Hiring in the top talent to develop software for your organization can seem easy enough, as you will quickly realize that you have a diverse choice of potential partners, spread across the globe. The problem is narrowing that down. How do you pinpoint the organization that is ‘best fit’ for your business needs and goals?
Sifting out the winning solutions is vital. The marketplace is peppered with empty promises and inflated claims, including what appears (on the surface) to be inexpensive software development, testing, and maintenance services.
Finding the right partnership is not about the cheapest or quickest fixes. Software that builds successful businesses is part of a long-term plan and requires an outsourcing partner with the coding vision and technical expertise to dovetail effortlessly with your current and future goals.
Also, you need a partner able to interpret your specific brief intuitively and intelligently.
Clearly, a collaboration with a relevantly skilled software outsourcing team that understands your organization is crucial. However, how do you find the right software development partner for your business?
Evidence of relevant, recent experience
The first step is to seek out providers of software development outsourcing who can provide clear and tangible proof of their credentials. This needs to pivot on recent projects. Their portfolio can be broad – and doesn’t have to focus on your business field as long as they can show a strong track record for responding to briefs with versatility and precise results.
Talking through recent projects with them should give you insights into their problem-solving abilities, and the way they marry together technical expertise in coding with a genuine appreciation of real business’ pains and gains’.
An authentic partnership approach to software development
The next step to tracking down the right company to your meet programming needs is harder to quantify and depends partially on how you work as a decisionmaker.
You have to find a company that genuinely appreciates the importance of clear communication and collaboration. One willing to ‘listen’ acutely to the brief and call you out if they see flaws, issues, or improvements you have missed. A software development outsourcer should keep you informed at every step, while still being proactive and using their own initiative when needed.
A lot depends on being offered an Account Manager/Lead for your software project who is authentically interested in delivering the right results, on deadline and on budget, which can often involve them getting deep into your company culture and operational realities, as well as your long term business goals.
You can gauge much of this during your negotiations. If it looks or sounds like an ‘off the shelf’ software development solution and sales patter, you would be best advised to walk away!
Do they practice what they preach?
One of the best ways to be sure that a potential software development outsourcing partner has what it takes to understand your business properly is to see how they do business!
Check whether their ethics, working practices, and personnel support offer synergies with your company mission.
Also, the pillars of any positive business partnership are competence and warmth! If they respect their team and show a degree of corporate responsibility, it suggests that they care about their reputation and culture.
From this, you can grow your confidence in their ability to care about your results and effectiveness as a company.
Planning and delivery infrastructure
You can also test the merits of a software development outsourcing partner by asking for a structured plan for how your coding project will be envisaged, approved, and delivered. This needs to be a step by step and highly transparent framework.
A company that offers you a structured process with key milestones is far less likely to be ‘all talk and empty promises.’
It could be that within this planned response to your brief, they offer methodologies and measures to go above and beyond your original aims. Your potential partner could already be looking for ways to find greater efficiencies and more agile alternatives for your business functions and processes.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, you are likely facing new challenges, including having to adapt to remote working conditions, dealing with more reduced internet connections, and fielding remote security concerns from your staff. Therefore, it’s important to choose an outsourcing partner who understands this and is capable of successfully delivering complex software, no matter where you’re based or how you’re working.
Can you give software developing outsourcers a ‘test’?
If your software development project is a substantial one, with heavy investment implications and considerable business risk, then a sampler project could be created.
This would be a minimum value product that tests both the company’s response and its ability to work well with you. Not only does this give you a trial run for the big contract, but it also provides your hired-in tech team with an important introduction to your organization and its expectations.
Ask around
If could be that one of the best ways to choose a software development partner is to seek out recommendations from organizations that are enjoying clear successes. Yes, this partnership needs to be individualized to your goals, and you need faith in an instant rapport and insightful collaboration.
However, testimonials can help you narrow down options into a shortlist. Including building your understanding of which companies have the credibility and reliability, as well as the capacity to handle the type of project you need.
What is ‘nearshoring’ software development?
Doing your research to select potential partners for outsourcing software development could create diverse options, including overseas agencies that appear to stack up on many of the important features outlined in this guide.
However, the rule of thumb is that using a software development company close to your field of operations manages risks better and makes communication and collaboration tasks easier and seamless.
Well, finally, it all comes down to doing enough homework and drilling down on what exactly you will get in return for your investment. It also pivots on finding a software development outsourcing partner who delivers effective, scalable solutions, not just a persuasive sales patter!
