How to Monitor a Software Company's Progress

Outsourcing your software needs to a separate company means taking care to monitor that company's progress. Although most reputable software companies offer fairly regular progress reports, the development process itself can go terribly awry without constant attention. If you have concerns about this process and the pace of delivery, it is essential to take an active role from day one.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Someone on your side who can understand code and evaluate its efficacy
• Timeline
• Conduit to the project

Create a Contract

1. Use your free quote, and any other quotes you have received throughout this process, as leverage to get the price you want.
2. Include overflow time, regular updates and a step-by-step flow chart for progress.
3. Make sure your contract includes intermediate deadlines so that you can receive progress reports on a weekly or biweekly basis.
4. Build in recurring times for conversations so they don't need to be negotiated, scheduled and re-scheduled each week.
5. Make regular communication such as this one of the hallmarks of the contract.
6. Create punitive measures and/or discounts that will go into effect if your software company's progress begins lagging behind the set benchmarks.

Monitor Active Progress

7. Honor your software development process. Whether your software company employs the waterfall process, the iterative process or something more fluid and organic, it is essential to follow the same benchmarks as you would for any other effector-driven process.
8. Demand proof of progress on a regular basis. It is all well and good to hear that certain elements of the software have been mocked up and are in beta testing, but most business owners rightly prefer to see the code with their own eyes. If it's not in usable form yet, have a project manager walk you through it and show what is missing.
9. Maintain and monitor an open channel for feedback in both directions. Often the developers come up with concepts that may be useful to your business, so stay open-minded when you evaluate such ideas. Conversely, you should be able to request changes or new functionalities as they arise.
10. Ensure that you have a secure link for sending versions of your company's code back and forth. A number of good business software codes are intercepted each year, and many include hard-linking to databases that may be filled with sensitive customer information.

Evaluate After Delivery and Testing

11. Stay in communication with your software development company once the product is delivered. Any bugs, errors or other problems that arise are the responsibility of your development company's engineers.
12. Request support and patches as they become necessary. If you have built safeguards such as these into the contract, you should expect at leas a year of follow-up support from engineers familiar with the program.

Tips & Warnings

• Prepare yourself for the fact that software development rarely goes as planned. Make sure you and the company build in allowances for unforeseen issues that may arise.
• If you lose contact with your developer or find yourself having trouble getting in touch, this could portend serious problems with the project.

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