Dedicated Development Teams from Poland and Portugal, Including Teams for Banks

ITDS Nearshore · Updated 23 September 2026

A dedicated development team is your team with our payroll. You decide what it builds and in which order. We make sure the right people are in it, stay in it and are replaced quickly if someone leaves. It is also why a dedicated team is often the next step for companies that start with IT staff augmentation and nearshore software development from Poland and Portugal.

Sources: ITDS IT Talent Trends 2026 (first two figures); ITDS client records.

What does a dedicated development team mean at ITDS?

At ITDS, a dedicated development team means engineers who work only on your product, full time, for as long as the engagement runs. You own the backlog, the priorities and the product decisions. We own the people side: contracts, retention, development and replacement, so the team stays whole when individuals change.

• Composition is agreed with you and changes as the product changes.
• Ownership of code and documentation is yours from the first commit.
• Management of priorities sits with you, while people management sits with us.

The difference from staff augmentation is continuity. An augmented engineer fills a seat in your team, whereas a dedicated team is designed as a unit, with roles that cover each other, shared knowledge of the product and one point of contact at ITDS for everything about its people.

What does a dedicated development team look like? Shapes of 3, 5 and 8

Most teams start in one of three shapes, then grow or shift as the work changes. The shapes below are illustrative starting points rather than fixed packages. In practice, the roles depend on your stack and on what you already have in-house.

Shapes also change over the life of a product. For instance, a team often starts with more backend engineers while the architecture is built, then adds QA and DevOps as releases become frequent. Because we manage the people side, adding or swapping a role does not mean starting a new contract.

How do you hire dedicated developers through ITDS?

To hire dedicated developers through ITDS, you describe the product and the team you need, and we build that team in stages. You interview every engineer, because a dedicated team only works if you would have hired these people yourself.

1. Describe the team. We agree the shape, the stack, the seniority mix and the security requirements.
2. Tech lead first. We shortlist the most senior role first, so the lead can help select the rest.
3. Interviews on your side. You meet and choose each engineer; we handle contracts and equipment meanwhile.
4. Staged start. Engineers join in small groups, which keeps onboarding manageable.
5. Regular reviews. We review the team with you and adjust its shape as the product changes.

How fast does the team ramp up?

The first engineers of a dedicated development team usually start within a few weeks. On average, 20 days pass between the start of sourcing and an engineer integrated in a client's team, and we plan for a full team in about 60 days. Larger teams are therefore built in stages, with the tech lead first, so that later hires join an established way of working.

A staged start also protects quality. Instead of onboarding eight people in one week, you onboard two or three, fix what the first week reveals, and then add the rest. It also gives your own team time to adjust, because code review load, planning and documentation all change when new people arrive, and they change more calmly when those people arrive in waves.

Who manages a dedicated development team day to day?

You manage the work and ITDS manages the people. In practice, your product owner or engineering manager sets priorities, runs planning and accepts the work, while we handle everything that keeps the team whole: contracts, retention conversations, development plans, holidays and replacements.

This split matters more than it seems. A dedicated team that nobody on your side directs drifts, and a team that you also have to employ is simply hiring by another name. Therefore we agree before the start who on your side owns the backlog and who on ours owns the team's health.

Dedicated IT teams for banks: what do banks need that others don't?

Dedicated IT teams for banks work under stricter rules than teams elsewhere. A bank must show its supervisors that it controls its technology suppliers, and in the EU the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) has applied since 17 January 2025, including requirements on ICT third-party risk. As a result, a bank's partner has to fit into that control framework from day one.

ITDS works mostly in financial services. For example, we placed 50 cybersecurity engineers inside HSBC's security organisation, and a two-person team has delivered asset finance software for Alpha Systems for eight years. We supply people who already work inside these controls, while your compliance function stays the owner of the framework itself.

How do we handle compliance, audit trails and background checks?

We handle compliance controls by fitting into the client's framework rather than bringing our own. Before the first engineer starts, we agree with your security and compliance teams how people are screened, how access is granted and logged, and which records your auditors will need.

• Screening: background checks to the bank's own standard before anyone gets access.
• Access control: bank-issued devices, least-privilege access and full logging where the bank requires it.
• Continuity: named replacements and documented knowledge, so the service survives a resignation.
• Audit support: the records a bank's auditors ask for, such as who had access, when and why.

To be clear about the boundary: ITDS supplies and manages the people, while your compliance function owns the framework itself. We do not provide legal or compliance advice. For an example of this work under DORA, read how ITDS acted as a DORA implementation partner for a European bank.

What should a bank ask before choosing a dedicated IT team?

A bank should ask a dedicated IT team provider how it will pass the bank's own audit, not whether it is compliant in general. The questions below turn a vague assurance into evidence you can check before signing.

1. Which banks have you staffed in the last two years, and in which functions?
2. How do you screen engineers, and can you meet our own screening standard?
3. How will access be granted, logged and removed on our systems?
4. What records can you give our auditors about who worked on what?
5. What happens to our service if a key engineer resigns?

In our case, the answers draw on work such as 50 cybersecurity engineers at HSBC, eight years of asset finance delivery for Alpha Systems and CreditPlus, a German retail bank that ITDS engineers helped build from scratch.

Case: HSBC cybersecurity engineers and Alpha Systems asset finance

Two engagements show the two ends of the dedicated model. At HSBC, ITDS placed 50 cybersecurity engineers inside the bank's own security organisation, which is scale under a bank's controls. At Alpha Systems, a two-person team has delivered asset finance software for eight years, which is continuity in a niche where knowledge takes years to build.

Both cases answer the question banks ask first, namely whether a partner can work inside their controls and stay long enough to matter. Similarly, CreditPlus shows the build-and-run version: a German retail bank that ITDS engineers helped build from scratch.

What is included in the price of a dedicated development team?

The price of a dedicated development team is a monthly fee per engineer, and it covers more than salaries. Understanding what sits inside the fee makes quotes from different vendors comparable.

• The engineers' pay, contracts and statutory employment costs.
• Recruitment, screening and replacement when someone leaves.
• Equipment, access and security checks.
• Account management and regular reviews of the team with you.

We quote per team once we know the shape and the security requirements, because those two factors move the number more than anything else.

When does a dedicated team beat staff augmentation?

A dedicated team beats staff augmentation when you need continuity more than individual skills. If you expect the work to run for twelve months or longer, need several roles to work together, or cannot afford to lose knowledge when one person leaves, build a team. If you need one or two specific people inside an existing team, staff augmentation is simpler.

A dedicated team is your team with our payroll.

Many clients use both models at once. They keep a dedicated team on the core product and add augmented specialists for short peaks, such as a security review or a data migration. Since both run under ITDS, the specialists join an existing way of working rather than a new supplier's.

Dedicated development team in 2027: the short version

Here are the four points that decide whether this model works for you. Check them honestly before you ask any vendor for a quote, because each one changes the shape and the price of the team.

1. The work should last a year or more, otherwise augmentation is cheaper.
2. You keep the backlog and the product decisions; the vendor keeps the team whole.
3. Build in stages: tech lead first, then the rest.
4. Banks should agree screening, access and audit support before the first engineer starts.

Dedicated development team: frequently asked questions