What Your Software Development Vendor Isn’t Telling You

When it comes to implementing a critical business application, many businesses seek to hire a software engineering firm to build their application. After building and implementing countless applications, we at Solution Street have found that there are key questions that businesses should ask potential vendors that are critical to the project’s success. Indeed, these questions will have a significant impact on cost and time not only for the initial phase, but for future phases and the overall success of the application and potentially their business.

What often transpires once a business decides to hire an external IT vendor is a discussion of offshoring vs. local and “who do you know that could do this?”. However, rather than beginning with the question of “who”, the more important question should be “how” a potential vendor will determine the best options for your business and application such as: technology choice; resources; and code reviews; among others.

In this article, I will discuss a number of important areas to review with vendors when evaluating them for a project and specific questions to ask within each category. Knowing the answers to these questions before deciding who to hire can make the difference between a project’s success or failure.

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