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How to Choose a Software Development Company?

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02/12/2019 |

10 min read

Agnieszka Krawczyk

Choosing the right software development company for your project is a critical step on your path to success. 

When looking at different vendors, be aware that you’ll be working with them for the next several months or even years. Their approach, processes, skills, and experience will all act as factors in determining the success or failure of your project.

By picking a reliable and trustworthy software development company, you’ll take advantage of domain knowledge, tech skills, and wide-ranging expertise to build a great digital product.

Read this article to learn more about how to choose the best software house for your project.

Tips how to choose the right software development company

Don’t go for the cheapest option

Shopping for a development team that will build your product is like shopping on Amazon. If you choose the cheapest product, you risk that it breaks after a week or two of usage. Buying services works like that as well. If you choose the cheapest offer, you risk paying more at the end of the project. 

Here are a few reasons why:

1. Cheap service never comes with high-quality

It just doesn’t. That means you’ll get poorly-written code that is difficult to work on and maintain. The team might also fail to deliver proper documentation – and that will make working on the project even more difficult, especially if you decide to transfer it to another team. All the technological debt will catch up with you later on and force you to spend a lot of money on fixing the mistakes.

2. Owning the source code might be a problem

Some companies that agree to deliver software development services at very low rates don’t allow you to become the owner of the source code. They might offer you to license the product or give you a bundled code. That doesn’t seem fair considering that you paid for the entire development process, right?

3. Lack of experience and processes

Another problem that you might come across when teaming up with a cheap service provider is the lack of experience in managing outsourcing projects – be it offshoring or nearshoring. The team might not have adequate skills to enable smooth communication during the project, from a poor level of English to a lack of processes that ensure transparency. As a result, your project will suffer, and the final quality of your product might get compromised.

Solution?

Don’t choose the cheapest service. Pick the most cost-effective one – a company that offers reasonable rates and has a history of success in delivering similar projects.

If you focus on spending less money now, the chances are high that you end up spending two to three times more in the near future. In the worst-case scenario, you might be forced to rewrite the app from scratch!

Technology

The company’s technology stack is another important matter you should consider when choosing your partner. Your choice here will depend on whether you know which technologies your project requires.

Scenario 1: You know which technologies you need

This is where it pays to hire a software development team that focuses on a particular technology. For example, if you want to build the frontend of your app in React, look for companies that specialize in React. By teaming up with an expert, you’ll boost your chances of success.

Have a look at the company’s website. If you see a lot of logos of different technologies, be cautious – it’s impossible to be an expert in 10 different programming languages unless you’re a very large enterprise.

Scenario 2: You don’t know which technologies to choose for your project

If that’s your case, the best thing to do is take a closer look at the company’s portfolio to check whether they’re delivered projects that are similar to yours. Remember that these examples could also be applications developed for different industries. If you find examples from your sector, that’s even better – you’ll know that the company has experience working with companies in your niche.


Ask for client recommendations and read reviews

Here are two things you can do to get a lot of valuable, impartial information about the software development company that might become your potential contractor.

1. Read reviews

Check platforms such as Clutch.co or The Manifest to read the reviews left by the company’s clients. You can also visit Design Rush for information. If the software development agency you’re screening doesn’t have any reviews or even a Clutch profile, consider it as a red flag – it means that the company if very young and probably inexperienced.

2. Ask for recommendations

Once you’re done with your research and think that the company could be the right match for your project, reach out to them and ask for recommendations from previous or current clients. This is a common step in the process of vetting different software houses, so the company should be prepared to share the recommendations with you. If it’s not, move on to the next one.

Expert tip: The best way to find out whether a company is legit and its developers have great skills is by asking around the local developer community. All it takes is going to local Meetups and asking people about their opinions. The company’s standing in the developer community is an important indication of its expertise and approach to building software.

Processes and communication

Finally, you should openly ask the company about its processes and workflow – focusing on communication, collaboration, and delivery.

  • Does the company have battle-tested processes in place that help to address the most common risks of outsourcing?
  • Does the company concentrate on constantly improving its development process?
  • Does it follow industry standards, such as agile methodologies of software development? Note that most IT teams work in Scrum today. Your provider should use elements like daily standups, retrospectives, and demos that facilitate communication and transparency.
  • Which project management tools does the company use to increase communication and transparency during the project?

Choosing the company’s location

Communication is a key factor in the success of your collaboration. That’s why you should choose a company in a region where English is a popular second language. Also, the country of your choice should be known for its excellent technical education.

