You’re ready to reach out for help with your digital product idea. But how to choose a software development company for an IT project, a company checks all the boxes?
At this point, questions must be stacking up in your head. And the more you think about it, the more of them pop up.
At Rubyroid Labs, we have helped more than 150 businesses benefit from outsourcing. Those include companies with a massive footprint, like Toyota, and aspiring startups backed by YCombinator. So, if experience is a priority, don’t wait: write to us now and we’ll tell you how much your project will cost and how much time it will take.
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- How Long Have They Been in the Market?
- Do They Have Testimonials on Independent Platforms?
- What Projects Have They Completed?
- Which Industries Have They Catered To?
- Have They Worked with Companies with a Similar Footprint?
- Have They Worked with Businesses from Your Region?
- How Well Do They Communicate?
- Can They Adjust to Your Requirements?
- What Is Your Time Difference and How Is It Handled?
- Do They Contribute to the Professional Community?
- Choosing a Software Development Team for Your Project
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But if you wish to consider more options first, keep reading. We’ve put together this list of questions you should be asking — and answers as tips for choosing a software development company to partner with.
How Long Have They Been in the Market?
A developer that has been providing services for several years must have a reputation to uphold. There should be plenty of information about them online. And that means they’re least likely to disappear or drop the ball on your project.
In addition, a company with experience will have efficient processes in place, validated through years of practice. This increases your chances of saving money and getting the expected product within a predictable timeframe.
Rubyroid Labs has been building websites, mobile apps and custom software for organizations since 2013. Our team includes more than 50 Ruby on Rails developers with an average of four years of professional experience. Senior engineers at Rubyroid Labs have been in the job for 6–8 years.
Do They Have Testimonials on Independent Platforms?
If the company’s had a foothold in the market for several years, it must have testimonials on social media and independent platforms like Clutch. Choose a software development company that has as many detailed reviews as possible and a good overall rating.
What Projects Have They Completed?
Building reputation and trust requires a developer to show some of their work. When choosing a software development company, check out the candidate’s portfolio. How many projects do they detail there? And are those, in any way, similar to yours? Do their case studies demonstrate experience with the technologies used in your project?
Which Industries Have They Catered To?
You may want to search for relevant industry-specific experience as you choose a software development company. This is especially important if your sector demands that you follow official laws and regulations (e.g. GDPR, HIPAA). So, as you flip through the developer’s portfolio, check for projects in your industry.
Most developers have skills fitting more than one field. At Rubyroid Labs, for example, we’ve built products for companies working in real estate, marketing, automotive, travel, fintech, drones, eCommerce, lifestyle and healthcare.
Have They Worked with Companies with a Similar Footprint?
Your company could be a corporation with multiple decision-making levels. In this case, you will want to manage a remote team that knows how to adjust to complex, and often regulated, business processes.
But if you’re a startup, you probably do things in a different manner: you move fast, analyze, pivot and experiment. How to choose a software development company then? Look for flexible programmers.
And that is another thing to consider when studying a developer’s portfolio. They may specialize in helping large companies or catering to small and mid-level ones — you know which is right for you.
However, some will have experience in a variety of sectors by business size and maturity — like Rubyroid Labs. Volvo, Mastercard and Toyota have outsourced tasks to us. But we have also helped startups backed by Y Combinator, Seedcamp and Capital Innovators, bringing their vision to life.
Have They Worked with Businesses from Your Region?
Sometimes cultural specifics matter. You probably prefer working with a developer who has previously partnered with organizations from your part of the world. So, when choosing the right software development company, look for locations of the clients listed in the developer’s portfolio.
If you look at ours, you will find clients from the USA, the UK, Germany, Australia and other countries. For companies far outside European time zones, we set up overlap hours to sync-up with their teams daily.
How Well Do They Communicate?
The ability of a developer to report and process feedback always matters. If you’re reading this post, you’re in the roughly five percent of the world’s population who speaks English.
It’s likely that your team or department also belongs to that select group. This means you need to find an app development company that either speaks English or your native language (if that’s different).
Moreover, you will want to occasionally contact any member of your outsourcing project team, rather than just a project manager. For example, we enable communication by ensuring that every developer, designer and tester on our board speaks English.
Can They Adjust to Your Requirements?
You may have your own vision or protocols in place for vetting candidates. And that’s OK. A good developer will adjust, doing all they can to make the process easy for you.
We give our clients three options to choose from. They include a test assignment, an interview with developers and any other form you think is best.
What Is Your Time Difference and How Is It Handled?
As you select an outsourcing partner, also known as offshoring or nearshoring, you should consider time zones.
However, don’t build your decision making exclusively around it. Companies specializing in catering to clients from overseas usually employ practices that allow for minimizing the impact of time differences.
For instance, we set overlap hours for clients from faraway places in order to sync up with them daily. And if they’re somewhere in Germany or the UK, we simply adapt to their business hours.
Do They Contribute to the Professional Community?
Finally, a transparent company with a name to protect will probably strive to establish authority in their industry or niche. And the best way to do so is by contributing to the professional community. Choose a software developer who offers courses, organizes events or shares their expertise online.
At Rubyroid Labs, we’ve run over 23 successful events. The number of attendees has exceeded 1300 on occasion. For the past six years, we have trained more than 1,500 Ruby on Rails development students, both online and onsite.
Our leadership runs a weekly podcast series talking about technology and related topics. We write about the challenges of Ruby on Rails development and the latest community news on our blog (yes, the one you’re reading now).
Ready for Choosing a Software Development Team for Your Project?
Choosing a software development team correctly boils down to three major aspects: experience, processes and reputation.
You will need to learn how much experience a developer has. Then you may want to check how relevant their experience is to your challenge in terms of industry, client size and region.
To streamline collaboration, you will need a developer who can adjust to your processes and specifics from day one.
And you will probably want to work with a company that others refer to and that cares about its name in the software development market.
Does finding that perfect fit across the whole list of parameters sound like a goal that can never be achieved? Maybe. But you can get as close to that as possible with Rubybroid Labs. Challenge us with your software development project and see for yourself.
