GlossaryWorking with a team
Terms for working with an outside team
Outsourcing, outstaffing and dedicated teams, how they are priced and contracted, how people are vetted and how daily work runs across time zones. Every term links to the service page or article where we cover it in depth.
Engagement models
Formats for getting work done by people outside the company, and how they compare.
- IT outsourcing
IT outsourcing is handing a project or a whole function, such as development, testing or support, to an outside company that takes responsibility for the result, the team and the way the work is organized. The client sets goals and accepts the work but does not manage individual developers. It fits when the scope is clear and the company does not want to build its own technical department.
- Outstaffing (staff augmentation)
Outstaffing is a model in which specialists employed by an outside company join the client's own team and work under the client's management, while the provider handles hiring, contracts, equipment, payroll and replacements. The client controls tasks and priorities; the provider is responsible for the people. Our outstaffed specialists cost $45 to $65 an hour, depending on seniority. It works best when someone on the client side can review code; otherwise a fractional CTO or a dedicated team is the safer choice.
- Dedicated team
A dedicated team is a stable group of specialists, such as developers, QA, a designer, a project manager and DevOps, assembled by a provider to work only on one client's product, month after month. Unlike outstaffing, the team comes with its own project manager and the provider runs how it works, while the client sets priorities. Our teams cost from $3,500 a month and are usually ready in two to four weeks.
- Turnkey project
A turnkey project is an engagement in which one team takes the work from the first conversation to a working product: research, design, development, testing and launch. The client deals with one project manager as the single contact instead of coordinating several contractors, and approves each stage before the next begins. It is usually priced as a fixed project for an agreed scope. In our projects stage approvals are recorded in a client portal, so decisions do not get lost in email.
- In-house team
An in-house team is a group of specialists employed directly by the company, on its payroll and under its management. It gives full control and keeps knowledge inside, but the cost goes well beyond salaries: in Seattle a senior developer costs $120,000 to $180,000 a year, a designer $90,000 to $130,000 and a project manager $80,000 to $110,000, plus 30 to 40% in overhead. A lean three-person team therefore runs $400,000 to $600,000 a year. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, wages are only about 70% of what employers spend per hour worked.
More: In-House vs Outsourcing in 2026: What Business Owners Actually Need to Know
- Hybrid model (in-house plus outsourced)
A hybrid model is a way of organizing work in which strategy, product decisions and ownership of the systems stay in-house, even if with a single person, while design, development and testing are outsourced. The internal owner is what makes it work: without someone inside who understands the system, every change goes back to the agency and simple updates slip from days to weeks. For many small and mid-sized companies it combines control with access to a full team.
More: In-House vs Outsourcing in 2026: What Business Owners Actually Need to Know
- Remote (distributed) development team
A remote development team is a team that builds and maintains software from other cities or countries, connected to the client through shared tools rather than a shared office. A well-run engagement feels like managing a remote employee: a pre-vetted shortlist, direct interviews, the team in the client's Slack, Jira and GitHub from day one, monthly reporting and ownership of the code set down in writing. Compared with hiring locally in Seattle or Bellevue, savings are typically 40 to 60%.
- Offshore development
Offshore development is software development by a team in another country, usually one with lower labor costs. Rates differ widely: US and Western European teams charge about $100 to $200 an hour, Eastern European ones about $35 to $75. The old framing of offshore as cheap and local as reliable matters less than deciding which functions to outsource and how the work is managed. One directory listing can hide a local agency, an offshore engineering company or a design studio that also builds, so it pays to ask who writes the code.
More: Why E-Commerce Development Quotes in Seattle Range From $25 to $300 an Hour
- Freelancer vs agency
Freelancer vs agency is the choice between hiring an individual contractor and a company with a team and processes. It depends on the budget, the number of channels or functions involved, the need for paid advertising, how critical the work is and how much management time the owner has. That time is a real cost: owners who manage freelancers directly spend 8 to 15 hours a week on coordination, a cost that never appears on an invoice. Agencies, in turn, often ask for minimum contracts of 6 to 12 months.
More: SMM Agency vs Freelancer: What's Better for a Small Business in 2026?
