A team of software developers is crucial to building an MVP and as such a backbone of any technology company. Your software developers are also essential for ongoing product development and support, as well as for scaling a company from a startup to SME or enterprise when the time is right.
However, employing a team of developers can be time-consuming and costly, so let's examine the advantages to having an in-house development team:
1. In-Depth product knowledge and long-term product development
If you're developing a product that requires a long-term commitment, it might be better to build your own internal team of developers. They will be fully committed to your product, know it inside out, and will be able to swiftly make changes or implement fixes when a need arises.
2. Company culture fit
Working with people who fit your company's culture improves productivity. Having in-house developers who can do the job, and who get along your team is typically more productive than collaborating with the best specialists who don't share your company culture views. Achieving company culture fit can be more challenging when working with outsourced teams.
3. Stockpiling skills adds value
When you have motivated team of in-house software developers, they are committed to you in the long-term. When they need to upskill or learn something new, they will treat it as self-development and become more valuable to your company as professionals. You can treat upskilling them as an investmentthat will benefit your company and your people.
4. Aligned interests
In a thriving company, employees share the same vision and have aligned interests. As they are part of the same company and share same objectives, you can rely on their commitment to delivering the company goals. It's much more difficult to achieve with an external company.
5. Shorter turnaround time
Developing a product in-house enables you to monitor each step in the process. That means that when the problems come up, you can expect much quicker turnaround time in fixing them than it would be in the case of outsourcing. When an emergency happens, your problem is their priority.
6. Alignment with the company standard
Control over the company's coding standards is crucial for the future life of the product. With the in-house software development, you can decide what's best for the future maintenance processes of the product.
Points to consider before you hire an in-house software development team:
1. The hiring process can be time-consuming
It takes time to find and hire the right developers. And even then, there is a possibility that they won't be able to join right away. You will also need qualified resources in the first place to hire the best talent.
2. In-house specialists are on the payroll
You need to be able to offer an adequate salary and benefits to attract developers to work with you. Annual salaries, benefit packages, overhead costs - it all comes with a full-time in-house team. With development team, you need to pay their wages no matter what the current workload is.
Unless your company has a large budget to hire a wide range of specialists or a substantial IT department, you might not be able to cover all your specific needs with dedicated experts.
3. Possible overload of in-house IT resources
If you are hiring developers to work on the project, which is not the core business of the company, it could be a huge burden on your IT resources. And an overload usually results in unsatisfied employees and non-optimal product.
Hiring an in-house team of developers may a viable option for your business, and it comes with many benefits. Only recruit an in-house software development team when your product is launched, you can support the team and scale the business quickly. If you can't afford to hire in-house development team or it's not feasible for you, you might consider outsourcing software development.
