Searching for reliable employees or business partners is always a challenge. You need to find people who have the necessary expertise in their field and are experienced enough to quickly address any potential issues. When it comes to software development, you need to work with professionals who understand the needs and preferences of your target customers. Besides, the chosen software development team should understand your business goals and be able to come up with effective solutions to achieve these goals.
A good thing about software development is that there are countless outsourcing companies. However, finding a company that will be the right choice for you can take some time and effort. You should clearly define your requirements and needs. In this article, we will help you find the best software development company so that you can establish effective long-term relationships.
Why Do You Need a Software Development Team?
First of all, you should clearly define your goals. Without it, you won’t be able to tell what company is the best option. Are you looking for a team that will handle frontend development only or backend development, as well? What kinds of tasks will this team work on? Do you need them to handle business analysis and management tasks, or are you looking for a company that will be responsible for your whole IT department?
For instance, your current IT team may not have enough time to embark on another project, or you may realize that this team doesn’t have the necessary skills to develop software that you’re interested in. Take your time and make a list of your objectives so that you can choose a team that will be a good fit. You don’t want to figure out what your goals are while searching.
Tips To Find the Best Software Development Team
1. Research your options
Once you’ve figured out your goals, it will be easy for you to find potential candidates. You may start your search on Google, but you can never be sure that top results will actually be reliable.
We recommend that you check out reviews of each particular company to see what other customers think of them. Some companies may only publish positive reviews on their websites so a good approach is to search for reviews on third-party platforms.
2. Check out case studies
One of the most effective ways to evaluate a development team’s expertise is to check out their previous projects. Analyze every detail that you consider important for your own project. What makes these projects unique? What do they have in common?
Case studies enable you to evaluate how a certain team has overcome different challenges. They also allow you to see what features this team implemented in the past, what tests or other approaches they’ve used to make sure that the app ran as intended. You can also evaluate how good this team is at designing the overall user experience.
Moreover, some customers or partners from the team’s case studies may still work with them. If you contact these people, you will be able to learn more information on how this team works on current projects, or at least how good their current business relationships are.
3. Interview teams
The key to effective interviews is talking to not only sales teams but also developers themselves. Sales teams are always ready to deliver a great pitch, but developers can show you who you’re actually dealing with. No matter how good the sales reps’ promises are, you must make sure that the developers are capable of keeping these promises.
According to statistics, about 14% of IT projects fail, and it’s difficult to evaluate all the risks in advance. Sales teams can tell you a lot about the developers’ experience and professional qualities, but they don’t know how different types of software work, and they don’t understand the specifics of the development process.
4. Evaluate expertise
Evaluating development teams’ technical expertise is an obvious necessity but it may be not the only type of expertise you should consider. If you’re going to work with a development team for a long time, you must make sure that it has the necessary expertise not only in software development but also in business. Your software development team should help you achieve your business goals.
5. Evaluate the team’s culture
Another important factor that you should take into account is the company culture. If you want to choose a reliable team, you should understand your potential teams’ values, goals, ethics, and expectations. In other words, you should look not only for experienced coders but also for dedicated professionals who love their job and are passionate about their projects.
You don’t want to waste your time on motivational speeches so make sure to choose a team that is as committed as you are. This way, you’ll easily establish effective collaboration. Your team should be on your side. It doesn’t mean, however, that you should choose developers who will blindly agree with you.
Members of a development team should be able to provide their own perspective and share their knowledge so that you can find optimal solutions. It’s nice if your development team can make your product as good as you want it to be. However, if they know how to make it even better, you should also know about it.
6. Communication matters
It’s impossible to successfully develop software without effective communication. You and your team should be on the same page. Besides, effective communication helps make your collaboration transparent. You need to stay up to date about all details related to your project.
When outsourcing development teams from abroad, you must make sure that your communication won’t be undermined by language barriers. You can work with non-English speaking teams, but in this case, you must make sure that they have good translators.
7. Value is more important than price
You need to take into account prices when choosing development teams, but you shouldn’t prioritize price over value. If some team is ready to work for cheap, the chances are that they are willing to sacrifice quality. In this case, you may save some money at first, but then you will need to pay more when it comes to rewriting the code and hiring a new development team.
In contrast, a high price doesn’t necessarily mean outstanding quality. When dealing with expensive software development teams, make sure to clarify what value you can get for your money.
Wrapping Up
Choosing a reliable software development team is not easy because you should take into consideration many different factors and analyze all the pros and cons of each team. However, finding the right team will be much easier if you identify clear objectives. Follow our tips to choose a team that will not only write code for you but also help you achieve your business goals.
