You can enhance your team’s capabilities by implementing IT Staff augmentation for your business. The skills below are worth urging for when hiring through IT Staff augmentation.
A lot of industries are already leveraging the benefits that IT staff augmentation offers, none more so than the IT sector. No matter if you need help with a particular project or if you’re looking for any outside assistance, there are several benefits IT staff augmentation offers.
But what to do when you are looking to hire outside software developers & tech talents to join your in-house team? You would say you will look to hire specialized skills to mitigate the risks but what skills should you look for?
Discover the Top 6 Skills companies should hire to achieve business excellence. But, before going into the details let’s understand the concept of an In-House team vs an IT Staff Augmentation.
IT Staff Augmentation means a strategy where you’re working with an outsourcing company to find an IT professional to join your team. This recruitment will purely be carried on to meet the temporary skill requirements for specific projects.
The model offers several benefits to teams of all types & sizes, some of the advantages are as under:
Cost-effective hiring as you can minimize the spending used behind the onboarding process & flush behind overhead costs.
Enables you an ability to fill the talent gaps present in your development team.
It allows access to a set of specialized skills.
You can hire whenever the need arises.
Now, let’s dive deeper and discover the Top 6 skills you should watch for when hiring remote developers using IT Staff Augmentation.
The below-mentioned 6 skills are must-haves in an IT professional team
One of the most vital skills in any IT project is the knowledge of top programming languages. This is very critical to maintaining technologies as well as building new ones throughout the development cycle.
Some of the programming languages include:
Python is one of the high-level programming languages which is enormously popular for several reasons. Some areas where it is popular are web applications, desktop software & complex games. Moreover, Instagram, Google & Shopify are some of the applications that were built using Python language.
What makes Python so famous? It’s readable as the first reason for its popularity. The second one is it is supported by many libraries & frameworks that reduce the development time & effort. Lastly, the language is straightforward to learn & use & is scalable as well.
JavaScript is a key player in web development, renowned for its widespread use and versatility. Initially a staple for creating dynamic front-ends, it now also shines in server-side development. For staff augmentation firms, mastering JavaScript is crucial.
It empowers its developers to build engaging, feature-rich web solutions, ensuring they can deliver comprehensive and modern web experiences.
Java is crucial for software developers due to its versatility and ease of use. Popular in enterprise applications, this object-oriented language simplifies memory management and works across different platforms. It's essential for Android development and widely used for web servers and eCommerce applications, making it a foundational tool for modern developers.
C language has its existence since the early 1970s & is the base for programming languages like C++ & C#
Some of the benefits that C# proves are:
Easy integration with Microsoft technologies like Windows, Visual Studios & Azure
It is quite easy to use
The second skill on the list of top skills is “Web Development”
Almost every company needs a great website nowadays. Companies that provide staff augmentation services are well-placed to create and look after websites for different businesses. That's why having skills in web development is very important.
It refers to the part of the website that users see & interact with. Developers who specialize in the area should know languages like HTML, CSS & JavaScript. Moreover, they should also understand the responsive design principles to create sites that are appealing & can respond to the user's needs.
Additionally, the users can access a variety of backgrounds & abilities of the website from a different aspect. An alt text for example will refer to the text that describes each visual component of the website like an image & video. These tags will help users with impairments understand the context of the images.
A back-end development involves building an infrastructure & behind-the-scenes aspect of a website. The back-end developers need to know the server-side programming languages such as Python, Ruby, PHP, etc. Moreover, they should also possess knowledge about database management systems like MySQL, PostgreSQL & MongoDB.
Both backend & frontend developers work hand-in-hand so they’ll need to collaborate & communicate well.
There has been a growing demand for mobile app developers as the demand for mobile apps is increasing. Let's understand iOS & android development separately because these two domains will require different technical skills.
Any iOS developer would require the knowledge of Shift which is a chief programming language for Apple. Moreover, they should also know how to use Apple's development tools & frameworks such as Zcode & UIKit.
Java & Kotlin are the official languages for Android development, so any programmer in this space should know the ins & outs of the tools. Moreover, they should also know Android Studio & Google's development tools.
Cloud Computing has become highly important in the IT and software development space. Various businesses are embracing DevOps principles in their projects. Let's understand both concepts closely.