- Boutique agency
A boutique agency is a small team, usually two to five experienced people, in which the founders do the work themselves rather than handing it to juniors. It combines an agency's process and range of skills with the direct attention of a freelancer, without a layer of account managers between the client and the people doing the work. In social media marketing, for example, a boutique typically costs $800 to $3,500 a month, against $500 to $2,500 for a freelancer and $2,000 to $10,000 or more for a full-service agency.
More: SMM Agency vs Freelancer: What's Better for a Small Business in 2026?
- Subcontracting
Subcontracting is the practice of a contractor passing part of the work, such as development, design or testing, to another company or to freelancers. It is common and not wrong in itself, but the client should know about it: the people writing the code may not be the people who sold the project. Before signing, it is worth asking who writes the code, whether any part is subcontracted, and who owns and maintains the code, infrastructure and hosting after launch.
More: Why E-Commerce Development Quotes in Seattle Range From $25 to $300 an Hour
Pricing models and contracts
How team work is priced, paid for and protected by contract.
- Fixed price
A fixed-price contract is an agreement in which the scope, the total price and the timeline are set in writing before work begins, and the provider is responsible for delivering that scope for that price. It suits work that can be specified in advance. Changes in scope are discussed and agreed before they are done, not billed afterwards. Most of our projects are priced this way.
More: Prices
- Time and materials
Time and materials is a pricing model in which the client pays for the hours actually worked at agreed rates, plus direct costs such as licenses or hosting. It suits work whose scope cannot be fixed in advance: an evolving product, ongoing development, support or specialists joining the client's team. Because it is flexible, it needs regular reports and a budget cap. Our hourly rates are published on our pricing page.
More: Prices
- Hourly rate
An hourly rate is the price of one hour of a specialist's work, the basic unit of time-and-materials and outstaffing contracts. Rates vary widely: directories list Seattle e-commerce developers from $25 to $300 an hour, and the average US agency charges $100 to $149. A rate is only a unit price, though; total cost depends on how well the team understands the business, and a cheap team that misreads the catalog can cost more. Our outstaffing rates are $45 to $65, set by seniority, workload and niche skills, and include selection, contracts, HR, replacements and reports.
More: Why E-Commerce Development Quotes in Seattle Range From $25 to $300 an Hour
- Retainer
A retainer is a continuing monthly arrangement in which a client pays a set amount for ongoing development, maintenance, marketing or improvements instead of buying separate projects. It fits when a website or a system has become operating infrastructure that needs constant care rather than a one-off build. Long relationships are typical of the model: agencies working on retainers keep clients for about 56 months on average, against about 24 for project-based agencies.
- Maintenance SLA
A maintenance SLA, or service level agreement, is the part of a support contract that defines what the provider commits to: response and fix times by severity, what is monitored, how often backups run, what is included each month and how incidents are reported. It turns support from favors into obligations. In our maintenance plans, response times and monthly scope are agreed at the start; plans start from $1,000 a month.
- Warranty period
A warranty period is the time after launch during which the provider fixes defects in its own work at no extra cost. It covers errors in what was built, not new features or changes made by other developers or third-party add-ons.
- Milestone-based payment
Milestone-based payment is a payment schedule in which the client pays in stages, each tied to a milestone: a working version of the product that can be opened and checked. It links money to visible progress and gives both sides a natural point to review the scope before the next stage. Large products are usually split this way, with a separate estimate for each stage. Our web applications are paid in stages tied to milestones, while websites have a fixed price for an agreed scope.
- Paid trial period
A paid trial period is a short paid engagement, usually two to four weeks, before a long contract with a remote team or a specialist. Real work shows what a portfolio or an interview cannot: code quality, communication, speed and how the person handles unclear tasks. For both sides it is an inexpensive way to test fit before a larger commitment. When an outstaffed specialist is being hired, a short paid test task is one of the interview options.
- Specialist replacement
Specialist replacement is a provider's obligation to replace a team member who does not fit or leaves, and to organize the handover of current tasks to the newcomer. In outstaffing and dedicated teams it is part of what the client pays for, so the risk of losing a person sits with the provider rather than with the product. With us replacements are included in the hourly rate. On one long-running project two key developers left almost at once; work shifted to UX and interface tasks while new engineers got up to speed, and the client saw no break.
Hiring and vetting
How specialists are found, checked and brought into the work.
