You have a fantastic app idea. You’re ready to invest in one of the best app development companies on the market.
Everything appears to be in order until this point. What could go wrong?
Your willingness to hire the best app companies is separate from how much you plan to invest. However, it is an essential factor in hiring later. There are many things you could fall prey to.
- The sales team’s eloquence
- Flashy websites
- Google search page top ranking
- Low cost
- Beautifully written proposal
Instead of being overwhelmed by the company’s success stories or memorable sales quotes, we recommend that you set some criteria based on the project requirements and then sign the deal with the one that meets all of them.
These criteria will assist you in finding the right application development company to handle your app development project. This criteria list can help you find your project’s best app development company.
Visit Their Website to Get Your Experience
Make a list of the top app development companies you think could handle your project. Next, go on to their websites and share your experiences. It is crucial to make a list because it will help you plan the screening process.
Here are the details for this two-step process
Step 1: Make a list of top app development companies.
You can search the internet to find the best companies for your project. You could use these criteria to include an app development company on your top 10 list of app development companies:
- Depending on the project requirements, company size
- Global delivery capability
- Support in local languages
- Resource location in-country
- Ability to meet legal and regulatory requirements
These details can be found on the website of the app-making company.
Spoiler Alert! Top-ranking companies in Google search results might not be the best match. For example, they might be skilled in SEO or advertising but not necessarily app development.
We recommend that you carefully examine the website from the User Experience perspective. This will lead to the next step.
Step 2: Assess the Experience on Their Site
This is the final step.
- UX and UI
- Clarity of content in the form of font size, text size, and images
- Navigation
Consider your experience with app development companies and remove those that provide poor website experiences from your list.
A diverse range of work
You can explore the app portfolio of the other companies to ensure you stay aware of the meetings or on-calls while learning about the type of app development projects they have worked on previously.
You can start by looking at the types of apps created based on technology and design. Once you have a general idea about the app developers’ app development abilities and strengths, it is time to check out the work done concerning your app development requirements.
You can find case studies that provide a detailed description of the application. Then, you can eliminate companies that don’t make the desired impact.
Detailing and Structure of the Proposal
Ask the companies that aren’t listed to submit a proposal and have them evaluated by IT and business leaders within your company. Be sure to properly prepare all questions for solicited proposals based on the problem and goal.
Take a look at the proposal to see how well they addressed the “what,” the “how,” and the “why” aspects.
- Business requirements
- Design
- Development
- Execution
- Test
- Deployment
These are some questions you need to address in your app development proposal.
- What level of understanding do they have for your business needs?
- Which solution are they proposing?
- How credible is the solution proposed?
- What resources do they have to solve the problem?
- What is their ultimate goal in the app development process
- What will it take to get the job done?
- What metrics will they use to measure the success of the solution’s implementation?
- What are the most important metrics?
- Is there any evidence that they are qualified and competent?
- Is there an added value proposition?
Only work with app development companies that have provided detailed answers to all questions.
The team behind Proposal Development
Ask the app development agency for the names and titles of all people involved in proposal creation. For example, the sales team often creates proposals based on promises they made to companies without consulting the technology department.
However, they may not be the right people to do “development.” Understanding if your tech team is willing to commit to the same in terms of features, functionality, timeline, and budget.
Tech + Sales Team should propose. This is because a salesperson will be better equipped to understand customer pain points. At the same time, the tech team will be able to validate their ability to solve these problems within a set timeframe.
Technology Stack
A technology stack is a combination of frameworks and programming languages used to develop software products. They are collectively called a stack.
A well-planned technology stack is crucial so your application development project can be launched smoothly.
Collaborate with the application development company to choose a technology stack. Consider the following:
- Type of application
- Time to market
- Application security
- App development platform
- Strengthening the developer community
- Talent availability
- Development costs
- Migration
- Scalability
Talk about the technology stack with the other app development companies on your list, and then choose the one with the most confidence and experience in handling similar app development technologies.
The Course of Action: Development Methodology
Only 5-6 companies might have remained on your list after you’ve reached this stage of the selection criteria. You will need to talk with the remaining companies about how they approach app development projects.
A software development cycle typically has 6 phases. Therefore, you need to know the process at each stage of software application development.
You should use these parameters to evaluate all app development service providers.
- Requirement gathering: Get to know your customers and their perspectives on why they want to create the software. Also, understand why the functionalities and features you suggest are so important.
- Design: Learn about the process of wireframing software and the team that creates working models.
- Software Development: Find out about their development team, including their experience and technical background.
- Quality Assurance: Learn about their quality assurance procedures and the team responsible for identifying bugs at each phase.
- Maintenance: Find out more about the maintenance procedures that will be taken to ensure that your app is secure, robust, and competitive.
This is a conclusive criterion. Next, analyze their software application development process and efficiency in determining scope. Also, consider whether it will be iterative.
Refer to References
Referral checks are the final criteria for determining how they relate to previous clients. When calling past clients of the app development agency, be sure to ask the right questions and have an objective.
- Verify their claims
- Identify strengths and weaknesses
- Learn more about their technology-focused, proactive approach
References may give incomplete information. Try reading subtle verbal cues or nonverbal cues.
Ethics and Values
It isn’t easy to assess the ethics and values of a company before you work with them. However, it is possible to assess to get to know their opinions and the measures they have taken to uphold ethics within the company.
These are the key elements to consider when evaluating a company:
- Participation by all team members
- All parties involved should be equal
- Transparency: Every stakeholder has access to the information they need
- Client satisfaction is a sign of accountability
- Reacting ability
- Capability to achieve strategic goals
- Optimized use of resources
Choose the app development companies that meet your needs at this stage.
Conclusion
Once you have all the information, you can choose the company you feel is the best fit for your project.
