To make an informed decision when selecting the ideal software development company, it is crucial to gather essential information about the available options. That is why we picked the top 15 questions we get from our clients when they first meet our sales representatives, so you can get to know our services better.
Of course, you can refer to the over 500 clients who’ve worked with us over the years, but a detailed background of what got us here is in order.
1. What services and solutions do you offer?
We have successfully completed over 1,600 projects, encompassing software outsourcing, dedicated teams, and staff augmentation services.
We specialize in solid, end-to-end delivery of highly customized technology solutions. They are divided into four categories, which are:
- Software development and design
- QA, testing, maintenance and modernization
- Cloud and advanced technologies
- Business and digital solutions
2. What is a dedicated software development team and how is it different from staff augmentation?
A dedicated software development team is autonomous and delivers value as a team, as opposed to individual contributors. It is self-managing and includes support from a dedicated project manager and/or Scrum Master. The team composition seeks to provide the customer with an end-to-end product, with roles ranging from software engineers to test engineers to UX designers. This is beneficial if your goal is to minimize the overhead in your management team.
3. What advantages are there to a dedicated software development team versus extending my existing team with staff augmentation?
The primary advantage is that the team collectively takes on the responsibility for delivering the project, which reduces your management and technical overhead. With staff augmentation, the client is responsible for day-to-day task assignments and progress reports, and it requires more management and overseeing.
With a dedicated software development team, the project manager and/or Scrum Master work directly with the client to remove team roadblocks and ensure the team is functioning efficiently. The team also acquires knowledge and experience by collaborating in a way that adds increasing value over time. Finally, they allow a client to scale their capacity much faster by removing management bottlenecks and arriving at an optimum span of control for teams.
4. Is a dedicated software development team a Scrum team?
Yes, that is a great way to think about a dedicated software development team. The team management is based on Agile/Scrum. While it can be adapted to other methodologies, the core philosophy is based on an autonomous team that provides constant value with continuous validation of results.
It’s worth noting that BairesDev can provide end-to-end software development from inception to delivery. with this approach. We’ll work collaboratively on defining and prioritizing the backlog of features.
5. What roles do you offer?
BairesDev provides a comprehensive range of roles to cater to our client’s tech needs. This includes, but is not limited to, project managers, software engineers, DevOps engineers, business analysts, database administrators, UI/UX designers, and functional and automation testing experts.
6. How quickly can I see a candidate? How soon can you put together a team of 5? 10? 20?
Depending on the requirements, candidates will be provided in around 72–96 hours. Upon your approval, you can expect an average of approximately 2 weeks to get the first few engineers on the project. After that, you can expect a rate of 3–5 new team members weekly, if you need to add more. Of course, in case of an urgency, we could speed up the process, but this is a standard estimation for most projects.
7. How many years of experience do your engineers have?
You’ll notice that BairesDev’s structure is like an inverted pyramid, where 75–80% of our engineers are senior engineers. For us, senior engineers are those with 8+ years of experience, with an average of 10 to 12 years, and the rest are mid-level, with 5 to 7 years of experience. We rarely hire junior engineers, unless there is a specific request.
Interested in scaling your software development efforts? Learn more about our software development services. We’re ready to help.
8. Is BairesDev a recruiting agency?
No, we’re not. While our recruiting capabilities are one of our strongest competitive advantages, and even when we’re the leading company in LATAM in terms of annual received applications, we specialize in creating software and building IT teams for our clients. Our engineers are all full-time professionals.
9. Where are you geographically located?
While our global headquarters is in San Francisco, California, BairesDev was founded as a remote company and has professionals in every country in LATAM and in over 50 countries globally. Our largest teammate footprints are in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina, respectively. While we mainly have commercial/management offices in the US and Europe, we also have on-site engineers in both locations; hence, we offer an on-site model as well as a hybrid model.
10. Is it possible to have the team working together in an office and not spread out across Latin America?
Yes, of course. That’s a common preference among our clients. They can choose between co-located teams and distributed teams. In essence, a co-located team benefits from face-to-face interaction but would limit the talent to a specific city. Sometimes, a mix of a core team in our offices and some rockstar engineers in other locations is the best approach.
While a co-located team might simplify coordination, a distributed team benefits from a vast talent pool, creating a team of high-performing individuals where talent isn’t bound by geography. The limited face-to-face interaction is overcome with daily video conferences. Our project management methodology helps reduce communication gaps to zero. Either way, we can adapt to what you prefer.
11. Do you offer project-based engagements?
Yes, we work with project-based bids when the requirements are clearly defined. If requirements are not clearly defined, it’s best to work with an Agile approach in the dedicated teams model, where our project manager works side-by-side with your product owner. They will define and prioritize the backlog and set milestones and deliverables. This would allow you to interact with the team and modify or add features or requirements without the hassle of a change request document.
12. Who oversees the work done by your engineers?
When working with the staff augmentation model, you retain the management of the project. It means that our engineers are an extension of your own team, using your methodology and management tools under your direction. BairesDev’s Client Services department will assign a project manager at no extra cost. The project manager does not manage task assignment; they help remove roadblocks and ensure our engineers’ performance.
When working with a dedicated software development team, our project manager will be fully dedicated to the project and team, minimizing management overhead on your side. They will assign tasks, make sure all deadlines are met, and report details and progress to you and your team on a daily or weekly basis, depending on your preference.
13. What type of attrition/turnover rates do you have?
This is actually something we pride ourselves on at BairesDev. In the US, the standard turnover for technology professionals is 13.2%. While concrete figures for Software Engineers alone aren’t available, it is estimated to be between 20 and 40%. In our case, although there is work to be done, our turnover remains in the single digits, which is below of what you’ll find elsewhere. Our clients particularly appreciate this because they often face challenges in retaining talent.
14. Are your professionals already a part of your staff? What is the size of your bench?
Unlike a recruiting or placement agency, all our engineers are full-time professionals of BairesDev. Nonetheless, due to our continuous growth these past years, our current bench is relatively small, so you’ll get some engineers who are already BairesDev professionals and some that we bring from the market.
However, our recruitment and hiring processes are not only very standardized, which guarantees the same results for new hires, but they are also fast, which means you won’t have to wait even if we’re bringing on board someone from the market. We evaluate all of our hundreds of thousands of yearly applicants regardless of whether we have an immediate opening for them. The reason why we do this is to have the fastest onboarding process in the industry when recruiting a professional.
15. What is your benefit compared to a cheaper resource in India or Asia?
The main competitive advantage of BairesDev is our Top 1% hiring, which nobody else has. This is simply something that cannot be easily matched and something that provides much better cost-effectiveness. While we might be higher on cost versus India, or slightly higher than Eastern Europe, you end up requiring fewer engineers to achieve the same goals, ultimately saving money.
There are other factors like location. Having most of our engineers located in Latin America is a great advantage. Not just because that makes us more efficient, as we can ask the right question at the right time and interact in real-time, but also because it makes You more efficient too. You probably know the challenge of coordinating across time zones, having video calls at 4 a.m. or midnight just to answer a simple question. It may seem trivial, but being able to solve problems and interact in real time could be the difference between the success or failure of a project. All of our engineers are fluent in English, which means you hold Scrum ceremonies and have video calls seamlessly throughout the day.
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