Resource augmentation is a contract made with outside personnel temporarily to extend the capacity. This article discusses the 5 ways you can make resource augmentation work for your organization.
Resource augmentation is becoming a fancy name for job outsourcing these days. To make it clear, one must understand resource augmentation is just one of those outsourcing methodologies derived from time to time. Being a popular tool in the IT sector, it is spreading its roots in every sector of the economy.
What is Resource Augmentation?
Resource augmentation is a contract made with outside personnel temporarily to extend the capacity of an organization. This organizational strategy is proving to be quintessential in most of the working models of established firms.
There are many ways to augment your resources. Which way you will choose to depend only on your purpose of augmenting. What should be your result and the ways of accomplishing it should rule your choice of model.
Let us discuss 5 ways you can make resource augmentation work for your organization.
Choose Resource Augmentation for Projects with a Fixed Deadline
Resource augmentation models work best for projects that have fixed deadlines or one-time projects. For instance, to create a website or mobile application for your business, you should do resource augmentation by hiring an offshore team and assigning a lead to monitor their activities.
In these scenarios, resource augmentation is the best fit, and it can save you the time you’ll have to spend on recruiting, training & onboarding an in-house resource.
Do A Skill-Gap Analysis Within Your Organization
Whenever a new project comes in, or when you are skeptical about your team’s skill set, you should do a skill gap analysis. It can provide you with insights into the talent gaps that exist within your company. Once you are done with the analysis, decide whether you need this resource on a long-term basis or if the requirement is just limited to the particular project.
Go ahead with resource augmentation if it isn’t a long-term requirement.
Ensure Clear Communication with Your Augmented Team
Once you have augmented a team of employees, it is important to ensure that you set up an efficient communication channel between them and your in-house team. As always, clear communication is important for every business’s success, and you should establish this starting from the beginning of the augmenting life cycle.
Clearly Define Objectives for Your Offshore & In-House Team
It is important that you clearly define the role & responsibilities to your in-house & offshore team at the early stage of the project life cycle. Ensure that both the teams have clarity on what is expected and where they should pitch in.
Have dedicated project managers & team leaders to ensure that both the teams work in cohesion and everything is on schedule.
Don’t Hesitate to Invest in Project Management Tools & Technologies
It is advisable to invest money in the right project management tools & technologies to leverage the most out of a resource augmentation model. Tools like Jira, Confluence, Asana, etc., ensures that every stage of the project workflow is tracked and monitored. These can especially come in handy to track & monitor budget & quality standards.
If you have the budget, you should also consider subscribing to a Learning Management System that can help you seamlessly manage both your offshore & in-house team.
To Sum Up
With benefits including but not limited to less operational cost, faster project deliveries & cost & time savings, Resource Augmentation is the way ahead for organizations in the coming years. Devise a resource augmentation model tailored for your unique requirements & follow the best practices mentioned previously to leverage the most out of resource augmentation. To know more on how Resource Augmentation can scale up your business, connect with us.
