Whether you have an in-house, proprietary team or partner with a software outsourcing company to build software and applications for your business, it is important to have the right set of developers in your team. How do you go about headhunting for one, and manage them successfully to ensure your company KPIs are met both in the short and long term?
In this article, we share the basic things you need to know to search for and hire the right software developers for your team. Read on to know more!
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Before embarking on the software developer hiring process, it is important to know the different options you can consider to hire software developers that are both right for your project’s requirements, while being easy on your budget. Here, we break down the four most common software outsourcing models, all of which are relevant when searching for suitable developers for your project.
The most basic software outsourcing model, project based hiring simply allocates software developers, UI designers, software testers and software architects to a development project – with roles and responsibilities focusing on conducting any tasks that are necessary, within each team member’s range of expertise.
However, it is useful to know that project based hiring does not indicate exclusivity; team members can be shared across multiple projects. If you are looking to hire software engineers that focus on your project and none other, consider the dedicated team member model (more on this below).
Unlike its project based counterpart, time based hiring allocates team members to a project with a limited number of hours per week, or month. Tasks all need to be done within this time limit, which enables businesses to accurately predict their development costs.
Dedicated team members are assigned to a single project, with their time, effort and expertise only being expended towards this one project. This offers businesses the leverage to have exclusivity over their projects, especially if they want to hire remote developers via a software offshoring company.
Albeit being more expensive than a project or time based model, the dedicated team model ensures businesses that the developers they hire will solely be focused on their project, thereby having them expend their total efforts and skills towards objectives that are unique to the business.
Staff and resource augmentation is typically meant for established projects that either need expert advice across a certain area, or ‘extra hands on deck’ during momentary workload surges. Developers that are hired as part of staff augmentation models are usually brought in to offer their services on a temporary basis, but they could end up being long-term and even permanent members of the team if their role involves offering strategic direction and advice to the rest of the team.
To determine the criteria that your business and software development teams need to focus on when sourcing and vetting the right software developer candidates, it is imperative to first assess what your software project really needs. This way, all teams are mutually aligned towards what needs to be done, what is missing, as well as which objectives need to be attained in order to ensure ROI.
In order to conduct an assessment, gather relevant members from your team to discuss matters surrounding:
Based on this assessment, your software development team should be able to build a list of criteria that entail roles and responsibilities for the new developer hire.
Once a list of criteria is built for your prospective developer’s job roles and responsibilities, it is important to also identify how much of a commitment you’d expect from them, in terms of time as well as working arrangements. Do you want a dedicated team member that only focuses on your project, or will a shared team member do?
Also, if you are looking to hire developers for startup projects, it is possible that you may expect an arrangement that is more nearshore than offshore, owing to the high level of ‘organised chaos’ that is conducive to fast-paced startup environments. This way, your new hire can work with the rest of your team in person when needed.
Once you’ve discussed and confirmed suitable outsourcing models and working arrangements with your team for your new developer hire, append this to the final job ad, to finally complete and publish it. While this is a step that you can address during the previous assessment phase itself, it may require some additional discussion with your software outsourcing partner, depending on the resources they already have at hand, as well as who they can headhunt for, depending on your needs.
Once candidates submit their job applications following your software developer job ad, it’s time to interview them, and assess their skills for the role. Start by asking them about their portfolio and prior work experience, as well as testing for soft skills such as working under pressure, and analytical thinking. Soft skills can ideally be observed through the quality of responses that developers provide to interview questions, as well as through general demeanour, thereby requiring business owners and/or project managers to ‘read between the lines’.
When your newly hired software developer has been inducted and introduced to the rest of your team, familiarise them with the daily workflows, processes and tools that are used to manage everyone’s deliverables. Once the initial training concludes, monitor the quality of their deliverables, as well as their rate of efficiency.
Their ability to adhere to instructions is another key factor that needs to also be monitored closely, as following instructions promptly and correctly makes all the difference between a workable product that users love – or a product that is delayed, and doesn’t meet user expectations.
The right set of KPIs can be determined and set before your new developer begins work, while communicating the very same to them; this way, both parties are on the same page in terms of what denotes success. If suboptimal performance is repeatedly observed over an extended period of time, it may be necessary to reconsider replacing developers that aren’t contributing to business KPIs, in order to continue maintaining steady revenue, compliance and ROI across the organisation.
Hiring the right team of software developers for your business’s software development project(s) is a significant decision to make, without any doubt. How you, as a business leader or manager, in collaboration with your software outsourcing partner source, screen, hire and eventually measure the performance of software engineers is a task that needs careful prior assessment.
Additionally, it is crucial to have a clear idea of the different software outsourcing models that may be relevant for your new hire, so business and software outsourcing teams alike can mutually determine which arrangement is bound to be most suitable, while also being cost-efficient at the same time.
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