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Esta abordagem permite às empresas escalar rapidamente, aceder a talento especializado e manter flexibilidade nos projetos.

Aubay Blog

Team Extension

Strategic projects pile up, the backlog grows, deadlines approach, and often the instinctive response is “we need more developers.” The challenge is that hiring more people isn’t always the right solution, especially if it means increasing fixed costs without being sure the need is structural.

More than just “having more people,” many teams need flexible capacity. That is, a way to reinforce the development team when the business accelerates and scale down when the pressure eases, without constantly hitting the recruitment button or cutting into the internal structure. This is where a development team augmentation model, with a partner specialized in [ Team Extension and nearshore in Portugal ](https://www.aubay.pt/en/blog/next-it-team-lisbon-nearshore) like Aubay, can make a real difference.

When hiring more people doesn’t solve the backlog

Development team augmentation is not just “another open position.” It’s the ability to quickly increase and adjust team capacity with profiles aligned to your stack and context, without immediately adding more fixed structure to the organization.

In practice, instead of entering a recruitment cycle that can take months, you can work with a dedicated team that is already operational, with developers, QA, DevOps, or other profiles that complement what you already have in-house. The difference lies in flexibility: you can scale up and scale down according to the roadmap and business context.

What is development team augmentation and why it’s different from hiring more people

There are some clear signs that your team has reached the limit of healthy capacity.

The **first sign** is a chronically delayed backlog. This isn’t just a busier sprint—it’s a pattern: important features slipping month after month, roadmaps losing credibility, and frustrated business teams. When this happens repeatedly, there’s likely a mismatch between what the business demands and what the team can deliver.

The **second sign** is dependence on “heroes.” If there’s one or two people without whom “nothing moves,” operational risk is huge. Any absence, team change, or departure can block critical deliveries. Augmenting with a dedicated team helps distribute knowledge and reduce this dependency.

The **third sign **is seeing strategic projects stalled because the team is stuck in maintenance. If the people who should be building the future spend most of their time putting out fires in the present, the business loses momentum. Often it makes more sense to bring in additional capacity to absorb maintenance tasks or, conversely, to free up an internal core to focus on innovation.

The **fourth sign** is a lack of specific skills. Cloud, data, mobile, AI, test automation, or security are areas where it’s hard to hire and retain talent. Instead of opening more positions with no guarantee of success, it can be faster and safer to work with a partner who already has these skills in their project and team extension teams.

Finally, the **fifth sign** is the business growing faster than the IT team can keep up. New markets, more customers, new digital products—but the same team trying to handle everything. In these cases, temporary or ongoing development team augmentation can be the difference between seizing the opportunity or falling behind.

5 signs it’s time to augment your development team

It’s not always about “how to gain more capacity.” In many situations, the problem is the opposite: project peaks have passed, pressure has eased, but the cost structure remains. Internal teams expanded to handle a major transformation program or a specific launch can become oversized once that peak ends.

Here, the risk is being stuck with high fixed costs and having little room to invest in new initiatives. Scaling down internal teams is delicate, both from a human and reputational standpoint. A flexible team model, through a partner, offers a different approach: capacity can be scaled up when needed and scaled down when workload decreases, without repeated hiring and layoff cycles.

This doesn’t mean giving up the internal team. On the contrary, the goal is to protect the core that deeply understands the business, critical systems, and customers. External reinforcement serves to absorb fluctuations, not to replace the heart of the organization.

When it makes sense to scale down the development team (without losing talent)

The term scale up is often associated with startups, but it applies very concretely to development teams. It’s the ability to quickly increase the size and range of team skills when a new opportunity arises: a new product, a complex integration, or a cloud migration, for example.

Scale down is the opposite: reducing capacity in a controlled way when a major project ends or when the economic context calls for more caution. What sets companies that do this well apart is how they approach flexibility. If every team increase requires months of recruitment and every reduction involves lengthy, difficult processes, the company becomes slow.

Working with a partner that provides dedicated development teams turns these movements into simpler decisions. Instead of asking, “Can I hire these people in six months?” the question becomes, “Does it make sense to reinforce the team for the next six or twelve months to seize this opportunity?”

