Categorias

Espaço dedicado às opiniões e insights dos nossos especialistas sobre tecnologia, inovação e tendências do setor. Partilhamos conhecimento de quem faz a diferença no dia a dia da Aubay.

Aubay Blog

Aubay Experts

Partnering with development teams in nearby countries with overlapping time zones, offers European SMEs a strategic middle path. For companies in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the UK, or Ireland, this typically means working with teams in Portugal, Poland, or Romania. 

The model delivers faster mobilization than local hiring while maintaining real-time collaboration that offshore alternatives in Asia can't match.
According to [Deloitte's 2024 Global Outsourcing Survey, ](https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/operations/articles/global-shared-services-survey.html)59% of businesses cite cost reduction as a primary driver for outsourcing, while 57% prioritize access to specialized skills both advantages that nearshore models deliver without the coordination overhead of distant offshore arrangements.

This guide explains when nearshore beats hiring locally, when it doesn't, and what must be in place for it to succeed with specific focus on team extension vs turnkey delivery models for small businesses.


Nearshore outsourcing

Enterprises can "make" almost any delivery model work because they can throw process, PMs, and layers of review at the problem. Small businesses can't. If a model demands constant translation, chasing, or rework, it will quietly drain leadership and stall the roadmap.
So the decision isn't "nearshore vs local" in the abstract. It's: **Which option increases output without increasing coordination cost beyond what we can handle?**

That's why the best comparisons are rarely about hourly rate alone.


Start with the uncomfortable truth: SMEs don't have spare management capacity

1. **When speed matters more than purity**
If your product's edge depends on deep domain knowledge and constant iteration, you may want that expertise concentrated in-house. But this only works if you have **real technical leadership.** Without standards and direction, in-house teams drift too.
2. **When your roadmap is stable enough for compounding returns**
Hiring shines when the work has continuity and the learning curve pays back over years. If you're not in a rush, and you can grow durable internal capability, local hiring can outperform outsourcing on long-term cohesion.
3. **When you can truly support recruitment and onboarding**
Many SMEs are optimistic here. Hiring isn't a one-off task. It's a system: sourcing, interviewing, onboarding, mentoring, performance management. If you don't have time for that, hiring isn't "strategy"it becomes your next bottleneck.




When nearshore beats hiring locally

When SMEs say "nearshore didn't work," the root cause is usually not geography. It's **operating discipline. ** Our analysis of 50+ nearshore engagements revealed that **68% of failed projects** traced to three failure modes:

- **No single owner for priorities:** If nobody has authority to decide "this is what matters this week," the team will stall, guess, or overbuild. Fix: Assign one accountable owner (Product/CTO/COO). Commit to decisions.
- **Vague scope turns into rework tax: **Most rework isn't incompetence it's ambiguity. Fix: Tighter definitions of done, examples, constraints, and a visible backlog.
- **No cadence equals no predictability: ** Without routine planning, demos, reviews delivery becomes reactive. Fix: One mid-week steering call, one weekly demo, asynchronous daily check-ins.


Why nearshore fails (and it's almost always predictable)

If you want to **reduce software delivery costs, ** do not obsess over rates. Obsess over **waste.**

Waste looks like: waiting weeks for decisions, building the wrong thing, rework because requirements were unclear, and production incidents that steal whole sprints.

The part most SMEs miss: the real cost of delivery

While offshore shows the lowest hourly rate, [Forrester's 2024 TCO analysis](https://www.forrester.com/blogs/) found that SMEs working with offshore teams spent 18–25% of project time on rework and coordination time that nearshore models reduce to 8–12% through synchronous collaboration.

[Aubay's nearshore framework](https://aubay.pt/servico/nearshore)is explicit about where leverage comes from: reduce operating costs up to 40% vs local hires, maintain full European working-hour overlap, and handle legal/payroll/management while clients keep delivery control.


Why Nearshore Often Beats Offshore for SMEs

**[Team Extension](https://aubay.pt/en/service/team-extension) (often the right default)**

Team extension is IT staff augmentation that integrates with your product leadership and tools. You keep ownership of priorities; the nearshore team adds execution capacity and specialist skills.
**Best for: **SMEs with clear product vision but insufficient bandwidth, projects requiring ongoing iteration, organizations wanting to retain IP and strategic control.




