Software development companies offer a wide range of services and it can take time to determine which one best suits your interests and needs. At first glance it’s hard to know what’s in front of you, whether it’s worth contacting and whether they can even do what’s required. A large variety of developers calling themselves a programming team have flooded the market and there is a chance of running into outright weak contractors without the right skills.
In this article, we will take a step-by-step look at outsourcing application development, how best to choose a development company and what parameters to focus on when choosing one.
The application outsourcing process
Searching for an outsourcing application development partner requires time and careful planning. While it may seem challenging initially, it will be a rewarding prospect in the long run. Discover more information to increase the chances of successful application development and implementation. Follow these steps to choose the best company for your needs:
1. Define your goals and requirements
To start looking for a software development outsourcing partner, you must have a goal and requirements to get the desired result.
The point is that it is essential to have clear conditions that are necessary to make progress:
- Functionality;
- Overall design and approach to user experience (UX);
- What is your target audience, and how do you plan to reach and serve them.
Conduct thorough market research before starting the project to understand your audience and their needs. When creating the project brief, consider all this information and gather feedback from all key stakeholders.
2. Estimate your budget
Several factors affect the cost of launching a software product on the market, from the project’s complexity level to its overall functionality. The central aspect is the total number of screens available to the user, as each screen requires labor and time.
If you need to know the amount of money you need to allocate to the project, you first need to talk to different vendors to get cost estimates based on your requirements. After talking to the vendors, you will have an actual price and estimate your budget, and then you will know which direction to take.
3. Research application development companies
Working with the right app development company is essential to realizing and securing your idea. Let’s look at the main factors to consider when choosing a partner:
- Determine how many years your potential partner has experience in the type of development you need;
- Conduct a live interview to make sure they have good communication and language skills;
- Ask technical questions to make sure they have the skills you need to complete your tasks.
Choosing the right app development partner is challenging and should be taken seriously. Take time to select a vendor, even if it pushes back your deadlines.
4. Evaluate the outsourcing model
When you think of outsourcing, you think of hiring a company elsewhere, but that’s not entirely true. Offshoring, onshoring, and nearshoring are different forms of outsourcing. Offshoring involves outsourcing to another country, onshoring involves hiring partners in your own country, and nearshoring involves outsourcing to a neighboring country.
5. Evaluate app development companies
There are different types of IT outsourcing on the market, but if you want to find and evaluate them, it can be challenging to consider all possible options. Then, in this case, you need to create all the partners’ negative and positive aspects; from this, you can build on it, which will meet your needs. Mutual understanding and trust are also essential factors in cooperation.
6. Define intellectual property rights
It is necessary to allocate sufficient time to review and conclude contracts. Also, if you have any additional questions, contact a lawyer who will provide guarantees to preserve all intellectual property rights after payment of invoices.
7. Finalize the contract and NDA
Carefully review all contractual terms, from service level agreements (SLAs) to non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and additional terms you mentioned in the contract, to control the nature of your relationship.
8. Collaborate and communicate effectively
Practical and solid collaboration requires effective communication. This is key to working with a software development team. Here are some tips for a successful partnership:
- Use JIRA and Basecamp to provide a central hub for ticketing and communication;
- Designate a contact person for communication between the organization and the partner;
- Hold regular online meetings.
Teams that regularly interact with each other guarantee a successful product development process.
9. Monitor progress and ensure quality
Develop a plan to track progress during software development and formulate a quality assurance (QA) strategy.
You can ensure progress and quality by creating a plan for:
- Achieving milestones;
- Reviewing the code;
- Testing and fixing bugs;
- User acceptance testing (UAT).
It is not so important what the approach to quality control is, but it is essential to develop and establish rules for feedback, bug review and correction, and software testing.
10. Deployment and ongoing support
Creating software is not the end of the process. If you release a minimum viable product (MVP) or don’t use an MVP, you’ll get user feedback, fix bugs, update security patches, and improve features.
Therefore, it is essential to have an early partnership with a reliable outsourcing company to help with this task, but it is also a necessary aspect of successful software development.
