Custom Software Development
The right partner for custom software development can make or break your project. Regardless of whether you are developing a neuro customized order management system or any other custom solution, choosing an ideal and proper team to help you will assure you of a smooth project running, timely delivery and long term success. Follow this guide if you want to make the right one.
- Analyze Technical Expertise and Experience
Experience is the most crucial factor when selecting a software development partner and this experience should be relative. Your good partner should have the skills to build a solution that will fit your business requirements.
Industry Experience: You want to find a partner who has experience in your industry or worked on projects similar to yours. Say you are looking for an order management system, best is to partner with a team that has constructed this type of solution.
Portfolio Review: Check with them and see their portfolio to see if they did previous projects. Look for projects that suit your niche of complexity, scales and technology.
Technical Skills: Make sure that the partner is well versed in the programming languages, frameworks and platform that your project demands. For example, if you require a scalable cloud based application then partner should be good at cloud technologies.
- The first task involves evaluating Communication and Collaboration Skills.
Successful software project needs to be largely driven by communication. You should be working with your development partner that updates you on progress, is transparent about stumbling blocks and is ready to spend time with your team working together.
Clear and Timely Communication: It pays to observe how well the team communicates during the initial discussions. Do they respond promptly? Can they explain technical concepts in a simple way? The entire project is set by clear communication.
Collaboration Tools: What tools do they use to manage projects and track progress, and communicate? Jira, Trello, Slack and Basecamp are all popular tools. They help you stay on the same page—everyone in the group has a shared view—and to measure progress by grading against specific development milestones.
Cultural Fit: In order to find the right partner, you want to align with your company’s values and working style. Smooth collaboration and fewer misunderstandings happen with a strong cultural fit.
- Client Testimonials and Check References
Checking references / reading client testimonials is one of the best ways to determine the credibility and reliability of a development partner.
Client Reviews: You can also search for reviews on the platforms like Clutch, Google, but preferably on their website. Reviews mentioning long term projects are a sign of trust and as such should be reviewed closely.
References: Get references from your development partner and speak to their past clients. Find out what they did when faced with tough times and things they lacked.
- Take a look at Their Development Process.
To make sure everything is on track aligned with your business goals, our efforts have to understand how the development partner approaches project management and development.
Agile or Waterfall? Ask them which of the development methodologies they use, whether it is Agile, Scrum, or Waterfall. This is a trend as it’s unsure whether we’ll be agile enough to refactor tomorrow…
Testing and Quality Assurance: Make sure your partner has solid testing in place. Testing continuously throughout the development prevents those ugly costly errors and delays later on.
Post-Launch Support: A software project doesn’t end with launch. The software will keep running, smoothly, only if your partner should offer the maintenance, updates, and ongoing support.
- Consider Budget and Timelines
As always cost plays a part, but do not select a company based on quote alone. You need to strike the right balance between the costs and quality of work and expertise.
Budget Transparency: The costs should be broken down for a good development partner, including development, testing and post launch support. Don’t present vague or uncertain guesses.
Timelines and Milestones: Have an early conversation about timelines so they don’t interfere with your project work. You have to always check the partner on their delivery dates and milestones, and request a detailed project timeline so there are no delays.
Conclusion
When picking a custom software development partner, it’s important to choose wisely, by thinking in terms of their technical expertise, communication skills and most importantly their project management processes. How to know that you are partnering with a team that will deliver a successful project is by looking at their experience, analyzing client feedback and what you need for your business.
This may take some time, but the work will reward you with a development process that flows more smoothly, and a custom software solution so delivered that it achieves your business goals.