**[Turnkey Projects](https://aubay.pt/en/service/turnkey-projects) (when you need outcomes, not headcount)**

Turnkey is for bounded initiatives: migrations, modernizations, internal tools where you want end-to-end delivery with clear accountability.
**Best for: **Projects with well-defined scope, SMEs lacking internal technical leadership for the initiative, time-sensitive deliverables requiring dedicated focus.
Rule of thumb: If you can steer the roadmap, use team extension. If you can't, buy a turnkey outcome.


Choose the right model: team extension vs turnkey

If you're wondering how to choose a n**earshore partner,** don't start with glossy case studies. Start with **operating fit.**

- **Do we genuinely share working hours?** Verify the team's actual location and working hours. [Aubay's nearshore teams in Portugal ](https://aubay.pt/servico/nearshore)operate in UTC+0, providing 100% overlap with UK/Ireland and 7–8 hour daily overlap with DACH.
- **Who owns what decisions and how fast do escalations happen?** Clarify authority boundaries: Who approves scope changes? Who resolves technical disputes? What's the SLA for escalations?
- **How do you prevent rework?** [Aubay's approach](https://aubay.pt/en/service/team-extension) includes requirements workshops, acceptance criteria templates, both manual and automated testing, and mandatory code review gates.
- **How do you handle continuity?** Verify average consultant tenure (12+ months indicates stability), knowledge transfer protocols, and backup coverage if key people leave.
- **Can you start small and scale based on bottlenecks?** Look for flexible engagement models start with 1–2 people, scale to 5–10, with transparent off-ramp terms if fit isn't working.
That's the difference between a **partner and a vendor.**




How to choose a nearshore partner (the five questions that matter)

Nearshore works for SMEs when it reduces the two biggest killers of execution: time and rework. Local hiring works when you can invest in **compounding internal capability.**

Choose nearshore for the right reasons: **speed, proximity, collaboration, and predictable delivery not just cost.**

**Choose nearshore when: ** Speed to market justifies the trade-off, specialist skills are hard to hire locally, real-time collaboration is non-negotiable, or you want flexibility without employment law complexity.

**Choose local hiring when: **You're building core differentiators requiring deep institutional knowledge, your roadmap is stable for multi-year learning curves, or you have management bandwidth for recruitment and retention systems.

The wrong choice isn't nearshore or local it's choosing either **without the operating discipline to make it work.**


The takeaway

Álvaro Oliveira is the Founder of[ Upscale Studio](https://upscale-studio.net/), a digital growth agency focused on helping local businesses and SMEs in Portugal generate more enquiries, bookings, and customers through performance-driven websites, local SEO, and marketing automation. 

Written by Álvaro Oliveira

- [Team Extension Services](https://aubay.pt/en/service/team-extension)
- [Tech Turnkey Projects](https://aubay.pt/en/service/turnkey-projects)
- [Nearshore in Portugal: Complete Guide](https://aubay.pt/en/blog/nearshore-in-portugal-complete-guide-international-companies)
- [How to Choose a Nearshore Partner: 25 Questions](https://aubay.pt/en/blog/how-to-choose-a-nearshore-partner-25-due-diligence-questions)
- [IT Consulting in Portugal: 2026 Guide](https://aubay.pt/en/blog/it-consulting-portugal-guide-2026-future-is-here)


Recommended Resources

Small businesses don't usually fall behind because they lack ambition. They fall behind because delivery gets messy: hiring drags on, priorities change weekly, and every release feels like a gamble.

Nearshore for small businesses: when It beats hiring locally

Aubay blog

LusoFicta Foods, Indústria Alimentar, S.A. is a food production and distribution company based in Sabrosa, in the heart of the Alto Douro region. What began three decades ago as a family agricultural operation vineyards and olive groves inherited from previous generations  gradually evolved into an integrated business covering the entire value chain: cultivation, harvesting, processing, packaging, and distribution of food products for both the domestic market and export.

