Software house: What is it and how to choose the right one?

Software house: a brief introduction

A software house is a company specialized in the design and development of custom software products. These companies may focus on software intended for the business sector or the consumer market, such as single-licensed software that is ready to use or products such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The distinctive trait of a software house is its primary focus on the development and distribution of software products. The objectives of a software house vary depending on its customer base and its specialization.

While some software houses specialize in executing projects commissioned by corporate clients, others prefer to focus on creating ready-to-use software that can be marketed through traditional sales channels. Another type of software house provides specialized software development services to help other companies realize their vision.

Each approach requires a different design process, distribution strategies, development methodologies, and other technical aspects. In this context, the article focuses on the software house as a software development agency that creates tailor-made software products for other companies, taking advantage of its experience, skills and know-how in the sector.

The main types of software houses

The simplest classification of software development agencies divides them into service-based companies and product-based companies. Product-based companies are those that develop proprietary software solutions and distribute them directly to end users. These users can be both companies and individual customers, implying both B2C and B2B business models. The primary goal of such companies is to create ready-to-use solutions that can be easily implemented and configured to meet a variety of business needs.

Known examples of product-based companies include Microsoft or Google, which offer a wide range of ready-to-use software solutions that can be expensive and the products may contain many unnecessary features for some users. As a result, many companies prefer to invest in customized software solutions that meet their exact needs. For this purpose, they turn to service-based software houses.

Service-based software houses work directly with businesses, providing a wide range of services including custom software development, consulting, and the provision of dedicated development teams. The main advantage of collaborating with a service-based software house is the possibility of developing a customized solution that is perfectly adapted to the company's specific processes, operations and needs. In addition, it is possible to take advantage of the skills and experience of experienced software developers within the software house.

Software house: what sets them apart?

Because the IT market is characterized by strong competition, software houses adopt innovative approaches in the development of their products and services. They strive to build a strong brand in order to attract and acquire the best talent in the industry. Below are the essential characteristics of modern software houses.

Focus on quality

A software house that produces high-quality code earns customer trust and obtains positive recommendations. This allows it to attract a larger number of customers. Given the many software houses that operate globally, it is crucial for them to provide high-quality code to stand out from the competition. In the context of outsourcing software development, companies often seek to:
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- accelerate their projects;
- fill skills gaps in your team with specific knowledge;
- expand its development team;
- create an application from scratch, for example in the form of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
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In both cases, companies can count on the fact that the code produced by a software house will be written clearly and with few bugs or errors. Software houses often employ QA engineers and involve them from the start in the development process, thus ensuring superior quality.

Agile and Scrum

‍The Agile approach to software development and frameworks such as Scrum represent a consolidated standard of the global software house industry. There is no doubt that the collaborative method of a self-organized and cross-functional team is fundamental for the creation of successful software products. Agile practices include sprint planning sessions, test-driven development, daily stand-up meetings, and pair scheduling.

These methodologies work effectively together to allow software house teams to deliver high-quality code in a short time. Thanks to Agile, development teams are more productive and motivated as the method promotes collaboration and individual empowerment.

Approaches such as Scrum favor iterative development and close interaction with customers, thus helping to reduce development costs and the risk of onerous changes during the process. Ultimately, it is clear that software houses with experienced teams follow solid processes to minimize the risk of common application development errors and maximize the overall value of the solutions delivered.

Full-stack functionality

‍If you decide to hire a software house to develop an application, you can expect to receive a complete product by the end of the contract. In this context, the software house assumes the responsibility of managing every phase of the development process. An external partner can provide front-end and back-end developer skills, as well as UX/UI designers, graphic designers, project managers, business analysts, and QA engineers.

The creation of quality software requires a multidisciplinary team and a software house has the necessary resources to guarantee customers high-quality codes, the result of the contribution of multiple professionals. By collaborating with a software development company, you have access to the skills and knowledge of the sector of each member of the team.

Communication and collaboration

‍Communication and collaboration are fundamental to the success of any project, especially in the field of outsourcing development, where the entire work is entrusted to another company. For this reason, software houses invest in training the soft skills of their development teams and implement dedicated processes to facilitate communication between customers and teams.

