All You Need to Know to Hire Dedicated Web Developers ( guide 2021 ) #ExceedTeamInc

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW TO HIRE DEDICATED WEB DEVELOPERS

13 min

Dec 14 2020

Artem LBusiness analyst

Danil LWeb Developer

Over the past decade, the world has been smoothly transitioning and getting used to interacting with the online environment. Because of COVID-2019, all people became more familiar with the capabilities of the software and began to develop actively. As a result, entrepreneurs who did not take care of their business having a web application were left without clients and suffered great financial losses. This reflects the tendency that the future of any business (especially those related to the sale of goods and services) can no longer be fully implemented without the use of modern information technologies.

Why does a business need to develop a web application? Web application development is a relevant solution that will help entrepreneurs:

Find clients in any part of the country and around the world;
Collect up-to-date statistics on the audience of the web application. This will allow you to run your business more efficiently and reduce unnecessary costs;
For clients, the business will be measured as high-quality and reliable. Statistics collected in the US and Europe showed that people are more likely to trust a business if it has a web application, and not just pages on social networks;
A web application can briefly and colorfully express a person, service, or product to a wide audience;
The web application can integrate with various social networks to increase in the target of your business;
Create a convenient toolkit within the site that will provide payment “here and now” and all the necessary manipulations so that customers do not leave the web application and accurately purchase the offered product or service;
Provide additional income for the business: advertising within the site, providing bonuses for paid subscriptions and other monetization ideas that an entrepreneur can come up with and implement web developers.

However, in order to a web application to satisfy all of the listed possibilities, a professional and experienced team of web developers should take over its creation.

HOW TO CHOOSE A WEB DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Table of contents

How to choose a web development team

Who to hire for web development How does the country of the development team affect the value for money?

The team has been selected, but how to check its professionalism?

What needs to be done for web developers to create a fully satisfying web application?

Before searching for the web application development team Actions after contacting the web application development team:

Let's discuss your idea

Almost every country in the world has web development teams ready to create a web application for you. However, remember the value for money.

When you start looking for a team, you will find a number of divisions that must be considered, as they form the price and quality of the final web application. The split data is segmented according to the following criteria:

Who to hire for web development

Who is the best to develop a web application: software companies, freelancers or websites with a ready-made solution? Each of the listed types should be reviewed separately.

Software development companies. These are specialized firms that recruit programmers staff based on their experience, skills and efficiency. Choosing this option, who wishes to create a web application will be offered a team that is able to satisfy all the wishes of the client (the team is often formed specifically for a custom application in order to achieve maximum efficiency).

At the same time, the company will provide data on the team's experience in the web applications they have already created. This will provide an opportunity to study the quality of work on existing examples. This type of cooperation fits the definition of a dedicated team, because taking your project, the company undertakes to:

Create a web application in accordance with a schedule laid down in the agreements;
Do not share the unique idea of your application on the Internet;
Provide you with a high-quality web application;
Carry out transparent work and report on the current status of project readiness at the request of the client.

Other features of working with a company that develops a web application is the country where the company is located. More details on these can be found below in the article.

Freelancers. These are programmers who works remotely and most often alone. A freelance programmer is only suitable for creating a web application or a separate function of an application if he is experienced.

Freelance developers can work with a client on a contract similar to a company that specializes in software development. However, most of the freelancers prefer to take work without a formal contract, which takes its own risks for the client, and even for himself. The most common risks in working with freelancers without a contract are:

Embellishing your real-life skills and abilities;
Violation of the deadlines for the delivery of the web application;
The risk of disappearance and interruption of communication between the freelancer and the customer, if the application shows problems when working after the project was completed;
Lack of step-by-step web application checks.

Of course, interaction with freelancers is not always problematic. However, it should be understood that freelancers work for themselves and often alone. That is, if you want a well-designed web application with great functionality, then a freelance programmer needs to spend more time developing it.

At the same time, in software development teams, each team member can take on certain stages of web application development. This reduces the time to create a project.

A website with a ready-made solution. These sites provide lightweight templates for you to beautifully design your site and use the tools provided by the site. They have a number of divisions that help you to choose a template for a specific type of business:

goods / services / personality / blog

Such applications provide extremely limited functionality and can be useful only if a person wants to practice working with a web application and decide what he needs when working with a web application.

