Hiring a Dedicated Software Development Team: What to Pay Attention to for Outstanding Results

At Clockwise Software, we have 10+ years of experience in app development and 200+ successfully completed projects.

We provide end-to-end product development services, but many of our projects transform into dedicated team cooperation. In approximately 60% of our projects, we are involved as a dedicated development team, which means we help our clients hire the top 1% of developers to work on their projects.

Our cooperation with various types of businesses is the inspiration for this article, in which we will talk about the following:

• Why is working with a dedicated development team better than hiring average tech specialists?
• What recruiting processes result in hiring the top 1% of software developers?
• What approach to assembling and retaining a team allows for the best outsourcing ROI?
• What are red flags to be aware of when hiring a dedicated team?
• What are the pros and cons of outsourcing software development to a dedicated team?

After reading this article, you will be fully equipped to begin a fruitful cooperation with a remote team.

Dedicated development team

A dedicated software development team is a partnership model in which a group of skilled professionals are assigned to exclusively work on a specific project. The size and composition of a dedicated team are defined by the product development stage, scope of work, and desired timelines.

If you want to hire a team to work on your project, you are likely in one of two situations:

1. You know what application you want to build, but you lack technical expertise in your existing team, or you don’t have any tech team at all.
   
   Solution: Hire a managed team that is autonomous and agile at the same time.

2. You know what app you want to build, and you know how to build it from the technical side. You lack only the specialists who can execute your plan.
   
   Solution: Hire a dedicated unmanaged team and supervise them on your own.

Your third option may be to opt for custom software product development – a cooperation model that requires minimal involvement from you as the development team takes over the whole app creation process and works according to previously defined requirements.

In this article, we will focus on the two dedicated team models.

Dedicated software development teams comparison

Let’s review how managed and unmanaged dedicated development teams differ:

Within the dedicated team model, you can hire a complete development team to build your app or hire several specialists to perform specific product development tasks.

In either case, you want to hire top developers as you strive for spotless quality, high development speed, and great process organization. Where can you get them?

Partner with an IT outsourcing company to hire dedicated remote teams. This will allow you to reap the benefits of hiring dedicated developers while eliminating recruitment hassles.

At Clockwise Software, we have a wide pool of pre-vetted developers, quality assurance engineers, designers, business analysts, and project managers. This allows us to assemble both managed and unmanaged teams that perfectly match our clients’ requests.

How do we hire the top 1% of developers to provide perfect dedicated teams?

We are meticulous about hiring, as we understand the power of having the right people on the team.

Our hiring process includes five steps to get only the best candidates on board:

1. Research and planning
   Recruiters and the hiring manager describe the ideal candidate and discuss desired hard and soft skills, preferred experience, time zone (if relevant), and so on. The more detailed your initial requirements, the smoother your future cooperation will be. Knowing exactly who you want to hire, you can create a detailed job description and develop a test task to evaluate candidates’ hard skills.

2. Application processing and sourcing
   The best practice is to use multiple sources to reach candidates, including relevant job posting portals, LinkedIn, and professional communities. The recruitment team evaluates each applicant’s CV according to pre-developed score cards. Data-driven decisions are essential, as they eliminate subjective opinions and therefore bad decisions.

3. Screening call
   A recruiter speaks one on one with shortlisted candidates, paying specific attention to their hard skills and professional experience, as well as to communication and other soft skills. Assessing basic tech literacy helps recruiters shortlist candidates and move only the most relevant down the hiring funnel.

4. Test task and tech interview
   Successful candidates proceed to the next stage, where they have to complete a test task. They also go through a tech interview where they have to prove their skills in required technologies.

5. Final interview and offer
   The final interview is conducted to clarify details and discuss employment conditions. During the final interview, a successful candidate receives an offer to join the team.

The hiring process seems easy and straightforward, doesn’t it? But the reality isn’t quite so simple.

At Clockwise Software, it takes two full-time recruiters three to five weeks to fill one technical position.

Recently, we developed an MVP that allowed our client to raise over $10 million in investment to keep developing their health tracking application. In response, they decided to extend our partnership and set up a quality assurance team.

At the time, our QA specialists were involved in long-term projects, so we initiated the hiring process. We received over 200 applications from quality assurance engineers. The recruitment funnel for the position looked approximately like this:

We managed to staff our client’s team with a top quality assurance engineer in less than five weeks. However, this was only possible because we have a strong recruitment team with high standards, an established hiring process, and recruitment tools we use daily.

