It’s much easier being a software programmer now than it was twenty, thirty years ago. Thanks to the tremendous growth of communications technology, the introduction of the internet, and the subsequent explosion of PC programs and smartphone applications, software development is in high demand.
Likewise, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry has also experienced a similar boost. As more and more businesses recognize the advantages of delegating back-office responsibilities and short-term projects to professionals outside their company, third-party outsourcing agencies are flourishing.
Ergo, finding a software programmer to outsource your software development needs to? Shouldn’t be too hard. In fact, you can simply jump online and Google companies near you. Rest assured you’ll get at least a couple hits.
However, choosing a software programmer? That’s where the challenge sets in. There is no shortage of options, but you need to make sure you pick the right one. If you want to work with the best possible company to develop your app, you should avoid making these five mistakes.
Basing Decisions on Price
We get it—outsourcing may be an extremely cost-effective solution for small businesses to meet their software development needs … but it still costs money. Businesses that are on an especially tight budget usually filter their software programmer options depending on price, and they sadly often go with the cheaper ones.
The problem with using price to decide which outsourcing software development company to hire is that you’re potentially compromising value. Hard as it is to accept, the best things in life aren’t always free. Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for.
Price may not always indicate quality or experience, but do you really want to take that risk?
The few extra dollars you saved won’t matter in the long run if you end up outsourcing your programming needs to a sloppy, inexperienced programmer that ends up damaging or delaying your project.
Basing Decisions only on Experience
Here’s the thing: experienced software developers have obviously been in the game for quite a while. Depending on the heft of their resume, they’ve seen the rise and fall of software trends, encountered multiple “cutting-edge” techniques in coding and programming, and have used or dabbled in numerous development technologies.
Experience is an important factor to take into consideration when choosing a software programmer, but it’s not the only factor worth weighing. If you immediately eliminate new companies simply because they haven’t been in the industry as long as others have, you might miss the opportunity to work with bright, intelligent software programmers with fresh perspectives and original approaches.
Earlier, we mentioned the disadvantage of using price as a deciding factor. When choosing a company to outsource to, you shouldn’t base your decision on just experience, either. Technical expertise, work ethic, ease of communication, creativity and reliability—there are at least a dozen other factors you should consider during the selection process. Experience is but a fraction of the potential.
Choosing Outdated Software Programming Companies
This is one of the reasons why it’s important that you, as a potential client, stay up-to-date regarding the latest trends and technologies in software development. If you don’t know what’s dated and what’s not, you could end up hiring a company that still uses programming software and methods from eight or ten years ago.
While we believe that time-tested methods have obviously earned their striped and are therefore worth implementing, a technical, technological industry like software development prioritizes advancement above all else. For this industry, new is always better.
Ergo, hiring an outsourcing company that uses outdated, obsolete technology to code your app can cause problems during the actual launch. Compatibility issues, region-specific issues, and personal user preference are just some sample problems you might encounter if you end up outsourcing your app to outmoded software developers.
Setting Unrealistic Standards
This mistake is quite common amongst business owners who are fairly new to the software development sphere. They have a vision of how they want their app to function and how they want it to serve their consumers. They’re introduced to the capabilities of talented, proficient software programmers and they are just blown away. Thus, they set their expectations on a level that simply isn’t feasible—or practical.
Outsourcing a software programmer isn’t the same as hiring a magician—they can’t just conjure the exact app you imagined from out of thin air. Vague ideas and generalized concepts are good starting points, but you need to add details and specifications if you want the app to actually work. Ergo, when hiring a programmer, don’t just describe what you want, pay the fee, and then expect something amazing.
Related Content: 5 Important Things to Understand about Hiring Software Developers
Setting an Unrealistic Timeline
This is very similar to the previous point. Aside from having impractical, unfeasible standards regarding the software programmer’s capabilities, some businesses also have unrealistic expectations regarding the time it takes to fully develop an application. You have entrepreneurs who believe software can be developed in three days. You have others who expect a fully functional program within a week.
Figuring out the “average” time it takes to fully develop software can be difficult as the timeline often depends on the scale and complexity of the software. However, something that rings true to all development projects is that the timeline needs to be flexible in order to allow for debugging, quality assurance testing, and further edits.
Always give your software programmer a reasonable timeline (you can ask industry veterans if you’re unsure what “reasonable” is) and add a bit of wiggle room to allow for contingencies or potential delays.
All in all, outsourcing your software development needs is a smart move. It’s a cost-effective solution for both small and medium-sized businesses looking to break into a new, lucrative industry. If you don’t have an existing in-house development team, you don’t have to go through the trouble of finding, hiring, and managing a new one. On the other hand, if your business does have a dedicated development team, you can supplement their capabilities with an expert software programmer or two to yield best results.
