Useful Tips for Choosing the Best Custom Software Development Partner

The software industry is growing at a fast pace with the newest ever technologies and ideas disrupting the existing trends quite aggressively. There’s a lot happening at the application- utilization front too, which is fast changing the way development approaches and practices are planned and applied. As a result, processes are getting hybrid in nature, solutions are being increasingly served in niche categories, teams are forming global alliances, remote facilities are in, software development cycles are adopting custom formats, and more new engagement possibilities are available.

With these developments happening incessantly, you can see a lot of differences and variations springing up in the services front with different types of providers coming up.

There are developers who are not finding a fit anymore in the market. Not all of them are able to offer a quality solution. Most of them have picked their fortes. There are those who have established their mark serving budget solutions. There are more solution options available - and there are blacks, whites and lots of grays in between. Thereby, making it a difficult thing for you to select the right development partner for your project.

So, what are the factors that will tell you which custom software development company is going to be most reliable, resourceful and relevant to your development needs.

Here are a few tips to help you find the right development partner:

Have a look at the company’s portfolio

While selecting a software development services partner for your project, the first thing you should check is the company’s portfolio. It helps you broadly scan the range and depth of their work, allowing you to measure their competency, expertise, technologies, and industries they have served. And help you figure out if they have enough similar experience to deal with your project development needs. If that’s not enough, you can further deep-drill into the knowledge resources like case studies and explainer videos about the projects to build a better understanding of their work.

Check their credibility as a business

There’s no one specific way to figure out the credibility of a company. You can find it out by looking into a mix of factors. The most determinant of which are the accreditation and recognition labels (ISO certification or NASSCOM membership) they own. Also, the types of technology partnerships and alliances (like Acquia, AWS, Microsoft Partner) they are tied-up with. This gives you a pretty good idea of their authenticity and validness as a service establishment. Flipping it onto the other side, look out for client reviews on development community platforms like AppFutura, Clutch, GoodFirms, to gain the user perspective of it.

How the process looks like

While selecting a development partner you need to look into the process they follow for development. Look for details about the development approach they follow and are these based on standardized development methodologies. Are they working on a Scrum-based Agile format to ensure dynamic communication and responsive development across the facility. Are they equipped with a fuller development cycle that involves a well-defined and proficiently laid software development process that involves Research & Analysis, Product Prototyping, Designing, Development/Coding, QA Testing, Deployment, and Support and Maintenance. Is it all backed by evident service policies, strong resource line-up, and a well-equipped infrastructure.

Service engagement models

Look into the fact if their customer engagement models are fully compliant with the latest techniques and practices that prevail in the mainstream. This filters out the outmoded and inefficient services from the lot and allows you to select through the skimmed selection of the best providers available. Once you are done with that, check out what formats they follow (time and material model, waterfall model, build-operate-transfer model, and hire-a-developer model) and to what extent are they able to adapt to your needs with their hybrid category services. Also, get the details on how do they utilize and put these to actual execution. This will allow you to find the best fit with the services on your engagement checklist.

Client communication and Time-zone

These two factors seem marginal to the idea of selection of custom software development company for your project but have a huge implication in the actual work scenario. So, you need to well confirm points about communication and availability while making your selection. How to do this most effectively? Get the answer to simple questions - How do they drive the discussions about the project, what documents and resources they provide in the process, how the communication loop looks like (Any SPOC? What is the process and how arranged or flexible it is), how do they communicate (email, message, phone), what project management tools they use (JIRA, Zoho, etc.) and do they function in your time zone and what are the support hours.

Post Deployment Support

While you select your software development partner make sure their services are not limited to just building the solution. They should be offering post-deployment maintenance and support services too. This is important as there’s always a need to keep your solution working with changed requirements and to keep functioning smoothly. It needs upgrades and fine-tuning from time to time. Also, it needs to be regularly treated for bugs and lags to deliver consistent and dependable performance. And to keep all that served well it is important that the company who developed you the solution should help you with support service as they know in and out about your project. So, better if you go with a full-service software development company whose support program suits your preferences.

Conclusion

These are some of the pivotal factors that you need to consider while selecting your development partner. As these would ensure you get to choose authentic and reliable services that are otherwise hard to assess and contemplate when you have a large number of development service options of all class, cadre, and category to pick from. Besides, you will be assured of the right solution fitment (checking on budget, competency level, technological exposure) for your project needs, to allow you to achieve the best from your development endeavor.