For example, after creating a site according to a template and starting work in it, functional imperfections may surface. The Exceed Team advises to write down all these nuances so that when developing a full-fledged website, an experienced team of programmers would take them into account and add them to the web application.

If a person who wants to create a web application believes that ready-made solutions are able to fully satisfy his needs, then most likely he will face the following risks and limitations:

The created site based on a web application that does not belong to you makes it impossible to expand the functionality and strengthen the site. Your site needs updates, and the platform that provided you with the template deals only with general updates of the entire web application;
Your unique business idea can be copied by other people and created faster than you can create your original web application;
You pay for the website template provided to you and its use. Many sites ask for small amounts, however, they provide very concise statistics on the site and are not able to provide the necessary functionality of the web application.

Knowing these categories of developers, you can foresee the outcome of cooperation and choose the most convenient solution for yourself.

How does the country of the development team affect the value for money?

Its development within an acceptable time frame can be provided by a development team working for a specialized company. However, if a person turns to a company or freelancers to develop a website, regionality also affects the work and the final product.

To have a high-quality business, you need a quality web application.

When you are going to choose the country, the criteria for your choice should be based on the following unspoken rules:

The cost of developing a web application should be lower than the rates of the teams in your country. But not so low as to raise doubts about the level of quality;
It is necessary to find out the quality and availability of IT education in the country. To understand the level and capabilities of programmers;
The team openly posts links to previously created projects;
There must be one time zone for your country and the country of the web programming team;
The company and team members are fluent in English;
Cultural features of the country of the developer company.

According to the rating collected every year by the HackerRank resource, the top five countries with the best web developers in 2020 include:

People's Republic of China
Russian Federation
Poland
Switzerland
Hungary

According to the SkillValue portal, the top countries for 2020 for hiring a development team are:

Slovakia;
Mexico;
Poland;
Hungary;
Ukraine.

Of course, if you look at the world map, then each of the continents is able to provide its top countries that are able to provide the highest quality services for the development of a web application.

If you take a short excursion, then the highest quality, but also the most expensive in terms of the cost of developing web applications, are the teams from the countries of North America - the USA and Canada. The fee can be over $ 100 per hour of work.

The countries of Eastern Europe are becoming more and more attractive every year for those wishing to create a web application. Stand out the eastern part of Europe for the ratio of low price and high quality, such countries as Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Belarus and others. For example, Ukraine charges an average of $ 25-49 per hour, Russia charges $ 20-35 per hour, which is much more economy-sized, than the United States.

The countries of the Asian continent have a very strong leader in the production of software - China. The average hourly pay for those who want to contact Chinese developers is $ 24-35 per hour. India, on the other hand, has over 5 million developers providing their services for $ 18-25 per hour.

Also countries such as India, Philippines, Indonesia, etc. stand out in this market. In many of these countries, wages are even lower than in China or Eastern Europe. However, many note the quality issue of the web applications released.

Countries in South America and Africa are known to have variable quality levels (from very good to medium). Among these countries, there are market leaders in software development:

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, etc.
Africa: Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa.

Prices for these countries range from $ 30-50 per hour (South America) and $ 40-50 per hour (Africa).

Knowing the cultural characteristics of these countries and the level of IT education, you can choose the most suitable team that is able to create high-quality software at an affordable price for you.

Having decided on the odd one and choosing the right web application development company, there are a few more steps to take to help developers understand your idea.

THE TEAM HAS BEEN SELECTED, BUT HOW TO CHECK ITS PROFESSIONALISM?

When you have found a team to finally make sure that the programmers are competent, you should ask them a number of questions:

Has your team worked on similar projects before?
What technologies can your team use during development?
How many people are in the development team?
What additional interactions can the development team provide from joint cooperation: consultations, maintaining quality standards, etc.
How can you check the current work during the development of a web application?
What will be the actions if the final result does not fit the original vision of the project?
What are the deadlines for creating a web application?
Can your team offer a unique solution when developing a web application?

And many other questions that may arise during the discussion of the project with the team. Often, all the details described are specified in the contract for the development of a web application.

