8 questions to ask when choosing a software agency (written by an agency owner)

as a developer, let me expand on point 4.

seniority breakdown isn't always enough. ask this too: how many projects will each person on this project be working on simultaneously? if the answer is "only your project," that's great but rare. if it's "three projects," that means the timeline is optimistic from the start.

also ask if code reviews are done. if they aren't, the number of post-delivery bugs increases. i measured this, it's not a guess.

i gave out work without asking any of these questions and now i don't have the source code for my site. the agency closed down, and the code went with them.

i'm getting a new one done, i'll print this list and bring it with me. thanks.

point 3 is the most critical, i learned this the hard way over years.

our proposals now have the second page entirely dedicated to the "out of scope" list. we were afraid it would scare clients off initially, but the opposite happened: sales cycles shortened because the discussion ends right at the start.

exactly like that. btw everyone rushing into agency gets stuck at the same point.

just leaving this note it might be useful.

I'm a small business, let me explain from my side. If code ownership isn't in the contract, you have no bargaining power when leaving.

Hope this helps.

We got stuck at the same point for a while. Code without setup documentation isn't yours, even if you have it.

I'm also curious if anyone does it differently.

the discussion got scattered let me summarize. if it's your first time, start small; scaling comes later.

that's all sory if I went on too long.

generally correct, but one part is missing and implementing a change reqeust process doesnt slow things down, it speeds them up.

mistakes made on the agency side are usually reversible but expensive. that's all sorry if I went on too long.

I completely agree. Everyone rushing into agency gets stuck at the same point.

That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

If you're going this route, sort this out first. In legacy systems, the most expensive thing is unknown dependencies.

When we decide without measuring, we always end up in the same place. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I've been dealing with this for a long time. Everyone rushing into agency gets stuck at the same point.

That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

Following.

My perspective changed after experiencing that... The answer varies greatly by industry; there is no one-size-fits-all rule.

Of course it varies if your situation is different.

The opposite happened to me, that's why I'm writing. Hasty decisions become decisions you have to fix six months later.

Hope this helps.

The opposite happened to me that's why I'm writing. The harder it is to reverse a decision, the slower you should make it.

I think its hard to be that definitive about agency. Dont hesitate to ask; those who dont ask always pay more.

Let me summarize the topic, since several different answers were given. Trying to do this alone is the most expensive way.

When making a decision, first look at what data you have on hand. Correct me if I'm wrong.

There's a common mistake people make when doing this. Processes without records never improve, because you don't know what to fix.