Full-time employees vs contractors: what's the right team combination?
Structuring your engineering team
Getting the organisational structure wrong including the ration of full-time employees (FTEs) can have a dire long-term impact on a companies culture and productivity. Here are some of the adverse affects:
Lack of commitment: Contractors may not have the same level of commitment to the company and its goals as full-time employees.
Lack of continuity: Temporary teams wont be around for as long as full-time employees, leading to a lack of continuity and knowledge retention.
Lack of team cohesion: Contractors may not have the same sense of belonging and camaraderie as FTEs, negatively impacting team collaboration.
Difficulty in building trust: Not having the same level of access to the company's inner workings can lead to difficulty building trust and creating a strong working relationships.
Higher Turnover: The nature of contractors being temporary drives a reduced sense of long-term commitment to the company and its goals can lead to a high turnover of staff.
So what roles are most suitable for permanent staff:
Team leads typically require a long-term commitment to the organization and the ability to build and maintain relationships with other teams and stakeholders.
Core development team members working on the organization's most important products and services, and require a deep understanding of the organization's codebase and development processes.
Architects and senior developers required a higher level of expertise and experience, and who are typically involved in making strategic decisions that can have a significant impact on the organization's products and services.
Quality assurance: Despite being outsourced the most, these positions require deep knowledge of the product, and the ability to find defects and ensure that the product meets the requirements.
Product managers: These positions require a deep understanding of the customer needs, the market and the organization's goals, and the ability to make strategic decisions about the product's features and direction.
On the other hand, some positions that are typically better suited for contractors include:
Specialized skills: Positions that require specialized skills that may not be needed on a full-time basis, such as a specific programming language or technology, may be better suited for contractors who can bring in that specific skill set for a specific period of time.
Peak workloads: Roles that are needed to handle peak workloads, such as during a product launch or a busy season and who can be brought in on a temporary basis to handle the increased workload.
Non-core functions: Teams that are not directly related to the organization's core products and services, such as administrative or support functions, are better suited for temp roles.
Some sources to consider:
The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback by Dan Olsen - practical guidance on how to build and deliver successful products, including how to prfioritize features, validate ideas, and manage risk.
Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth by Ash Maurya - How to scale a startup and measure its progress, including how to set goals, track metrics, and make data-driven decisions.
Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation by Jez Humble and David Farley - An In-depth look at the practices and tools that can be used to implement continuous delivery and improve software delivery speed and quality.
The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford - A fictionalized account of an organization's transformation to a DevOps culture, including the challenges and opportunities that arise along the way.