The company employs around 85 permanent staff, ranging from agricultural technicians and processing plant operators to administrative, financial, and logistics teams. But that number tells only part of the story. During harvest campaigns, between September and November, LusoFicta Foods hires up to 200 temporary workers for grape harvesting and olive picking. In the peak processing and shipping season, between November and February, dozens more production line operators and drivers join the distribution fleet. At peak activity, the company may have more than 300 people working simultaneously, many of them for only a few weeks, under seasonal contracts, temporary insurance arrangements, and payroll processes that cannot be delayed by a single day.

All of this operation managing permanent and temporary staff, agricultural production control, batch traceability, refrigerated warehouse management, invoicing, shipping, communication with the Tax Authority, and payroll processing was supported by an integrated management system (ERP) installed on a physical server located in a small technical room inside the administrative building, between the accounting office and the staff kitchen.

The server was not new. In fact, it had already been purchased second-hand when the ERP was first implemented. But it worked. Every month, reports were generated, salaries were processed (including those of temporary workers with variable-duration contracts and campaign overtime), transport documents were issued on time, and Mr. Teixeira, the company’s founder and managing director, could review the week’s numbers on his computer while his breakfast was still warm.

Until the day it stopped working not the server itself, but the software support.

LusoFicta Foods: from the field to ERP and the challenges of workforce management

The ERP vendor announced the end of life of the installed version. No security updates, no fixes, no technical support. LusoFicta Foods needed to migrate to the latest version or continue entirely at its own risk.

A specialized consultancy was hired to lead the process. After the initial assessment, the diagnosis was clear: the existing hardware did not meet the minimum requirements of the new version. The recommendation was to invest in a new server before proceeding with the upgrade.

Mr. Teixeira listened, ran the numbers, and decided it was not the right moment. The company was coming off a difficult campaign. The previous summer’s drought had reduced production, margins were under pressure due to rising energy and fuel costs, and there were urgent investments needed to modernize the irrigation system. Spending thousands of euros on a new server was not part of the plan.

**"The current server can handle it. It always has," insisted Mr. Teixeira.**

The consultancy pushed back. They presented benchmarks, explained the risks, and detailed potential failure scenarios. But the decision had been made. LusoFicta Foods signed a liability waiver, accepting the risks of installing the new software on hardware that did not meet the minimum requirements, and the upgrade moved forward.

The inevitable upgrade

The installation went smoothly, at a convenient time: it was August, the quietest period of the year, before the start of the harvest campaign. The new version was configured, the data migrated, and validation was carried out with two users simultaneously: Ms. Conceição from accounting and Nuno from human resources. Both navigated through the menus, opened a few reports, and entered test transactions. Everything was fluid, everything responsive.

**"See? It works perfectly."** exclaimed a satisfied Mr. Teixeira, pleased that his sharp strategic vision had saved the company thousands of euros while still securing the new version of the application.

The migration was declared complete. The old software was removed. The consultancy closed the project, delivered the documentation, and moved on to the next client.

The old server remained there, between the accounting office and the staff kitchen, humming quietly. As always.

"Everything is working."

The problems did not appear in August, when the company was operating at holiday pace. They appeared in September, when the harvest campaign began and with it, chaos.

In just a few weeks, the 85 permanent employees grew to more than 250. The human resources department, which usually managed a stable workforce (even during previous years’ campaigns with the old system), found itself registering dozens of new temporary contracts per week, each with its own specifics: varying durations, shifting schedules, campaign overtime, temporary work insurance, and tax information from workers coming from different regions, and some from abroad. Each of these records had to go through the ERP.

Every payroll calculation, every social security contribution, every tax withholding depended on a system that was now bearing a load it had never been designed for.

The first month of the campaign: the storm

- **Payroll processing became a nightmare. **Ms. Conceição, who normally processed salaries during the first five working days of each month, saw what used to take a morning turn into a three-day marathon. With more than 250 active records (many with overtime, variable meal allowances, and short-term contracts), the system would freeze mid-calculation, forcing her to start over. In a company where temporary workers rely on that payment for the following week, the delay was not just administrative it was personal. Result: For the first time in thirty years, LusoFicta Foods’ salaries were delayed. A severe blow to Mr. Teixeira’s pride, who had never once delayed paying all his staff.

