How To Choose The Right Software Development Partner: 5 Steps To Do This

Choosing a software development partner may be a challenging task. This decision will play a crucial role in the whole development process. That is why it is so important to find a company whose values and work approaches will align with yours.

Software Development Process: what does it look like?

First, it’s necessary to understand what stages software development includes to figure out where and how you will have to interact with your software development partner.

Of course, this list may vary, but in general, it looks the following way:

• Defining goals

• Planning

• Commitment

• Development & Quality Assurance

• Demo of the results

• Retrospective

In other words, whatever product you’d like to work on, you’ll start with defining goals and planning all the next steps. And finish line will be a release and discussion of all the working moments throughout the collaboration process.

Let’s now move to the main topic. 

How to choose a software development partner? And what to pay attention to when making a decision?

As it is already mentioned above, choosing a company that will develop your product is a very responsible step. So make sure you consider all the necessary things before deciding who will do it.

Here are 5 tips that are supposed to help you with this:

#1 Define the field or necessary services

This step is a must, especially if you are going to build something from scratch or just have an idea of something and don’t know yet what you want your final product to look like. Think about what it should be. An app? Which one: a web app or a mobile application? Or maybe both of them? When you are ready with this, the list of companies to work with will narrow. 

At least, you will understand whom you need to look for when searching on the Internet or looking through different lists with such companies:

#2 Prices

Quite often, the price of services is a deciding factor. Even if you look at different reviews, you’ll notice that lots of feedback have a phrase about cost-effectiveness, like “We chose this company for developing our app because their prices matched their expectations”. So make sure the company you are considering is a match here too.

#3 Company values

Though this point is more about the emotional and psychological parts, don’t pass by them. Your development partner is not only about business and creating a product or offering some services. It’s also about communication, the atmosphere in the team, and long-term relationships (if you prefer it). Pay attention to how they communicate. Do they suggest any ideas or alternatives to make the product better? Is it a 9-17 communication, or are they ready to answer and help even during off-hours?

#4 Reviews and recommendations

This is another important criterion. Reviews help to find out more about the company and the services they offer. Look through the reviews to see how they worked with previous clients, their strengths and weaknesses (if they have them), and portfolios. Moreover, reviews allow to learn if the company sticks to deadlines, if end results are as expected, and many other things worth being taken into account.

#5 Tech stacks or technologic to be used

If you know for sure what tech stacks you’d like to use, then it will be easier to find the company you need. Just filter the companies according to the desired languages and choose a company among them (applying the previous recommendations too).

But if you only have an idea that must be turned into reality but have no vision of what technologies should be used for this, there is a solution. You can choose a few companies you would potentially like to work with and make intro calls with them. Usually, company representatives kindly recommend what tech stack may be the best option for you. So, just follow the above steps to make your choice.

Takeaway

When it comes to finding a software development company to build your product, sometimes it may seem to be a struggling task. However, the tips from above can help you to make this “journey” easier and faster.