Choosing the right software development company or a tech partner can be crucial at times. Startups, Enterprises and Large Corporates can no longer survive without modern and technological solutions. The development of high-quality custom software has become one of the keys to success in our modern times. Demand creates supply, we know. Thus, there are a number of small and large software development companies in the market that provide such customized services. And often times its difficult to make the choice to hire the tech partner for your project. Below is our guide on How to Choose a Software Development Company for your next big Project.
How to choose software development Company
This article is about how to find a reliable technical partner, how to choose the most suitable custom development company to achieve your business requirements. How to determine the reliability of a custom software development company and verify its quality and credibility.
Where to begin?
The First search for potential candidates is carried out through referral links (pieces of advice from your friends, colleagues, partners, acquaintances); and on the Internet (using relevant search queries such as: boutique software development company, custom software development agency, software development company).
Let’s Talk about How to organize the search and ranking of potential profiles: from fundamental market research and the selection of software companies that are suitable on general grounds to personal communication with each of them and also the technical analysis of these candidates.
Explore the company’s portfolio
Nothing says more about the company than testimonials of clients and examples of its work. Therefore, after listing the proper options, the first thing to do is to check their portfolios. This days all the information can be found in the public domain — on the company’s website. Spend sufficient time for this research and browse the completed projects. Let us review some of the crucial points you must focus on when exploring the company’s background.
- Identify the list of technologies this custom software company have experience and has worked with.
- Investigate the company’s experience with the kind of technology and custom software you want to release.
- Find out if the company has knowledge, expertise and practice in creating products specifically for a particular industry.
Moreover, you may also find projects that can be tried out (ready made applications, demo versions, websites, programs that are available on the market). Do your best to check the quality by yourself (usability, UI/UX design, validation, and so on). This will allow you to objectively assess the activities of the custom software development company and, hence, will bring you closer in taking the right decision.
Checkout the customer feedback and reviews
Figure out what the customers say about each software development company that you have listed out. This days, finding such information is not very difficult. Reviews of real people can be found directly on the software agency’s website, in search engines, on social media platforms, in specialized forums or platforms. You can trust the reviews and responses left if the full name, company, position, contact information and / or other data are indicated.
To get the best out of this research, try to contact the reviewers. Find their contact numbers or social media accounts. Thus, you can not only make sure that you get the first-hand information about the quality of the developed product, the cooperation procedure, and the professionalism of the software developers and the company. Rest be assured this days if people didn’t like something, they would be happy to tell you about this.
Also, if in future someone contacts you to ask about a company you have worked with, tell them the truth. This way you will help to improve the market with the average quality of services provided and also eliminate unreliable and dishonest software developers and custom software development companies.
Checkout the pricing policy
It’s obvious that with financial matters, first of all, you should proceed from your capabilities, but that’s not all. The price does not always correspond to the quality.
We advise to skip the cheapest options from your list right away, as you will most likely end up with a low quality product and experience. At least that is exactly what happens in practice. The most expensive options are also likely to be unnecessary for you, unless you are going to develop software for Microsoft or Apple. Such companies are always ready to overpay several times for maximum quality and maximum performance. But do you need it?
Study the stack of Technologies
This analysis very important and can certainly give no less than a check of works and cases. No software development company will hide its skills and expertise. As a standard practice, the site is full of data about the services and industries the company specializes in. By the way, we are talking not only about programming languages, frameworks, and databases, but also about technologies such as IOT, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality. Some custom software development company also provide information on the industry standards that they practice during the development of project.
In addition to this do not hesitate to inquire, which devices are used by the company’s developers. If they have only a couple of laptops at their disposal, then there is a high probability that you have stumbled upon intermediaries who will transfer your order to some freelancers. There should be a lot of equipment, and it should be of high quality, professional, and expensive (Mac books, iMacs, etc).
Match your goals and company specialization
It is very important to find not just a good software development company, but one whose direction matches your request and requirements. What does this mean? How your future software or application will work depends on the practice and skills of the software development company that builds it. Choosing the right technology partner is crucial to achieving your desired business goals.
Ask them about the availability of experienced software developers in a specific technology. It may be, for web or mobile application development, QA & testing, UX & Designing, or Dev-ops or machine learning development — whatever, depending on what fits your project requirements.
The direction of the custom software development company is not less important than its professionalism and approach. Always remember the technology partner or company you choose should certainly have the specialization that fits your business objectives.
Estimate the size
Choosing a company for your project by the size of the development company is primarily a confrontation between large and medium-sized ones. It is true that the plus point of large software development companies is their vast experience. They probably have completed many projects and with this they have also solved a lot of challenges.
However, medium-sized companies can be no less interesting. Such software companies benefit from more than just how they do business in general and how they approach customers .
Some of the advantages can be highlighted:
- proper and better allocation of resources,
- relatively less parallel projects,
- CEO’s personal attention for each customer,
- continuous and constant support,
- customer focus and loyalty, and willingness to consider almost any option for co-operation.
Therefore, keep this points in mind and approach the choice consciously and do not just give preference to a large custom software development company. Do compare all the pros and cons and only then make the decision.
Ask about testing
The developer may have many years of experience in similar projects but this does not guarantee the development of absolutely bug-free end product. Testing during development is a very important part of the entire process, this lets developers quickly find the errors and fix them. This way, your project will not only be finished on time, but it will also be error free after deployment resulting in quality end product.
Pay attention on Location
Even though, modern technology has erased time and space constraints, but sometimes the direct presence of software developers may be required for the real-time realization of your solution. This may indeed be necessary, but today’s opportunities clearly nullify any geographic restrictions.
In addition to this in many countries, software development costs much less, and the quality is also great. For example, Indian IT services are in high demand all over the world. They are known for the highly qualified and experienced professionals. Furthermore, the prices for their services will definitely impress you. India is among the top ranking in software development outsourcing.
Therefore, it is not worth discarding the software development company just because it is located in another part of the world. Situations are different but, this is not a hindrance, and the risk is justified.
The location does not affect either the promptness of the team’s responses or the speed of work, or the quality of the developed product. It doesn’t matter where you live, what language you speak, what time zone you are in. Fortunately, this days technology gives us the flexibility, one can easily spend time together due to transferring calls and meetings to the online format.
Browse the social media and blog
The way a company is presented on the Internet is one of the crucial factors of its reliability and expertise. That is why all companies work out their online presence to get the most out of digital marketing. But each have there on strategies and does it differently.
What should you pay attention to?
Corporate website and social media accounts, this would be enough.
Regular posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and especially on the official blog shows that the custom software development team has something to say. This could be reviews of current trends, analysis of practical cases, useful information or even educational content.
The main thing you should pay attention to is the quality of the content and the frequency of publications. And if the author of the articles is mentioned, this can be a plus to increase your trust in this development company.
One more crucial thing is the company culture. It can say a lot and is an important point in any partnerships, so it’s best to pick a team that has the same values and work culture similar to yours.
Choose the team that is sincerely inspired by your project or idea and has the same passion and vision of solving your challenge as you do, and realizes the value software should deliver to customers.
Still have any questions? Let us know. Our Experts are always happy to help!