Magento, Launched in March 2008 has become a leading open source eCommerce solution. Considering the functionality, features, vast number of available modules, scalability, and customisation opportunities there’s no wonder Magento ranks as such a strong choice when you are considering eCommerce website development.
Despite Magento being such a great solution for eCommerce sites, success can only be achieved if you select and work with the best Magento website development company. To help, we have summarised 5 key questions that you should ask any prospective Magento Website Developer.
1. Are they experienced Magento Developers?
Sounds pretty obvious doesn’t it? You’d be surprised just how many people forget to ask this simple question. How much experience do they have with Magento eCommerce Development? How many projects have they successfully completed and launched using Magento? Can they show you samples?
Magento is a complex content management system (CMS) and experience with previous builds is a must from any Magento website development company you may be speaking with.
Can the Magento Development Company you are speaking with provide relevant references from customers they have built Magento solutions for? This is important, ask for Magento reference, not other technologies or CMS platforms.
You can ask following questions of their reference customers:
• Was the communication professional, consistent and effective?
• Was the project delivered on time and on budget?
• Was the project managed effectively?
• Would they recommend the Magento Development Company to you?
In addition, keep in mind that any good quality Magento development company will have a number of skilled resources for Magento development, and will also have backup resources to fill in as and when the need arises. If a company only has one or two dedicated Magento Developers they could find themselves in hot water as they fall short of developers, designers or testers.
2. Do they have right processes and methodologies in place?
This is crucial. In software and web development, processes and methodologies are key factors behind the success or failure of a project.
From identification and use of key practices required to enhance the maturity of software development processes, to code quality, solid management practices, continuous process improvement rules, to effective development processes is what will be essential to keep your Magento eCommerce project on the right track.
Can the Magento Development Company you are speaking with supply evidence of these process being in place in their business?
3. How do they rank quality?
Quality Assurance is often forgotten about when discussing software or web development solutions. Quality Assurance is the final stage of the project prior to delivery or launch. It’s the testing that takes place to ensure the product or solution complies with the agreed scope, that it functions as it should, that it is error free, and that it creates a great user experience for those folks that will be using it.
Can your expert Magento Developers provide you with written processes around their Quality Assurance approach?
4. How will they communicate with you?
Effective communication between the stakeholders and the development on software projects is a must. It’s essential for success.
How are they planning on communicating with you? Will all communication be centralised and easily accessible, or will it be as needed, via email or phone from multiple people, therefore making it extremely hard to track and have full awareness of, or reference back to should you need to – and trust us, you will always need to reference back to previous discussions with software development.
You are looking for the company to show examples of a system, tool or platform that consolidates and stores communication between all people involved on the project. It should be web based, and accessible on the go, easy to use, and managed by a project manager allocated to you.
5. Will they be there to help post launch?
Post-development support is critical in ensuring all niggly issues and bugs are ironed out as they appear.
You may require post launch support for the following reasons:
• Continued improvement of your new Magento eCommerce solution
• Integrating the Magento solution with other business applications
• Adding features and functionality in response to user needs
• Improving the efficiency and reliability of the solution
Building a Magento based eCommerce solution is not an easy task and should be managed by only those with the right skills and past experience.
If you are looking for a trustworthy, reliable Magento Website Development Company, please contact Newpath WEB today on 03 8605 4896 to discuss how our Magento eCommerce specialist can assist you with your next eCommerce solution.