Sometimes companies get stuck in making a decision of choosing a right development partner for their software projects and sometimes they repent after having chosen one. The bottleneck for both the situations is a number of factors that are considered before choosing an efficient offshore development partner. Every now and then there are a number of question that arises in mind:
Choosing the right development partner will bring you success but, choosing the wrong one will fetch you failure
- How to choose the right IT vendor?
- How to finalize the right software development partner for my job?
- What factors to consider when I want to outsource my web development work?
- Is it safe to outsource my software development work?
You have to fetch so many answers. It is understood that being responsible for the execution of your company’s software project, one would definitely be very cautious in selecting the right vendor. Any mistake done would cost an individual heavily and sometimes even result in project failure. So, why make mistake of choosing a vendor that would boast about its expertise and finally deliver null. Avoid risks much before your selection process. Read through the whole post to have a fair idea of the factors to consider before finalizing any offshore IT vendor.
Factors to consider before selecting a vendor:
Years in Business – Check if the business has been in existence for at least some years irrespective of the size of the company. No matter how big or small a company is, years of existence gives an idea about the stability.
Skills and Expertise – Matching skills is necessary as it will throw some light on the capability of the vendor. Expertise in a particular skill is also a decisive factor to again judge the vendor’s ability to deliver results. Without this there is no point going ahead with a vendor.
Similar kind of experience – This is again a very important factor for some, as this factor will make someone deeply understand the experience which a vendor has in developing similar applications or modules. You might not consider this factor also if you are comfortable with the vendor’s skills and expertise.
Quality Process – Ask the vendors what process/practice they have in place to check the overall quality of the work they do.
Communication – This factor plays an important part in selecting a vendor. Sometimes communication failure may lead to complete project failure. Hence, keep this in mind to evaluate a vendor. Also ask for ways of communicating in case of any unavoidable situation.
Pricing – Do not be very strict on pricing. Be flexible. Though, you might be having a budget for your project, you cannot risk quality for price if the cost overshoots by some hundred dollars. Still, try and evaluate a price with the vendor you have selected, at a pricing reasonable for both.
Transparency – Transparency in executing a project is an important one as the company paying for the services should know about the progress of its job. A transparent vendor would be the first one to check for after considering the above mentioned points.
Facilities for development – This might well be another point to check for before selecting a vendor as sometimes people claim to run a small sized company but they actually do the work themselves.
Post development phase – Companies should look for post development support from a vendor for some months as issues might arise at any point after the release of the development work.
Any reference –This can be of great help to check the credibility of the vendor.
There is no harm in outsourcing development work to others as vendors do sign a mutual NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) so that the idea to develop something remains safe at the hands of the owner. So, ask your vendors questions based on these factors and if you get anyone with at least 80% of satisfying answers then go ahead with them and you will never regret.
One of the companies I know which have been following these points religiously since the last 13 years is Mindfire Solutions. Do check them if you have any software project to be executed!
Everything @ Mindfire Solutions 