Understanding Mobile App Development Partnership

The search engine method is a bit blunt as you may not find exact results on the go, but you will get to explore a number of options.

When you search for partners for app development on Google, you may end up getting some prominent blogs that explain to you the sources from where you can find the partners.

Moreover, this method may also deliver you optimal results by finding you the ideal agency for your app development partnership.

The core pro of this method is that you get exactly to the point. It means that when you search on company forums, you will get exact results based on your search query.

Some of the online websites and forums that you can leverage to get the best development agency are:

• Clutch
• Good Firms

And many others!

These websites provide you with many relevant facts about the firms like:

• Number of employees
• Reviews
• Hourly rate
• Headquarters

You don’t need to worry about the authenticity of the information as these portals carefully analyze the legitimacy of the data posted on their website.

If you have someone in your network who has previously opted for the services of any development firm, it is best to get recommendations from them, if any.

Also, make sure that you verify all the vital factors while you talk to that person regarding the performance of the firm.

A recommended software development firm is the best option as people have working experience with it.

Alternatively, read more about finding and hiring developers in our guide.

Things like what tools are used,  who will undertake the project, how meetings are conducted are required to be known beforehand.

Only when you have good knowledge of all of these can you choose the best development partner for your product?

Here are some aspects of the product development workflow:

• The methodology of work: Every client has their own way of handling the development work. It will depend on you how you want to get the work done.

Work methodology plays a crucial role as you and your client need to work as per the same one to avoid miscommunication and errors. One of the best methodologies to work by is the Agile development methodology.

The basic steps of that methodology are:

Meet  > Plan > Design > Develop > Test > Evaluate

The meeting part is the crucial one, as you can ask questions from the client regarding the tool used. You can also clarify your requirements with them.

Post this comes the planning that includes everything regarding the development and designing in a fixed time (sprint).

In the end, comes the testing and evaluation. This part contains the testing of the so far created product and necessary instructions for the further process.

Apart from this, you can also go for the Scrum framework.

• Toolkit to work with projects: Tools are the weapons if product development is at war. The better they are, the greater the probability of getting a top-notch product from your product development partner.

Hence, it is necessary for you to check what toolkit your app development partners use.

The presence of innovative and latest tools will help you enhance user experience. Look for tools like Figma, Github, Jenkins, Jira, and others in their toolkit.

• Calls during projects: The best form of communication is verbal (face to face or over the phone. So, make sure that when you communicate with a software development partner, probe them about the internet speed in their locality.

If it is not up to the mark, refrain from hiring them for your project, as your final product may suffer due to a lack of communication.

As the product development process needs timely communication, you need to take this thing seriously while partnering with the client. The language barrier can also be an issue so keep a check on that also.

• Documents to sign up: One last thing that needs to be checked is if there are any documents that need to be signed before beginning the contract.

Do get an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) signed to protect your idea from being stolen. Also, create an RFP (Request for Proposal) document where you define your project goals, tasks, and other necessary information.

All these factors need to be carefully examined, as they will help you know how transparent the product development partner is.

But apart from the workflow and technical aspects, there are other emotional aspects that you need to verify via your communication with your client.

• The first one is the vision and values of your development partner for the product. If you and your client work with a common vision, the end result will be remarkable. You need to check this factor by asking them questions during communication.
• The second factor that defines the genuineness of the development partner is their probing during the initial sessions of screening. More are the number of discussion sessions and questions the firm has. Better and faster will be the final output.

The level of questioning is enough to describe the authenticity of your app’s development partner.

• The last point that you need to analyze via communication with the partner of your software development is proactiveness.

A lazy team will never get you quick results. Hence, the more the team is proactive, the better will be the quality of results. You can check this during the vendor selection process by analyzing how they present their vision for your idea.

It will make one thing clear in your mind. And that is if the partner for app development can provide you an awesome yet unique product for the market.

If you have the working knowledge of the latest tech stack or technology. You can check it with your partner if they can use it for the development of your product.

But if you are not that involved with technology, you can communicate with your client. Here you can find out which tech stack will be best for your software or app. Also, check why this tech stack is necessary for the product.

Some necessary technologies that all the app or software development partners use today are:

• Laravel
• Node JS
• React
• Vue JS
• React Native
• Flutter

And many more!

Our guide to the cost to hire a React.js developer explains everything from hourly rates to experience levels.

You also need to ask the client about their developers along with the tech stack. Your development partner should have enough developers to develop the product.

Moreover, they all should also be experienced enough and have expertise in developing tech solutions.

Discover the best Laravel tools and resources for developing robust web applications.

And that is what you need to check. Most of the development partners will not post much about their projects online.

This is because of the NDA signed with their clients. Albeit, you can check their other projects meant for public viewing. With this, you will get a better insight into their working outputs.

Another thing to check your client’s success is by referring to their testimonials. The testimonials are the reviews submitted by their customers.

You can check their online presence and references on websites like Clutch, Good Firms, etc. These websites will provide your legitimate reviews of the software development partners. Provided they are listed on them.

It is possible that the development partner may not have experience in the same industry. But, they may have rich experience in the same technology.

Check this factor and their past projects related to technology. They may do better than others.

Some of them are:

• Hourly rate
• Location of the software development partner
• Tech Stack used by the development agency
• The expertise of the team
• The request of the customer (if demands are high, the cost will be high)

It is necessary to learn about these factors that affect cost before opting for a product development partner.

Pricing models are basically of two types:

• Fixed Price

This is both a good and bad pricing model, followed by app development partners. You will get the best results on time with no provision to make any amendments in between.

The price and final product are also agreed upon at the beginning of this model. If any changes are required, it will add extra cost and extended deadlines.

• Time and Material

This model is much better than the previous one. After opting for this model, you get the flexibility of making changes to the product.

The rate is based on the number of hours, and you get absolute transparency of what’s being done. The fixed price model does not provide you with any supervision of the project.

You can go for any of these models based on your requirements and budget.

There are many reasons for that, like:

• Backed by amateur trainees and juniors instead of professionals.
• Poor quality code with countless bugs.
• Bad user experience leads to a decline in revenue (Use this ARR calculator to keep track of your performance.).
• Missing deadlines and launch dates.

In short, going for the partner of app development that offers $20/hr may cost you double.

The actual value of the project can be less or more than this. To know that, it is necessary to invest some upfront money in the discovery stage research.

It will help you in getting an exact estimate of the total price. The price of this research can go up to $15,000.

For that, the discovery phase is the best way. It includes everything related to the project, like idea validation, prototyping, market analysis, blueprinting, etc.

An analysis of these factors by a development partner helps build great software.