Experts recommend asking your potential software development partners:
- What can you tell me about your team and their experience in this industry?
- What project management tools do you use? What is your preferred communication style?
- How does your team adapt to change?
- Can we see samples of your work with past clients?
Here are some insightful tips from development experts that can help you identify the software development agency best fit to work with you on your next project.
Discuss Logistics of the Partnership
The best place to start is at the beginning — ask your potential partner to clarify basic details about the services they provide.
Serge Khmelovskyi, CEO of COAX Software recommends asking:
- Do you understand my business domain or industry?
- What similar problems have you solved already?
- How do you manage communication between your clients and your development team?
- How will you report on progress?
Andrey Gadashevich, CEO of MakeBeCool suggests asking:
- What can you tell me about the team working on my project? Can I meet them?
- What obstacles or risks do you foresee? How do you plan to resolve these situations?
Learn Their Project Management Approach
Karl Mulligan, CEO of Appify highlights the importance of streamlined project management strategies to accurately track project success.
“Ask your developer: What project management tools do you use and what access will I have? If you have full access to a cloud-based project management platform, then you should be able to track all progress in real time and ascertain if everything is on track.”
Look for Flexibility in the Partnership
Eugene Polyansky, CEO + Founder of EGO Creative Innovations has three key pieces of advice for clients looking for flexibility in their partner.
- Ensure a safe start: Do you have a worry-free package for newcomers? Can you adapt that offering to meet the task at hand? It’s easier to start with a self-contained set of services that, once completed, would signal the company’s ability to deliver at a larger scale.
- Look for flexibility and a can-do attitude: What is each team member’s level of involvement? Are they a proactive, flexible, and open-minded individual? It’s important to be able to see and talk to members of the project team.
- Understand their approach: Do you have expertise in modular software design? Modular delivery enables visible milestone progression, allows for testing some parts of the project while others are still in development, and offers more flexibility for change and shifting from the original plan.
Understand Their History of Work
Mike Allen, Principal Software Engineer at Emergent Software believes that clients can learn a lot about a software development agency by looking at their past work.
“Clients should absolutely ask for examples of similar work. Most software projects are unique and custom to the client, but a software development company should be able to show that they’ve successfully solved similar problems in the past. Additionally, clients should ask the software development company to articulate their understanding of the client’s problem, goals, and success criteria back to them — it’s vital that both parties are on the same page from the start.”
