Posts Tagged ‘software development company’

Simplify the Task of Choosing Software Development Company

Friday, August 19th, 2011

If you complicate a task, it becomes complicated. This fact is also true when you are choosing a software development company to do business with. If you complicate matters, you will find that the whole process of making the right choice becomes complicated in the extreme.

So, it’s important to do the simple things right. If you do that, you will simplify matters and at the same time ensure that your choice of the company is perfect.

List out your requirements

The first thing you must do is list your requirements. You should know what you need, so spend some time thinking about what you want to achieve with your software and the kind of functionality that you want it to have. You need to have a clear idea in your head about the kind of software that you want developed, its purpose and its objectives. This will help you improve your search for the right company. More importantly, it will ensure that you are on the right track as far as your selection is concerned.

Nothing beats references

If you don’t want to put in a lot of time and effort to search for a company by considering a whole list of parameters, it will be a good idea to talk to the people around you. They can guide your search and you might even get a reference or two from them. Such references are a sure shot way of making sure that you pick the right company and that too in quick time. This is because the people you know have already worked with the company, and you have a clear picture of the quality of its services, expertise and experience.

Don’t make a huge shortlist

Here’s a secret. Go with your gut feel about a particular software application development company. As you search for such companies, you will find that most companies offer the same kind of services. What’s more, no company has a portfolio that looks bad. So, it’s important that you don’t make a huge shortlist of companies, which will confuse you. So, when you are making your shortlist don’t keep adding to the list.  This will help you talk to each company on the shortlist, individually, and evaluate their service offerings with due care and attention.

These are just some of the many ways that will help you simplify your task of searching for the right software development company. It’s important to understand here that patience is the key to making the right choice. And as mentioned at the beginning of the article – It’s about keeping things simple.

Collaboration in Software Development: Remote Working And Increased Productivity

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

The practice of using a collaborative approach for software development heavily depends on how quick a software development team can be in taking out the best productivity of its individual developers. It’s all about engaging a value chain in the workflow process to develop a software application in an efficient and timely manner.

Factors affecting productivity matter largely while adopting a collaborative approach. There are many of them which hinder developers to work together in physical proximity. Long travel times and commutes, especially in the larger cities, prevent individuals to get to work and productivity faster in the day. If they work remotely, a better productivity could be expected as that will essentially take away the physical burden of commute and emotional burden of stepping into the office by a given time.

Over the years, we have got offices full and technologically best supportive for working. However, the earlier used parameters for measuring efficiency must be dropped to understand a modern working system. It can’t be said that people working remotely work less or those in the office do great. The key is just to find out how work and workflow can be controlled and a better quality of work can be produced.

Now, technology has advanced enough to enable working from home or away from the offices. As desktops can be controlled remotely and real-time communication is possible with the telecommuting facility, work conditions come quite close to optimum as far as sharing, exchanging, and collaborative needs are concerned. This approach is quite suitable for the nature of job involved in web application development, and consultants are able to significantly increase their productive hours by avoiding encumbrance of preparing and moving to distant location of work.

Custom Software Development Company – A Selection Guide To Make A Right Choice

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

If you stress upon using unique tools and processes for your company, employing proprietary software is the next most logical step to lead your company as a brand positioned ahead of the competition. Critical to this, however, would be how you select a custom software development company that can understand the flow of your business and design proper supporting software in a cost-effective way.

Here is a brief on how this critical selection process can be handled in a careful way:

The project needs defining…

Before anything else, you need to be sure what specific requirements are propelling you towards a web project and how do you think it can be handled. Do as follows:

  • Detail the needs
  • Check the availability and expertise of your staff to coordinate the project
  • Define project requirements such as cost, functionality, and expected time of delivery
  • Make a list of things that must be incorporated and those that must be avoided
  • Realize how you want your ROI to be and have a proper way to measure it.

Initial checks on software development vendors…

Reviewing their website, you will get quite a bit of preliminary information you want. Check out the sites of all the prospective web development vendors.

  • Check how is their presentation. Does that attract or impress you?
  • Is their content logical, informative, and compelling?
  • Is there site working fine in all the functional aspects?
  • Do you get an idea of the types of projects they specialize in?
  • Do they hold experience to deliver your kind of project?
  • Are there testimonials and conformable success stories of great applications being delivered?
  • Is it clear how they maintain relationship with their clients?
  • Have they elaborated their contact information to include address and phone number and not just an email link?

A final probe to select the three best candidates and begin eliminations…

The only way you can be sure a vendor fits your needs perfectly is by probing deeply and getting clear and concise answers to all your queries and concerns.

  • Have a confidentiality agreement signed before you start revealing any project details.
  • Examine how closely they understand the scope of your project as you discuss it with them.
  • Do they offer any insights into technologies and approaches towards the solution?
  • Do they offer suggestions or constructive recommendations specifying the project?
  • Do they have a well-defined process for web development projects?
  • How do they define deliverables and pinpoint completion time?
  • Do you find them to have an element of passion and dedication for producing results?
  • Are they able to point out potential project risks and suggest alternatives with costing?
  • Do they offer services to support the software system after project completion?
  • Are you getting guarantees on timely delivery of error-free software?

Review your selected software web application development companies on all the above concerns. Be cautious while reviewing their proposals that the price they have quoted covers all the functionality you need and there should be no scope change to cost you more money. Be wary of the quote that’s too low to believe, as there would be hidden charges ahead. Select now!

Proceeding after the selection…

Now that you have selected a company, it’s time to prepare a contract. If you really want to ensure there are no miscommunications between you and your vendor, these are the “must have” elements as a part of contract: Project description, deliverables, and dates included in writing!

And it’s all done! Good luck in your search for the right partner!!