A Guide to Pick the Top Software Development Company
Businesses, as they grow in size and scope, call for sophisticated software solutions to take care of the day to day business operations as well as to gather data for decision making, generate special reports and improve efficiency, productivity and profitability. Companies can hire software development company to get them a customized business software or simply buy a ready-made commercially prepared application from a vendor.
Friday October 13, 2017 , 5 min Read
Largely, the software development companies in the marketplace are experts in their own right. A large number of them are well established and offer first-rate solutions and service. They have immense industry experience in building software and applications from scratch to enterprise levels. No doubt their extensive experience makes them well versed with the current trends and best practices in a highly competitive market.
So, how do you pick the top software development company from these many experts already there in the market? It is undeniably a very complex job and calls for utmost care and thoughtfulness in choosing the top software development company.
Take a look at a few points you can consider when you are hiring the top software development company for your business enterprise:
1. Technical Expertise
Undoubtedly, software development is focused on technology. The type of technologies for software development is core to your decision to select a partner for the successful completion of your enterprise application project. Therefore, if you are going for the top software development company diligently look for the development technology the software house is comfortable working with. Beforehand equip yourself with some basic knowledge of the functionalities of various technologies to arrive at an effective decision. You should be aware with commonplace knowledge like Microsoft Windows environment is snowed under by security fears whereas the UNIX environment needs a steep learning curve. The smart thing would be to have clarity on your requirement.
2. Company Portfolio
Although it’s a well-established fact in the software industry that knowledge and drive defines the competency of a company. Yet it pays to have a look at couple of their recent projects in the company portfolio. It gives you a better idea of the kind of programs software house has handled.
Get hold of all the information about the software development company including the skill level, experience and knowledge of the team members. Software developing companies generally maintain a website with a portfolio featuring their body of work. This will contain information on the projects they have carried out. A great detailed info will not be available on account of maintaining confidentiality and privacy of their client. However, this is good enough to get you an idea of projects and size that they can handle.
If their portfolio indicates projects taken up in the latest technologies in related domain as yours and the company’s experience handling projects in the particular niche or domain it would be a big plus. Also, software development company’s skill in understanding your firm’s needs and translating it into an apt solution, effective communication skills and adherence to deadlines are the factors that should prompt you to identify the company as a top player.
3. Delivery time
A software firm sticking to deadlines is a worthy partner to work with. Undoubtedly, it is very essential that your software package is delivered on-time so that your employees find enough time to test it and report any bugs. Many of your team members will require intensive training and orientation to make better deployment of the program even after the testing and debugging phase is over. Therefore, it is essential that your software program is developed within the time-frame decided during the initial agreements. Moreover, delays lead to unnecessary costs.
4. Quality
Top software development company will ensure the program code is not buggy. It develops a software solution which is not resource hungry, the documentation should be adequate, simple and easy feature updates should be possible; plus the code must be as lean as possible. The truth is software could be developed by anyone but the quality of the application separates wheat from chaff.
5. After-development help and support
The software development company should be around even after the engineers have set up the application at your work premises. You will need a great deal of support later with respects to setting up the software application, getting at ease with with ways to use it, grasping various other options and customization capabilities, the maintenance and back-up processes, and myriad other support-related problems that may come up down the line.
6. Professionalism
A company that values time and money and helps find the best solution to the business problems is the perfect software development company to hire. The consultant should treat you with respect, care, and with positive attitude. Goes without saying that a professional software application or programme needs to be created by professionals.
You need to check if the proposed choice of software development company gives you the impression of professionalism. Check whether they have a good-looking, effective website. Monitor if they are professional in any/all of their social media interactions, or dealing with the media or public. At some point in time discretion and confidentiality becomes important and it pays to take this into consideration.
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7. Business Experience
Generally when software development firms have worked on numerous projects they establish a sound strategy to make sure effective completion of the assignments. A new company that doesn’t have much practical experience still would need to build its methodologies and therefore might not be aware of the various kinds of problems and bugs that emerge during software development life-cycle.
Additionally, you can have casual getting to know each other kind of chats. You can try by simply asking the software developers themselves and more often than not they will be happy to illuminate on their past projects. Pay attention to the challenges they faced with the projects and how they resolved it.
Try to find teams giving direct access to developers who can communicate well with you. Software companies with a substantial experience in agile or hybrid agile methodologies will always be a better choice.