Most In-Demand Skills For Software Development Staff Augmentation

Quick Overview:

Table of Contents

Introduction

Staff augmentation is increasingly gaining across various industries because it provides specialized expertise, reduces development time, lowers operational costs, and minimizes training expenses.

According to a survey, 76% of business owners report that their companies outsource IT services. Furthermore, the market value of software development outsourcing is predicted to grow to $80.7 billion by 2028, with a CAGR of 3.42%.

Recognizing its potential, we have curated this blog highlighting the essential skills needed for successful software development staff augmentation. This guide will help you select the right offshore developers, identify key characteristics of potential candidates, and understand the crucial roles and skills in software development staff augmentation necessary for a successful project.

Getting Ready for the Future

Every business (irrespective of size) is progressing toward software development staff augmentation service. They supplement their in-house development team with a skilled offshore development team to propel their growth and meet market demands.

For staff augmentation to work effectively, your in-house development team should have firm software staff augmentation expertise and the mandatory soft skills to create a collaborative environment. If you want to join the software development staff augmentation team, then this blog will be a lifesaver.

Role Selection Criteria

Below are the three selection criteria that help you determine which IT staff augmentation team will be ideal for expanding your business workflow.

Emerging Technology Knowledge: To utilize tech expertise in your project, you must invest additional development resources. Hiring an expensive developer is not the solution here because you will have to spend time and effort in their training.

Instead, you should shift to a technology staff augmentation expert who can maximize the benefits of a lean and agile development resource environment.

Resource Availability: Your in-house employees will never have the time to dedicate themselves to a full-time project. They consistently distribute their efforts to multiple projects at all times. So, when you approve a big project, choose to go with software development staff augmentation.

Ability to Recruit: If your upcoming project demands the latest emerging technologies, then your in-house team might be unable to meet the demands on time. For instance, your company has the power to hire external resources, but talented developers are not available in your geography at an affordable cost. Then, you must fetch outside the organization and opt for IT resources from a team augmentation company.

Most In-Demand Software Development Staff Augmentation Skills

When you are all set to hire software development staff augmentation from an outsourcing company, then where shall you start? In this section, we will tell you about the skills you should be looking for in potential candidates.

Programming Languages

A pro software developer must be good with the programming basics, i.e., the five essential programming languages we’ll read up next. Additionally, they must be acquainted with new languages. Having a keen learner quality is the prime aspect that a programmer must possess. The primary five programming languages are the foundations of all modern languages. Here they are:

Java

The classic object-oriented programming language, Java, is the oldest and the most popular choice for software developers. Java is easy to use and learn because of its garbage collection and memory allocation. Developers find executing distributed computing flawless with Java as it has immense networking capability.

Java enthusiasts have developed varied eCommerce web apps, Android apps, and large-scale enterprise applications using Java. Java supports giant operating systems like Windows, Mac, and Linux. Businesses with complex workflows need complex software solutions, and they turn to Java for solutions. If you are one of these business giants, then make sure that your offshore developers are pros with the Java programming language.

Javascript

Javascript is the most popular programming language worldwide. It can be used to develop highly interactive websites and apps, just like several businesses of varied sizes. It works on both frontend and backend development, and programmers use it for its simplicity and time reduction.

One of the best examples of companies using Javascript for their applications is Uber. They have increased their processing speed and remote procedure calls exponentially using Javascript.

Go

Google offers the Golang (Go) programming language, a newer and modern programming language. It is open-source and offers fascinating features like type indicator, operator overloading, and typing inheritance. It has deferred garbage collection, making it speedy, reliable, efficient, and simple to use.

One of the best examples of a company that uses the Go language is Medium. It has largely benefited from Golang’s large data-handling capacities. If you augment staff or a potential candidate is acknowledged with these basic programming skills, then you can trust that skilled master.

C

C is the oldest mid-level, general-purpose, programming language that is still valued in the world of software team augmentation. C++, C#, Java, E, etc. programming languages are developed on C fundamentals. Developers with a stronghold on C will be sure to grasp other programming languages easily. Operating systems like Windows and Mac OS X have their kernels developed in C language.

Python

A high-level programming language equally popular amongst the developer community is Python. It is built to enhance code readability over C in a few simple steps. The language setup includes pre-built support libraries that reduce development time.

