of a team’s success. But what if a project requires the simultaneous application of multiple skills, which only a single team member possesses? This scenario is not uncommon in development teams and underscores the importance of redundancy in skills and expertise. Solutions to this problem can range from recruiting candidates with the necessary skills during the hiring phase to promoting continual learning within your existing team, especially if your team is already well-balanced and productive.

When recruiting temporary on-site talent, these challenges are further amplified. It’s crucial to find team members who can seamlessly integrate and perform at their peak from day one. In such situations, partnering with IT and tech staffing services providers such as iTech can be extremely beneficial. With the capability to source the ideal candidates from anywhere in the world, we build cohesive, productive teams ready for on-site deployment. In fact, many of our development teams have previous experience working together, ensuring that you benefit from a team with great dynamics and the precise skill set required for your project.

Using IT Staffing Services to Assemble the Best Software Development Team

Operating from Dallas, our staffing service providers at iTech serve clients across Texas and throughout the nation. We invite you to reach out if you’re seeking assistance in recruiting IT staff or building the perfect team of software developers for your upcoming project.

Are you ready to discover if our IT and tech staffing services can meet your company’s needs? Take the first step towards building a high-performance software development team with iTech.

The post The Traits of the Best Software Development Teams first appeared on iTech.

IT Staffing Agencies Do the Screening, Interviewing and Vetting

One of the immediate values of using an IT staffing agency to access software engineering talent comes from the screening, interviewing and vetting processes. When you tap talent from an IT staffing agency, you’ll know that the professionals working for you not only have been screened for the correct development languages and other software engineering proficiencies, but also have the right set of soft skills to fit your company and its culture.

In addition to supplying temp workers, the right IT staffing agency can also provide you with entire teams of software developers and engineers assembled specifically to produce optimal results from the start. Most hiring managers know how difficult and time-consuming it can be to hire and grow a full-time team that works well together. The same concern applies to recruiting freelancers, too. Unless you’ve worked with a freelancing candidate before, you’re taking a risk not just on their job-specific skills, but also on their ability to perform well within your environment—and with others.

If you aren’t highly technical yourself, the screening process comes with an extra level of difficulty, as you’ll need to consult with experts who can ascertain whether a candidate has the right mix of skills and workstyle you need. Having an IT staffing agency handle that for you saves time (and, in the long run, money).

Accessing Top IT Talent While Lowering Risk

Using an IT staffing agency gives you immediate access to top-level software developers and engineers without the risks of hiring the wrong talent. Even if you have enough money to fast-track the process, you can end up expediting the hiring of the wrong people. In many cases, hires aren’t necessarily missing required job skills; instead, it’s their inability to work effectively with your team that causes problems. With an IT staffing agency, you can make sure the talent you bring in will gel with your colleagues and workflow.

The best IT staffing agencies recruit globally, ensuring you get not just the best talent in your area, but the best talent, period. Tapping into the worldwide IT talent pool will be increasingly necessary as it becomes more difficult to entice the best US-based devs.

Although it would seem that using an IT staffing agency would automatically make your staffing dollars go further than if you hired a full-time staff yourself, there is a caveat: Make sure your agency divulges the percentage their talent gets. If you pay, for example, $100 per hour and the agency takes half, you’re getting half the value you expected. iTech talent receive competitive compensation, and our clients benefit from that. You’ll know upfront that you’re getting the level of talent for which you paid. [bctt tweet=”If you pay $100 per hour and a staffing agency takes half, you’re getting half the value you expected. ” via=”no”]

If you have any questions about the level of IT talent you can access for your budget or would like to know how long it takes to get a software developer or team on-board, we’d like to hear from you.

The post How to Hire Top Software Engineers on a Budget first appeared on iTech.

With an estimated 20 million software developers worldwide and over 250 programming languages and countless specialties, it’s easy to see how difficult it could be for a hiring manager to find the right person for the job.

IT hiring is not easy. When you hire a commercial electrician, you know that they have what it takes to get the job done. But this is not necessarily the case for a developer. There are numerous software developer types, and if you hire one at random, there’s a good chance they may lack the skills required to get the job done.

One developer’s specialty may be quite different from another’s, which presents big challenges to hiring the right developer for your exact needs. Even hiring managers who are extremely well-versed in the types of software developers and their skill sets may encounter struggles during the hiring process. So what are the most common mistakes involved in hiring software developers, and how can you avoid or overcome them?

