Best practices when cooperating with a software house

Why does cooperating with software houses have so many benefits?

Cooperation with any software house has its pros and cons, but I am convinced that there are definitely more advantages. There are plenty of figures available online that show the effectiveness of this software development path. First of all, you need to pay attention to cost-effectiveness. It is estimated that entrusting product development to qualified software house developers can save up to 59% of the budget. Software quality is also increasing. We’re talking about up to 31% of cases. Furthermore, I would like to share one more important fact with you. As the CEO, CTO or the person responsible for product development, you can save your time and engage in other activities thanks to the cooperation with a software house. You don’t have to worry about organizing an in-house team and a number of other matters associated with it. It’s simple – find an effective software house that will take over many difficult and time-consuming tasks.

Effective way to cooperate with a software house

I assume that you have already chosen the software house to work with, or you are already working together. I believe that from your (so client’s) perspective organizing and planning your work is important. The point is to make the advantages I mentioned before achievable. Based on my experience, observations and conversations with CEOs, CTOs and Product Owners, I have listed some of the most important principles of cooperating with a software house.

1. Always set your goals

Your project must display a vision and goals that you will aim at together. So, make sure that the development team knows all of the assumptions thoroughly and, what’s even more important, knows how to achieve them. It is worth setting goals related to delivering value to the user (software quality) as well as budget goals and time goals. If you work together to fulfill them, I am sure that you will achieve success and high efficiency.

2. Establish team roles and project management methodology

Each project member must know their role and responsibilities. You also need an effective approach to project management. Agile and the very popular Scrum may be helpful here. Such a work model will ensure a clear team structure and higher efficiency. Further, it is good practice for the software house to have one person the customer can contact. In turn, the client’s side also appoints a person who will contact the programming team, monitor the course of work and determine further development directions. It does not have to be a CTO, it can be a person with a different position, like Product Owner.

3. Select communication channels

This aspect is also very important. Daily cooperation must be as simple and accessible as possible for both parties, so it is best to use the generally available tools. Which ones? This is a matter of individual preferences. At Codest, we prefer Jira for project management and Slack for ongoing communication. However, there are many possibilities.

4. Plan your MVP

This section applies to projects that are created from scratch. Cooperation with a software house is particularly profitable in such cases. Why? First of all, a software house can provide you with developers who are familiar with various technologies and experienced in many projects. This means that they have sufficient knowledge to create a high-quality product for you as well. In addition, MVP allows you to create a product prototype in a relatively short time. You will not spend your entire budget on creating something that may not prove useful for your target group. MVP simply pays off.

5. Trust and partnership

Choose the right software house and simply trust them. Excessive control over projects may have adverse effects. Customers often like to interfere in the work of programmers in different ways. I know a lot of situations where the customer thinks that particular product functionalities can be created very quickly, while developers actually need a lot of time to properly code them. The customer must understand and accept these things. Trust and partnership are very important during such cooperation.

Conclusions

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to a current trend. Note how many companies on the market use software house services. This is a constantly growing phenomenon. It applies not only to large companies, but also start-ups, for which it is a very advantageous option (mainly due to lack of technical knowledge of the star-up team and general cost-effectiveness). Most importantly, starting your cooperation with a software house is trouble-free at every stage of your product’s development – regardless of whether it is yet to be created or already launched on the market.

Read more:

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– What is the best tool for software development? Codest chooses Jira!