- Vetted talent pool
A vetted talent pool is a group of specialists a provider has already worked with and knows personally, as opposed to a bench of whoever happens to be free this week. Selection from such a pool is faster and less risky, because skills, reliability and communication have been seen in real projects. Ours works in steps: a role description (versions, packages, hours, seniority, shared working hours), screening, a shortlist of two to four, an interview with the client and the start. Our own portfolio projects were built by people from the same pool.
- Candidate shortlist
A candidate shortlist is the small set of pre-vetted candidates, usually two to four, that a provider presents for a role instead of a pile of resumes. Each has already passed technical screening, so the client spends time only on interviews that matter. A shortlist usually takes one to three weeks, and four to six for niche or very senior roles. The client interviews the candidates, and the final decision is always theirs.
- Technical screening
Technical screening is the checking of candidates' skills before the client meets them: a coding assessment, a conversation about architecture or system design and a check of spoken and written English. It filters out people who interview well but cannot do the work. An agency that sends resumes without its own assessment simply passes the hiring risk to the client, so how candidates are screened is one of the first questions to ask a provider.
- Seniority levels (middle, senior, lead)
Seniority levels (middle, senior, lead) are the grades that describe how much independent responsibility a developer can carry, and they are what mostly sets an hourly rate. A middle developer handles upkeep and features well in a codebase with clear rules and a reviewer. A senior or lead pays off faster when there are no tests, no documentation or a risky upgrade ahead, because the first month goes into understanding what is there. A lead also makes technical decisions and reviews the work of others.
- AI-assisted technical interview
An AI-assisted technical interview is a hiring format in which the candidate solves a simplified real problem with documentation and AI tools at hand, so the interviewer sees how they investigate, verify, debug and weigh trade-offs rather than what they remember. It tests the way developers actually work. A related format is the live pair interview: the candidate works beside a colleague on a real task and is judged on how they take a hint and whether they can say “I don't know, show me”.
More: How to Get Hired in 2026: The Job Interview Has Changed
- AI résumé screening
AI résumé screening is the automated filtering of job applications by software that ranks or rejects resumes before a person reads them. Its spread follows the volume: the share of US hiring managers using AI to screen resumes rose from 35% to 58% in a year, and a single developer vacancy can draw about 1,600 applications, with roughly 0.5% of applicants getting an offer. For candidates it means writing for the filter first; for employers, checking that the filter does not drop strong people.
More: How to Get Hired in 2026: The Job Interview Has Changed
- Developer onboarding
Developer onboarding is the process of bringing a new specialist into the work: contract and NDA, equipment, personal accounts with only the access the role needs, then the team chat, stand-ups and code review from the first day. Good onboarding decides how soon a new person contributes. On an undocumented codebase a developer may need a month or two to become fully productive; a short AGENTS.md file describing structure, rules and commands shortens that for people and AI tools alike.
Roles
Who does what when a client works with an outside team.
- Project manager (PM)
A project manager (PM) is the person who runs delivery: plans the work, allocates people and time, manages constraints and keeps communication flowing between the client and the team. In a dedicated team the PM runs the sprints while the client sets priorities; in a turnkey project the PM is the client's single contact for everything. Hiring one in-house is a significant cost: in Seattle a project manager earns about $80,000 to $110,000 a year.
- Tech lead
A tech lead is the engineer who leads a team's technical decisions, sets coding standards and reviews the code others write. The role matters most when outside developers join: outstaffed specialists work in the client's repository and sprints under the client's tech lead. Without anyone who can review code, a hired developer ends up deciding the architecture alone, and the company cannot judge whether those decisions are sound. A fractional CTO can fill that gap part time.
- Product owner
A product owner is the person on the client side who decides what the product does and in which order, and who accepts the work. With an outside team this role cannot be outsourced: when nobody decides, requirements drift and the budget goes into rework. A practical rule is to name one person who decides, freeze the clear part of the system and launch it, and record why each requirement changes. Broader product management also owns strategy, priorities and the roadmap.
More: Why Most AI Pilots Stall Before Production, and How to Get Yours Live
- Account manager
An account manager is the agency employee who handles the relationship with a client, passing requests to the specialists and reporting back. Large agencies route communication through account managers; boutique teams remove that layer, so the client talks to the people doing the work. Before signing, it is worth asking who actually works on the account and how many accounts they carry: in industry surveys 71% of agency staff report burnout.
More: SMM Agency vs Freelancer: What's Better for a Small Business in 2026?
