How to choose the best mobile app development agency for your project?

So, you know that you need a mobile app but not sure how to go about finding the right partner to develop the mobile app? In this article we help you with asking the right questions and seeking the right information to evaluate and find the best mobile app development company for your project. To start with, it is critical to do the necessary groundwork before you approach a potential vendor. Or you would be lost in a pile of questions and time wasted trying to organize everything. The prep before you start looking for a development partner As the basic foundation you need to go through the exercise of doing the feasibility analysis, business model determination and the value-add definition for your mobile app. Once you are done with the basic foundational elements, you need to find answers to a. Is there a similar app or a competitor that I can point to, for reference? b. The app require specialized domain know-how, am I equipped to act as the domain SME? c. What platforms are your target audience on? d. Do I have the technical knowhow to decide what technology would be a good fit for the app? e. Can I put together a specifications document for the project? f. Have I put together a budget for the project, at least a range? g. How soon I need this out in the market? It is absolutely vital to answer the questions as above and neatly document them. It is advised that you spend time to create as much documentation possible for the requirement for the software development companies to refer to. Quality mobile app development companies would assess how invested you are in your idea before even they decide to work on a proposal for you. So, it becomes vital that you put together a requirement document with as much information as possible, especially if you are a start-up and are not backed by major credentials. Approaching a development company with a one liner like ’I want to develop an app like Uber’ would simply make them not consider your project a serious opportunity. Now once you have gathered the information as requested above, then it is time to approach potential mobile app vendors. There are two ways to go about this a. Let the vendors come to you b. You hand-pick vendors and reach out Let the Vendors Come to You You can utilize websites like upwork.com, guru.com, peopleperhour.com or even put the requirement as a post on LinkedIn. The benefit is that thousands of vendors monitor these sites for projects and you would very likely get a barrage of proposals. The downside however is that reviewing proposals can become a daunting task and you would be overwhelmed separating good proposals from a sea of bad ones. And it is usual to receive costs across a very wide range. These sites become a good option for you if you are very tight on budget, bootstrapped and have a good amount of time at hand to go through a multitude of proposals to shortlist possible vendors. You hand-pick Vendors and Reach Out On the other you could use websites like unrfp.com, clutch.co, goodfirms.com and other similar sites to go through some of the reputed mobile application development companies. Each of these websites have their own ranking algorithms to help you understand the clear leaders in the respective technologies and software domains. If you have a sufficient budget and a precedence for quality, then go for this approach. Shortlist 5 to 10 top agencies using the sites mentioned above and spend your time helping them get the best understanding of your project to get close to accurate proposals. Always make sure your go through the client reviews, hourly rates and minimum thresholds, list of clients, past projects etc of a software development agency before shortlisting one. How to evaluate potential vendors? Irrespective of identifying potential software development agencies through Listing websites, Freelancing websites, Google or LinkedIn, you still need to evaluate them to pick the best fit. Assuming you have got the proposal from the agencies, you can ask the additional questions as below. This will help you rate and qualify agencies to figure out the right partner for you in addition to the cost – Have you built a similar app? What is your experience within the respective industry? Well, if the agency has developed a similar app, then it becomes a good reference point for you judge their quality. If possible, ask for a demo of the application to further understand the complexity and extent of the features they developed. Also, if your application is an industry specific application, e.g., Property Management Application, then it would be good to know the depth of experience they have within the Real Estate space and their domain knowledge. What is your development methodology and your project governance process? This is a critical element and you need to be sure the right approach is used. If your requirement is not clear and you expect it to evolve as you develop the app then the Agile Development Methodology would offer you the needed flexibility. The downside is that you may not have much visibility into what the end cost may be. But on the other hand, A Hybrid Agile Model would be better suited if you have a limited budget and are boot strapped. You start with an analysis phase to cement the scope and plan out the milestones, and in that way clearly ascertain the end cost, duration and deliverables. Make sure the agency has a standard procedure for project governance, ideally use a project management tool organize all project communication. Absence of a streamlined project governance process signals lack of experience and organization. What are your differentiators from the other software development agencies? Every company will have their own unique value proposition and asking this question would help in identifying the differentiators that would be beneficial for your project. How is your AMC or maintenance structured? What all options do you have? No software product or solution is a one-time thing, the code would need intermittent maintenance and updating to keep the app running. It is essential that you understand and pick the right maintenance strategy for your mobile app. Options might range from a yearly bucket of hours for a fixed fee, a dedicated team billed on a monthly basis, or pay as you go approach. Each of these approaches have their own benefits and downsides, so choose what would be best for your app and your pocket. What kind of coding and documentation standards do you follow? Code commenting and documentation are important for maintainability of the system. If you ever have to move the application to a different agency, then they would have a very hard time understanding the code if it is not properly structured, commented and enough documentation is not available. It would be good to request samples of previously created documentation and if possible, an audit of a section of code written by the agency previously. What is your testing methodology and what are the different types of testing you would do? It would be a disaster if you release an application that is not tested well. It is good to understand the agency’s testing policy, team strength and the different tests that they would do. Most of the agencies would also provide a warranty period between 30 to 90 days to fix bugs free of cost. Can you share a copy of your standard MSA? Master Services Agreement would give you a peek into the terms and conditions for the contract with the agency. Look for the termination clause to understand the penalty for stopping the project in between, the IP ownership clause, jurisdiction for any legal action, payment terms and handover clauses etc to ensure you are not on the losing side. Can your share relevant references that I can talk to? Request for a minimum of 3 references and try talking to each one of them to collect their feedback working with the agency. This will help identify potential threats and probable operational pattern. It is advised to be prepared with a list of questions to ask. Can you share the profiles of the key team members? It would be good have a look at the profiles of the leadership team and if possible, the profiles of the proposed team members for your project. Having a right mix of experienced people for your project would help keep the costs down as well as some standards for coding are used. What is the usual structure of a project team? The composition of the team would point towards the quality of the final deliverable you can expect. The ideal team would have a UI/UX person, a Business Analyst, Developers (You might need mobile and web developer based on the nature of the app) QA Engineers and an Optional technical Architect at a minimum. You might also need a frontend and backend developers along-with DevOps personnel in cases where you may have a web component involved as well. Conclusion Going through the questions as above and the respective answers you receive from the agencies would help you assess the quality of each vendor. But apart from the cost and the technical solution, it is important that you are comfortable working with the vendor. Do not shy away from opportunities to interact with the agency’s team to understand their wavelength, cultural compatibility and trustworthiness. Feeling comfortable working with an agency is as important as the cost or the solution itself. Always look for a partner with good business continuity and who stresses on a long term-relationship, and is flexible enough to accommodate any limitations you may have.

