Software Development

How To Hire A Software Development Team

how to hire a software development team

Do you know that hiring a software developer is a simple process?

Many small business owners can’t figure out how to hire a software development team. While software developers are abundant, it’s hard to find the right one if you’re unsure of what to look for.

Whether you need someone for a website design project or a mobile application, you can quickly find one. Here at Neural Experience (NX), we have all the software development you need to save both time and money.

Read on to learn how to hire software developers as efficiently as possible!

What Do Software Developer Teams Do?

Software developer teams focus on developing applications for computers and mobile devices. Websites, video games, and phone apps are some of the main things software developers put together.

When it comes to business, software companies often create programs that make tasks more efficient. For example, a software developer can draw up a program that lets a company automate employee payroll.

Software developers do these things by writing code that tells an application what to do. Depending on what a software developer is working on, they’ll go through various processes before launching a final product.

The Software Development Process

Before a software developer team makes anything, they’ll analyze what the requirements of a project are. This lets them come up with solutions that they can later test.

After analyzing project requirements, they’ll produce a roadmap. This will outline the system’s design and future steps, such as testing and updating.

From there, a software developer will start coding the system and regularly test it. If any problems arise, they’ll document them to fix later. When working with a company, they’ll report all of this information to their supervisors.

When the system is finished and has no defects, it will be staged for launch. For example, if a developer is creating a mobile app, they’ll launch it on the app store. Immediately after doing this, they’ll check for defects again to ensure that the system is stable.

The last part of the software development process is the maintenance phase. This phase consists of correcting user-found errors and launching updates. When updating the system, they can reference the roadmap and implement the changes that you or your users need.

Read here to learn more about the several phases of software development.

How Do I Find a Software Developer Company?

Finding software developers can be done with a quick Google search. However, you’ll need to consider several factors before you decide to hire someone.

If you already have an idea of what you want, it’ll be much easier to hire a software developer that suits your needs. Those that need help deciding must spend more time thinking about their goals and other things.

Here are the main things to do when finding software developers:

Define Your Goals, Budget and Expectations for Your Project

While many software developers work on similar tasks, you’ll need to find someone that specializes in the thing you’re hiring them for. For example, if you need to redesign a website, you should hire a software developer that focuses on web design.

Defining your goals and expectations will make it easier to narrow down your options. If you end up hiring someone with little knowledge in the area you need, you may not get the final product you want. Part of these goals should be defining your budget and timeline for completion.  Software development is never free, which is why you should have a set budget set aside for your project. This is key for determining the feasibility of your project and what level of skills and experience you are looking to hire. You could hire someone with less experience if you’re looking to launch a test product. This would give you time to test something before spending even more money on an experienced software development agency.

Search Online for Software Development Companies

Aside from waiting for the software development agency to apply to your project on a job board, you can actively search for them online. This may be quicker than posting a job listing, but it may be harder to find someone with exactly what you need.

When Reaching Out to a Software Development Company

As you know, software development projects can vary in so many ways. Some software development firms typically won’t go through an interview process. They’ll simply tell you how much they charge for their services and you can decide if they’re the right for you. Others will provide you a project outline to give you an idea of cost, timeline, skills needed, and overall viability of your project. This is the preferable option because you can not only determine if the project proposed fits your budget, and goals. But also know what talent you need and if your project will work before you spend a dime.

Keep in mind that each case will vary. You can find developers that are willing to negotiate, though you’ll spend more time looking for them.

Considering Hiring a Software Development Team?

One thing we encourage companies to do is hiring a team of software developers rather than an individual. While hiring a single software developer can help you save money, it’ll prevent you from getting a project done quickly.

If you need someone for website development, dev teams can ensure that your site gets completed within days instead of weeks. Dev teams have multiple members with different roles, so you can expect to get various tasks done at once.

When it comes to hiring a software developer, you’ll find 3 main types: the full-stack developer, front-end developer, and back-end developer.

Front-end development revolves around everything the user sees and interacts with. In web development, this is the visual layout of the site and menus.

Back-end development refers to things behind the scenes, such as web servers and databases. This allows users to complete actions on a site as everything is rendered via the back-end.

A full-stack developer knows a lot about both front-end and back-end development. While they don’t specialize in one, they can help a business save a lot of money if they’re building a simple application.

If you’re looking to start a large project, having both front-end and back-end developers can ensure your app is as efficient as possible. This will prevent bugs from occurring and can make it easier to launch updates.

You can also hire dedicated testers, though the developers can test everything. Hiring testers is often done by those that have strict time constraints.

Questions to Ask a Software Developer Agency Before Hiring

As you can see, knowing how to hire software developers is simple. The last thing you can do before hiring one is asking several questions about them. This will give you a better idea of who they are and how they can help.

These are the main questions you should ask any software developer:

  • What’s your background?
  • How many years have you been a software developer?
  • Which types of projects do you focus on?
  • Have you worked with teams?
  • Do you have referrals?
  • What’s your rate?
  • What sets you apart from others?

You can come up with any question you’d like, but try to keep things relevant to software development.

Now You Know How to Hire a Software Development Team

Whether you want to hire a software development company or an individual, you can use this info to find the best software developer agency near you.

Knowing how to hire a software development team is highly beneficial if you want to complete a vast project. Not only can they get things done quicker, but they can also save you money.

No matter who you decide to hire, ensure that they have the means to efficiently complete your project.

What Does NX Software Development Company Do Different? 

