Most In-demand Skills for IT Staff Augmentation

Staff augmentation has seen significant growth in recent years, turning into a robust business strategy. It’s an efficient and affordable option for companies in need of high-quality talent quickly.

For staff augmentation to work beneficially with the in-house team, outsourced developers should not only have firm software development expertise, but soft skills to withhold a collaborative environment.

In this article, we’ll talk about the skills that are desirable from an outsourced development team.

1. Programming languages and frameworks

Developers are often judged and assessed on their proficiency with certain programming languages and frameworks, but most developers learn a new technology at least once a year.

In software development, like many career paths, demonstrable transferable skills are more valuable than a list of proficiencies.

Still, there are skills and frameworks which are in high demand, and that will prove valuable on any developer's resume.

Python has quickly risen up in the skills ranks in the past decade. This programming language is very popular with data scientists and is now the third most in-demand skill.

On the container side, research from Indeed shows that demand for Docker skills continues to rise.

Over the past few years, developers have seen the rise of the so-called 'full-stack' developer, meaning software engineers with enough skill sets to handle both the front and back end coding required to build and run applications.

According to HackerRank's 2020 Developer Skills Report hiring managers at companies of all sizes "agree that full-stack developers are top priority," with 38% of them saying it was the number one role for them to fill in 2020.

Anyone looking to become a full-stack developer will need to have proficiency with both front-end languages, combined with back-end languages and frameworks like Node.js, Python, Ruby, and Java, with some Git, database, and web or mobile application skills.

2. Soft skills

Soft skills should never be underestimated, these are interpersonal skills without which a team cannot function well.

Software development is a team project and communication plays an important role, so interpersonal abilities should never be underestimated.

We at sophilabs are an Agile software development company, so every teammate lays equal participation and responsibility for the project’s success, therefore communication is important for us.

When you hire staff augmentation services, it’s expected that your outsourced staff should be accountable for their actions because that’s the sign of a mature and responsible software developer.

Communication

Communication skills are of utmost importance. Verbal and written communication come into play every day at the workplace. In software development, communication is crucial.

Verbal communication is something that comes more naturally to certain people, while others struggle with it, but, for instance, a project manager, should be able to talk to the team, and more importantly, to listen to what they have to say.

Written communication is not always the best choice, since some things are better verbally communicated for clarity and tone. However, written summaries often serve as great supplemental elements and may support employee’s desired results.

Empathy

While developers might spend a lot of their time writing code, they are also interacting with other people.

The best developers will try and understand their customers or colleagues since it will enable them to do their job much better.

As a skill, empathy involves scanning data and analyzing it for essential information that lets you understand and identify others’ thoughts and feelings. This data is observational: how people respond to feedback, the ways they work, and what type of personality they have.

Empathy is a fundamental construct of relationship building that can be learned and enhanced.

Adaptability

Software development is not easy and more often than not includes long processes. From the kick-off, through execution, testing, deployment … and things happen.

A developer that started working 10 years ago, likely was using the waterfall software development model, then Agile happened. People had to change their mindsets and adapt. Some were more successful in those efforts, while others struggled.

Being adaptable and open to change may not always be easy, but it’s definitely a skill that can be cultivated and improved.