And that’s why Poland is such a popular choice among companies looking to outsource software development to professional and trustworthy partners who speak their language and follow global industry standards.

According to HackerRank, Poland is one of the top 3 countries with the best software developers in the world.

And no wonder why:

  • Every large Polish city has one or more technical universities that produce thousands of skilled graduates.
  • IT professionals can benefit from the country’s advanced IT ecosystem and hone their skills while working for top tech giants like Google or Microsoft.
  • Moreover, every city has its developer community with plenty of meetups, workshops, and courses.
  • Polish pupils start learning English in primary school, sometimes even kindergarten!

Collaborating with a software house – case studies

At Codete, we offer a flexible choice of collaboration options to help our clients find the most suitable method of working with us that proves rewarding for both sides of the contract.

Still, we specialize in building dedicated teams in line with the time and material type of software development contract. We believe that this form of settlement is the most beneficial option for our clients, and we often begin by showing why working within the constraints of inflexible estimations can compromise their projects.

What is the time and material model all about?

Contrary to the fixed-price model, in time and material, you pay for the actual time the development team spent working on your project as well as an extra fee that covers all the materials and equipment used to deliver your solution. 

In terms of planning, time, and material assumes that project requirements may evolve and making a detailed and field estimation of time, budget, and scope doesn’t bring any benefits. Instead, all of these elements are agreed upon with clients on a regular basis.

Here’s how this model works in practice within three collaboration models:

1. Software development center

Our client, Leonardo Hotels, is part of the Fattal Hotel chain, an Israeli hospitality company that hosts guests in over 190 resorts located in 17 countries around the world.

We serve as the company’s IT and digital transformation partner. Our primary goal in this collaboration is supporting our client on an ongoing basis to identify and remove any issues that may affect their business growth. We do that by providing custom digital tools, optimizing the digital booking funnel, and giving a substantial boost to the official company website through well-designed UX/UI.

To this end, we set up a dedicated development center comprising of hospitality industry business experts, senior software developers, and talented junior engineers. In the course of our long-term business relationship, the dedicated development center has remained flexible, building custom digital solutions that respond to the ever-changing context of the global market. Should the need arise, the center can quickly adapt to the circumstances, onboard brand new team members, review old solutions, deliver updates, or pivot and build new digital tools.

Read more about how we support Leonardo Hotels in this case study.

 

2. Team extension

Our client is a leading online store for furniture and home decoration accessories that delivers products to thousands of customers in 7 European countries. Our teams helped the development teams of Home24 to optimize their technology stack and provided support in the backend, frontend, and mobile areas.

In total, we built three distinct teams that extended the client’s capabilities:

  1. The team of backend software engineers was responsible for building a platform for test automation, which enables, facilitates, and speeds up automated testing.
  2. Our fronted team created the client’s frontend components using the latest technologies.
  3. Finally, our mobile development team rewrote the client’s mobile application to a modern technology stack and then delivered support, built new functionalities, and eliminated legacy code.

Our team extension services allowed us to assist Home24 in three different areas to position the e-commerce giant for success.

Read more about how we helped Home24 with dedicated teams in this case study.

 

3. Dedicated software development team

Our client – a global on-demand printing platform – was looking to introduce new features, refactor and reduce the technical margin, and divide the application into smaller modules serving different functions. But the company was lacking the resources required for these tasks.

To help the company accomplish these aims and take their business to the next level, we set up a dedicated development team of cross-functional experts.

The Codete team consisted of dedicated backend and frontend developers, as well as QA and BA specialists. One of the developers served as the team leader. We delivered the required solutions using modern technologies and following the Scrum framework of project managers to meet the rapidly-changing market conditions.

Our team developed new key features and is currently supporting the client in reducing the technical costs and rewriting the application code module by module. From architectural design to development, our team effectively assisted our client in building their application.

Read more about how we helped our partner build their application in this case study.

So, how do I choose the best software development company?

When choosing the best technology partner for your project, you need to take many things into account – the complexity of your project, its technical demands, your desired time-to-market, and other project requirements. Then confront them with software development companies you check out while researching the market. Use these tips, and you’ll be on your way to picking the right software development agency for your project.

Don't hesitate to contact Codete – we'll be happy talk with you about your project and discuss how we could assist you in its development.

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Agnieszka Krawczyk

Senior Marketing Manager at Codete. Interested in modern technologies, e-commerce, and fashion. Trend researcher.

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