Choosing a development partner is mostly a risk-management exercise. This checklist covers the questions that matter most.
Define scope before you shop
Even a one-page brief with goals, users and constraints produces more comparable proposals and fewer surprises.
Compare delivery models
Fixed-price, time-and-materials and dedicated-team models each shift risk differently. Match the model to how certain your requirements are.
Do technical due diligence
Ask to see code samples or architecture diagrams from past work, talk to two references and confirm who will actually work on your project.
Plan for after launch
Agree support, hosting and ownership of code and credentials up front.