At Aubay, we see this scenario every day with companies that rely on teams in Lisbon to accelerate product roadmaps for a defined period and then adjust capacity while keeping a smaller core for continuous development.

How to scale up and scale down with a Team Extension partner

In a Team Extension model, the development team that reinforces your organization functions as a natural extension of your internal team. It’s not an “external vendor” that takes requests and delivers in silence. It’s a team that shares the same backlog, participates in the same agile ceremonies, uses the same tools, and works toward the same objectives.

As an organization, you retain control over the product, priorities, and technical decisions. You define what is important, in what order, and according to which criteria. Aubay takes on the responsibility of finding, integrating, and supporting the right profiles, ensuring stability, growth, and alignment with the way your team works.

The most visible benefit is the ability to stay focused on your core business. Technical and product leadership no longer lose time on endless recruitment processes or daily operational management of distributed teams. Instead, they can concentrate on strategy, product vision, and customer proximity, knowing there is a stable team on the other side ensuring execution.

The role of Aubay as a Team Extension partner

Before deciding whether to scale up or scale down your development team, it’s worth honestly answering a few simple questions:


- Is the backlog causing your business objectives to be compromised?
- Does your team have clear visibility of capacity over the next six to twelve months?
- Are senior developers being used on tasks that don’t generate enough value?
- Are critical skills concentrated in just a few people?
- Do you have room to adjust costs if the context changes in three to six months?
 


If you answered ** “yes”**  to more than one of these questions, it may be time to rethink how you size your team. Scaling up doesn’t have to mean hiring more internal staff, just as scaling down doesn’t have to mean losing talent. A flexible team model, with a specialized partner like Aubay, can give you exactly what you need: the ability to scale up and down at the pace of your business without losing focus on what matters most.

Quick checklist to decide whether to scale up or scale down your team

In a growing company, it is almost inevitable to reach a point where the development team can no longer keep up with everything.

Development team scaling: hire or downsize without losing focus on core business

Aubay blog

Your team might be excellent. But it can’t — and shouldn’t — do everything.

When unplanned initiatives arise, like spikes, exploratory tasks, or compliance demands, the ideal response isn’t to overload. It’s to reinforce with people who are already ready to contribute.

That’s where external support can help but only if it’s the right kind.

It's not always about capacity — often, it's about focus

At Aubay Portugal, we help teams like yours move faster and with less friction.

And we’re not talking about vague promises. 

We mean **tangible results**, like:

- Accessibility expert placed on a sensitive project in under 48 hours.
- On-site profiles recruited and accepted in Denmark — a market outside our usual scope — in just one week.
- Rapid ramp-up of a testing competence center, with suitable pricing and profiles delivered on time.

These cases show that the secret isn’t in having a big database — it’s in knowing how to activate it with focus, speed, and precision.

External profiles that don’t feel external

Our talent arrives validated, trained, and ready to adapt to your methodologies — whether Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or a custom mix.

We believe great external reinforcement:

- Onboards fast, without long learning curves.
- Communicates fluidly with internal teams.
- Delivers value without needing babysitting.

 

Frictionless integration. Even outside the core

Truth is, the success of any external collaboration also depends on how well your organization is set up to integrate it.
Things like clear onboarding, well-defined ownership, and structured communication make all the difference.

If you're considering this move, check out this [article](https://www.aubay.pt/en/blog/team-extension-how-to-prepare-your-company-for-specialized-consulting).

It’s a practical guide to avoid common mistakes and ensure your investment drives real results.

Preparing your organization to receive external consulting

Whether it’s unblocking a backlog, tackling an off-plan project, or temporarily reinforcing a critical area, external support can be a strategic lever — but only if it fits your technical, cultural, and operational context.

That’s why, at Aubay, we don’t just provide talent. We deliver teams that behave like an extension of yours. And that makes all the difference.

An extension of your team. Not just a one-off resource

You can’t plan for everything. But you can be ready to respond without losing momentum.

If your roadmap is growing faster than your team’s capacity, maybe it’s time to reinforce — with no friction, no complications, and real impact.