What are our hiring best practices?

In our 10 years of experience, we have learned how to hire candidates who become the perfect dedicated developers.

• Prepare
  You won’t hire the perfect candidate until you know who your perfect candidate is. We create a detailed candidate persona to understand who we are looking for. Our hiring managers prepare custom test tasks to reveal and audit the skills that will be relevant for specific projects.

• Ensure recruiters have tech literacy
  Understanding technologies our team is working with allows recruiters to ask informed questions during interviews and ensure candidates possess the technical competencies required for the roles they apply for. Basic tech literacy allows recruiters to shortlist candidates and move only relevant ones to technical interviews. This saves much time on the part of technical specialists, as only a small percentage of applicants get to this stage of the funnel. Looking back to the example with the QA position, imagine a CTO having to interview 200 candidates instead of five. A recruiter’s understanding of technologies saves many hours for hiring managers and technical specialists.

• Pay attention to soft skills and values
  We want our employees to have matching values and soft skills. Developers with strong interpersonal skills can share their ideas clearly, collaborate seamlessly with colleagues, and adapt to changing project requirements. This results in higher team productivity and, therefore, higher client satisfaction.

• Minimize biased opinions with scorecards
  Scorecards provide a structured and objective way to evaluate candidates against predefined criteria, ensuring consistency throughout the hiring process. They help with decision-making by clearly comparing candidates’ strengths and weaknesses, reducing bias, and allowing the hiring team to focus on the most relevant qualifications and skills for the role.

• Use recruitment tools
  Recruitment tools significantly enhance the efficiency of the hiring process. An applicant tracking system (ATS) saves recruiters time, enhances communication between other hiring process participants, and reduces manual errors. Paid job boards expand visibility to a broader pool of qualified candidates, increasing the chances of quickly and effectively finding top talent. We invest in paid tools as they allow us to hire the right people in a short time.

• Use a recruiter’s personal network
  Recruiters’ personal networks significantly enhance the hiring process by providing access to a broader and often more qualified pool of candidates, including those who are not actively seeking new opportunities. This network, built on trust and previous interactions, enables recruiters to quickly connect with and vet candidates, reducing the time to hire and increasing the likelihood of finding a strong fit.

We hire Ukrainian developers and know the local engineering market inside out, and we have been polishing our recruiting approach for years to achieve the desired efficiency. This approach allows us to provide the ​​right dedicated software development team for every web app project. In the next section, we demonstrate how.

Benefits of cooperating with a company with high recruiting standards

High hiring standards result in many benefits for us as a vendor. But let’s focus on you.

Does diligence in the recruiting process really impact the dedicated development team services you receive? It definitely does, and here’s how:

1. Low turnover rate
   Fifty percent of our tech employees have been with us for over three years, and several engineers have been part of the Clockwise team since the company’s founding. Low turnover allows us to keep and share acquired expertise within the company. It also significantly lowers the chance of interruptions to the development process due to replacing a specialist.
   
   At Clockwise, developers work on long-term projects from the beginning, getting to know them inside out. This enables developers to handle complex tasks fast and effectively.
2. Scalability on demand
   We always have a pool of specialists available so we can quickly assemble a team to match a client’s specific demands. Besides, our recruiters constantly expand their own candidate networks, which allows us to hire new specialists faster than with cold contacting.
3. Easy onboarding
   A team of people who have worked together for a long time is quite easy to onboard to a new project because they have established communication patterns, a deep understanding of each other’s strengths and working styles, and a shared experience of collaborative problem-solving. This familiarity enables them to quickly adapt to new challenges and maintain high productivity from the outset.
4. Minimal supervision required
   We hire people with outstanding hard and soft skills, which makes them great team players. Additionally, dedicated development teams that have a history of cooperation require less supervision than newly assembled teams, leading to higher efficiency and lower spending on project management.
5. Cost efficiency
   It may sound counterintuitive, but hiring top-tier developers is a cost-efficient strategy. While they may command higher salaries, their skills, productivity, and reduced need for supervision can lead to overall cost savings. Top developers are likely to complete projects faster and with fewer errors, which translates into lower costs in the long run, especially for rework and bug fixing.

All of these criteria result in a higher client success rate – a metric that represents our clients’ achievement of desired goals.

Cooperating with carefully selected developers can lead to your project being completed faster, at a lower cost, and with better quality and fewer headaches for you.

