Project, dedicated team or managed service: how to choose

The same work can be bought three ways. The right one depends on how settled the scope is and who you want holding the outcome.

Project: when the scope is knowable

A project suits work with a definable end: a website build, a migration, a research piece, a system setup. You agree deliverables, a timeline and a price, and the risk of estimating sits with us.

It works badly where the scope is genuinely unclear, because every discovery becomes a change request and the relationship turns into a negotiation.

Dedicated team: when the work keeps coming

A dedicated team suits a steady flow of work whose exact shape changes week to week: ongoing development, continuous support, rolling campaigns. You direct the work, we provide and manage the people.

It is the right answer when you have the capacity to prioritise but not to recruit. It is the wrong answer if nobody on your side has time to direct the team, because utilisation drops and the cost stays.

Managed service: when you want the outcome, not the input

A managed service suits a whole function run to an agreed standard, measured on results rather than hours: a support desk, a reporting function, an operations process.

You give up day-to-day control of how the work is done in exchange for accountability for whether it is done. That trade only makes sense where the outcome can be measured, so the service levels matter more than the staffing.

How to decide in one pass

If you can write the deliverable in a sentence, run a project. If you can write the role but not the deliverable, take a dedicated team. If you can write the service level but care little about either, take a managed service.

Most clients start with a project, because it is the smallest commitment that proves the relationship, then move to a team or a service once the work becomes continuous.

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