Software development is a team-based endeavor because of the complexity involved in launching a new system.  Gone are the days when one developer can be point on the whole back-office software stack.  It now takes multiple specialized roles to (appropriately) fulfill the software delivery lifecycle.  A typical software project requires:

1. Leadership
2. Product management
3. Project management
4. Multiple engineering roles such as architecture, UI/UX, APIs, programming, and database
5. DevOps
6. Security oversight

– and this is just a partial list.

Certainly, multiple roles can be filled by one person.  However, ALL the roles should not be filled by one person.  Especially ­­if you plan to pass a SOX compliance audit.  Or if you plan to let the software developer go on a vacation.

Over the course of 13 years, we have found that most small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) cannot hire multiple team members to fill the necessary roles.  IT hires are hard to make, hard to manage, and are expensive.  

A potential solution is a fractional team. A fractional team has the breadth and depth to perform each role, on a part time basis, for a fraction of the cost.  This approach works on many levels, here are two to think about.  On a practical level – unless the project is massive, those roles will not require full time equivalents (FTEs) to staff the project.  On a financial level – Volano has the ability to cover all the bases for the price of one FTE; sometimes less.

Volano is predicting that fractional teams will become common for SMBs in the near term.

Contact us if you would like to learn more!