Mistake: Failing to Identify the Best Approach for the Project

There are many strategies for approaching a software development project. If you fail to properly identify the best development strategy before you begin the hiring process, you may end up with a less-than-ideal end result.

Let’s say your company needs to develop a new, custom-tailored inventory tracking system. There are many choices involved in developing this sort of interface, including the platform and operating system, programming languages, hardware, and beyond. And not all platforms, hardware, and programming languages are created equally. What’s possible and practical with one programming language may not be viable with another. Each language has its own unique set of capabilities, weaknesses, and advantages; as such, you should choose the right one for your platform and needs.

Given the many approaches to success (or the potential for failure, depending on your perspective), it’s essential that your project managers establish their approach for the project before hiring developers. In some instances, your company may benefit from an IT consulting firm for insight into the best software development strategy to reach your goals.

Mistake: Failing to Draft Comprehensive (And Accurate) Project Specs

The project specs sit at the very heart of the hiring process and are the largest variables when developing an accurate job description. If you fail to articulate your project’s scope and approach, finding the right talent becomes far more challenging. [bctt tweet=”The project specs sit at the very heart of the hiring process, and are the largest variables when developing an accurate job description.” via=”no”]

Problems arise because many companies recycle project specs, using similar specifications as a starting point and altering them slightly to suit the new project. But this can cause some major problems, as you may have project specs that lack the necessary level of detail and accuracy. If you use such specs to build your job descriptions and use those descriptions as the basis of your developer search, you could end up hiring developers who just aren’t right for the project.

Therefore, it’s critical that hiring managers work with their development team leaders to ensure that the appropriate time and effort is invested into crafting detailed, accurate development project specs. Only then can you proceed by hiring developers with the experience and skills required to get the job done on time and within budget?

Mistake: Failing to Consider the Rest of the Development Team

Software development is often a team effort, with the best and most efficient software development teams operating in a highly efficient and productive manner. However, if you fail to consider the team properly—including how individuals will fit in with the rest of the team—you could end up with mismatches. Team dynamics matter. Soft skills and other non-technical skills can have a tremendous impact on the quality of the work and the end result. Dynamics aside, there’s also the matter of coordinating expertise in your software development team to ensure consistent and smooth workflow.

Asking the following questions upfront will help ensure effective team composition:

• Does a candidate’s experience complement the team, ideally both creating much-needed redundancy and expanding the team’s collective abilities?
• Does the individual have experience working within a team of a similar size that has used your preferred development methodology?
• Are you hiring for cultural fit? This is a major consideration, as a strong match between the company/team and the individual can go a long way toward promoting productivity and success.

Addressing these points will increase your chances of finding the right person for the job. If you’re seeking help with the software developer hiring process, consider turning to a team of professionals. At iTech, we specialize in IT consulting and temporary IT staffing. We invite you to contact us to learn more about how we can help you find IT staff that will suit your company and its needs.

The post How to Avoid Hiring the Wrong Types of Software Developers first appeared on iTech.

Coordinating expertise in software development teams can be a tremendous challenge. The process has many unique facets and moving parts. There are dozens of programming languages and specialties. If you are short-handed as a result of a team member’s retirement, illness or a high work volume, things get even more challenging.

Many companies are left scrambling to coordinate expertise to avoid project delays and budget overruns. These can happen when a firm didn’t have the right talent at the right time. Yet many companies don’t realize this fact until it’s too late. Ultimately, it’s up to hiring managers and company leaders who can ensure a high degree of skill redundancy and versatility. Let’s examine a few of the common mistakes that can impede progress in your tech department.

Mistake #1: Failing to Ensure Redundancy in Workers’ Skill Sets

Skill redundancy is one of the most important factors to consider during the hiring process and when building a software development team. There are many programming languages, skill sets and specialties at play on any given tech team. Therefore, you need to ensure that you have at least one person who has the skills and training required to step in and help if a teammate finds she requires help. Ideally, you should have several individuals who possess a specific skill set.

To avoid problems, it’s useful to make a chart that indicates each and every team member’s skills. Then, hire new, versatile staff with the right skills and architect development teams in a way that ensures a high degree of skill redundancy.

Mistake #2: Ignoring Important Variables

While a chart indicating each team member’s skills and capabilities can be very useful to a hiring manager or a development team leader, it’s critical that you consider some variables that arise in practice. For example, let’s say John is the only person who can fill in for George. But John is also the only person with the skills required to perform his normal duties. He can’t perform his normal tasks and fill in for George simultaneously. So while your staffing situation may look good on paper, with a backup person who can step in to help when George is out sick, real-life variables mean that it’s impractical to use John as a fill-in.