**Less noise. More delivery. We are the right extension of your team.**

Conclusion: when reinforcing means moving forward

If you lead products or projects, you know this scenario all too well. The plan is locked, the team is aligned, priorities are clear. Then, suddenly, something unexpected shows up:
An urgent project. A request from the board. A business opportunity with a tight deadline.

What do you do?
Do you try to squeeze it into the current team, knowing it will slow everything down? Or do you bring in external help, risking more time spent onboarding than delivering?

There’s a better alternative.

When the roadmap isn’t enough: how to strengthen teams without losing pace (or control)

Recruiting technical profiles today requires more than just identifying skills on a CV. It involves managing a range of variables that directly impact the success of the recruitment process:

1. **Speed:** A candidate’s decision can be made in less than 48 hours.
2. **Technical Fit:** The rapid evolution of technologies demands highly specialized professionals.
3. **Cultural Alignment:** Values and work style directly impact retention.
4. **Diversity:** Essential for innovation and team balance.
5. **Retention:** Increasingly challenging in a globalized market.

The **true challenge** isn't just “finding the best,” but building a recruitment system that operates with quality, predictability, and resilience.

The Complexity of Recruiting Technical Talent

At Aubay Portugal, our database is our greatest competitive advantage. It’s more than just a list of names; it’s a living ecosystem that reflects years of investment and intelligence. Through this database, we can scale quickly while ensuring quality in our hires.

**Key Indicators (2024):**
- **4,910** active technical profiles
- **7,345** interviews conducted
- **8,155** profile updates
- **11%** of our database comes from LinkedIn

With candidates from over 40 different nationalities, our database reflects the global reach of our recruitment strategy. Additionally, we perform quarterly check-ins with candidates to confirm their ongoing interest, in compliance with GDPR regulations.

The Database: The Key to Scaling Recruitment with Quality

Presenting a candidate in 48 hours is an achievable goal, but true agility lies in ensuring this is done with quality, context, and without compromising technical fit.

**How do we achieve this?**
- Our process is digital, but with consistent human contact.
- The CRM is central and automates interactions, records signals of interest, and alerts us to the best time to reach out.

**Real Example:** For the Beyond Gravity project, we built a team of over 100 technical professionals in record time, with the entire process being digital and remote. The use of tools like Monday.com allowed us to consolidate data in real-time, ensuring an agile and effective response.

Agility in Recruitment: Speed with Quality

Automating processes doesn’t just mean speeding things up—it means making better decisions. By leveraging historical data and candidate behavior, we can:

1. Avoid repeated contacts with unavailable profiles.
2. Predict interest spikes in specific technologies.
3. Anticipate candidate availability based on previous project timelines.
4. Suggest profile adjustments for clients based on real market feedback.

This approach results in less wasted time and a more efficient recruitment experience.

Data and Decisions: How Automation Enhances Recruitment Quality

Client trust is built through transparency. At Aubay, we follow a simple principle: always tell the truth, even when it’s not what the client expects to hear. This is reflected in:

1. Real data on the market and competition for specific profiles.
2. Acknowledging challenges and proposing concrete solutions.
3. Managing expectations from the outset.

By implementing this strategy, we ensure **faster processes** and more **reliable relationships** with our clients.

Transparency with Clients: Building Long-Term Relationships

The technical interview is a delicate moment—it can be an opportunity or a barrier, depending on how it’s conducted.

To make it effective, we follow three essential principles:

1. Candidate preparation: Provide clear information about the interviewer and what will be evaluated.
2. Pre-validation of skills: Where possible, we validate technical skills before the interview.
3. Involvement of internal tech leads to ensure the candidate has the necessary skills.

This approach reduces the time to hire and significantly increases the success rate of the process.

The Technical Interview: Validating Skills with Value

Talent retention is critical to ensuring the stability and continuity of our clients’ projects. At Aubay, we take a preventive approach, focusing on motivation and growth for our professionals:

1. Facilitating transitions between projects to avoid demotivation.
2. Dedicated technical support to anticipate risks and ensure satisfaction.
3. Trust-based environment to encourage retention.