The contract is a guarantee of what both parties are obliged to do and what to do in the event if everything did not go according to the plan. Teams of programmers that avoid drafting a contract should be worried.

Also, any person who wants to create their own software needs to understand that success in development can be achieved only from his direct participation. Direct participation assumes the following actions from the web application customer:

Communication. It's not only about professional communication, but also interpersonal. The easier and better a person is able to explain additional details of a project, the more accurate its implementation. Communication should be constant throughout the entire project: from initial discussions of details, to monitoring implementation and final delivery of the project.
Have minimal knowledge of the possibilities of web programming. Understanding the basic terms will give you confidence in exactly how the development process is carried out. It also gives an understanding of what technological solutions for web applications exist, select the necessary solutions for the project and ask the development team to create them.
A clear description of the project in writing. The development company must have on hand documents that describe the vision of the project in order to build its structure and add the necessary plugins. These documents are drawn up by the customer of the project.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE FOR WEB DEVELOPERS TO CREATE A FULLY SATISFYING WEB APPLICATION?

The described strategy makes it clear that the customer must come to the team of programmers with the project documentation. This means that certain actions must be taken before contacting the web application development company and after

Before searching for the web application development team

Step 1. Project documentation

This is a description of the purpose, structure, scope of the project, the desired technical equipment and other information related to the project (which can be adjusted when starting negotiations with the development team).

The first thing that is indicated in this kind of project is the goal. The goal is to build an understanding of the project level (easy, medium, difficult or mixed).

Lightweight Web Project - Create a simple web application with a simple set of tools to interact with. Or integrating additional functions (plugins) into an existing site.
Medium web project - projects that require integration with other web applications and a significant expansion of the site's functionality. Examples of such web applications are online shopping, which includes a wide range of interactions: chats, custom carts, payment gateways, etc.
Complex web project- projects that involve a large flow of users and their interaction within the application: exchange of text, voice and video messages / files, etc. An example of such projects are social networks with cloud storage interaction, etc.
Mixed web project - Can be a combination of the above web projects. For example, a customer needs an easy addition to an existing site and at the same time integrate cloud storage into a web application.

If you still do not understand what kind of project is needed, it is worth describing what business goals the creation / addition of a web application pursues with one or another update.

Business goals are the tasks that need to be solved in order to improve the conduct of business and achieve its main goal - making a profit.

Based on the experience of Exceed Team, customers most often turn to the creation/improvement of their web application to achieve the following business goals:

Gathering an audience in one place. A web application allows a business to gather its leads;
Data collection and analytics. The site enables entrepreneurs to track the movement and behavior of people within a web application. This allows you to collect key performance indicators (KPI) and, on their basis, improve business performance;
Maximize your website presence. By adding plugins, the web application ensures that users stay inside it for as long as possible. We can talk about how to create chats for communication, the ability to comment, watch videos, pay for goods or services “here and now”, etc .;
Improving the logistics of the company. Logistics is a universal system for improving and accelerating business performance. By integrating modern technologies into it and reflecting indicators for administrators in a web application, an entrepreneur improves his business. Since this makes it possible to quickly respond to various situations, and also improves business planning, removing the need for the personal presence of the head at logistics facilities (warehouses, transport expeditions, etc.);
Business advertising. By placing advertisements in various resources and adding the ability to go to the site, the business expands its audience and increases the likelihood of a purchase;
Brand development. Your own website allows a business to develop its brand and develop in the market;
Additional income. A web application, if a business is successful, can attract a large audience of users. In turn, this can bring additional income in the form of advertising integrations, partnerships, etc.

From the described goals, business tasks and the level of the web project, an understanding is built which developers you need and which technology stack needs to be assembled.

Step 2. What developer skills do you need

As in any profession, programmers are divided into categories according to their skills and working methods. So, having decided on the criteria above, you can choose the appropriate category of developers:

Frontend Developer - this developer works with website design and writes its code. His job is to work out the interaction of the site with the visitors of the web application (correct clicking on links, harmonious and simple design of the functionality, design, etc.);
Back-End Developer - This type of developers who work with the back end of a web application. The developer needs to write efficient code that responds quickly to a command request. On these developers, the entire internal part of the site;
Fullstack Developer (full stack developers) - these developers can create a website completely and have both Frontend and Back-End development skills.

