How to find a reliable long-term software development partner

So, as it was said, there is no need to take ill-conceived action when searching for a software development partner. Hustle will only result in wrong decisions and disappointment. You should take a step back and put things into perspective. Your main goal at this stage is to make a succinct but all-encompassing introduction about your product, which will deliver the message and evoke your partner's engagement. Think of what you are willing to achieve with this project and your team's core values, and explain their role in the process. You already have the idea of your project in your head and know how it is supposed to work. Now you need to pass this knowledge on to your partner, including your target customers, strategy, and other technical aspects. Feel free to use visualizing tools for making outlines, presentations, and canvas to make your meeting more easy-going and interactive. Remember, how you approach your job, and partner selection speaks volumes about your personality and attitude, so do your best to keep your part succinct but informative.

Pacing is another vital topic you should think through in advance. Software development is an increasingly competitive industry where the right timing is everything. Some tasks require urgent completion, while others may be delayed until later. If you have a new bright idea, you have to hurry up with its release before your rivals do that for you. That's why meeting deadlines is crucial, so try to complete important tasks early. If you run out of time and the task has to be done soon, JavaScript programming on React Native platform would be your time-saver. You may create apps for iOS and Android using the same codebase. If the deadline isn't pressing, you'd better use native development, which means you should write a separate application for each system. This option enables you to add more complex features to the software, but the price will also go up.

Once you have defined your final objectives and set the deadlines, your next move is to determine how much money you are ready to invest in your project. This criterion is often overlooked by business owners who want to get more yet pay less. Refrain from buying into cheap offers. Behind reduced prices stand low quality and insufficient expertise. Small check does not guarantee timely task completions, nor does it produce high-end results.

Consequently, you will end up paying even more for underworked software. Remember that the price for good quality should be reasonable, so give it some doubt whenever you are offered a cheap partnership. To prevent such situations, get familiarized with the average price list and calculate your possible expenses. Make sure your project is worth that money and will bring you profit. Otherwise, all your efforts are in vain.

Budgeting is essential for effective project management. Most business owners are desperate to save up and foresee unexpected contingencies, but budget overruns are sometimes inevitable. Almost every business owner has faced budget overshooting at least once. If overruns are too frequent, it is a vivid sign that you are failing at the planning stage. Continuous overruns often have negative consequences in the long run, so you should try to eliminate them yourself or ask for expert help until it has devastated your business.

We all have times when we lack the inspiration to create bright ideas. It usually occurs because of a hectic daily routine that leaves no room for some rest and creativity. We become preoccupied with financial, organizational, and other concerns and, therefore, cannot produce new concepts and bring them to life. Some people are simply not as good at visualizing as others, so they delegate this task to people whose imagination knows no boundaries. Sharing your views with your business partner helps you look at the same subject from a completely different perspective. It is helpful with targeting segmented app users and learning their behavioral triggers.

You can gain a competitive advantage by developing software ahead of your competitors and making it available on the market. However, you may lose out on opportunities if you run at recurrent delays in completion or launch. Your company is constantly growing, and so does the number of your tasks and responsibilities. At a certain point, it becomes overwhelming to cope with so much work, and businesses start looking for a partner for software development. If the problem resonates with you, consider searching for one as well.

No one can be an expert in all software development areas. Each field has various technicalities, and learning all of them is virtually impossible. For this reason, you may want to turn to an expert team who are more experienced in a particular area and whose expertise allows you to complete tasks faster and better. This solution might cost you money, but it is time-saving, and the result will likely pay off.

It will be easier to spot the most suitable prospects if you know what qualities they must possess. You can kickstart with Google Search results to get a general overview of pricing, candidates' qualifications, and backgrounds. Google provides popular results relevant to your query, though not necessarily applicable to your area of expertise. One platform where you can read people's honest feedback and recommendations on how to find a software development partner is Quora. An alternative way is to go to Clutch. It will narrow down the search results by region, project size, hourly rate, type of project, etc.

Similar to comments, testimonials may give you a better comprehension of how the business functions and treats its customers. For example, remarks regarding a company, goods, and services are referred to as testimonials. It's just people's opinion about a certain organization, which is barely more transparent than usual customer comments. Companies will only post positive feedback on their landing page, so the rate can be enormously exaggerated. Nonetheless, you can still get insights into the company's operating system and what drives customer satisfaction.

The first thing you should be wary of is their expertise and qualifications. You would be loath to work with someone who has no basic perception of your product and is more interested in getting income rather than helping your company grow. Even if they possess some impressive and top-notch skills, avoid jumping into forming business ties with them. They might be bluffing or overestimating their capabilities but, in fact, do not correspond to any of your requirements.

Assessing a prospective partner's previous experiences and domain knowledge will give you the most accurate description of their skills. Their prior cases reveal how they structure their work and what distinguishes them from the other candidates. You will also figure out how well they can cope with tasks with different difficulty levels and deal with stress in challenging situations. In addition to their problem-solving abilities, case studies demonstrate how fast they learn and adapt to the changing working environment and how inventive they are while implementing an actionable software solution.

Consider values to be the face of your company. In other words, it is an image of your business reflected in how you treat your team, organize your workplace, set goals, and lead your interaction with customers. If you transfer this value to your potential customers and show them real team spirit, they will commit more eagerly to your mutual development. Feel free to ask them to conduct a video call or, even better, come to their office and speak directly to their team members to ensure their culture coincides with yours.

Communicating your needs effectively is vital to a fruitful and long-lasting partnership. Any profitable cooperation relies on how you converse, and this especially holds true for software development. If the interlocutor reluctantly shares info about their company, this is a major red flag that can turn your dream project into a nightmare. Of course, everyone tries to keep it formal when they meet the person for the first time because they want to make a good impression. It is ok to feel nervous, but try to lighten things up with a smile and a small ice-breaker. If you feel like you are the only one who keeps the conversation going, it is probably not the person you are looking for.

Your potential partner may possess excellent development and management skills, but if they have little experience working in your company's field, it will be hard for them to integrate with your workflow and time-consuming for you to explain important details. It will take a bit more time to gain enough knowledge in this area, but, despite this, they can show impressive results in the future.

If you outsource your development, there is always a risk of losing your intellectual property on the product. These questions should be discussed beforehand and legally documented, so you would be the rightful owner after the partnership is finished.

One more obstacle which can prevent you from running a lucrative business is misunderstandings based on third-party involvement. If you can't speak directly to the person, it can take ages to deliver your message, and then you need to wait again for their reply. It is very inconvenient and can drag on task completion for weeks, consequently holding up the whole process.

Companies with budget overruns and needing more expertise in a particular field face difficulties getting ahead without outer support. But, more reasons stand behind this decision: lack of new ideas, constant delays, etc.

If you don't know how to choose the software development partner, we propose several steps:

• Conduct in-depth research.

• Check testimonials and assess competence.

• Study cases.

• Define the company's values.

• What is your company's scope?

• Do you have successful cases working with similar projects?

• Who is your ideal client?

• How do you organize your workflow?

• How do you guarantee quality task completion?

• Who is going to work on my project?

• What criteria do you consider when hiring new developers?

• How often do you change projects?

• What are your rates and terms of payment?

• What are your thoughts on my project? 

At Dworkz, we have been working on various projects since 2004 and have had numerous successful cases which add to our expertise and customer satisfaction. We help companies find their unique edge over competitors and present it in a simple and comprehensible way. Feel the magic of collaborating with our highly inventive and responsible team!