Extend
Dedicated Teams
Engineers embedded in your team, on your board, in your standups — for when you need capacity rather than a project.
This is a different arrangement from the rest of this page, and it suits a different problem. You are not outsourcing an outcome; you are adding people who work the way your team works and report the way your team reports.
It is the right model when you have more work than capacity and a clear sense of direction, and the wrong one when the direction itself is the problem. Adding engineers to an unclear project makes it slower, not faster — you have simply increased the number of people who need the answer nobody has. If that is the situation, a short scoping engagement will serve you better and cost less.
We staff for fit over availability. That sometimes means telling you we do not have the right person this month, which is a worse sales tactic and a better working relationship. The alternative — putting forward whoever is on the bench — is how staff augmentation earned its reputation.
Embedded means embedded: your board, your standups, your code review standards, your definition of done. We are not running a parallel process and reporting into yours. The engineers you meet in the interview are the engineers who do the work, and they stay on the engagement rather than rotating.
Engagements run monthly, with a notice period rather than a lock-in. If the arrangement stops earning its cost, ending it should not require a negotiation.
What is included
- Engineers you interview and approve before they start
- Working in your tools, your repository, your process
- Participation in your ceremonies and code review
- Direct communication with your team, not through an account manager
- Overlap with your working hours, agreed up front
- Continuity — the same people, not a rotating pool
- Documented handover if and when the engagement ends
What we do not do
- Bodies on a bench presented as a team
- Rotating staff without your agreement
- Annual lock-ins with penalty clauses
- Engagements where nobody on your side has time to set direction
How the work runs
- 01
Define the gap
What the work is, what skills it needs, and how you will judge whether it is going well. If we think capacity is not your real constraint, we will say so here.
- 02
Interview and agree
You meet the engineers and decide. No placement without your approval, and no substitution afterwards without your agreement.
- 03
Integrate properly
First week is onboarding into your codebase and conventions, not billable output. Skipping it costs more later.
- 04
Review the arrangement
A regular, honest conversation about whether the engagement is still worth its cost — including the possibility that it is not.
Capabilities
- Dedicated development teams
- Staff augmentation
- Technical leadership and architecture review
- Code review and mentoring
- Handover and knowledge transfer
- Time-zone-aligned collaboration
- Specialist short-term engagements
- Team scaling during peak periods
Questions we get asked
What is the minimum engagement?
One month, with a notice period after that. We do not ask for annual commitments — if the arrangement is working you will want to continue it, and if it is not, a contract should not be what keeps it alive.
Do we choose the engineers?
Yes. You interview candidates and approve them before they start, and we do not substitute people afterwards without your agreement. Continuity is most of the value in this model; a rotating pool is just a more expensive way to lose context.
How does this differ from hiring directly?
It is faster to start and faster to stop, which is worth paying for when the need is uncertain or time-boxed. Direct hiring is usually better value for a permanent, well-understood role. If that is your situation we will say so — it is a shorter engagement for us and the right answer for you.
What about time zones?
We agree an overlap window with your team up front and staff accordingly. Some work suits asynchronous collaboration and needs very little overlap; anything involving live debugging or design discussion needs several hours a day. Which one you need is worth deciding before the engagement rather than during it.
Who manages the work?
You do. The engineers work to your priorities and your definition of done. We handle employment, holiday cover and the pastoral side, and we will flag it privately if we think the direction is going wrong — but the backlog is yours.
What happens to knowledge when the engagement ends?
It stays with you, by design. Work is documented as it happens rather than in a handover scramble, and the closing weeks include an explicit transfer to whoever is picking it up. An engagement that ends with your team unable to continue has failed, regardless of what was shipped.