When you’ve identified your project needs, the next obvious step is finding the right app development company to work with to develop your project. Easier said than done. Identifying the right partner through a crowd of potentials can be a daunting prospect for any business. The biggest risk from hiring the wrong partner is needing to getting your solution fixed for bugs and crashes costing precious time and money or worse having to begin your project from scratch. There may be a few factors in identifying a partner that are usually obvious, like the reputation of the company and how long the development company has been around.  A few others that are a little more subtle but as important in the big picture. Here’s a list of things to look out for. Business/Technical leadership One of the most important yet most underrated factors is a skilled technical leadership. An app development company is only as good as the technical leaders driving it. A highly skilled technical leadership will have a breadth of skills across platforms and technologies. They can best understand what your business is looking to achieve and can help you select the best tools and technologies that will not only deliver the best technical solution to maximise your return on investment but will also be able to plan on the best ways to keep your solution future proof to minimize futures costs. A good leadership besides saving you plenty of money can also give you the peace of mind knowing that your project is in good hands. It’s a very good idea to actually meet and greet the technical lead team that will be working for your project so you can get a feel for their depth of experience when getting started. Experience Anyone serious about creating a great software knows that it begins with well planned architecture. The ability to plan a well thought out architecture comes down simply to the technical leadership and their experience. A leadership team with indepth experience will also be able to better guide you based on their experiences with similar apps. Good app development companies also have libraries of previous work that they can use to speed up the deployment of a project. This can be huge saver in terms of time and implementation costs. Testimonials Previous client references and testimonials are an excellent indicator of how good an app development company is.  Look at the credential of the person giving a testimonial too. Generally the rule is if it’s a more visible brand and the person giving a testimonial is either higher up in a corporate ladder or directly working on the project themselves the more weightage the testimonial will carry. Support and upgrades Software isn’t static. It changes and evolves over time with new technologies and devices. This makes the need to provide support critical. Upgrades need to be released to ensure that apps are compatible with the latest OS releases.  Be very wary of companies that depend on contractors to develop their projects. A contractor takes with them important knowledge of how a solution was implemented that leaves vulnerable for failure when a solution needs an upgrade. User interface / Design The ability to translate a solid technical solution into a highly usable interface design is extremely important. Look at the previous apps the company has developed and see how user friendly the interface is. It it looks just right feels very functional with minimal effort you know they value one of the most critical ingredients of a good app. These are some of the more important things you need to look out for when looking out for an app development partner. Once you have the right partner on board you’ll actually be able to sit back and enjoy the process of seeing your apps come to life.