Hiring a developer to build your website or app is a big deal. To help introduce you to the process and set expectations with your future developer, we’ve outlined 3 questions to ask prospective developers, so that you hire the right one.
1. What is your process for communicating with your client?
The developer can be the greatest coder in the world—but if they don’t keep you informed at every step of your project, no amount of coding expertise will matter. Good, regular communication is essential for your project. Without it, you can’t execute your vision. Consider daily email updates, weekly check-in calls or calls on an as-needed basis. If your needs are different than your developer’s come to a compromise that will keep you informed of progress and your developer informed of your requirements.
2. How do you define the work I’m requesting?
Developers don’t build anything complex without requirements and visuals. A good developer will put together a requirements document, complete with mockups and wireframes (which are just visuals of your application) before writing a single line of code. In addition, a prototype may be used to help you define the requirements.
3. Can I make changes to the project along they way if necessary?
Your original project is typically defined by the features needed to launch your product at the MVP stage (Minimum Viable Product). This allows you to take it to market and start to gather feedback, analytics, and possibly a few dollars! One of the givens of software development is that a project usually takes longer and becomes more complicated than planned. This is because incremental changes are introduced and new features thought up. In order to prevent a slip to the timeline, the developer can keep a running list of your ideas to be added after MVP. These features can be bundled and launched in controlled releases allowing you to continuously gather feedback and analytics.
Conclusion
These may seem like three, basic questions to ask, but they are important to the success of your project. You must be in sync with your developer. If your developer is clear on the project requirements, the lines of communication remain open and you both understand the implications of expanding requirements then your project is set up for success. If either you or the developer is difficult to reach or if your requirements change frequently then your project timeline will stretch.
If you have questions about the development process or if you’re ready to start your project, visit our quotation page. We look forward to hearing from you!