It’s critical that hiring managers and team leaders work together to really understand how the staffing situation will play out in everyday practice, even if a staffing chart seems great in theory. This insight is critical for creating a solid software developer staffing plan and making good staffing and training decisions.

Mistake #3: Ignoring the Need to Cross-Train

You should never find yourself in a position where only one person has the keys to the kingdom. For every position, there should be at least one (and ideally two or more) others who know how to fulfill a particular role. This helps you avoid a situation where a lead developer suddenly quits, taking necessary logins, knowledge and skills with him. You could find that you’re unable to proceed because nobody else has the necessary insight or skills.

Hiring managers should give preference to candidates who have filled multiple roles within the agile development team structure. As a matter of practice, it’s also vital that team leaders set aside time to allow for cross-training.

Mistake #4: Underestimating the Importance of Ongoing Training

Companies often underestimate the benefits of providing staff with new tech training opportunities. Such opportunities not only attract staff who are eager to learn and grow, but also puts you in a much better position in terms of your IT staffing. You’ll have team members with greater versatility, adding more value to your company as a whole.

Of course, ongoing training has another major benefit outside of coordinating expertise in software development teams. The tech field is evolving and expanding rapidly, so by providing your staff with training opportunities, you’ll find it easier to remain on the leading edge of your industry. That’s true whether you have a tech company or a business in another sector.

Mistake #5: Failing to Leverage Temporary Staffing Services

Hiring managers often focus on permanent, long-term hires. In doing so, they fail to realize the critical role of temporary onsite staffing services. Temporary team members (or even entire development teams) can be very effective in filling gaps especially those that arise unexpectedly. It’s often impractical to hire a permanent developer, but a temporary hire can make a lot of sense. They have the right skills and are available precisely when and where you need them.

At iTech, we specialize in temporary onsite staffing services for software developers and IT staff. We also assist by providing consulting services, so we’ll work with your hiring managers to ensure that you have access to the right resources at the right time. We source our talent from across the globe, so you can rest easy knowing you’re getting the best person for the job not just the best local person. If you need help with tech and IT staffing services, contact the team at iTech today.

The post 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Coordinating Expertise in Software Development Teams first appeared on iTech.

Your lead developers could address these issues by creating programming tests for interviews. However, you may still wonder: Are these coding tests really an effective approach to finding the right developer for your needs?

Is it Effective to Use Programming Tests for Interviews of Potential Hires?

Programming tests can offer some useful insight, but this is only the case when tests are realistic, practical and relevant.

This is a very common problem for our clients, explained iTech CEO Kishore Khandavalli. He added, Hiring managers frequently make the mistake of administering tests that are theoretical and ‘bookish’ in nature. That’s the wrong approach and it’s frustrating for the talent too. In my experience, the level talent do not want to take a written test, they want to have a dialogue or show you what they are capable of.

The very nature of these theoretical programming tests is just that theoretical. As such, they lack a firm rooting in the actual day-to-day work the individual would perform.

Many companies are now using a more informal, spontaneous and very effective approach to developer testing: you simply ask the candidate to sit down at a computer and observe as they start coding. Remember, you must ensure the programming test is relevant to the type of work that they’ll be asked to perform in the event that the individual is hired.

What Can You Learn From Administering a Coding Test During the Hiring Process?

A hiring manager can gain insight into a number of different areas when a sit down and code approach is utilized. This includes the opportunity to:

• Assess the candidate’s speed (or lack thereof);
• View the candidate’s coding process;
• Evaluate the quality of the code; and
• Determine the strategy that underlies the coding.

Timeframe matters when administering programming tests in interviews. In cases where an in-office interview is not possible (or desirable), you can use a screen-sharing app to view the candidate’s coding work in real time. It’s also possible for the candidate to record their actions using a screen recording tool like Screencast-O-Matic. In addition to offering insight into the amount of time it took the candidate to write the code, you’ll also have an opportunity to view their process.

The question of when to administer the programming test is also relevant. There are no hard and fast rules concerning precisely when you ought to ask a candidate to demonstrate their skills. For a typical programmer, testing during the interview process tends to make sense. But in cases where you’re seeking unique or highly sophisticated coding abilities, it may be most effective to administer a test as part of the pre-interview process. This allows you to screen out any individuals who lack the skills required to get the job done, resulting in a faster, more efficient recruiting process.

