Wade Myers has put up a really interesting blog post on Selecting a Software Developer. Although the title may give the impression that it is a post on how to get good software developer, engineer or programmer at low costs, the article is far more comprehensive than that.

The post outlines 4 steps that every organization must take prior to (and while doing ) a search for the right Software developer or team. From our perspective, these steps are both logical and necessary to ensure the success not just of your association with the software developer, but also the business itself.

Too many engagements have started with just a vague, high level idea of an opportunity and the discovery of a low cost software developer or a senior developer in some third world country. The approach here seems to be more one of ”define the idea through multiple software development iterations”. Many months (and tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars ) later, comes the realization that not only is the solution not financially viable, but that the opportunity itself may not really exist. Naturally the end of the association is usually not very smooth either.