Process and collaboration
How daily work runs across companies and time zones.
- Sprint
A sprint is a short, fixed cycle of planned work that ends in a result the client can check. Sprints break a large product into steps, make progress visible and give regular points to change priorities. Our web applications are built in short cycles on a closed test copy, with QA from the first sprint; outstaffed developers and testers simply join the client's existing sprints, tracker and release schedule.
- Daily stand-up
A daily stand-up is a short daily meeting where each team member says what they did, what they will do next and what is blocking them. In a distributed team it has to fit the shared working hours: for a client in Seattle and a developer in Kyiv, 8:00 in Seattle is 18:00 in Kyiv. That window is agreed when the role is defined, not after the first missed call.
- Definition of done
A definition of done is the agreed set of conditions a task must meet to count as finished, for example code reviewed, tests passing, changes deployed to a test copy and checked against the acceptance criteria. It removes arguments about whether something is ready and stops half-finished work from piling up. Every task given to an outside team should have one that can be checked without asking the developer.
- Asynchronous work
Asynchronous work is a way of working in which people do not need to be online at the same time: decisions are written down in the ticket or pull request rather than left in a call, and meetings end with a written summary. It is what makes teams across time zones efficient. Blocking questions are asked at the end of the developer's day so the answer is waiting by their morning, and a build deployed in the Seattle evening can be tested overnight.
- Time zone overlap
Time zone overlap is the number of working hours a client and a remote team share each day. Ukrainian and other Eastern European developers usually share 3 to 5 hours with Western Europe and 2 to 4 with the US East Coast. Kyiv is 10 hours ahead of Seattle (9 for a few weeks a year), so West Coast clients agree a short morning window. Without any overlap, a small decision can take several calendar days.
- Project handover
A project handover is the transfer of a product to the client or another team with everything needed to run and change it: code, deployment commands, server requirements, a rollback procedure and an AGENTS.md file, so anyone can continue without guessing. Passwords alone are not enough: a handover must also say where inquiries, order notifications, form submissions, error alerts and password resets go. When an outstaffing engagement ends, we hand over open tasks and known problems in writing and close the specialist's accounts the same day.
- Monthly reporting
Monthly reporting is a regular written account of the hours worked, the work done and how the engagement is going, sent to the client once a month. It gives control over spending in time-and-materials work without managing every task, and it makes problems visible early. Clear, predictable reporting is one of the marks of a well-run engagement. For outstaffed specialists and dedicated teams, monthly reports are included in our price.
- Compact AI-augmented team
A compact AI-augmented team is a small team of two or three strong specialists who use AI tools for work that once needed ten or fifteen people. The tools speed up writing code, tests and documentation, while architecture, review and responsibility stay with people. For small companies this changes the calculation of whether to hire a full staff. Our internal sales system was built in about a month by one senior developer, a tester and Claude, with an architect checking the work.
More: You Built an MVP With AI. Keep It, Fix It or Rebuild It?
Choosing a partner
How to compare contractors and spot the wrong one early.
- Agency selection criteria
Agency selection criteria are the questions a business uses to compare and choose a digital or development agency. Start with business goals, then look at relevant portfolio, specialization, process, communication across time zones and milestones, technology and who owns the code, accounts and data, judging value rather than price. A proposal is itself evidence of how well an agency understands the business, and good agencies do not recommend a technology at the first meeting. A strong partner also names its own mistakes and talks about margins and customer acquisition cost.
- Agency red flags
Agency red flags are warning signs that a contractor is likely to waste the budget. In marketing they include no audit, no named keywords and search volumes, reports of activity instead of outcomes, refusal to share tool access, promises of instant rankings, a suspiciously low quote, a long contract with no interim proof and no case studies. In development they include no technical screening of candidates, vague answers about time zones, unclear ownership of the code and no trial period.
More: How Long Does It Take to See Marketing Results? Why Agencies Promising Faster Are Lying to You
- Tender (request for proposals)
A tender, or request for proposals (RFP), is a competitive selection in which several contractors submit proposals for the same brief and the client compares them. It brings structure and comparable offers, but a tender driven mainly by price has a cost: pushing the price down takes money from discovery, architecture, testing and senior developers, and someone pays for that later. Comparing how each proposal understands the business is usually more telling than comparing the totals.
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Glossary
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