Our retention practices include structured career plans, continuous training, and regular feedback, creating a positive work environment for all.

Mobility and Retention: Ensuring Team Stability and Project Continuity

A successful technical recruitment process is built not just with technology, but with smart processes and consistent human relationships. Aubay’s experience shows that it’s possible to recruit with scale, speed, and quality, without losing sight of the person behind each application.

In a market full of challenges, companies that combine transparency, automation, and strategic vision will be the ones that can build lasting relationships with talent and clients.

Conclusion: Recruitment Processes with Soul

In a market where the shortage of technical talent and the pressure for fast, high-quality deliveries are constant, recruitment has evolved from a support function to a strategic pillar. At Aubay Portugal, we've developed a proven recruitment model that allows us to scale teams effectively while maintaining quality and agility.

How to recruit technical talent in challenging times: Aubay Portugal’s strategy

The first step for a successful partnership is understanding the needs of your project. 

Ask yourself:

- **What is the main goal?**  
Launching a new product, scaling the team for increased demand, or modernizing internal systems?
- **What type of specialists will you need?**  
Developers, UX/UI designers, project managers, or data engineers? 
- **What is the project timeline and budget?**  
It's important to define a clear budget and understand the deadlines by which you expect to complete the project..  

By answering these questions, you will better structure your needs and ensure that the selected partner has the appropriate resources and experience.

Assess your needs

Setting a realistic and detailed budget is essential to avoid surprises throughout the project. In addition to consulting fees, consider other internal costs, such as the time invested by your team in integrating external consultants or acquiring specific tools and licenses.

Also, leave room for unforeseen circumstances. Projects of this nature often have last-minute adjustments, and a well-structured budget allows you to accommodate these changes without compromising the final outcome.

Financial planning

Choosing the right consulting partner is crucial for the success of the project. It is essential that the partner you choose is able to adapt to your company’s needs.

**Consider the following criteria when evaluating potential partners:**

- **Industry experience**: Does the partner have a proven track record of success in projects similar to yours?
- **Flexibility and adaptability**: Can the partner quickly adjust the team based on the project’s needs?
- **Work methodology**:  Is the partner familiar with methodologies like Agile, Scrum, or Kanban?
- **Ongoing support**: Is there post-project follow-up and support?
- **Cultural alignment**: Are the values and work styles of the partner in line with your company’s?

Choose the right partner

Once you’ve chosen the partner, the integration phase is critical. It is important to align expectations from the outset by clearly defining objectives, deadlines, and responsibilities for both parties. Make sure that all team members, both internal and external, are aligned.
 
Some points to consider to facilitate the integration: 

- **Collaboration tools**: Use platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Jira to keep the team aligned.
- **Regular meetings**: Achedule periodic meetings to track progress, identify challenges, and adjust the plan if necessary. 
- **Point of contact**: Designate a person responsible for bridging the internal team and the consultancy, ensuring clear and efficient communication.

Prepare the integration

The work doesn't end when the project is delivered.

The Team Extension model is an effective way to strengthen your team with specialized talent, offering flexibility and innovation capacity. To ensure a successful partnership, it’s important to assess project needs, plan the budget carefully, choose the right partner, and ensure good team integration. 

By following these steps, you'll have the foundation for a productive and successful collaboration.

Conclusion

As business challenges become more complex, the traditional hiring model may no longer be sufficient to address workload peaks or projects that require highly specialized skills. This is where the Team Extension model comes in. This approach allows companies to leverage their internal teams with external specialized talent, ensuring flexibility and access to specific skills without exceeding the budget.

However, for this collaboration to be truly efficient, careful preparation is essential. From defining objectives to selecting the ideal partner, each step has a direct impact on the project's success. This article highlights the key steps to implement the Team Extension model in a structured and productive way.

Team Extension

This approach allows companies to scale quickly, access specialized talent, and maintain flexibility in projects.

Development team scaling: hire or downsize without losing focus on core business

When the roadmap isn’t enough: how to strengthen teams without losing pace (or control)

How to recruit technical talent in challenging times: Aubay Portugal’s strategy

Team Extension: how to prepare your company for specialized consulting