Bringing in reinforcements on a running project: what the hourly rate doesn't tell you
Four points to settle before bringing an outsider into a team. The first two concern lead time, the last two what remains afterwards.
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You're missing three months of capacity, not a permanent contract
A workload peak, a migration, a regulatory deadline: the need is real, bounded and dated.
A hire answers this with a commitment of several years, decided in a few interviews, in a market where profiles are scarce. Between the search, interviews, notice period and, for a foreign profile, the permit procedure, the person often arrives after the moment they were needed.
A reinforcement that takes a month to become useful isn't a reinforcement
On a running project, the key isn't knowing how to code: it's understanding why the code is the way it is.
A cheaper profile per hour that takes four weeks to produce something that can be integrated costs more than a pricier profile who delivers in one. The daily rate is the visible part of the price; ramp-up is the other part, and it's almost never quantified.
It can be prepared, and you should ask for it: reading the code, running the project locally, listing what isn't understood, before billing a single line.
The cheapest per hour is rarely the cheapest per project
The hourly rate is what's easiest to compare, so that's what the decision is based on.
What can't be compared: the time your team will spend explaining, reviewing, reworking.
A reinforcement whose code has to be rewritten after they leave hasn't saved anything: they've shifted the spending from one budget line to another, and from this year to the next.
A reinforcement who becomes indispensable has failed
When a single outside person is the only one who understands a system, you no longer have the option of parting ways with them.
It happens without bad intent: nobody documents under pressure, and handover is always planned "for the end". The result is the same: the day the engagement stops, the knowledge walks out the door with it.
So the exit is written at the start, and checked every month, not at the end of the contract:
- Are the access rights and accounts in your name from day one?
- Is the documentation progressing as the engagement goes on?
- Do your own developers review what's written?
Good reinforcement is recognised by one thing: the day they leave, nothing stops. Everything else (the rate, the duration, where they work from) is discussed afterwards.
Ce sujet touche à notre expertise Team reinforcement (staffing).
We start with a conversation, not a quote.
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