Being a CTO means dealing with constant change. One quarter you need backend specialists, the next you’re searching for Kotlin developers. The talent market remains fiercely competitive. Building a complete in-house team to handle every requirement doesn’t work anymore.
The problem is that a fixed headcount creates two issues – either costs increase as you maintain staff you don’t currently need, or you lack access to crucial skills when projects require them. The solution is equally straightforward – maintain a small local team of senior developers and complement them with nearshore developers who can join or leave as projects demand.
This article examines three components of this approach: how to future-proof your development capability, why combining local and nearshore teams builds resilience, and what you need to know to make nearshore partnerships effective.
Building Team Resilience Through Flexible Staffing
The combination of a local team with nearshore extension works better than keeping all development in-house. Your local team handles product knowledge and quality control, while nearshore teams let you add or remove resources based on what your projects need.
This setup solves two problems. First, you’re not paying for developers during quiet periods. Second, you can get the skills you need when projects demand them – whether that’s React Native developers for three months or extra QA capacity. The small local team keeps your fixed costs down while nearshore extension gives you access to specialists without long-term commitments.
Future Proofing Development Operations
Future-proofing your development team means letting it adapt. Software projects shift their requirements constantly. You might need Kotlin developers for an Android port this quarter and backend developers next quarter. Or you might just need extra hands to get a major release out the door.
The solution is to build systems that support adding and removing team members. This means having the right DevOps pipelines in place so new developers can start contributing from day one. It also means using code review practices and remote collaboration tools that maintain quality standards as your team expands and contracts.
Building A Strong Local Core Team
Start with a small local team of senior developers. They’ll handle architecture, code reviews, and make sure everything stays on track. This keeps your fixed costs low while giving you control over architecture, code quality and technical direction.
This is different from the old way of building big in-house teams to handle everything. That approach costs too much and makes it hard to change focus. Your local team of senior developers work with nearshore partners to give you the mix of stability, continuity and flexibility you need. Instead of hiring a bunch of people you might need someday, you craft a core team that can guide a shifting team of dedicated remote developers.
A small, skilled local team makes sense as the core of your development strategy. It lets you adapt faster when the market shifts. It let’s you maintain continuity of institutional knowledge with a minimal headcount. And it keeps ownership of your architecture and planning under your own roof. Which is something you lose if you go with a fully out-sourced model.
Maximising Time Zone Advantages
Time zones matter when working with development teams. Nearshoring works because your extended team shares a large block of your local team’s working hours. Your Australian developers can run planning sessions with their nearshore colleagues, review code together, and fix technical issues in real time.
While you’ll still need to handle cultural differences, the shared working hours mean your team can make decisions and solve problems without waiting for someone to wake up on the other side of the world. This keeps development moving as you add or remove team members based on what your projects need.
Implementing A Successful Nearshore Strategy
Setting up this core + extension model means picking a nearshore partner that fits your needs. Skip past the sales pitch about capabilities and rates. Ask them to show you how they’ve helped other businesses scale their teams. Look at their track record with agile development and how long their developers stick around.
Don’t be afraid to ask direct questions about team turnover. A nearshore team with low rates but high turnover will cost you more in the long run than a stable team charging market rates.
Being close doesn’t make working together easy. Check how your potential partner handles the basics of remote development – their processes for standups, code reviews, and technical discussions. These tell you more about how well they’ll integrate with your team than their location does.
Look at how they get new developers ready to contribute. The best partners have clear onboarding processes and ways to maintain code quality as the team changes. They’ll show you exactly how they handle both the technical and cultural aspects of adding developers to your projects.
Making The Right Choice For Your Development Future
Future-proofing your development capability is about building the processes and structures that let you adapt quickly to the changing environment. The combination of a small, skilled local team with a nearshore extended development team gives you the best of both worlds: deep product knowledge and quality control from your core team, with the flexibility to scale up specialised skills exactly when you need them. This approach cuts fixed costs while ensuring you can respond to whatever technical challenges come your way.
If you’re facing the challenge of building development capability that can handle changing requirements without breaking the bank, it’s worth taking a serious look at the nearshore extension model. Start by assessing your current development needs and identifying which skills you need in your core team versus what could be handled through extension.
We’re always up for a chat about assembling teams for software development. If you want to talk strategy and head count – what you need now, what you’ll need in 3 months – get in touch.