NX software development agency provides you with a full-stack team that’s been developing software for over 12-years. If that’s not enough, we have three elements that separate us from other software development companies.

    1. We provide you with a Software Development Project Blueprint – this is an overview of your software project that outlines overall cost, timeline, skills needed along with a viability assessment (crucial for bespoke software development projects) to determine the overall feasibility of your software development project.
    2. We have a Project Captain to Steer the Ship – our project Captain is more than just a project manager. The Project Captain is a boots on the ground developer and project manager, who not only guides the project, helps develop it, and is your liaison to help communicate to our development team.
    3. We Make Software Development Surprisingly Affordable & Simple – Our whole mantra is to keep it it simple. We make sure you understand everything that’s going on and provide you with simple 24/7 reporting on your project. While avoiding confusing jargon that can make your head spin. All you have to do is answer a simple questionnaire about our project and sit back while we do the rest. IT’S THAT EASY!

Get a FREE project blueprint (quote) and talk to one of our Project Captains to learn how easy it will be to build your dream project when you hire the right software professionals!

Software Development

Beware the Costs of Poor Quality Software Development

While already on the rise, the post-COVID world amped up the need for more apps, systems, and tech-driven innovations. Innovations like DoorDash or rent applications like Rently saw extensive growth when the whole world was forced to go remote. Companies needed to adopt digital processes to achieve top customer experience and improve operations.

The world of digital is powered by software developers. According to Evans Data Corporation, last year there were about 23.9 million software developers. While this may seem like a lot, the field is actually facing a shortage. Estimates estimate that the demand for software is twice the current supply of developers. Meaning, organizations and business leaders are having to prioritize their ambitions and forego some of their dreams.

Costs

It’s really simple: you get what you pay for. In North America, the cost of software development is somewhere shy of 10% of the entire GDP of the United States!

One method that NX has created for keeping up with this demand is the creation of the Project Captain, a new type of development, while the software manager remains laser-focused on results. As with all tech initiatives, fixing errors down the line is significantly costlier than getting it right in the first place. Often, people try and go out and find the cheapest developers and engineers they can, then suffer from the results years down the road.

More expensive isn’t always better. NX has personally overseen the firing of $150 an hour software developers, only to hire $20 an hour overseas workers and get more done, faster. A lot of traditional software agencies never brush up on new skills and end up installing outdated technology. This hidden cost eats businesses all over the world.

Quality in Software Development?

One point highlighted by experts in many areas is that there are really no clear standards or guidelines in outlining and measuring the quality of a software product. Certifications, experience, and cost don’t always equate to quality in development. Instead, quality is determined by factors like downtime, how fast and easy it is to make new changes, and the ease of use of the system.

At the end of the day, functional software is fairly obvious. If you have software that runs well but gets hacked all the time exposing sensitive data, you don’t have quality software. Efficiency, security, maintainability, and scalability are all very difficult to measure but are required in instilling a culture of quality in development.

Poor quality and low-cost software development is a tarnish on your brand’s reputation. Trying to cut corners on software development is going to impact your brand in a world where key software and data access is growing more and more important by the minute.

 

Project Managementt Software Development

The Seven Phases of the SDLC

The system development life cycle or software development life cycle (SDLC) is a set of processes used by the software industry to design, develop, test, and release quality software. Often times, hiring cheaper and inexperienced developers throws out some of these standards. Removing known standards causes projects to fall out of scope, and preventable issues to occur more regularly.

The most recent version of the development life cycle has grown into seven stages, from the traditional five stages. Increasing the number of steps has helped analysts define clearer actions to achieve specific goals. This standardization is an easy way to keep software development on track, on time, and on budget.

The Seven Phases of the SDLC

 

1. Planning

The first phase, and the most important phase, is planning. Nowhere is the phrase “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” more true than in software development. The vast majority of failures in software development are really a result of a lack of planning. This step is meant to scope out the problem at hand and determine solutions. Resources, costs, time, benefits, and other items should be considered in this stage.

2. Systems Analysis and Requirements

The next phase is where the business will work on the source of their problem or the need for change. Does the scope and hypothesis identified in step 1 work in the real world? This is where teams consider the functional requirements of the project or solution. For example, a lot of companies have requirements for machine learning or AI programs. In this phase, the company may find that the graphic card requirements for running the program they wanted are way outside the budget anticipated. System analysis is vital in determining what a business’ needs are, as well as how they can be met.

3. Systems Design

The third phase defines all of the necessary specifications, features, and operations that will satisfy the functional requirements of the proposed system. This is the step where end-users (the people who are actually going to use the system) discuss and determine their specific needs for the proposed system.

4. Development

After the planning has been done, the fourth phase is where the programmers roll up their sleeves and get to work. The major work of the project is done in this phase. The development stage is also characterized by installation and change, but is where the boots-on-the-ground folks get the work done.

5. Integration and Testing

The difference between a successful software launch and a failed launch comes down to testing and integration. Testing is one of the most important parts of the entire development process. Testing may (and should) be repeated, specifically to check for errors, bugs, and interoperability. Testing should be done with the goal to try and break the system, rather than trying to make it “work.”

6. Implementation

The implementation phase is where the installation of the newly-developed system takes place. This step puts the project into production, moves data over, and is what could be considered the “product launch.”

7. Operations and Maintenance

The final phase involves maintenance and updates. This is when end user feedback is given to the programmers and allows for the fine tuning of the system.