For example, an experienced software house will often assign a project manager who acts as an intermediary between the customer and the development team. This approach favors the construction of mutual trust and increases project engagement. Developers who are part of a dedicated team work full time on specific project problems and can capitalize on the experience accumulated in previous projects to improve the development of the application under construction.

Flexibility

‍Software houses invest significant resources in technological innovation, offering their developers the opportunity to experiment with cutting-edge technologies and to use established programming languages and frameworks. Given the rapid evolution of the technological landscape, staying up to date on the latest trends represents a challenge.

However, software houses have the ability to do this. They keep their business technology stack constantly updated to be able to support advanced research and development programs and offer the best solutions to their customers.

Software house: what services do they offer?

Now that it is clear what a software house represents and what its distinctive characteristics are, it is appropriate to examine the most common services offered by these companies in the software house sector.

• Mobile app development: The development of mobile applications is one of the main services offered by software houses, which are dedicated to the creation of software for mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. These applications are designed primarily for two operating systems: Android and iOS. Some development teams are also able to create cross-platform or hybrid applications, using web technologies. Overall, mobile app development constitutes a diversified discipline, where the final products can be business ERP applications or consumer apps. In summary, software houses specialized in the development of mobile apps focus mainly on the development of Android apps, the development of apps for iOS and the development of cross-platform apps (for example, using React Native).
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• Web development: Web development, for a software house, involves the creation of applications that operate in web environments. However, this category is extremely varied, ranging from the creation of simple websites to complex web applications that integrate multiple services and advanced architectures. Thanks to innovative web technologies and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), development teams can create web applications that offer a wide range of functionality to users.
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• Software development: A software house can develop applications that run on all traditional desktop operating systems, such as Linux, Mac or Windows. These applications can help organizations with their daily activities, automate processes and offer a wide range of functionality, such as report generation. While some companies choose to host their applications in the cloud, others prefer server-based solutions that promote digital transformation.
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• Data science: A key capability of software houses today lies in the field of data science and data engineering. These development teams are specialized in creating analysis tools capable of processing enormous amounts of data and providing companies with useful insights for making strategic decisions. To achieve this goal, data scientists and software developers extract data and develop software solutions using sophisticated algorithms. Emerging technological trends, such as machine learning, make it possible to implement advanced features such as predictive analysis, which allows companies to adapt quickly to market changes and to provide a higher quality service to their customers.

Software house: what are the advantages for companies?

1. Technological specialization: Each software house has its own technological stack, consisting of a set of tools, frameworks and programming languages used in projects. Usually, a software house with experience in a wide range of projects and collaborations with clients from different industries is able to select the best technological stack for a given project. For example, some of the common technologies used include programming languages such as C#, Ruby, Python, and Go, and frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, .NET, React, Vue.jse React native. In addition, numerous libraries, design tools, and server solutions are adopted. Thanks to the implementation of these technologies, software houses gain experience in improving their development and work processes. Another crucial aspect that distinguishes a software house is the presence of multidisciplinary skills within the team, including back-end developers, front-end programmers, testers, and project managers.
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2. Implementation quality and post-implementation support: Within a software house, it is essential to ensure constant professional growth through the acquisition of necessary experience and skills, which translates into an improvement in specialization. Before recruiting new staff, software houses carefully analyze the experience and skills of potential candidates to integrate a highly competent team. This is directly reflected in the quality of the implementations. In addition, it is important to emphasize that software houses have internal tools and procedures to guarantee the quality of the work done, providing the customer with tested and high-quality products. An additional significant advantage is the post-implementation support offered by most software houses. This includes qualified support to address any issues after the product or service is launched. It is crucial to monitor projects for a post-launch period in order to identify potential errors and identify opportunities for improvement.
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3. Save time and money: Saving time is one of the main advantages that pushes customers to opt for a software house. In fact, the customer frees himself from the honor of finding qualified programmers and managing project managers to coordinate the entire project, which directly affects the costs incurred. Rather than setting up a team around with figures that are potentially superfluous for the duration of the project, a software house can already count on specialized in-house figures that go beyond programming. Consequently, these figures will only work on projects at specific times or for the necessary duration, ensuring efficient use of resources and cost optimization for the customer.

