How to choose a mobile application agency

With so many agencies out there, how do you find one that you can trust?

Approximately once a week, we receive a call from an individual or company with a mobile application development that has been created by a development agency and the relationship has been broken. Most of the time, the agency is offshore. They have lost contact with the developer, it was not created according to the specifications or the quality is not up to the expected level. In general, we are told that the application is 95% ready, but the client is struggling to make the application available and ready for launch:

"The short story is that I have spent £ 20k ​​on an application that has been plagued by poor code quality: poor application performance, errors that appear when they were corrected previously, and very slow response times in simple changes. Finalize the application and launch it completely I still have initial funds to complete it the risk of continuing with the current provider (to whom I really want to be successful) is too big. "

A relationship of trust

A relationship of mutual trust is the most important factor when you outsource the development of your product to a third party. You must trust that they will make good decisions on your behalf and that you must understand that you trust them to do so. A breakdown of trust is the only reason why we would separate from a client. The following four steps describe some things you should consider when making your decision.

Step 1: Meet the developers in person

The first step to making a good decision is to always go and visit the development team in your office, in person. Make sure you know the developers and not just the business development manager or the project manager. Get to know the people who will really build your product. This does not rule out an offshore team. If you are investing the amount of money required to build a mobile application, then you should consider the cost of regular visits abroad.

Making an initial visit is an important first step in building a good working relationship. It also allows you to evaluate if there is a good cultural and professional fit. A long-term relationship of trust is only possible by having a regular face-to-face contact.

Step 2: Accept a payment schedule that protects you and the developer

Do not pay much, but pay a little money in advance. Agree on a schedule that means that you make small payments throughout the project. If you receive early signals that the relationship is not working, you can go elsewhere.

Step 3: Ensure regular access to the source code

You do not want to be in a position where you have paid a load of money (even in increments) but you lose contact with the developer and can not access the code. Protect yourself by agreeing on a timeline for delivery of the source code or access to the developer's repository. Having access to the code also means that you can review it yourself, that someone else in your organization or a third party reviews it. You want to be sure you are getting what you paid for and the code is being written according to the standard you expect.

Step 4: Confirm the project architecture and the development process in advance

The architecture of a mobile application dramatically affects the possibility that another developer can assume it in the future. It is important that industry standards are used; for native mobile applications this is currently MVP or MVVM.

It is also important that you talk to the developer about your process. Make sure they include steps such as peer review, automated testing and manual quality control. Having these conversations in advance will give you the confidence that they are building according to the most recent standards. It will also give you a better chance of being able to move the project to another developer.

In addition to having a good quality work contract and statement, these are the most important steps you can take to protect yourself when working with any development agency. Particularly if you are looking to work with a foreign company.

We are not against working with offshore developers (in fact, some of our clients have incredible offshore internal teams for their back-end development). However, you must be careful to make sure you get the level of transparency and responsibility you need. Especially when you are spending a lot of money on software.

At Brainstudioz we are completely based in the United Kingdom, we give our clients direct access to our development team through Slack and in person. The payments are made in a sprint by sprint and the code is delivered to our customers every sprint.