Engagement models.

What the different ways of buying software capacity actually commit you to, who carries the delivery risk in each one, and which suits a roadmap.

Choosing a staff augmentation agency? Compare all three options first Comparing a staff augmentation agency against a marketplace or a managed delivery partner? Here is what each model actually gives you, and what it costs. Read it → IT staff augmentation services, without the management landing on you Comparing IT staff augmentation services? See what a managed delivery team gives you instead: accountability for output, continuity, and one fixed monthly fee. Read it → Offshore staffing and managed software delivery are not the same purchase Offshore staffing supplies people you manage. Managed software delivery supplies the work and the accountability. Here is how the two models compare. Read it → Offshoring vs outsourcing, and why they are not the same decision Offshoring vs outsourcing are two different decisions, not two words for the same one. One is about where, the other about who is accountable. Read it → Outstaffing vs offshore staffing, or the same thing in two accents Outstaffing and offshore staffing describe nearly the same arrangement. Here is what separates them, and where a managed service differs from both. Read it → Staff augmentation vs managed services, and the one question that separates them Staff augmentation vs managed services comes down to one question. Who answers for the work when it is late? Here is how the two models differ in practice. Read it → What an offshore development center is, and who actually runs it An offshore development center is a dedicated team abroad, usually client-managed. Here is how the ODC model works and how it differs from managed delivery. Read it → What staff augmentation means, and when it stops working Staff augmentation means bringing in people you manage yourself. What it involves, when it works, when it does not, and what the alternative looks like. Read it →

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Engagement models decide who answers for the work, not where it happens.

Choosing how to buy software capacity.

Most comparisons between engagement models are written by providers who sell one of them. These are written by a provider who sells one of them too, so the useful thing we can offer is precision about what each model actually commits you to rather than a verdict about which is best.

The models differ on one axis more than any other: who is accountable when the work is late. Under staff augmentation the answer is you, because you are buying access to a person's time and directing it yourself. Under a managed service the answer is the provider, because you are buying delivery of the work. Rate cards, contract length and location are all downstream of that.

That distinction is also why the same arrangement carries several names. Offshore staffing, outstaffing and body leasing describe broadly one commercial model in different markets, and an offshore development centre can be run either way depending on who supplies the management. The posts below take each one in turn and say plainly which it is.

If you already know you want delivery accountability on the provider's side, the mechanics of how that is run day to day sit with the service delivery manager rather than in any of these comparisons.

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