When you search for a custom software development agency, you’ll get several vendors near your area. Let’s see what factors should be kept in mind when searching for software development vendor. We’ll also cover how to interview them and how to select the right vendor that really understands your requirement and assists you to build the software according to your business model.
What are you precisely looking for?
You need a Custom Software Development Agency that takes time to understand your business model. You want them to come up with a plan to strategically implement a software solution for your business. The software should support your business by increasing productivity and accountability of resources.
Common Problems in finding a vendor:
Common problems faced by most business owners are:
- You’re getting a lot of vendors but don’t know whom to trust.
- Many vendors are imposing their pre-built software which seems generic and does not fit your business needs.
- They’re asking you to change your business process to suit their convenience.
- You don’t like the technical jargon they’re using to get you onboard. Not getting a good Vibe!
- You’re not confident about the costs they’re proposing with respect to value you’ll be getting.
What’s the right approach?
Ideally, the software should work according to your business, not the other way around. A vendor who understands and consults with this perspective; is someone to be considered seriously.
You can help them by detailing out your custom software requirement, also known as the Requirement Details Document, which can be used to Request for Quote to the vendors. You should document the entire journey of your business from start to end that you wish to automate. You should also, mark the areas that are Lower Priority or Optional. Perhaps, a list of features based on department would be extremely helpful for both parties.
This would help the vendor understand your vision and get on the same page. A vendor needs to understand your business model, and plan out the software structure accordingly. This would help them provide you a break down of costs. Finally, this would help you in choosing the right Vendor based on their proposals.
3 simple steps to narrow down custom software development service providers, and choose the right one.
Step 1: Prepare some questions to interview the applicants, such as:
- Provide the Scope of Work based on the requirement document.
- Share your understanding and provide your approach to build our software.
- What experience do you have in similar projects?
- What framework would you use to build our software and why?
- How do you plan the testing, QA and delivery process?
Step 2: Review the applications on the following basis:
- See if their scope of work covers all the points from your requirement document or not.
- You want to check 2 things here:
- First, See if their understanding matches what you’re asking for, should be in their own words, not taken directly from your requirement document.
- Second, How well have they simplified the process in their description, such that you can easily understand and follow what they’re planning. They should suggest you milestone based multiple small deliveries of small parts of your software.
- Check the references they’re providing and understand what was built for that client. As a business owner it’s easy for you to understand that client’s perspective. Evaluate how well their software has been built.
- Ask questions like possibility of scaling, customization and performance. Your requirement may not need an expensive development framework (like an internal office software) OR you may plan to have thousands of users, for which you may require scaling very soon. Decide whether the software they’re proposing matches your needs or not. Confirm by evaluating what multiple vendors propose.
- Testing plan should match the approach proposed in point (b). Each milestone should be properly tested and retested. With every milestone, previous milestone testing should also be done to ensure everything is working there. They should take time for testing. It’s supposed to be around 30% of development time. If they’re keeping very less time for testing, they might not be testing at all and you may need to test the application yourself and chase them.
Step 3: Try to understand their intent and capability
Talk to them. Judge them on the basis of character, responsiveness and skill. What you want maybe new and unique, they can help you build your software if they have the right intent. Being a business owner, you already follow this for other parts of your business, do the same here.
Get Effective Custom Software Development for your business
Let’s discuss your vision and get a quote on your requirement.
What do you get?
- Consultation for your software requirement.
- Suggestions to improve if there are any missing links or technical dependencies you didn’t think of.
- Get a free business analysis of your requirement and get a plan and a quote to develop your software in different stages.