Notably, you’ll need to involve a development team leader in this process. That’s because a fair amount of technical expertise is required in order to effectively evaluate a person’s technical capabilities and talents. Of course, programming skills are just part of the staffing equation. It’s also vital that you’re hiring talent for the right soft skills and cultural fit.

The hiring experts at iTech are available to assist in all of these efforts, whether you’re seeking to hire a team of developers to close a staffing gap or need a few IT professionals to join your team for an urgent project. With offices in Dallas, TX, Edison, NJ and Burlington, VT, among other locations, we specialize in providing temporary onsite developer and IT staffing for large companies throughout the U.S. We invite you to contact iTech today to learn more about how we can guide you through the IT staffing process.

The post Should You Give Programming Tests for Interviews When Hiring a Developer? first appeared on iTech.

In many cases, a long-term hire just doesn’t make sense, particularly if you don’t have sufficient work to keep them consistently busy. So that means you’re left with two possibilities: send the work out to an onshore or offshore service provider or you can pull temporary staff into your tech division.

Often, the decision isn’t even that black and white. In the IT and tech staffing world, traditional staff augmentation and the outsourcing model can co-exist, meeting the company’s needs in an effective way. So how does staff augmentation compare to managed services, and how do these staffing models impact your tech and software development projects?

The Managed Services Model for Tech Staffing

Outsourcing can accomplish the objectives of cutting costs, increasing value and improving the quality of the work that you receive.

Although there is no one-size-fits-all solution, outsourcing certainly does have its place in the tech industry. Some of the main advantages of this approach include the following:

• The outsourcing model is very hands-off for the client who hires the service provider. You essentially give them the project specs, answer any questions and their team will take the ball and run. This allows your company to move on and focus on other matters.
• A third party can be a great source of knowledge and ideas, whether it’s a single project or something that impacts your company’s daily operations. An outsider can often see things that you can’t, and this new perspective can be quite beneficial.
• There is a defined timeframe and budget associated with the project, paired with a greater sense of accountability, making it a bit less likely that you’ll see time or budget overruns. In-house projects are often handled in a far more nebulous manner, with little attention paid to the time investments and spec changes that ultimately result in scope creep. As a result, company leaders may not know precisely how much time and money has been spent working on a specific project. This can make future project management and budgetary planning more challenging. Managed services allow you to sidestep this type of challenge with a pre-defined project scope, budget and time frame.

The primary challenge with outsourcing is that you’re sending the entire project off-site to a third-party service provider. In this scenario, you have far less control over the project and ultimately, the final outcome. In some niches and industries, there may also be concerns over sensitive data and intellectual property. It’s not uncommon to encounter super-confidential tech projects that involve highly-proprietary technology or private corporate and personal data.

To compound matters, intellectual property laws and even contract disputes can be a nightmare when you have parties in different regions of the United States. It becomes infinitely more complex when those parties are in different areas of the world, as is often the case. So if things go wrong, they may go very wrong. Finding a legal solution could be extremely costly and logistically complex.

Many companies outsource projects that they could have largely handled in-house. It’s not uncommon for a company to find that it has the resources to complete some but not all of the phases of a project. For them, it makes more sense to use their more affordable in-house resources for most of the project. Then they can call in resources to fill in the blanks, so to speak. That’s where staff augmentation comes into play.

Is a Staff Augmentation Model Right for Your Company?

The staff augmentation approach entails more or less the opposite of outsourcing, as you’re bringing staff on-site to work side-by-side with your team members. Temporary staffing can be a great option for companies that are seeking a high degree of flexibility for their tech projects, without overspending on those resources.

Here are some of the ins and outs of using a staff augmentation approach:

• Reduced staffing costs are a major benefit of this staffing model, particularly if you leverage the services of a tech staffing firm that handles the entire recruiting, vetting and hiring process on your behalf.
• Companies enjoy greater flexibility in terms of project management, especially when it comes to the types of projects that you can handle in-house and your ability to accept new projects, particularly those that are excessively large or require a fast turnaround.
• You’ll have access to consulting and advice that can benefit your project management team and your operations as a whole. Many tech staffing firms also offer consulting services and guidance that will help you make the most of your in-house talent, while strategically selecting the right supplementary staff to meet your immediate and near-term needs. Your in-house staff can also gain great practical and tech knowledge from the temporary staff embedded in their midst.
• You will see a reduced implementation timeframe and minimal impact on projects since your core team members will remain intact. You won’t need to worry about lengthy onboarding processes or even educating a new team member on the fine points of company policies. Instead, staff augmentation allows you to pull in temporary staff who can work on-site for a single project, and in most cases, get to work straight away. You can avoid the days- or weeks-long gap that’s commonly present between an individual’s hire date and the point when the worker reaches his or her maximum productivity level. Similarly, temporary team members typically depart with minimal fanfare and virtually no disruption, a far cry from the upset that can arise when a part-time or full-time team member departs your company.