Our team assembly and delivery control process

Once we receive a request for dedicated developers, we start assembling the team. Here’s how the process looks:

1. Analyze project requirements and business objectives to determine the team’s size and structure
It is most efficient to assemble the team after a discovery phase during which all details about the future product development process are defined. Knowing in advance what has to be built, in what time frame, and with what budget lets our project managers offer the team composition needed to achieve set goals.

2. Select candidates
Once we know what roles to fill, we first turn to the company’s talent pool. In most cases, we can involve specialists with the required hard skills and experience from the pool in a few days. But sometimes, the needed candidates are not available, and we have to initiate a hiring process. In this case, it may take three to five weeks to complete the team.

After our health tracking startup client secured a new round of investment, they decided to scale development and build a quality assurance team from scratch. At the time, we didn’t have available QA engineers. After clarifying all requirements, we hired and onboarded а QA engineer and QA team lead in under five weeks. The team is now set both for starting the quality assurance process and for future scaling.

3. Interview the client
In the case of a managed team, we take over all risks connected with hiring and onboarding developers. Clients rarely participate in the process, as they want to fully delegate development to a dedicated team and focus on strategic tasks. However, with unmanaged teams, the client’s tech representative (either a team lead or CTO) interviews candidates, as the development process and its outcomes are the client’s responsibility.

4. Onboard the team
This process also differs for managed and unmanaged teams. As a managed remote team, we are responsible for onboarding new team members. When providing unmanaged dedicated developers, we can coordinate the process to ensure that specialists get the needed instructions and access, but we don’t run this process.

This four-step process allows us to build balanced teams in a short time. What is a balanced team, you may ask?

Balanced dedicated team

A balanced app development team is composed of diverse roles and expertise. Each team member brings unique skills and perspectives, contributing to the team’s overall success. Following this philosophy, our dedicated development teams include specialists of different levels who are good at completing different kinds of tasks.

For example, when you hire five strong software architects to work on your product, you will likely achieve exceptional quality, but your development budget will be enormous.

By hiring five junior developers, you can save a lot of money, but you will likely be disappointed by the software they design and build.

A balanced team will also include five people, but their skills (and therefore the amount you pay) will be aligned with the project tasks:

• Software architect — designs the system
• Frontend engineer — creates the app’s interface
• Junior frontend developer — assists with bug fixing, develops minor features
• Backend engineer — codes app functionality
• Junior backend developer — fixes bugs, writes unit tests, and develops simple features

An experienced software architect is good at designing the system and making strategic decisions, while less experienced specialists may take over routine implementation tasks. At the same time, junior developers can handle simple tasks not requiring deep expertise, allowing more experienced colleagues to work on critical features.

Fixing a minor bug should not be the role of a software architect, should it?

Software development consulting can also help you build a balanced team. You can hire only less experienced developers to complete routine tasks but opt for technical consulting for more impactful decisions like the tech stack and app architecture design.

This way, we can maximize team efficiency while keeping to a reasonable budget.

How to retain a dedicated development team’s top performance

Your perfect development team is all set. But how can you ensure their high performance over time? Luckily, when outsourcing to Ukraine, your service provider will take care of it.

At Clockwise Software, we invest time, money, and human resources to make sure every employee performs at their best and avoids burnout. This is how we achieve it:

1. Work–life balance
   The first thing we do is let our employees control their work schedule and find time for other activities. All our employees can work remotely, so they decide in which country, city, or village they feel most comfortable. They are also encouraged to take regular paid vacations and adjust their schedule, as we enable flexible working hours.
2. Positive and collaborative work environment
   We pay close attention to candidates’ soft skills during the recruitment process, as these directly affect team spirit. The app development process involves much cooperation, and the people you interact with dictate how you feel during and after work.
3. Challenging, complex, and meaningful tasks
   The productivity of each specialist depends on the tasks they have to work on. When assembling the team, we consider each employee's strengths and weaknesses, as well as their interests and motivations.
4. Invest in professional development
   All Clockwise Software team members keep improving their skills to be able to execute more complex tasks. We also foster knowledge sharing to fulfill every specialist’s need for recognition, enhance problem-solving, and improve overall team performance.
5. Clear communication and timely feedback
   We want our employees to feel safe in their work environment, and we achieve this through transparency. Workers get regular feedback on their work and interactions with colleagues and are recognized and promoted for their achievements.

