Hiring a dedicated development team in another country can give you experienced engineers faster than local hiring. It works best when you treat the team as part of your company rather than as an outside supplier. This checklist covers the decisions that matter most.
1. Decide what the team needs to do
Start with outcomes, not headcount. Write down what you need delivered in the next six months, then work back to the roles: for example, two web developers, one QA engineer and a part-time designer. A vendor should help you refine this, but you will get better advice if you arrive with a clear goal.
2. Choose between a dedicated team and an end-to-end project
A dedicated team works on your backlog under your direction. It suits companies with a product owner and an existing development process.
An end-to-end project hands the whole delivery to the vendor, with their project manager accountable for the result. It suits companies without an in-house technical team, or those with a well-defined project.
3. Check the vendor, not just the developers
Ask for:
- How long they have worked with clients abroad, and in which countries
- Examples of similar projects, and whether you can speak to a past client
- How they hire, train and keep developers
- What happens if a team member leaves
4. Interview the people who will join your team
You should meet and approve each developer. Ask them to walk through a past project, explain a technical decision they made, and review a short piece of code together.
5. Agree on working hours early
India Standard Time is 4.5 to 5.5 hours ahead of the UK and 9.5 to 10.5 hours ahead of the US East Coast, depending on daylight saving time. Agree on a shared window for standups and reviews before the team starts. At Dotqode, our working day runs from 9 am to midnight IST, which gives clients in the US, UK, Europe and Australia live time with the team.
6. Get the contract details right
Make sure the contract covers:
- Ownership of source code and intellectual property
- Confidentiality, with an NDA signed before you share detailed plans
- Notice periods for scaling the team up or down
- Billing, payment terms and currency
7. Plan the first two weeks
Give the team access to your tools on day one: code repository, issue tracker, chat and documentation. Assign a small, real task in the first week so they can learn your codebase and processes. Hold a short retrospective at the end of week two to fix anything that is not working.
Want to talk it through?
If you are considering a dedicated team, book a discovery call and we will help you work out the right team shape for your goals.
