The Principles of Selecting a Software Development Company

For the creation of websites, applications, and more complex top-level software solutions for clients, companies are implementing a wide range of different ideas with the help of software developers. You can find a wide variety of companies working on the development of software in the market.

The first thing to start with before launching a new project is to understand your needs and goals. If you want to choose the perfect software development company in USA for your business, you need to understand what kind of software you are going to create and what are your requirements for the final product. A good developer, in turn, should help you assess your possibilities for the idea implementation. Now let’s pay attention to the selection criteria for a decent development firm.

Seven Criteria for Choosing a Reliable Developer

If you want your partner to ultimately meet your requirements in terms of quality, professionalism, and cultural values, you should indicate certain criteria from the beginning for choosing a software company. We recommend you to focus on the following:

1)    Price

You can filter companies by price — this will not bring the desired result in the assessment of the performer, but it can help exclude some obvious candidates. Remember that those who make the cheapest offer tend to provide a similar solution. The likelihood of revolutionizing the business world with cheap software tends to be zero. Remember: the price is a relative thing, so do not save on the services of good developers.

2)    Communication

When business owners search for a professional software developer, the main criteria to think about are experience, company size, pricing models, etc. However, clients rarely consider communication as the crucial criterion. Here we highlight this criterion to emphasize its importance on the overall success of the project. Choose the most sociable developers. The processes of development should be as transparent as possible. Companies that do not communicate with the client end up developing software that does not meet the client’s needs.

3)    Size of the company

The size of a firm, alongside the scale of its projects, is crucial. If a large contractor works mainly with huge companies, it may pay little attention to your needs. Whether a contractor is too small, it may lack experience on this scale. Another aspect is the ability to expand the development team. Medium and large contractors have more human resources. This way, they can easily enlarge the development team to cope with the increasing workload.

4)    Experience

Before you hire a certain firm, check if it has enough experience in your sphere of activity. Perhaps, firms focusing on the development of fintech software and P2P lending may not be equally good at retail services. The same is true for managing large-scale projects with multiple teams. It would be difficult for a developer who lacks experience with remote teams to establish effective communication between team members at both the technical and organizational levels.

5)    Flexibility

Make sure the developer is flexible enough to implement changes as your business grows. This applies to many aspects such as scalability, the introduction of new technologies, offering various pricing models, knowledge adoption, etc. First, the contractor must be able to quickly adapt to your plans and strategies and easily scale as your business grows. Secondly, technological progress has become so rapid that the technologies you use today may become obsolete tomorrow. This problem is well explained in the article “The Power and Paradox of Bad Software” by Paul Ford. Therefore, it is crucial to choose a software development firm that can keep up with innovation.

6)    Geographical position

A convenient location is a vital criterion that every business should consider when looking for a partner abroad. Short flight distance, appropriate time difference, and visa-free travel are a few advantages that can significantly improve outsourcing partnerships.

7)    Brand

The image of a software firm in the global and local markets has a considerable impact on how well and quickly they can attract technical talents. A business owner looking for a software development partner wants to share the risk of hiring people. Therefore, the company’s brand is such a decisive criterion that must be considered when choosing a partner.

Conclusion

No one ever partners with a software company without thorough research of its background, services, portfolio, and recommendations. However, little attention is paid by companies to criteria such as communication, flexibility, and the company’s brand, which are, in fact, crucial in building a successful partnership. If you have an alternative opinion — feel free to share it with us in the comments.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)