Let’s continue our talk about getting a decent app developer or a software development company that will make a total peach of an app. In the first part of the article we’ve discussed basic issues like deciding what you want and being closely involved into the development process. Now we move on to more technical stuff, like intellectual property rights or time/billing tracking.
7. Time & Material vs. Fixed Prices: what is the difference?
It may sound overly technical and pertaining to accounting matters, but this issue actually determines if you will blow your budget with this app. Time & Material costs mean that you control everything and pay for each portion of work and materials employed by software designers. You need to follow closely what is being done so that not to spend too much.
Fixed price means that you can relax a little and leave details to a developer. However, if you need to make sudden changes or there are troubles with app development the way you want, you will be charged additional fees.
If you are 100% sure about the concept of your app, settle for fixed price. If you plan to make changes on the go, Time & Material is definitely better.
The app is not only a nice icon and useful features. Primarily it s a new source code that makes everything function. So ensure that you are granted the title to this source code just as you are granted all rights to the app. Also mind that you may need to purchase items from paid libraries used in the app, so ask the team to include these costs into the budget. A custom library of a software developer cannot be purchased, so reserve your rights to use the app without paying royalty every time it was downloaded. All in all, you should have full title to the code because you may want to change a software developer and entrust the app to some other web guru.
A loner can be a good choice if the app you want is simple and has few basic features. It also costs less than a bunch of specialists. Yet even the simplest app needs a nice shell, so add a designer, too. Now you have the task to find two strangers who will get on with each other and do what you want them to do – in time.
Hiring a whole software development company is more expensive, yet the whole staff is well adjusted to common software development and there is always a manager to remind them that they have tasks on hand.
Ask the company about the staff size and what portion of it will be dispatched to build an app for you. This way you will ensure that enough people are involved into software development .
Think opposite if a job is small: few people with ample professional background will be a perfect match.
Yes, it is quite OK to do that. Companies that hire software developers screen over stacks of CV’s before they find a right candidate. You has the right to do the same and learn about professional background and actual experience of people you plan to hire.
If you value your money it is a natural thing to ask. If you can access a tracking tool, you can control who spent how many hours while performing the task. Besides, if you are on track, you can see the problems and possible deviations in the app development that can be fixed on the go (this option is present in more sophisticated recent tracking tools).
From my personal knowledge I can tell for sure that the best way to see if a developer or a company is worth the money they ask for is to see what they have already done and how well their products were accepted. So ask what apps developed by them are now presented on AppStore or GooglePlay. If not a single link to apps can be provided and reviewed prior to striking a deal, think twice and look elsewhere for more professional and successful developers.
Customers also mean much in the records of professional accomplishments. Those who know how to get clients for software company know this rule, too. So do not rely on testimonies or reviews on the website – people are all too glad to fake them for money, or a couple of friends can easily pretend to be a bunch of happy customers. Ask for portfolios or lists of companies or customers they have cooperated with. Definitely, some products may be protected by confidentiality agreements, yet every astute freelance software developer obtains approvals to include at least some features of their products into portfolios to impress future customers with. This line in the portfolio is as treasured by any software developer as hard-earned cash, as it indicates the developer’s professionalism and workload that stands for true skills. So hesitations or excuses for not sharing portfolios signal that something is deeply wrong with this business and you’d better entrust your task to some other agency or a freelance software developer.