These platforms are computing platforms that provide a variety of services like storage, networking & much more. It can be accessed anywhere as long as the user is connected with the internet.
Some of the examples of cloud platforms would include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, etc.
DevOps is a set of principles that blends software development & IT operations. The main goal of DevOps practices is to improve the quality & increase the speed through principles like:
Collaboration
Communication
Automation
Continuous improvement/continuous deployment (CI/CD)
Infrastructure as code (IaC)
Containerization and orchestration
Monitoring and feedback
Cybersecurity
As cybercrime becomes more common, IT teams need to improve their skills and knowledge to protect against it.
Starting with network security, this area requires following best practices to design secure networks. Teams should also use tools like firewalls, VPNs, and systems that detect intrusions to keep networks safe.
To keep applications secure, it's important to use good coding practices to ensure the software is safe from threats. Organizations should follow OWASP and ISO 27001 standards for strong security foundations. Solid basics are crucial for protection.
Augmented staff and teams should check for security weaknesses early to prevent bigger issues later on. Penetration testing is a crucial process to test and fix software vulnerabilities before hackers can take advantage of them.
Now, let us understand the second set of skills that every developer should possess it is known as Soft skills
An IT Staff augmentation team would need a variety of soft skills to complete the projects. These are interpersonal abilities & attributes that will improve the project flow. Some of the important soft skills are:
Every team needs strong communication skills, including writing and speaking, and the IT industry is no exception. The sector is critical for solving problems, brainstorming ideas & working together as a team. Collaboration & communication are closely related to each other. Building a proper communication plan is an important step in the development process.
Problem Solving is vital in tech. Every team comes across problems & issues & thus solving them becomes important while you are working remotely. Moreover, to deliver high-quality services, teams need to troubleshoot and fix technology issues quickly and smoothly.
In the fast-paced tech world, IT professionals must be able to quickly learn new tools to stay current. Not only this, adaptability also means the ability to possess the flexibility to adapt according to the changing needs of the project.
When working on technology projects, time is very important. IT professionals need to know how to set priorities, arrange their work, and finish projects on time.
Mr. Chad Nellis, founder of Music Launch Pad company a Music Software wanted to demonstrate strategies for building his music software idea into a complete product.
He wanted to hire services that allow him to manage his time & capital so he reached out to us with the idea & our team helped him develop the music software. We also integrated some unique features that made the product more competitive than ever.
A successful IT staff augmentation model will always demand a blend of technical & soft skills, starting from the knowledge of communication tools to collaboration tools.
While using IT staff augmentation services it is important to remember that every team must have a well-rounded skill set. As software developers & IT professionals work together it becomes essential for them to hone these skills & qualifications.
The most demanded IT skills for staff augmentation would include skills like programming language skills, and web & mobile development skills, cloud computing, etc. Moreover, it would also include soft skills like communication.
Identifying the right IT skill sets for your staff augmentation needs can be a challenging task, but there are several steps to ensure you have the right qualifications in your team.
The list of steps include:
Skill assessments of your current team members.
Identifying the goals
Working with an outsourced company to fill the skill gaps.
Soft skills like communication, problem-solving & time management are important skills to bring team members together to work in cohesion.
IT professionals need to keep their skills updated for staff augmentation opportunities in this rapidly changing technology market. To do this,
They should participate in courses, training, etc.
They should also join online communities of technology professionals.
Staying updated with the news going on in the tech industry.
Should ask for feedback
Should practice with real-life projects.
Businesses could face some challenges during Staff augmentation problems. For example, they might face trouble in finding the right talent for their organization. Moreover, there would also be issues like managing costs.
Communication & cultural differences. While working with a reputable outsourcing company like Acquaint Softtech you can easily solve these hurdles. We can help you find top talents that will be the right fit for your organizational team. Additionally, we’ll also be transparent about the costs we charge for our services.
No, there is a difference between both IT Staff augmentation & IT outsourcing. In IT outsourcing companies are outsourcing the complete project to external software development companies.
Whereas. By using IT staff augmentation organizations add some virtual resources to the existing in-house to manage the workload.
I love to make a difference. Thus, I started Acquaint Softtech with the vision of making developers easily accessible and affordable to all. Me and my beloved team have been fulfilling this vision for over 15 years now and will continue to get even bigger and better.
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