Hyperspecialization in software development is one of the most tangible phenomena affecting IT team staffing processes these days. But what does it exactly mean, what are its causes, and how are the IT world’s leaders dealing with it, these are questions that aren’t simply answered.  

The aim of this article is to shed light on these aspects and explore alternatives to quickly find specific (and scarce) tech talent, and beat the challenge of tech hyperspecialization. 

Hyperspecialization. Why? 

When we talk about hyperspecialization, we’re particularly referring to the gradual process in which companies tend to require complex and emerging software engineering skills to integrate new technologies into their operations and keep pace with digital transformation. 

Added to this phenomenon, there’s a well-known generalized talent shortage for software developers, engineers, and other IT talents, that particularly affects those who specialize in cutting-edge technologies. While demand is growing non-stop, the number of qualified professionals is scarcely rising in comparison.  

As a result, bidding for these highly skilled, hyper-specialized talents has become much more difficult due to fierce competition in the tech job market.  

Before looking for the right solution, let’s see some of the main causes of this phenomenon. 

Business Needs 

As digital-driven business processes have become a key aspect of market competitiveness, companies are today under intense pressure toward innovation. Technologies that used to be just futuristic buzzwords are now a necessity: 

• Blockchain 
• Augmented reality (AR) 
• Cybersecurity innovations 
• Robotic process automation (RPA) 
• Artificial intelligence (AI) 

To put this into numbers, the AI market will be worth $190 billion by 2025, with over $57 billion expected to be spent globally on cognitive and AI systems in 2022. New jobs will be created in development, programming, testing, support, and maintenance, to mention a few, as AI spreads throughout industries. 

Also, a tremendous demand for trained workers is being generated by the deployment of machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence. By 2025, AI, machine learning, and automation are expected to provide 9% of all new jobs in the United States. These jobs will generate positions for robot monitors, data scientists, automation specialists, and content curators. 

These trends are equivalent in other innovative technologies as the above-mentioned. 

This situation is forcing its way onto the decision-makers’ agenda: according to Morgan Stanley’s report, cloud computing, security software, and digital transformation are the top three priorities for companies when investing in their team’s skills. 

Emerging Technologies 

Emerging technologies needed for innovation have one thing in common: they are particularly complex. As they integrate different processes and aspects of a business – such as user interfaces, databases, and management pipelines- their design and implementation imply a series of different programming languages and skills that would totally overflow one person’s capacity.  

Core business platforms already required a diverse pool of talents, but emerging technologies are deepening software’s complexity. New programming languages such as Kobra (Machine learning-oriented), or Bicep (Designed to consistently deploy Azure resources) are specially created with the aim of working with these emerging technologies and integrating their different solutions. And this language-generation trend is expected to grow in the following years.  

This comes to the point of BCG analysts forging the word hyperplex to define new architecture’s needs for a wide variety of different integrated elements, such as: 

• Devices 
• Software Apps 
• Interfaces 
• User Experiences  

Therefore, if a company wants to be at the forefront of innovation, it must be able to build a complex, highly skilled team to carry it out, which demands large-scale investment and efforts. 

Solution Trends 

However, this situation isn’t pushing IT leaders back, at all. It just provokes a new wave of struggle and discussion in pursuit of the best type of solutions.  

On the one hand, building an in-house team implies upskilling and reskilling in-house talents, which is undoubtedly needed in order to have a long-term development strategy. On the other hand, this isn’t enough, as it is already failing when it comes to fulfilling hyper-specialized roles. 

Mixed Systems 

The need for an in-house prepared team, plus the demand for complex, particular skills has as a result the obligatory nature of hybrid teams. Otherwise, putting up with all these resources would skyrocket companies’ costs.  

Upskilling  

The first part of the strategy for nowadays IT leaders, is focusing on an in-house team of generalists, who are capable of designing a broad roadmap and have a deep understanding of other team members’ needs, processes, and workflows.  

Outsourcing Specialists 

The second part, which is the particularly innovative one, consists of outsourcing highly skilled talents on-demand. This way, IT leaders are capable of building top-line teams and filling all the hyperspecialized roles they are looking for, without assigning their whole budget to upskill/reskill in-house employees and recruit new ones.  

All of the more than 100 software platforms and programming languages you can imagine can be covered by top outsourcing partners. Hiring a tech-specialized outsourcing company is the best way of locating professionals with particular knowledge and skills. At Inclusion Cloud, for example, we focus on vetting premium talent and guaranteeing certified specialists for each technology. You can find some of those specialists here.  

Delegating the team building to dedicated experts will allow you to focus exclusively on your business.  

In the end, however, the most probable scenario is that you’ll only need this kind of talent, a cloud architect for example, on a semi-regular basis. Most likely, these profiles are deeply needed for particular projects, which can be solved in a conclusive period of time. 

 

Bridging the specialties gap 

In conclusion, we can say that outsourcing is nowadays an efficient and effective way of overcoming tech hyperspecialization. Being open to alternative talent pools allows IT leaders to rapidly find top talented professionals that are in short supply.  

Need to scale up your teams with specific tech skills? Contact us, and go full speed ahead with highly specialized tech talents!