Software house: what's the difference with an IT staffing agency?

The services offered by software houses are sometimes confused with those provided by IT staffing agencies. However, there is a significant distinction between the two.

• Software house: a software house is a company specialized in the design and implementation of customized software solutions for its customers. It offers comprehensive software development services and provides project support in all their phases.
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• IT Agency: On the other hand, an IT staffing agency is more like a recruitment firm that deals with finding and hiring developers on behalf of clients. This option is more common among companies that have internal development teams and are looking to expand their staff.
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Software house: how to choose the one that best suits your needs?

1. Avoid extremely cheap deals: As with many products, opting for the lowest price can often mean compromising quality. This is especially evident when choosing to entrust part of the work to a freelancer, which may limit the possibilities of developing the project as a whole. In addition, a reliable and well-established software house will usually be certified for its skills, for example through certifications for testers such as ISTQB or for project management such as Prince2, IPMA. In addition, the partnership with big names in the sector, such as Microsoft, can further attest to the competence and reliability of the software house. So, instead of focusing on the lowest price, it is advisable to choose an offer that reasonably matches the proposed value. This way, you can be sure to receive the best possible service within your price range, ensuring a balance between cost and quality.
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2. ‍Carefully review the project evaluation process: It is necessary to evaluate if the cost is estimated based on an in-depth analysis of the requirements or meetings dedicated to the product or if the cost is calculated on a small amount of information without further details. This aspect provides significant indications on the design approach of the software house: if it presents a quote after only 10 minutes from the first evaluation of the project, it could be an inaccurate estimate with little adaptation to the real needs of the work. On the contrary, if the software house asks a lot of questions, conducts a detailed analysis and proposes the organization of workshops to examine the customer's needs, it is likely that they are highly qualified professionals.
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3. The size of the software house counts: It is crucial that the customer selects a partner with whom their company will be relevant and who will offer a complete service. In addition, a software house with a large portfolio of customers from diversified sectors will have accumulated extensive experience, allowing us to quickly understand the customer's business concept and to propose optimal solutions. During each phase of the decision-making process, it is essential for the customer to consider that the software house is destined to become his partner, and a good partner must demonstrate a deep understanding and empathy for the customer's business.
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4. ‍Technologies with which the company operates: When a software house claims to create software in multiple technologies at the same time, this may indicate that the level of competence of individual employees may not be high enough. Of course, this statement does not apply to large agencies that can afford to hire a variety of specialists. However, in the case of small and medium-sized software houses, the shorter the list of languages used, the better. In addition, it is advisable to take a look at the companies that work with technologies that you already know, this will help to better understand the software development process and will make communication during the project more effective and easier.
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5. Avoid companies that accept any idea: When choosing a software development partner, it's crucial to consider that you're selecting a collaborator, not just a service provider. A reliable software house stands out for its ability to offer advice during the project and to clearly express when a particular solution may not be the most suitable. A good partner will suggest alternatives and propose changes to improve the efficiency and quality of the final product.
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6. Check the story: When evaluating a software house, it is advisable to start with an online search. Check if he has experience in projects similar to those you are interested in. If the software house has a portfolio, pay attention to customer references and reviews on platforms such as Clutch or Goodfirms: they will constitute concrete evidence of the level of service offered.
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7. Compare the offers: When searching for a suitable software house, fees are usually taken into account without further verification. However, it is well known that generally there is no such thing as something good, cheap, and fast. It could therefore happen that, by choosing the lowest price, you end up spending more money than originally planned, since the company may need more time to complete a task or to correct errors. Let's consider a simple example:
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   - Company A: offered an hourly rate of PLN 100, but it needs 10 hours to complete the task, which leads to a total cost of PLN 1000.
   - Company B: proposed an hourly rate of PLN 130, but it needs 6 hours to complete the task, which leads to a total cost of PLN 780.
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   As can be seen from the example above, despite choosing a company with a higher hourly rate, the final cost of execution may be lower. It is always recommended to maintain a balance between price and quality when selecting a software house.
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8. Ask for details about the team in charge of the project: Will a project manager or client supervisor be assigned? How many developers will be working on the project? Will there also be a software tester on the team? The composition of the team is essential because a well-coordinated group, with clear objectives and responsibilities, will focus on the success of the project and will ensure efficient work.
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9. Inquire about communication practices: At the beginning of the collaboration, it is advisable to ask the software house considered if it uses tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps or Redmine to facilitate planning and monitoring the progress of the project. In addition, it is important to know if you can have observer access to your project to control the workflow in real time. It is also essential to inform yourself about communication practices: it will be direct and the project manager will keep you informed not only about successes, but also about any failures or problems that may occur during the development of the project. It is important that the software house always keeps the customer informed about the work project.
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10. Control approaches to creating projects: Even if project management methodologies are generally known, there are still software houses that produce software without a defined structure. It is advisable to check if the software house under consideration uses the SCRUM methodology or other Agile approaches. Not all software houses know and apply these methods, but as a customer you become part of the team according to the SCRUM method. This approach makes it possible to clearly manage the budget: you can see what has been done and what you are paying for, and actively participate in the creation of the project, directly influencing the functionalities produced.
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11. Ask for testing: Even if it is impossible to develop completely error-free software, testing during programming is an indispensable phase to quickly detect and correct any defects. It is important to always ask if the chosen software house has internal quality control, as this contributes significantly to the robustness and reliability of the final product.