So, you know that you need a mobile app but not sure how to go about finding the right agency to develop the mobile app? In this article we help you with asking the right questions and seeking the right information to evaluate and find the best mobile app development company for your project.

To start with, it is critical to do the necessary groundwork before you approach a potential vendor. Or you would be lost in a pile of questions and time wasted trying to organize everything.

The prep before you start looking for a development partner

For the basic foundation, do the feasibility analysis, business model determination and the value-add definition for your mobile app. You need to find answers to the questions as below, once done with the basic foundational elements –

Is there a similar app or a competitor that I can point to, for reference?
Does the app require specialized domain know-how, am I equipped to act as the domain SME?
What platforms are your target audience on?
Do I have the technical knowhow to decide what technology would be a good fit for the app?
Can I put together a specifications document for the project?
Have I put together a budget for the project, at least a range?
How soon I need this out in the market?

It is absolutely vital to answer the questions as above and neatly document them. We advise that you spend time to create as much documentation possible for the requirement for the software development companies to refer to. Quality mobile app development companies would assess how invested you are in your idea before even they decide to work on a proposal for you. So, it becomes vital that you put together a requirement document with as much information as possible, especially if you are a start-up and are not backed by major credentials. Approaching a development company with a one liner like ’I want to develop an app like Uber’ would simply make them not consider your project a serious opportunity.

Now once you have gathered the information as requested above, then it is time to approach potential mobile app vendors. There are two ways to go about this

Let the vendors come to you
You hand-pick vendors and reach out

Read 5 Critical Mistakes to Avoid When Developing a Mobile App

Let the Vendors Come to You

You can utilize websites like Upwork, Guru, PeoplePerHour or even put the requirement as a post on LinkedIn. The benefit is that thousands of vendors monitor these sites for projects and you would very likely get a barrage of proposals. The downside however is that reviewing proposals can become a daunting task and you would be overwhelmed separating good proposals from a sea of bad ones. And it is usual to receive costs across a very wide range.

These sites become a good option for you if you are very tight on budget, bootstrapped and have a good amount of time at hand to go through a multitude of proposals to shortlist possible vendors.