The staff augmentation model is widely favored because the downsides are few and far between. The only real scenario that you must actively guard against is a situation where you consistently hire temporary talent and as a result, project managers may fail to realize that they could benefit from one or more permanent part-time or full-time hires. But this issue can be avoided with a bit of active awareness.

Turning to an experienced tech staffing services company also gives you an advantage when it comes to the actual recruiting and hiring process, as you won’t need to tap your company’s HR and tech resources in an effort to find the right tech experts for your exact project and your unique company. Your staffing provider handles all of this on your behalf.

At iTech, we are experts in staff augmentation and have many years of experience consulting on IT and tech issues. This provides companies with the insight they need to hire talent with the tech skills and soft skills that will help clients achieve their goals. With offices in South Burlington, Vermont and Dallas, Texas, iTech also has presences in other regions of the country, and beyond, including Canada and India. So if you’re ready to take your tech projects to the next level and need the right staff for the job, contact the iTech team today.

The post A Look at Staff Augmentation vs an Outsourcing Model for IT and Tech Staffing first appeared on iTech.

In short, your once-perfect tech team now has some major holes and you’re in a position where you’re at serious risk of seeing some major timeline overruns.

Software development teams can encounter some rather unique challenges if an individual takes time off unexpectedly. While most approach this issue from a HR perspective, this challenge is at its heart an issue rooted in project management issues such as time overruns.

Fortunately, there are a number of strategies you can employ to ensure that your project gets completed on time, both from a software project management perspective and from a pre-hire stance.

Promote Cross-Training and Skill Set Growth Amongst Tech Team Members

It’s important to maintain a high degree of redundancy amongst your staff’s skill sets, as this gives your in-house team the versatility it needs to cover when someone is out sick or even when a team member quits unexpectedly. Ideally, you should have at least two or three people who can fill a specific role.

You can achieve this objective by offering incentives to employees who opt to pursue additional training or classes. It’s also advantageous to invest in cross-training in-house whenever the opportunity arises.

Skill sets are also a vital consideration during the recruiting and hiring process. It’s usually best to choose the candidate with the broader skill set, as this allows for far greater versatility. So your HR department or recruiter should be on the lookout for individuals with a wide range of talents and skills.

Budget Extra Time into Your Projects

When providing a client with a projected timeframe for a project, it’s best to include a bit of a buffer to allow for incidentals, such as an essential team member who takes time off unexpectedly. This way, you can absorb any delays that result from an individual’s absence.

Lots of issues and challenges can arise during the software development process. Something as simple as an operating system update that occurs during a mobile app build can necessitate some fairly significant alterations that fall outside of the original project scope. Therefore, it’s always wise to integrate a bit of extra time into your predicted development time frame to account for these unanticipated issues. At the end of the day, it’s always better to deliver early versus delivering late.

Calling in Extra Support via Staff Augmentation

A third option entails staff augmentation through a process known as insourcing. So rather than sending your project out to be completed by a third party, you can call in a team of software developers and other tech professionals to help complete the project in-house.

This tech staffing option is most suitable when you encounter staffing gaps that are more long term. For example, if one of your lead developers is involved in a major car accident and will be out of work for the next six weeks, then this form of augmentation can be beneficial. But if you have a developer out sick for just three or four days, it would be a bit impractical to call in reinforcements.

Insourcing offers a diverse variety of benefits, including increased control over the project, since it’s performed in-house by a team who will work alongside your own. You’ll also avoid the hassle and cost of recruiting, while side-stepping the sometimes-lengthy adjustment process that new staff or temps may experience. iTech’s software development teams are comprised of experienced tech experts with refined team dynamics and a high degree of comfort in a variety of different settings. This means they’re better equipped to jump in and acclimate quickly so they can focus on the project. If you’re seeking help with a tech or software development project, contact iTech to learn more about our IT and tech staffing services.

The post Software Development Staffing Strategy: Handling Unexpected Requests for Time Off first appeared on iTech.