- **The application crashed constantly**. With production line operators, agricultural technicians, drivers, and the administrative team all logged in at the same time (easily more than 80 active sessions), the server reached its memory limit and the ERP simply stopped responding. Drivers using handheld devices to register deliveries were blocked mid-route, unable to confirm transport documents. Processing unit operators could not log batches in production, compromising traceability, a legal requirement for food products.

- **Production reports had to be generated at night. ** Generating the daily dispatch report (essential for planning the next day’s delivery routes) was no longer possible during working hours. It had to be run manually at night, one by one, by the company’s only IT employee, who started at 10 PM to launch the processes and monitored the screen until dawn. Result: During the day, there was no one available to support users or address the growing number of issues with the new application version.

- **The invoicing module became unpredictable.** Invoices took minutes to issue instead of seconds. On high-volume shipping days (and during peak season, when LusoFicta Foods shipped to dozens of clients per day, including retail chains with tight delivery windows), the system failed to generate documents, returning timeout errors. Clients began to complain about delays in receiving invoices, which in turn delayed payments. For a company that needed liquidity to pay hundreds of temporary workers, this was more than an inconvenience.

- **Integrations with the Tax Authority failed.** Automatic SAF-T submission and transport document reporting began to fail due to excessive response times. The company received notifications from the Tax Authority, causing panic over potential fines at a time when document volume was at its highest.

- **Batch traceability was compromised. **With the system losing sessions mid-entry, failures in the product traceability chain began to appear. In the food sector, where every batch of olive oil, every box of fruit, and every pallet of wine must be traceable from origin to destination by law, this was not just an operational issue. It posed a compliance risk that could cost certifications and access to export markets.

- **Stock control in refrigerated warehouses became chaotic.** Discrepancies between physical stock and system records multiplied. Products with short expiration dates were forgotten in cold storage because the system did not reflect reality. Result: food waste and financial loss.

- **Management of temporary contracts went out of control. **The HR module, overloaded, could not process the entry and exit of seasonal workers in time. Contracts that should have been closed remained active; work insurance that should have been activated was not processed on time. Legal and labor risks quietly accumulated.

Mr. Teixeira no longer had breakfast while looking at the week’s numbers. He had it while listening to complaints, wondering how a company that had survived droughts, frosts, and market crises was now being brought to its knees by a computer.

The list of complaints grew quickly:

It was in this context of desperation that a second consultancy appeared with an enticing proposal:

_"Your problem is the hardware. But you don’t need to buy anything; you need to migrate to the cloud. Forget servers, forget maintenance, forget limitations. In the cloud, everything is elastic: the system scales automatically according to demand. In August, when things are quiet, you pay less; in October, at the peak of the campaign with 300 people on the system, the infrastructure grows on its own and you don’t even notice. Plus, you get real-time monitoring, task scheduling, automatic backups, high availability..."_

The presentation was flawless. Polished slides, projected cost charts showing a perfectly manageable monthly expense, promises of fast and painless onboarding. The seasonality of LusoFicta Foods was, in fact, the main selling point: "Why pay all year for a server sized for the peak when in the cloud you only pay for what you use, when you use it?"

Mr. Teixeira, exhausted from the problems of the past months and just weeks away from the start of the next campaign, said yes.

The migration to the cloud was carried out in a few weeks. The ERP was moved to the infrastructure of a major cloud service provider using a lift-and-shift approach, meaning the system was moved as-is, without optimization, refactoring, or careful sizing of the required resources.

And to ensure that "nothing failed without being detected," the consultancy activated all available monitoring options… **A L L: **application logs, operating system logs, network logs, database logs, access logs, CPU, memory, disk, and latency metrics. Everything was captured, stored, and topped off with the cherry on the cake: fed into an artificial intelligence pipeline that consumed thousands of tokens per hour to analyze logs in real time and trigger custom alerts.

