Saving on quality or why not all contractors are equally effective

Is chasing a low price an unjustified risk or a reasonable cost savings? And what can it mean when developing digital products? Today we’ll talk about current topics: the quality of services of IT companies and how, among many options, choose the one that will take your business to a new level.

Let’s imagine a situation: you are on the verge of custom IT development for your business. The range of services for creating an application or website on the market varies in price from a minimum amount to x4. At the same time, all of them position themselves as professionals. In order not to throw your hard-earned money into the void, let’s consider the criteria for how to determine the most reliable contractor, and who is better to avoid.

HONEST CONTRACTOR:

Companies that value their reputation will not grab everything they see. The work will begin with studying your requirements, capabilities and answering whether it makes sense to develop cooperation or not:

• if not, you will receive recommendations on further steps, optimization and choice of contractor;
• If yes, you will be provided with specialists to more thoroughly collect requirements and draw up technical specifications, evaluate business logic and create wireframes (layouts of a website or application).

As a result of such interaction, you will receive ready-made documentation for a reasonable price and an understanding of whether to move on or stop and direct your funds and energy to new ideas.

DISHONEST CONTRACTOR:

• says and does what you like, regardless of the risks;
• ready to start the project, bypassing the process of collecting requirements and analytics;
• plays on your feelings - promises to start the project as soon as possible and cheaply.

A number of triggers that you should pay attention to in order to avoid becoming a victim of a dishonest contractor:

1) Consent to develop or draw a design without documentation.

2) A minimum number of questions at the project discussion stage, as well as when calculating the assessment.

3) The presence in the assessment of tasks that take more than 10 hours to complete.

RULE No. 1: carefully study the commercial offer.

The same action (for example, developing an application screen) can take 4 hours, or maybe 30 if the documentation has not been described in detail. Any changes may seem simple, but to change a button or add a pop-up window, you will have to make changes to the design and functionality. And, as a result, invest more.

RULE No. 2: do not cut off the necessary specialists.

It is a big misconception to believe that only developers are needed on a project, and that specialists, such as managers, are a waste of money. In fact, this is not true.

Refusal of managerial support on a project threatens:

• lack of accurate estimates and deadlines;
• constant returns of the project for revision or its complete rework;
• an increase in the cost of application support (a specialist will have to spend time understanding your functionality).

The presence of a manager on a project gives:

• accurate assessment of the development and the required budget;
• built business logic;
• identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the project;
• development of detailed documentation;
• lack of modifications and additional cash injections.

We can say with 99% confidence that if you receive several commercial offers, the amounts of which differ by more than 30% from each other, it is worth stopping and carefully studying the options, and not choosing those who gave the lowest price, otherwise (as in well-known saying) you will have to pay twice, or even more. What experience do you have working with an IT contractor?