Staff Augmentation has been a widely used approach to overcome short-term resource crunch and to acquire specialized skills. Use of these services enables management to keep a lower constant headcount - converting fixed cost to variable cost.

Traditionally, staff Augmentation processes have been informal and ad-hoc. Over the last few years, processes for staff augmentation have become more formalized and are being viewed as critical resource. Streamlined processes help reduce indirect administration cost and also provide better process management capability.

Unlike other procured goods and services, it is difficult to manage price/performance of these IT services. The cost of resources tends to vary considerably based on the supplier and the process used to procure the resource. While it may be have a number of competing vendors to drive down the cost, the cost of managing quality and administration of a large number of vendors can become exorbitant. It is there for important to implement a process that provides a good balance of competition and manageability.