How to Choose the Best Software Development Company?

Summary: If you have planned to hire software developers to build tools for your business to improve customer experience, process optimization, and increase revenue, your next step is going to be the hardest one: How to choose the best software development company? But, if you are reading this article, this isn’t going to be the hardest anymore for you. This article brings you tips, suggestions, and even solutions, irrespective of your business problem. Let’s explore;

Tips for Hiring the Top Software Development Company: Introduction

With thousands of software development firms and millions of developers out there using the exact key phrases and buzzwords to show their skills, experiences, and expertise, it is extremely difficult to determine if a particular vendor is a right fit for the project.

We found many praises for the merit of outsourcing, hiring developers, or software development companies during our research, while others have sworn off due to bad experiences. One of the top reasons we found (why people fail to choose the right development software firm) is they are not aware of the factors that involve in selecting software companies, and that means they need to understand the factors that help them find the right company.

So, if your organization has made a decision to find the right development company for a project, then this article can be a good help. We shall introduce the factors and also explain how these factors help you find the top software development company.

Factors That Involve Selecting the Best Software Development Company

As the digital transformation is growing incessantly, businesses are looking to find the best software firm to build highly competitive software that not just helps them keep their businesses thriving but also gives them competitive advantages. Your software development partner will play a crucial role in making these things possible. And finding the right software development company is the first step.

To help narrow down your options, we have explained 10 criteria for choosing an ideal software development company that is the most important to help you with your initiatives.

#1: Research, Research, Research

Software development is an important task and significant investment. And the first critical step is selecting the vendor —a software development service provider. For that, you need to initiate intense research and find the right software development partner after ensuring you are making the right choice. Explore as many top software development companies as you can and do send RFPs (Request for Proposals) to any software company unless you are fully confident about your choice.

Meanwhile, you can also explore what you want as it will help you find the right partner. We have seen businesses requesting dozens of companies for proposals, but there’s nothing to show for them at the end of the day. So, in your research, make sure that you have gone through their websites, case studies, reviews, etc., before sending RFPs.

#2: Know Your Estimate

“How much will it cost to build a software, app or website?” It’s the first question most business owners ask a software development company. However, selecting a company based on the cost may lead you to compromise with the quality, and that means you might end up ignoring red flags. Upfront, you might save some bucks, but it will cost more time and money in the long run.

We don’t want to sound like being against inexpensiveness. What if you are presented with a quote listing a longer timeline and high cost while other offers to something lucrative —too good to be true, you should be better off with the former one.

Paying a closer look at every detail will help you decide on the perfect software development firm. A good agency always shares detailed descriptions about a product, such as a timeline, features, functionalities, tech stacks, project management tools and more.

Apart from these common things, you also need to see if the software development partner has any specific advice for your project. That means the estimate will have the approach, tech stacks with preferred choices, development phases, deliverables, milestones, and many others.

#3: Ensure the Vendor Aligns with Your Business Goals

Work with an experienced software development company that understands you. And, how will you determine that? When you connect with the technology partner, pay attention to the question they ask you. Do they ask questions related to your business objectives, goals, challenges, and risks? Usually, a good software development firms asks about businesses upfront. No doubt, technology-related questions are equally important, but they can be decided quickly when the vendor understands your business.

#4: Know Their Expertise —Probe It if You can

Every software development service providers claim to have worked with similar projects in the past. However, mostly they are not valid. How will you determine that? Pay attention to the question they ask you related to the potential hurdles and other options they see in your software project. Their questions, suggestion, and other things will depend on their experiences with similar work.

It could be the first red flag if they fail to do so. But how will you recognize them if they have the expertise or not? With no expertise, the software development company will act like a yes-man, agreeing with everything you say and telling you after sensing what you like to hear.  Undoubtedly, it’s an unfortunate step that most software development agencies take to pitch their services, and you need to be aware of it, or else it will lead to many unfulfilled promises.

Being a client, you may or may not be aware of software development process. Hence you need to look for a software development company who actively takes part in healthy discussions. It might create new challenges to your perspective, but you will have better ideas about the project, leading to a higher quality software application. Do not get hesitated to ask detailed questions, for example;

• Ask about their experiences
• Understand their perspective
• Know the logic behind their proposed approach
• Whether the vendor provides you a detailed explanation of the approach they propose

Remember, you may get advice from a software development firm to choose specific or different work structures, such as;

• Engagement models —fixed-cost versus time and material
• Splitting the work into different phases or specific release

There is nothing wrong with that, but make sure you get a detailed explanation of these suggestions, and their description will help you understand their expertise.

#5: Cost-Effectiveness

Why pay a local software developer or company $250/hr for software development when you can get the same thing done for $50/hr or even less? You can use the cost to build a software application with reach features and performance.