Conclusion

Choosing a software house for the development of your project is a crucial decision that requires in-depth attention and evaluation. A competent and reliable software house can be a valuable partner in the implementation of successful software solutions.

Before making a decision, it's critical to consider several factors, including experience, development methodologies, team quality, communication, and testing practices. Investing time in researching and evaluating available options can ensure a fruitful partnership and a satisfactory final result for the project.

FAQ on software houses

What is a software house?

‍A software house is a company that specializes in developing, maintaining, and supporting software products for clients or for their own use. These companies are often involved in creating custom software solutions tailored to the specific needs of their clients.

How does a software house differ from other IT companies?

‍A software house focuses exclusively on software development, including design, coding, testing, and maintenance. Unlike general IT companies, which may provide a broader range of services like hardware support and network management, software houses are dedicated to software-related projects.

What services does a software house typically offer?

‍A software house usually offers services such as custom software development, mobile app development, web application development, software consulting, and ongoing software maintenance and support.

Who can benefit from working with a software house?

‍Businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises, can benefit from partnering with a software house. These companies often seek out software houses for their expertise in creating tailored software solutions that meet specific business requirements.

Why should a company choose a software house for their project?

‍Choosing a software house ensures that the project is handled by experts who are focused on delivering high-quality, efficient, and customized software solutions. Software houses are experienced in managing complex software development processes, which can lead to better outcomes for the client.

What role does a software house play in digital transformation?

‍A software house plays a crucial role in digital transformation by helping companies modernize their processes through the development of innovative software solutions. This can include automating tasks, improving customer experiences, and enabling new business models.

How does a software house ensure the quality of its software products?

‍A software house ensures quality through rigorous testing, adherence to industry standards, and continuous feedback loops with clients. This process includes quality assurance (QA), user acceptance testing (UAT), and regular updates to ensure the software remains effective and secure.

Can a software house provide ongoing support after the software is deployed?

‍Yes, most software houses offer ongoing support and maintenance services. This includes fixing bugs, updating software to remain compatible with new technologies, and adding new features as needed to meet evolving business needs.

What should a business consider when choosing a software house?

‍When choosing a software house, businesses should consider the company’s expertise, track record, client reviews, and ability to understand and meet their specific needs. It’s also important to evaluate the software house’s communication practices and project management approach.

How does a software house handle data security?

‍A software house typically implements robust security measures throughout the software development process to protect client data. This includes encryption, secure coding practices, regular security audits, and compliance with relevant data protection regulations.