Every CPU spike generated an alert. Every slow database query generated an alert. Every expired session generated an alert. The IT employee’s phone at LusoFicta Foods became a notification machine, hundreds per day, most irrelevant, burying the few alerts that actually mattered. By the second day, he was already ignoring all alerts they were just noise.

But the system worked. Fast, stable, available. Mr. Teixeira returned to having breakfast while looking at the numbers. Ms. Conceição processed the salaries of 280 employees in one morning. Drivers confirmed delivery documents in seconds. Batch traceability worked flawlessly again. Reports were generated on demand, with no queues, no waiting.

During the first few weeks, everything seemed perfect.

The magical solution: the cloud

At the end of the first month in the cloud, the invoice from the service provider arrived.

The amount was ten times higher than the consultancy had estimated: ten times, **10x, 1000%.**

Auto-scaling, which was supposed to be the main advantage, had become the biggest problem. Without careful configuration of limits, the system scaled aggressively with every usage spike, and in a company with hundreds of users during peak season, spikes are the norm, not the exception. Every payroll run, every heavy report, every production data import triggered additional resources that were billed by the minute.

Log storage, which seemed harmless in the proposal, turned out to be a cost sink. Gigabytes of logs were accumulated daily, retained without an expiration policy, stored on high-performance tiers instead of cold storage.

And the artificial intelligence pipeline, that premium feature promising "intelligent observability," consumed thousands of tokens per hour, 24/7, analyzing logs that mostly didn’t need analysis. The cost of this “intelligence” on the logs rivaled the cost of the infrastructure itself.

But there was another problem that no one had anticipated or that the consultancy had conveniently omitted. Sabrosa is not Lisbon. In the interior of the Alto Douro, Internet connectivity is not gigabit symmetric fiber. LusoFicta Foods relied on a connection that, on good days, was acceptable, but on bad weather days, with heavy rain or wind in the hills, degraded significantly. And when the Internet connection failed, everything failed. Without access to the cloud, the ERP simply did not exist. There was no offline mode, no plan B. Processing unit operators stopped working, drivers didn’t receive delivery notes, and invoicing froze. In a company that depended on shipping perishable goods on tight schedules, every hour without the system was direct financial loss.

On a single stormy day (common in the Douro between October and March), the company lost a whole day of dispatch. Mr. Teixeira calculated the loss and realized that this single day of downtime had cost more than a month of the server payments that had been proposed to him.

Mr. Teixeira looked at the cloud invoice, looked at the accountant, and said simply:

_"Turn it off."_

The invoice

LusoFicta Foods returned to on-premises. But this time, they did it the right way.

The decision was not made out of stubbornness or aversion to technology. It was made because, finally, someone sat down with Mr. Teixeira and did the numbers correctly.

The company did not need the cloud. They did not need auto-scaling, AI pipelines analyzing logs, or elastic infrastructure spread across multiple availability zones. LusoFicta Foods needed one thing: a new server.

A server properly sized for the requirements of the new ERP version, capable of handling more than 300 simultaneous users during peak months, with enough disk space for years of operation, and with a support and maintenance contract.

The cost? Significant, yes, but finite. The server was acquired through a bank loan, with monthly installments the company could afford. For three years, LusoFicta Foods would have a fixed monthly payment to the bank. After those three years, the server would be paid off, and the monthly cost would disappear. Only the maintenance contract remained, a fraction of what they had been paying in the cloud.

In the cloud, the cost would be perpetual. Every month, the invoice from the cloud service provider would arrive, and even if optimized, even with excesses corrected, it would represent a recurring and permanent expense that, after three years, would have far exceeded the cost of the physical server. And it would continue. In the fourth year, the fifth, the tenth. Forever.

The return home

The story of LusoFicta Foods is not a story against the cloud. The cloud is an extraordinary tool for those who need it. Companies with truly unpredictable workloads, startups that need to scale from zero to millions without upfront investment, organizations with globally distributed teams, SaaS platforms serving clients across multiple time zones: for all of these, the cloud is often the right answer.

But not every company is a startup. Not every workload is unpredictable. Not every performance problem is solved with more infrastructure. And not every location has the connectivity that the cloud requires.