When employees find meaning in their work, they are more productive and creative. We invest heavily in taking care of our most valuable asset — people. When partnering with Clockwise Software, you will always work with motivated and effective teams.

Red flags when hiring a dedicated team

When hiring a dedicated team, you want to get rid of the routine work and focus on more strategic tasks.

However, not every dedicated development team frees your time. The wrong partnership may result in headaches, missed deadlines, ruined launch plans, and missed opportunities.

How do you recognize a bad dedicated team provider? Here are the red flags:

• High staff turnover
  Discuss HR metrics with your potential vendor. High staff turnover may result in project delays, as the company always needs time to replace specialists. Also, high turnover may signal poor internal processes, and you definitely don’t want that risk.
• Poor communication
  Your first emails and calls with vendor representatives may show you the company’s communication culture. Red flags may include unclear messages, slow response times or delays without prior notice, and a lack of transparency in progress updates. If you feel uncomfortable about communication at this stage, proceed with your search to avoid misunderstandings, misaligned goals, and project delays.
• Lack of case studies or references
  Without concrete examples of previous work or testimonials from satisfied clients, there is a greater risk that the team may not meet expectations or deliver high-quality results. Companies are always eager to share their case studies, especially if they are proud of their work. Look for potential vendors with proven track records to increase the chance of positive cooperation.
• Prices lower than the market
  Some companies manipulate prices to lure clients. This may signal that the team is desperate for work, which could mean instability or a lack of demand for their services. Reliable teams typically charge market-appropriate rates that reflect their expertise, their resources, and the value they provide, ensuring high-quality deliverables.

When preparing for an interview with a company representative, list all questions you want to clarify. You may have your own red flags and criteria for the dedicated development team.

When choosing a software development company, compromises are allowed, but they have to be grounded.

Cost to hire a dedicated team

The cost of hiring a dedicated development team depends on the team’s composition.

At different stages of software development, you need to involve different team members, which means the costs for your dedicated team may fluctuate.

Let’s overview the average costs to hire two types of dedicated teams: managed and unmanaged.

Managed team cost

Managed dedicated development teams are composed according to the startup stage you are currently at.

To build an MVP, we usually allocate a frontend developer, backend engineer, quality assurance engineer, and project manager. A UI/UX designer, software architect, and business analyst can be involved on demand.

App scaling is a more complex process in which development speed plays a crucial role. To scale, you will need several frontend and backend developers and QA engineers, along with a full-time business analyst. Other roles can be involved part-time.

The table below shows the approximate monthly budget for a whole dedicated team depending on the app development stage. Roles marked with * are part-time.

Dedicated unmanaged team cost

If you want to hire unmanaged dedicated developers, the number and qualification of the specialists will solely depend on your needs, as will the monthly budget.

At Clockwise, our average rate is $50 an hour. This means you can count on around $8,400 per month for each dedicated developer you hire.

When assembling a team at your request, either managed or unmanaged, we strive to make it balanced. Team members’ skills and experience should complement each other, allowing us to achieve the highest app development efficiency and velocity within the estimated budget.

We discuss the cost of custom app development in more detail in our article, so don’t miss it.

How can you hire a dedicated development team?

Starting cooperation with a dedicated team provider is easy and includes only three steps:

1. Describe your request in the contact form.
2. We schedule a call to discuss the details.
3. We sign a detailed and transparent contract and allocate a team (usually within five business days; 15+ business days if we have to hire the required specialist)

We scale the team up and down on demand, giving you the flexibility to efficiently use your current resources.

Conclusion

Hiring a dedicated team offers significant benefits for businesses looking to develop software or complete complex projects. Dedicated teams provide focused expertise and are fully committed to your project, ensuring a high level of engagement.

With a dedicated development team, you gain access to a wide range of skills tailored to your project’s specific needs. This approach allows for better control over the development process, including timelines, costs, and project direction, while also providing flexibility to scale the team up or down based on project requirements.

Additionally, dedicated teams often bring experience and best practices from similar projects, accelerating development and reducing risks.

Depending on your needs, you can choose between two options:

• Hiring a managed dedicated team and outsourcing web app development as well as risks connected with hiring, final product quality, and deadlines
• Hiring an unmanaged dedicated development team to quickly complement your existing tech team and managing them on your own

At Clockwise Software, we provide both options. If you feel like our approach to software development is what you need, we will be happy to talk.