How can you find the right software development company for your business?
You can choose a software development company for your business based on the following criteria:
- Cost-effectiveness: It is not advisable to choose a company that offers very low prices as this may mean that their work is not of good quality and they are not very experienced. But, that does not mean you have to spend large amounts of money either. It is usually best to choose a company that offers prices in the middle range.
- Company expertise: You must always enquire about the expertise of the company before choosing them. It is best to choose a company that has extensive experience in the field..
- Communications: It is always better to have a company that communicates the progress or the delay of the project with you continuously. This way, the product will be closer to your expectation and will do the job that you want it to for your business.
- Company portfolio: It’s good to get an idea of the kinds of projects the company has done before. You can determine whether the company’s methodologies are suited to your requirements, and choose to work with them accordingly.
- After-development support: Discuss beforehand whether the company will provide support to you after the development is done. Make sure they commit to software maintenance and backup services. These are as important as the development itself.
Why are software development task estimations regularly off by a factor of 2-3?
There are several reasons why estimations may be off.
- Software development is a continuous task, unlike other tasks which are fixed.
- The people who estimate and the people who do the actual development may not always be the same people.
- Project requirements may change when the project is going on, causing the time requirements to change as well.
- It is easier to estimate for projects with a smaller team. A project with a larger number of people will have greater chances of unknowns. As a result, the estimations may be off.
- The architects will want to show their worth and will try to find faults with other’s work. This can be counter-productive to the project.
- The developers may leave the company halfway through the project, or might fall sick, or work from home, which will affect the delivery time.
