So what do you do when you decide to go digital or get a new software developed? The answer is obvious. You either decide to hire a custom software development company or a team who provides software development services. Businesses want to stay competitive, so to accelerate their business processes, they’ll want to digitize as many processes as possible for better results and higher efficiency. Whereas customers these days have also become smart, they want better user-experience and want everything online. So the biggest question is, how do you choose the right software development company or agency to fulfill your needs? We have a few tips which can be helpful to you while selecting an appropriate software development firm.

1. Technological expertise

While searching for an appropriate software development company, check for their technical and subject knowledge. Ask your IT personnel to ask the company’s development team relevant questions and check upon their subject knowledge.

The number of projects undertaken & completed by a software firm and their size also matters. This shows the amount of experience the agency’s developers have. Moreover, the team of these developers or engineers need to have a team who are professionals in their work and can follow deadlines for the projects.

2. Decide your preferences

If a company that understands your business and its processes, it will be able to provide superior results. But, you should also understand the custom software development firm’s working style and the amount of workload they’ll be able to take in order to complete your project and work for your software application development tirelessly. However, if your vision does not match with the agency’s goals, it’s advisable not to go ahead, instead, search a different software development company.

3. Size of the company matters

Always keep in mind the size of the custom software development firm you choose. Choosing a company of similar size as yours will be advantageous. How? Well if you’re a small or a mid-sized company, then it’s preferable to choose a mid-sized software development agency. If the company is too big, they might not pay enough attention to a small or mid-sized company like yours or if the company is too small, they might lack the amount of experience or might not have enough manpower to meet your requirements.

4. Technology Stack

Find a company who has a team of software engineers who are experts in various technologies. Let’s say if you want an Angular JS or React for your front end, you’ll need engineers who’re experts with intensive knowledge and experience for Angular JS or React. For the server side, if you want to use Nodejs, you’ll need to have developers who’re experts in Nodejs. Hence, it’s appropriate to choose a software development company who has engineers with expertise & experience with various technology stacks.

5. Communication

The way people communicate reflects their professionalism. So a good software development firm also believes in communicating regularly with their clients. Since a
majority of the software development companies now prefer using the agile methodology for software development, it is important for them to constantly keep on communicating with their clients and update them regarding the progress or any setbacks. There are various productivity tools available for viz. Trello, Asana to record the daily progress of the work and Scrum / Kanban daily stand ups are also used to note the daily progress and communicate the same to their clients. Hence, communication plays a very important role when you want to decide on any software development firm.

6. What should be excluded?

When the engineers at any software development agency agree to all the things you say and are always saying “Yes” to all your demands, then it’s time for you to move on. They aren’t professionals but are just trying to get the contract from you. The professional developers will always tell you when your demands are unjust or if what you are expecting from them is way too high or impractical. They’ll guide you on various aspects of software application development and provide you with accurate information also. Moreover, they’ll also not be afraid to say “No” to you if they feel that meeting your demands or deadlines is not possible. Always look out for such type of companies who can say no to inappropriate or unjust demands or deadlines.

7. Budget and finances

Since every company has to work with a fixed and allocated budget, it is advisable that you should decide the amount prima facie you’d want to spend on software development. Once this is decided, it’s also advisable to let the software development agency know about your budget and then ask them to give you a quote for your software to be developed. This will help you understand whether you’ll be able to afford the software development or if you’ll need to extend your budget. Moreover, most of the software development agencies commonly work on two models viz. “Time & Material model” and “fixed price” model. For constantly changing requirements and larger projects, “Time & Material” model is advisable whereas for a limited budget project, “fixed price” model is advisable. So you should choose according to your budget and needs. Furthermore, ask if there are any additional charges or costs associated because at times while releasing the final deliverables, the software agency might ask for an additional charge to release the same. So it’s better to own your code.

Conclusion

Through the above mentioned points, we can say that choosing appropriate custom software Development Company that can meet your expectations for building ultimate software all the while keeping your finances in check is important. It is also important that while considering these factors viz. Time, budgetary constraints etc., the agency should also be flexible and be able to scale as per your requirements if the need arises. The scalability refers to increasing or decreasing the size of their team as per the project’s requirements. This concern mostly arises after the project has started or is mid-way. If the size of the team remains the same even when a smaller team is required, it might mean that the project will get costly or vice versa, if a larger team is required but, a smaller
team is allocated, it means the project will take longer to complete. 

However, we at Sunflower Lab are flexible enough to keep all the above requirements of our clients in mind and are capable of guiding them according to their business plans. We believe in meeting deadlines for project completion but also believe in extending the time wherever necessary to complete the project accurately with maximum output and benefit to our customers. We provide software development services and help you in software applications development. 

You can contact us if you’re interested in building custom software. Do not worry if you are a small, mid-sized or large company. We assure you we can meet your requirements. Get in touch with us today for a quote and guidance and our experts will get in touch with you.