The choice of a specialist depends on your resources. This is how universal programmers value their services more. There is also a division of programmers according to the programming languages in which they write programs. A team of web developers will help you to find the best programming language and the specialists you need to write it.

Actions after contacting the web application development team:

Step 1. Communication with the team and finding out competence.

This step is detailed above in the article. Once you have found the right team, you need to learn from their experience by asking a series of key questions. You should be alerted:

Evasive answers;
Difficulty finding the web applications that the team says they have developed;
No desiring to enter into an agreement to create a web application.

Step 2. Discussion of the project.

At this stage, you provide the customer with the project documentation that you have drawn up and start a discussion about it. Based on the specifics of the client's wishes, the software development company selects the required team composition depending on the complexity of your project.

The composition of the team is also influenced by the choice of the working model:

**Project Based Model*. All responsibility for technical solutions and web project management rests with the developers. Contains a predefined list of tasks, scope and time frame. Extended team. Responsibility, management and control over the development of a web project lies with the customer. Within the web development team, usually with such a model, a person responsible from the customer's organization is placed. The person in charge monitors and clarifies the current stage of the project. This form allows you to stay within budget when creating large projects. Mixed team. This type is suitable if you have your own programmers but want to hire a team from the company to create complex web site updates. For example, cloud storage integration, video calling, etc. This interaction saves time and money as the work is done jointly. Responsibility for the project is divided according to the drawn up contract.

Step 3. Drawing up a contract.

The contract is drawn up after discussing all the details. It stipulates a payment model for developers:

Fixed price. Suitable for creating the only site function.
Pay as You Go. Payment for the time and materials that were spent during the development of the web application.
Hourly payment. Payment tied to the time to create the project. The price is formed depending on the time spent.

Each country and company may have its own forms and nuances in the remuneration of web developers. The listed models are one of the most common in the world.

Step 4. Getting started on the project.

From this stage, all that remains for the customer of the web application is to control the current stages of development.

The stages may differ depending on the type and complexity of the project. However, there is a general form that will help the customer to navigate and understand at what stage the work is going on and how much is left for the team to work on the web application.

Description of the technical task. The documentation and all additional points that were discussed during the creation of the contract are translated into technical terminology. This allows developers to quickly understand the level of work and get started on the assignment.
Creation of navigation and design is the initial model of the site. Drawing site design and typical elements of a web application. Here you can create a "skeleton", create a menu view, place site objects, etc.
Description of structural elements in the layout language. The view that the designer marked, the developer brings to the working view using markup languages.
Programming. The programmer writes code for each of the selected function, allowing it to interact with it, make transitions, create automatic functions, etc. A very voluminous stage, which is internally divided into many tasks.
First testing of the project. First test of what was created. But there is still a lot to be done before the project is completed.
Installation. At this point, the web application is bound to the server and configured for optimal performance.
Final test. Identification of all types of errors and their correction before the delivery of the finished web application to the customer. If the tester finds errors, he writes them out and sends them to the programmers who are working on fixing them.
Delivery of the web application. At this stage, all errors are corrected, the work is checked and the customer is studying the finished product. Whether all wishes are met, whether everything continues to work effectively. If all these criteria work, then the customer is explained how he can work with the web application.

This concludes the work of the web application development team.

LET'S DISCUSS YOUR IDEA

This article was written by Exceed Team with the aim of ensuring that everyone who wants to create their own web application does not feel fear of misunderstanding the structure of the work and does not become a victim of dishonest developers.

If you have any questions and want to know more details about what solutions in creating a web application are fit for you — contact us.

What are the widely spread development models?

If you want to make a website or app you can search for software companies or freelance designers and developers. The third opportunity is a ready-made solution with basic functionality.

What goals are achievable with web development?

Gathering an audience in one place
Data collection and analytics
Maximization of web presence
Improving logistic processes
Business advertising
Brand development
Additional income

What are the typical payment models in web development?

If you need to create only one function or a landing page, you can choose the fixed price. When you pay for development services beforehand, it's a pay-as-you-go model. The most popular version is hourly payment, tied to the time to create a project.