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Why the extended team model is the right choice for large projects

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By 2020, the ‘internet era’ is expected to drive a $220bn market and Digital Transformation remains one of the biggest challenges for C-Suite Executives. A particular reason for that is that it can’t be solved in a way other business challenges have; by money and consultants. Instead, it requires a new breed of experts known as software developers.

With each company in the global economy shooting to be a tech company and embracing digital transformation, demand for experienced software developers is at an all-time high. To most, the cost of finding and hiring tech talent is a threat to the success of their business. That’s why a lot of companies are starting to look at outsourcing and other ways of getting access to talent globally, for both their existing legacy systems or for new projects.

When kicking off a new product or project, there’s always the option of working with a hybrid onshore and nearshore team to manage costs and deliver outcomes. But, how can you work to not only deliver short term outcomes but work with inhouse teams to deliver long term solutions? That’s when something known as an extended team model could help.

Compared to outsourcing, an extended team is not-project based and not discontinued after the project ends. As such, it’s aimed for long-term collaboration, effectively removing the need to disperse attention to any side project for the service providers team members.

Team Extension Model complements the in-house team and does not substitute it, filling necessary skills gaps. This also means that responsibilities are distributed among the whole team with all of them equally engaged in the project. We work with the client on the development process, ways of working and collaboration, which also includes the levels of recruitment, training, etc. 

Then there’s the cost saving part. Clients get to choose from a hybrid local and international talent pool with a diverse set of skills. Our talent team work on hiring the best people in all of our locations to enable you to leverage the skills and capabilities of our consultants across America and Europe. 

At Kin + Carta Kosovo (formerly known as Frakton), we have some amazing clients with whom we’ve worked with through the Extension Team Model. Since they’re based in Europe, it means that we can easily meet in person, which is especially beneficial when discussing projects where we need to sit down physically in one room to brain-storm and kick-off the whole process. Experiencing hands-on the importance of a similar cultural mindset, rather than differences which can occur in the cases of offshore models.

After the projects start, the process is usually followed by daily-standups, sprints & sprint reviews, and other agile working methodologies. As such they prove to be effective, especially because of the time-zone similarity for clients based in Europe.

Easy start, easy to scale

The Extension Team Model gives clients a quick start to a project, compared to something that would require months when hiring locally in their respective countries, especially if competition is high. With the model already in place, this also means that a team can easily scale-up depending on project size, challenges or other business needs or scale down, depending on unexpected pressures. This gives control over the cost of the resources, transparency, flexibility and valued contribution. 

Other benefits of working with Kin + Carta are that the team members involved in the projects are full-time and are not working on multiple assignments, which means they're 100% on the project, resulting in a smooth integration with the client's team. We also don't work in offshore models so all of our locations are Kin + Carta employees with the same ways of working and company culture across the globe. 

With digital transformation still the focus for our clients, companies need to think beyond local and embrace such models as the team extension model, extending their in-house team, competence, skill, culture, and vision. When this is accompanied by finding the right partner, whom they can trust and build products with, the business outcomes are monumental.

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