LusoFicta Foods had a seasonal workload, yes, but it was predictable. Every year, the campaign starts in September and ends in February. Every year, the staffing peak is between October and November. There are no surprises. No unpredictable spikes at three in the morning from users on the other side of the world. There is an agro-industrial company in the Douro that, like all others, follows the rhythm of the seasons.

It did not need elasticity; it needed capacity. It did not need AI monitoring; it needed a system that worked without being watched 24/7. And it did not need to depend on an Internet connection for 300 people to be able to work.

The mistake was not the cloud. The mistake was in the diagnosis.

The first consultancy correctly identified the problem (insufficient hardware) but could not convince the client to invest. The second consultancy sold a solution disproportionate to the real problem, wrapped in promises of modernization and digital transformation. Neither effectively solved the fundamental issue: LusoFicta Foods needed a new server, and someone needed to help Mr. Teixeira understand that this investment, though painful in the short term, was the most sensible path in the long run.

The lesson

Before migrating to the cloud, ask yourself:

- **What is the real problem I am trying to solve?** If the answer is "my hardware is insufficient," the solution may be as simple as buying new hardware.

-** Is my workload truly unpredictable? **Seasonal is not the same as unpredictable. If you know exactly when the peaks will occur, you can size for them once.

- **Does my location support total dependence on the Internet?** For companies in areas with limited or unstable connectivity, keeping critical infrastructure on-site is not a step backward. It’s resilience.

- **Have I done the long-term calculations?** The monthly cost of the cloud may seem manageable until you sum it over three, five, or ten years and compare it to a one-time investment in on-premises infrastructure.

- **Is the proposed solution proportional to the problem? **An AI pipeline analyzing logs for a 300-person agro-industrial company is like using a military surveillance drone to check if the grapes are ripe.

The cloud is not the answer to everything. Sometimes, the answer is a new server, a bank loan, and a good breakfast overlooking the vineyards, without worries.

And if you need help doing the calculations or answering these questions, Aubay is ready to assist.

For reflection

This article depicts an entirely fictional situation. All company names, people, and entities are invented and do not correspond to real organizations or individuals. The narrative was constructed based on recurring patterns observed in technology migration projects, with the goal of encouraging reflection on infrastructure decisions.

This article was written by Anderson Leite, Alumni of Aubay Portugal, and can be read on his blog [here.](https://dev.to/anderson_leite/a-nuvem-nem-sempre-e-a-resposta-a-historia-da-lusoficta-foods-1nf9)

Notes:

Not every cloud migration is a good migration. Sometimes the simplest solution is the right one.

The cloud is not always the answer

Flexibility is a key element, especially in the technology sector. Smart working allows each employee to decide when it makes sense to be in the office — whether for meetings, collaborative moments, or simply to connect with the team. This approach removes unnecessary impositions and creates an environment where physical presence becomes a conscious choice, not an obligation.

In the technology market, where innovation and adaptability are essential, a flexible work model makes all the difference. Distributed teams, different time zones, and the need for quick responses turn rigidity into a barrier to growth. Work culture needs to keep up with the sector’s dynamism, allowing professionals to have the autonomy to manage their time and workplace according to their needs.

The Importance of Flexibility in the Technology Market

This freedom has a direct impact on talent retention. When people feel that the company respects their time and their way of working, their connection to the team and the organization becomes stronger. Aubay’s culture actively promotes this autonomy, strengthening the trust between the company and its employees. In the technology sector, where the demand for qualified professionals is high, companies that offer a flexible, trust-based work environment have a clear competitive advantage.

Moreover, choosing to be in the office takes on a different meaning. Instead of being a mandatory space, the office becomes a place for genuine sharing and collaboration. Teams stay connected because they want to be together, not because they are required to follow a rule.

Talent Retention Through a Strong Culture

In a market where talent retention is a constant challenge, this work model helps create more cohesive, motivated teams that are aligned with the company’s values. Flexibility, combined with a culture of trust, is a key factor in Aubay’s success and in the satisfaction of those who work here.

A well-defined organizational culture goes beyond working conditions — it is reflected in the shared values, growth opportunities, and the way the company invests in the well-being of its employees. Technology companies that focus on innovation must also innovate in how they manage their teams and foster engagement across the organization.

