How to choose the right software development company
Starting a software project is often a daunting task at the beginning, whichever company you choose as a developer will have huge influence on how your project is executed, and so choosing the right partner can either make or break your project. (no pressure)
I know what you think, reputation, referrals, all ideal recipe for the most qualified company to take on your software project.
But, what sounds suspiciously like common sense that you’ve got there, it’s wrong.
The Fit
On the contrary, sometimes a reputable company can produce unsatisfying results. It’s not their fault per se, but rather a failure in determining the right company fit.
Think about it this way, if you’re building a small calorie tracker app, you probably wouldn’t want to call up Microsoft.
That is not to say that if you’re building an actual enterprise-grade systems of huge complexity, you shouldn’t go with a large software company either.
It’s all about “The Fit”. If you have a medium sized project, go with a medium sized developer. If you have a smaller project, go with a small team for development.
Referrals are great, but your referrers were probably in completely different circumstances when they chose their developer, with regards to project size and other things like technology domain. It’s up to you to think about The Fit.
When in doubt, go small
For almost any project, it’s almost always better to start with a smaller firm with a good track record, than larger firms.
Why? Larger firms have multiple layers of management, which leaves a lot of room for miscommunication. The start of any project is always the most important, because you’re laying the foundation for future development. It’s crucial that both you and the developer runs a tight ship in terms of vision and planning.
This is where smaller firms offer an advantage. Most often, you’ll be working directly with the CEO of the company, instead of middle managers. Large firms also run a large overhead, which would eat into your development costs.
But what if you’re building a large system? It’s still recommended to start small, since building large projects comes with big risks. You wouldn’t want to spend a hundred thousand dollars, and the developer comes back in 6 months with something that misaligns with your vision entirely.
What you want to do, is to start with most important module of functionality, as a small starter project.
In fact, this method of piece-meal software development is so effective that it has earned itself an industry term - Agile Development. It is ultilized by the largest tech corporations on the planet, such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and the like. All of these products that you use today wasn’t built in a day, but through small incremental updates over time.
Conclusion
Choosing the right software development company must includes crucial context information with regards the your particular project, in addition to surface-level information such as reputation and referrals. Development team size, chain of communication, development methodologies, must all considered before determining if the company is the right fit for your project.
Starting small is better, after all, if things do go wrong, you can always start over with a smaller cost. As the project matures and you build cadence with your chosen software development company, that’s when you know, it worked!