Python developers use its package index, which consists of multiple third-party modules built in different languages. Python has served its best in developing gaming, web, and desktop apps that serve amazing functionality.

Technical Skills

Your software development augmented staff must be equally skilled with technical skills to undertake your precious projects offshore. These are the technical skills for a software engineer that you should look for:

Algorithms and Data Structures

The traditional computer science curriculum mainly consists of algorithms and data structures. To rationally and logically understand your tech projects, your developers should retain nil knowledge gaps in their learning.

Data structures and algorithms help developers understand how a computer interprets information and executes programs. Your hired developers can instantly grasp how your program will find the fastest solutions using the algorithm results. Several companies overlook the employee’s technical achievements or certificates, but a bit of sound advice suggests not to overlook the knowledge of the vital background.

Databases

Though modern programming languages easily simplify database management with their features, software developers must recognize the importance of databases. If your augmented staff has a keen knowledge of data models and your application requirements, they can be the best match for your enterprise software development.

Selecting an ideal database for your project is extremely important because otherwise, you will get entangled with problems like N+1 queries, performance bottlenecks, and more. By partnering with a staff augmentation company, you can improve your software performance, maintain it, and reduce your development time because their developers have good database skills.

Source Control

A developer is not only about coding and programming language; they also need to manage their code work. This is especially true when your development team is augmented, and they need to work with version control and manage your project code. An augmented developer will use concepts like version control and tools like Git, SVN, Mercurial, etc.

Must-Have Soft Skills for IT Staff

Most importantly, you should not overlook soft skills when hiring software development staff augmentation services because these can make or break your company. Soft Skills are interpersonal skills without which your team can not make a move. Software development is a team project, and communication plays an important role. Especially if you are a software development company, every teammate lays equal participation and responsibility for the project’s success.

Your augmented staff should be accountable for all their actions and this is the sign of a mature and responsible software developer. Your software team augmentation must host all the above talent and skills to take over your project. To find such acute specifications is not easy and only a technology staff augmentation company will help you find the right talent to match your business team.

Top Roles in Software Development Staff Augmentation

To manage your business by integrating your remote and offshore development team, you need to find and hire software developers beyond. Here are five crucial posts and roles that you should employ if you want to encourage the Agile development approach for your enterprise app development.

1. Frontend & Backend Developers

The heroes that develop everything that you see and interact with on an app or interface are the frontend developers. Your app users find your app attractive, catchy, interactive, and appealing because the frontend developers worked hard to build it. The overall design, aesthetics, static code analysis, and debugging are undertaken by frontend masters.

Well, apart from what your users see in your application, there’s much more to it in how they experience it. Everything that lays behind the front-facing application program is the back-end developer’s task. Database integration, server-side logic, and many such essential tasks are due to back-end functionality.

You need skilled frontend and backend developers in your software development staff augmentation team.

2. Certified Scrum Master

A special person in your team who certainly manages your development process and not the decisions is the scrum master. They lead the team with their expertise and experience through all the agile software development processes. A scrum master is a unique project manager which, along with the DevOps developers team, takes your project elevating through all the stages of story development, daily scrum meetings, scrum planning, stand-up meetings, sprint reviews, and burndown chart management. Thus, you must ensure that you have a scrum master to keep you synchronized with your framework, organization, and the scrum team.

3. Data Management Specialist

Your company is gradually expanding, and with it, the quantitative data of the organization is also growing. Now, you need an expert who can analyze, design, and configure this crucial data to make it useful for your organization. Your company’s data management specialist ensures data quality, processes data analysis reports, and protects them.

4. QA Specialist

It is essential to have software quality assurance who keeps track of every phase of your custom software development process. Ideally, you should check your project before you present it to the audience. The QA specialist of your agile software development team audits your software for its quality assurance, writes source code, configures management, tests your program, looks after integration, checks product integrity, and sees that it meets all the expected & set standards.

5. UX and UI Designers

Experts who take care of the look, view, and visibility of your software/ app are the graphic designers and user experience designers. When users find your application aesthetically pleasing, attractive, theme-based, and visually stimulating, the credit goes to these designers. The UX designers ensure that your app’s navigation and flow are smooth and one part is relatable to another. They look after the color scheme, shape of buttons, line width, font faces, and more. Having these roles in your resource augmentation team is mandatory. Partnering with a reliable staff augmentation company will ensure you get these five basic and string roles in your team.

Conclusion