You hand-pick Vendors and Reach Out

On the other you could use websites like unrfp.com, clutch.co, goodfirms.co and other similar sites to go through some of the reputed mobile application development companies. These websites have their own ranking algorithms to help understand the clear leaders in the respective technologies and software domains. If you have a sufficient budget and a precedence for quality, then go for this approach. Shortlist 5 to 10 top agencies using the sites mentioned above and spend your time helping them get the best understanding of your project to get close to accurate proposals.

Always make sure your go through the client reviews, hourly rates and minimum thresholds, list of clients, past projects etc of a software development agency before shortlisting one.

How to evaluate potential vendors?

Irrespective of identifying potential software development agencies through Listing websites, Freelancing websites, Google or LinkedIn, you still need to evaluate them to pick the best fit. Assuming you have got the proposal from the agencies, you can ask the additional questions as below. This will help you rate and qualify agencies to find the right partner for you in addition to the cost –

Have you built a similar app? What is your experience within the respective industry?

If the agency has developed a similar app, then it becomes a good reference point for you judge their quality. If possible, ask for a demo of the application to further understand the complexity and extent of the features they developed. Also, if your application is an industry specific application, e.g., Property Management Application, then it would be good to know the depth of experience they have within the Real Estate space and their domain knowledge.

What is your development methodology and your project governance process?

This is a critical element and you need to ensure the use of the most suitable approach. If your requirement is not clear and you expect it to evolve as you develop the app then the Agile Development Methodology would offer you the needed flexibility. The downside is that you may not have much visibility into what the end cost may be.

On the other hand, A Hybrid Agile Model is better suited if you have a limited budget and are bootstrapped. Starting with the analysis phase to cement the scope and plan out the milestones, to understand end cost, duration and deliverables.

Ensure the agency has a standard procedure for project governance, ideally use a project management tool organize all project communication. Absence of a streamlined project governance process signals lack of experience and organization.

What are your differentiators from the other software development agencies?

Every agency has their own unique value proposition and asking this question might uncover the differentiators beneficial for your project.

How is your AMC or maintenance structured? What all options do you have?

No software product or solution is a one-time thing, the code needs intermittent maintenance to keep the app running. It is essential that you understand and pick the right maintenance strategy for your mobile app. Options might range from a yearly bucket of hours for a fixed fee, a dedicated team billed on a monthly basis, or pay as you go approach. These approaches have their own benefits and downsides, so choose what would be best for your app and your pocket.

What kind of coding and documentation standards do you follow?

Code commenting and documentation are important for maintainability of the system. If you ever have to move the application to a different agency, then they would have a very hard time understanding the code if it is not properly structured, commented and enough documentation is not available. It would be good to request samples of previously created documentation and code snippets. If possible, run an audit of a section of code written by the agency previously using an expert developer.

What is your testing methodology and what are the different types of testing you would do?

It would be a disaster to release an inadequately tested application. It is good to understand the agency’s testing policy, team strength and the different tests that they would do. Most of the agencies would provide a warranty period between 30 to 90 days to fix bugs free of cost.

Can you share a copy of your standard MSA?

Master Services Agreement would give you a peek into the terms and conditions for the contract with the agency. Look for the termination clause to understand the penalty for stopping the project in between. Also assess the IP ownership clause, jurisdiction for any legal action, payment terms and handover clauses etc. too.

Can your share relevant references that I can talk to?

Request a minimum of 3 references and talk to all three to collect their feedback about the development agency. This will help identify potential threats and probable operational pattern. We advise to prepare a list of questions to ask before calling the references.

Can you share the profiles of the key team members?

Review the profiles of the leadership team and if possible, the profiles of the proposed team members for your project. A good balanced team would help keep the costs down as well as ensure some standards for coding are used.

What is the usual structure of a project team?

The composition of the team would point towards the quality of the final deliverable you can expect. The ideal team would have a UI/UX person, a Business Analyst, Developers (You might need mobile and web developer based on the nature of the app) QA Engineers and an Optional technical Architect at a minimum. You might also need a frontend and backend developers along-with DevOps personnel in cases where you may have a web component involved as well.

Conclusion

The respective answers you receive from the agencies following the questions stated above, would help you assess the their quality. But apart from the cost and the technical solution, it is important that you are comfortable working with the vendor. Do not shy away from opportunities to interact with the agency’s team to understand their wavelength, cultural compatibility and trustworthiness. Feeling comfortable working with an agency is as important as the cost or the solution itself.

Always look for a partner with good business continuity and who stresses on a long term-relationship, and is flexible enough to accommodate any limitations you may have.