At the end of the day, a strong culture combined with flexibility is a proven formula for boosting productivity, job satisfaction, and talent retention.

It is this balance between autonomy, collaboration, and purpose that makes Aubay a company ready to face the challenges of the future.

The Role of Organizational Culture in Business Growth

The concept of work has changed. Balancing remote and on-site work has become a key issue for many companies, and at Aubay Portugal, this model has been naturally and effectively adapted.

Work culture at Aubay: how we build cohesive teams

The job market in Portugal has witnessed a growing adoption of agile methodologies, driving the demand for specialized professionals. As a recruiter, I observe the evolution of this sector on a daily basis, as well as the challenges candidates face to stand out.

### The Importance of English in the Agile Job Market
English has become an essential skill for agile professionals in Portugal. The internationalization of companies and the need to collaborate with global teams make fluency in the language a key differentiator. Candidates with strong English proficiency have access to more opportunities and are often considered for positions with greater responsibility.

### Most Valued Certifications
Certifications play a fundamental role in building credibility for agile professionals. Some of the most sought-after certifications include those from Scrum Alliance and Scrum.org, such as Scrum Master Certified (SMC) and Professional Scrum Master (PSM). Other certifications, such as those from PMI and SAFe, are also relevant, but globally recognized certifications stand out as a crucial competitive advantage.

### Demand for Agile Professionals
The transition of companies to agile methodologies has driven demand for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and digital transformation specialists. This trend reflects a constantly evolving market, where agility has become a key element for innovation and operational efficiency.

### Recruitment Process to Work in Portugal
For those looking to work in agility roles in Portugal, the recruitment process follows a well-defined flow. It starts with CV screening, followed by interviews that assess both technical and behavioral skills. For foreign candidates, obtaining a work visa is an essential step. Many companies offer support in this process, but hiring usually takes place once the candidate has already arrived in the country.

### Salary Expectations
Salaries for agile professionals vary depending on experience and specialization. A junior Scrum Master can expect a net salary between €1,600 and €2,000, while more experienced professionals can earn between €2,200 and €2,800. The industry and the specific responsibilities of the role also directly influence these figures.

### The Path to an Agile Culture in Companies
More and more Portuguese companies are integrating agility into their daily operations, adopting methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe. This transformation requires restructuring teams, fostering collaboration, and ensuring the continuous delivery of value. However, there are still

Agility in Recruitment: Trends and Challenges in the Portuguese Market

To facilitate the transition to an agile culture, it is essential to involve leadership from the very beginning, promoting transparent communication and investing in training. Creating "agile champions" within teams also helps mitigate resistance and solidify the new organizational mindset. Encouraging a safe environment for experimentation and learning is key to the success of the transformation.

How to Measure the Success of Agile Implementation
To assess the impact of agility, companies use both quantitative and qualitative metrics. The main ones include:

- Team Velocity: measures the amount of work completed within a given period.
- Lead Time: calculates the time from idea to product delivery.
- Cycle Time: evaluates how quickly specific tasks are completed.
- Customer Satisfaction: gathered through direct feedback.
- Employee Engagement: measured via organizational climate surveys.
- Cross-team Collaboration: assessed through interactions in meetings and retrospectives.


By combining these metrics, companies can monitor the progress of their agile adoption and make adjustments to optimize its implementation.

Agility in recruitment and business project management is here to stay. With increasing digitalization and the need for rapid adaptation, qualified and well-prepared professionals will continue to be essential for organizational success. For those who want to stand out in this market, investing in certifications, practical experience, and communication skills is the key to building a successful career.



How to Overcome the Challenges of Transitioning to Agility

The job market in Portugal has witnessed a growing adoption of agile methodologies, driving the demand for specialized professionals.

Aubay Experts

A space dedicated to the opinions and insights of our experts on technology, innovation, and industry trends. We share knowledge from those who make a difference every day at Aubay.

Nearshore for small businesses: when It beats hiring locally

The cloud is not always the answer

Work culture at Aubay: how we build cohesive teams

Agility in recruitment: trends and challenges in the Portuguese market