IT staff augmentation is a hiring model which essentially provides skilled, qualified talent to a company’s in-house IT team to act as an extension of said team on a specific term basis.

According to their different skills and expertise, and the duration of a project—whether it is long term or short term—these IT professionals provide enhanced services which focus on the specific technical expertise that is required by the company in order to reach their business objectives.

Considering the fact that not every company can afford to hire full-time employees, as well as skill shortages, this provides an efficient, effective, and flexible solution for businesses that are in need of a team member with rare or highly sought after technical skills. Augmented services fill in these staffing gaps, and as a result, allow companies to focus on their core competencies in a day and age where technology is rapidly advancing.

Which Different Types Of IT Staff Augmentation Services Are There?

While staff augmentation itself is a hiring model, there are also different types of the service as well, each with their own benefits according to the requirements of the project they are being used for.

There are three main types of augmented staff services: commodity, skilled, and highly skilled.  

Commodity IT Staff Augmentation

This model of IT staff augmentation is not outlined by any particular specializations or specific expertise, and instead emphasizes urgency, making it best suited to short term work. In this case, the commodity itself is what is wanted rather than being able to employ external personnel for certain skills.

Oftentimes, businesses’ IT teams are not looking for a specific skill set, but still require specialists to conduct tasks. This is usually the case when these tasks are simply yet lengthy, and the business does not want their in-house team and resources to devote much time and disperse their focus on them. For example, data entry and continuous, repetitive manual testing of codes or software.

This option allows businesses to streamline processes, and better allocate their resources and internal teams’ time. While what first comes to mind when referring to staff augmentation is skill requirements, immediacy is still an imperative decisive aspect when it comes to fulfilling certain tasks, and the option to utilize the assistance of augmented specialists is something that many businesses need.

Skill-based IT Staff Augmentation

This IT staff augmentation model is one which requires businesses to identify the specific skills and knowledge that are necessary to carry out certain projects, and then hire staff according to their actual skills, and not simply for task completion. This work can be on a short term basis or a long term basis, but is often leveraged for long term projects

As practical skills and knowledge are what first come to mind when considering staff augmentation, this model is more commonly used, and is an effective way for businesses to acquire the necessary skill sets without having to put the time and resources into recruiting, hiring, or training their own staff.

However, the relative skill level involved with this model is not crucial. Which is to say that the augmented staff member(s) do not need to be elite experts, as the work is not particularly demanding. The emphasis here is on hiring developers who can act as great support for the in-house team, and can take care of responsibilities such as clerical work or fill junior level positions.

With this type of staff augmentation service, the work being done relies on the technical skills themselves, as it is meant to temporarily fill a gap in the IT team, but does not necessarily require a strategic or expert-level team member.

Highly Skilled Staff Augmentation

This model of IT staff augmentation is one which not only requires a team member with specific tech skills, but a team member with advanced, honed skills, at an expert level. They often cover a rare expertise, and businesses hire them to work on more complex, dynamic projects.

Finding an IT professional with a unique skill set through an augmented service firm is much more convenient for companies compared to finding someone to join the team full-time, and they are still able to reap the benefits of working together with a top level expert to handle complex, critical tasks. In both short term and long term cases, this model allows businesses to bring in additional project value and to gain a competitive advantage.