Obviously, software development is a considerable investment, and it will be difficult for small- and medium-sized firms or new-age startups to build on such investment. Everyone desires to save some bangs on their banks, but this causes many startups to end up partnering with a software development agency who provides compromised quality products. We explained it earlier in this article; you can refer “Know your Estimate” Para again for better clarity.

Whether you are a startup or enterprise, you must want to be cost-effective without losing the quality of your custom software project. You need a little homework to keep your expenditure under control. For example;

Prepare and understand the scope of your project

• Explore what will be the ultimate outcome
• Connect with your software development company and discuss the goals openly
• Make them comfortable to tell you the possible challenges
• Connect with your partners, friends, or competitors for genuine feedback
• Work on the feedback revise your project scope if you have any

Meanwhile, you can also make a list of leading software consulting service providers and compare the prices of services. You will get a better idea and distinguish between the best prices and the most to offer.

#6: Team Communication, Method, and Ability

Communication is not the top concern, but you must not overlook it. Communication will help you convey your message to the team and make them understand what you want with the project. At the same time, if you have a team with good communication skills, they will understand and align easily with your goals. Hence, here’s your checklist;

• Make sure the firm has a team with excellent communication skills
• They have robust and effective communication tools
• Availability of dedicated software development team to communicate
• A project manager is there for daily reporting
• They utilize practical project management tools so you can remain in the loop
• You have SPOC so you can reach the team without any communication barrier
• The provider is happy to set up calls and follow-ups during the software development process to find out the potentials obstacles to your business

If your software development service provider is from the same territory, you may not face many problems. Still, if you are connecting with companies from different regions, you need to ensure that the assigned team is well versed in communication.

#7: Company Size Does Matter

Based on your project, the size of the software development company will have a more significant impact on your project. A software development firm with a good number of expert software engineers, Team Leaders, Project managers, designers, QA, etc., may be good in terms of reputation. But, the services they offer may be sluggish. The issue may occur due to the adaptation of a new process to scale up the project development process.

A small remote software development company with a few skilled software developers can be dynamic and have an edge over large firms. In your case, choose the offshore development company based on the software development project you have. Do not forget to go through their portfolios and reviews on independent sites before making a final call.

#8: Cultural Compatibility

Most clients ignore this, but culture and work style complement each other. Hiring a software development company that does not fit into your work culture may not understand your project scope, and it will be your fruitless effort.

Do not hesitate to explore conceptual and practical ramifications before you hire best software developers from a top software development company. The cultural nature of the software development solution provider can reflect their sincerity and dedication. The companies that are acquainted with your social practices can develop a better product aligned with your business objectives.

You can ensure this by asking questions that directly relate to your business organization’s culture. Connecting with a reliable software development company that aligns with your business’s culture will help you create a long-lasting, harmonious relationship.

#9: Explore Portfolios, Know Their Previous Clients

You have plenty of internet review sites where clients leave reviews independently about the company they have partnered with (for their projects). You will easily find comments and reviews about software development companies that have worked on a particular project. These reviews will help you find the right partner.

However, make sure to take a closer look from both ends. Sometimes, company get bad reviews for doing nothing and even buys positive reviews. You can connect with the business organizations and ask questions about the reviews you have found on the internet review sites.

In general, customers who are happy with the software development services will leave positive reviews, and even they are so glad to give reviews if someone consults them for the same. Simply search using the targeted software consulting firms on the internet review site, and you get the comments quickly if anyone has left.

#10: Experience

We have talked about expertise; now it’s time to explore a bit relevant but most important —experience. You will find various IT companies, especially newcomers will offer cost-effective services. They might be good software developers or engineers and suitable for new-age startups. But, if you have a large custom software development project, you need to explore the experience of a company.

A mature software development company will provide you with the correct estimation and help you with the projects by taking them in the right direction. An experienced company will also help you with various other parts of your project, for example,

• Guide you in creating a project scope
• Help you create plans
• Guide if you have something missing in your project that directly or indirectly benefits your business
• Deliver the project by the deadline
• Guide you with experts after the project is deployed
• They know what it takes to deploy and implement the functionalities

Do the same —ask them questions about their experience and existence. You can also ask if they are expanding or contracting. Meanwhile, you can also ask if they have any certificates for the solutions and services they offer.

Bonus: Data Security Expertise

Last but not the least, security is the most crucial factor to consider. Being data a priceless resource in today’s business world, keeping it secure is the prime concern and responsibility as well. Your project is an essential asset to your business. Companies with a lack of binary safeguards, sensitive information leaks, bad encryption, etc., can cause you to lose your project.

The top-most software development company will offer you a proposal explaining how they keep customers’ data safe and secure. You can also get an NDA signed mutually, so your project is not shared with any third party.

Final Thoughts

We have explained all the top factors that help you find the right software development company for your requirements. However, when you are excited about your project, it can be too easy to rush in without asking the important questions that help find the best software development company. Take your time, think twice or even thrice before making the choice. We hope this article helps you find the ideal tech partner who will build you an excellent project. Good luck.