Driving successful digital transformation is all about making the right decisions and hiring the most competent professionals in your team. An app developer equipped with a skillset relative to the scope and objectives of your project can help you meet client expectations and provide users with a feature-rich, immersive UX. However, every app differs and can only be developed using specific programming languages, frameworks, tools, plugins, APIs, and libraries. Therefore, IT firms should focus on hiring the most experienced app developers and assess whether the developer has the required skills and expertise to create an app that meets requirements and expectations.
You’ll find many app developers offering their services online. But choosing the right developer when there are so many options available can be a huge headache for the recruiter. Therefore, in this post, we’ll make this process easier by suggesting 20 factors you should consider while hiring the right app developers to deliver solutions well aligned with your requirements and business goals.
12 Factors to Consider While Hiring the Right App Developer for Your Project
Here are the factors that’ll help you recruit the right app developer for your team:
The portfolio and reviews of the IT staff augmentation company:
Before partnering with an IT staff augmentation firm, checking their portfolio and case studies is important. You should also ask for the names and app store links of the applications their team has developed so far. Even if you’re working with an independent app developer, you can ask them to share their updated portfolio. You can also look at their previous work samples to evaluate their knowledge and expertise in their respective field.
Prior Experience
While partnering with an IT staff augmentation company, ensure their team has the required knowledge, expertise, and experience in developing the type of apps you’re looking for. If you’re working with an independent app developer, ensure they have an IT degree or certification. You must assess their knowledge regarding various software and mobile app development languages, frameworks, libraries, and methods. You should also ensure the developer has expertise in developing apps for different platforms. Remember! Hiring a team with varied expertise can help you efficiently deliver high-quality apps with diverse features and functionalities.
Communicate with Past Clients:
Whether you’re working with an IT staff augmentation firm or an app developer, checking, reviewing and evaluating their reputation is important. You can contact their previous clients to learn about their experience while working on a project with them and whether they managed to meet project requirements and client expectations.
Know Technologies Used:
You can ask the app developers or IT staff augmentation companies regarding the technology stack they use. You should ensure they use the latest technology and development techniques like Agile for building mobile applications. The agile development technique effectively drives faster mobile app development and delivery without compromising quality.
Timeline of Submission:
Ensuring the timely delivery of digital products is important for meeting client and user expectations. Therefore, companies should only work with an IT staff augmentation company or app developer with a reputation for completing objectives on time without compromising quality. If you’re looking to outsource a large-scale project to an IT staff augmentation company, ensure they have adequate app developers and resources to ensure timely delivery of the mobile app.
The Designing Process by Mobile App Developers:
A well-designed mobile app has a great effect on the mind of users. Not only do they find the interface highly responsive, innovative, and easily navigable, but they also consider your service or product reliable and reputable. Hence, discuss your design ideas with the mobile app developers to help them better understand your UI/UX. During the frontend designing and development process, analyze if they have an optimized template and a secure, perfectly working code. These things are important to consider in order to ensure data privacy and deliver exceptional user experiences.
Customer and Other Services Offered:
Customer service is a crucial aspect of any mobile app development service. Companies that don’t prioritize it are never able to grow sustainably. Providing excellent customer service leads to better customer loyalty, attracting new customers and retaining them for a long period. So, while working with an app developer or an IT staff augmentation firm, ask them to integrate chat features and in-app calling to drive seamless customer support. These features will help you assist the customers based on their specific requirements and issues. The customer support system should also be easy to use and highly responsive.
Proper communication between you and developers:
While we don’t recommend constantly nagging the developer during the development cycle, it’s important to regularly ask for updates. You should only opt for app developers or IT staff augmentation services that properly coordinate and interact with their clients and keep the entire development process as transparent as possible. It helps ensure that you and the developers are on the same page. Lack of communication can lead to misunderstanding and an end product that is far from what you expected it to be. You must provide the required details, and if you need some changes, explain them comprehensively so that the app developer can understand everything.
Code Ownership of the App:
You should consider code ownership before signing any contract with an IT staff augmentation firm. No matter how cheap or expensive the service might be, you should never give up or share the ownership of your code. If you have complete ownership of the code, you don’t need to remain dependent on the company.
Providing Service of Developing Wireframe:
If you don’t have an experienced, skilled UI/UX designer in your team, you may ask the IT staff augmentation firm before finalizing the project if they can develop the wireframe of your mobile app. A wireframe is the skeleton of your mobile app’s UI/UX design. It’s the foundation of your app. With an excellent wireframe, you have better chances of developing a mobile app that delivers. Exceptional user experiences. You can check the experience and portfolios of their designers and assess whether they understand your requirements. Many companies also offer free wireframe development services, while others offer this service at a highly discounted cost.
Testing Mobile App:
Before handing over the app, the QA engineers must rigorously test it on different devices. You can ask the QA engineer to monitor the quality and check for various issues and bugs in the backend and frontend infrastructure of the app. If there are bugs in the app, ask the developers to fix them as soon as possible. After testing, once all found bugs are removed, you can launch the app in the app stores. You should also check if the IT staff augmentation firm can assist you with deploying various app stores.
Proper Maintenance of the App:
After deploying your mobile app, it’s also important to maintain and update it regularly. Some bugs might not appear during the development and testing cycle, but they start appearing after the app is deployed. You can also fix security issues and add new features and functionalities to your app to engage users. You can ask your IT staff augmentation partner whether they provide the service of maintaining and updating mobile apps. For such services, companies often charge hourly, weekly, or monthly.
Conclusion
You should be careful whether you’re working with an independent, freelance app developer or an IT staff augmentation company. Following these tips can help you hire the best offshore, nearshore, and onshore app developers who can collaborate effectively with your team to create intuitive digital products.