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You are likely thinking about how to make your web application or website development project a success. Experts estimate that users take just 50 milliseconds to form an opinion about a website. As you see, you have a short time-window.
You might plan to launch a new website. Alternatively, you might want to overhaul your existing website. A website consultant can enhance your online presence. Whether designing a new professional website or enhancing existing websites, they help you deliver a better user experience.
How do you hire a competent web development consultant? You need to take the following steps:
- Analyze your requirements;
- Decide your skills and competencies requirements;
- Choose the appropriate hiring platform;
- Interview candidates;
- Onboard web development consultants effectively.
Let’s talk about these steps in more detail:
1. Analyze your business and project requirements
You need to decide what kind of web development consultants you need. This requires you to analyze your business and project requirements.
Ask yourself the following questions:
What are your specific objectives?
Do you own a small business in a niche area? Small businesses with highly specialized services can’t use a cookie-cutter search engine optimization (SEO) approach. They need to cater to their specific customer base, and the web design of the small-business websites must reflect that. Web development consultants need to understand how Googles’ algorithms work.
Businesses operating in a commoditized space have different requirements. They need to compete with many similar businesses. Take the example of eCommerce businesses. How search engines like Google rank your website depends on how well you compete with comparable e-Commerce businesses. Your social media strategy makes a difference too.
Decide on your business objectives. That will help you to determine the nature of the web consulting services you need.
How complex is your project?
Are you undertaking a website development using WordPress or Drupal? That’s a straightforward project since the web development consultant needs limited skills. The knowledge of relevant WordPress themes and plugins will suffice.
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On the other hand, complex projects require web consultants with years of experience. Your project is complex if it meets one or more of the following conditions:
- The website or web app will use functionalities involving cutting-edge technologies like AI, IoT, etc.
- You are offering complex functionalities and features in the website or app.
- You operate in a heavily regulated industry, therefore, the website or app must meet stringent data security standards.
- The website or app needs to meet demanding non-functional requirements like scalability, reliability, availability, etc.
You can assess the level of experience you need by determining the project complexity. Consultants with appropriate experience can point you to the best solution.
2. Identify which skills you need
When you hire a web development consultant, which skills would you need? Focus on the following:
Programming languages and frameworks skills
Let’s talk about web technology skills first. A web development consultant needs skills in one or more relevant programming languages. These languages are as follows:
Your project requirements determine the programming language you need.
Libraries and development frameworks can greatly expedite your project. You should look for skills in popular and relevant libraries and frameworks. For example, you can use several popular frameworks if you use Node.js.
Let’s consider Ruby as another example. If you use this language, then the Ruby on Rails framework can deliver significant productivity gains.
Web-design skills are important too. Remember to look for HTML, HTML5, CSS, and CSS3 skills when you hire web consultants. You need to also look for website design skills along with web technologies skills.
Back-end development skills
If you have a medium-to-high complexity project, then you need web consultants with robust back-end development skills. Consultants need the following:
- The knowledge of web application architecture;
- Expertise in securing web applications;
- API development skills;
- The knowledge of relational databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.;
- Skills in NoSQL databases like MongoDB.
The knowledge of succeeding in a web development project
Smart web development consultants know how to succeed in complex projects. This involves the following:
- The ability to collaborate with web designers to understand how a web designer implements the business requirements;
- The knowledge of software quality management processes;
- Code review skills;
- The knowledge of defect prevention best practices;
- Knowing how to code in alignment with the UX design;
- The familiarity with cloud computing platforms;
- Deep understanding of DevOps concepts, tools, and practices;
- Knowing how to make web pages load fast;
- The knowledge of developing scalable web applications.
The competencies that successful web consultants need
Successful web development consultants need certain competencies. These are as follows:
- Passion for excellence;
- Commitment to the client, project, and organization;
- Teamwork;
- Readiness for close collaboration with clients and co-workers;
- Continuous learning and improvement;
- Communication skills;
- The ability to see the big picture.
3. Decide which hiring platform you will use
As the next step, you need to choose a hiring platform. This step carries a lot of importance.
Most web development projects have various levels of complexity. We can categorize only a small percentage of projects as simple. Most projects require highly competent developers, and your project will likely need that too.
You might spend a lot of effort creating a good project plan. You might make sound judgments in choosing a technical environment and tools. All of these will fail to deliver success if you can’t build a cohesive team with competent people.
You don’t want a troubled project. We see the high cost of turning troubled projects around. You want to succeed the first time, therefore, you need to hire competent people.
You have the following options in terms of hiring platforms:
A) Freelance platforms
Many freelancer platforms can help you to find web development consultants. You can post your job on their site. Many freelancers view job posts on large platforms, therefore, you will get plenty of applications.
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You can interview and hire using the transparent contracting processes these platforms offer. You might get freelancers at low rates too.
You need to contend with the following risks too:
- Freelancer platforms don’t offer project management support. Your project managers need to integrate the work done by freelancers, which can be hard. Time zone differences can make the task of your project manager harder.
- Freelance platforms deduct up to 20% of the pay that freelancers earn. That can demotivate freelancers and they often look to increase their income. They take up multiple projects simultaneously. You might not get enough effort from them.
- Freelancers might leave your project mid-way if they find higher pay. You need to find a replacement.
- Executing a complex project with tight deadlines can be hard with part-time freelancers.
B) Software development companies
You can hire web development consultants from software development companies. These companies help you to find full-time developers and consultants. They offer website development services too.
When you have complex projects, having dedicated web consultants and developers help. Even if a consultant leaves your project mid-way, a software development company provides a replacement.
Software development companies provide management support. They often assign an account manager to help your project managers. These account managers provide oversight for the work their developers do.
These development companies offer transparent billing and contracting processes. Web consultants might need to access your sensitive data. This can pose privacy and security risks. Software development companies use data security policies and processes, which mitigate these risks.
4. Conduct effective interviews to select a web development consultant
You now need to interview the shortlisted candidates. You can do this on your own if you have the expertise. You can also find web developer interview questions online. The alternative is to request a knowledgeable colleague to conduct interviews.
Take enough time to cover all the skill areas. If you have already chosen specific development languages, libraries, and frameworks, then ask questions about them.
Focus on project delivery experience and not just theoretical skills. You need web development consultants with experience in complex projects. Find out what complex problems a candidate has encountered and how they approached these problems.
Evaluate whether the candidates have worked on projects similar to your project. Explain the business requirements of your project. Ask the candidates for an overview of how they would approach your project. You should expect specific answers since that demonstrate credible experience.
5. Onboard web development consultants effectively
You now need to onboard your web development consultant. Web consultants need sufficient information to succeed in your project. Your onboarding effort should ensure this.
Provide all key documents to new consultants. You need to provide business requirements, architectural decisions, technical specifications, test strategies, etc. You need to explain the documents if required.
Provide the access to all key systems and repositories in your project. The new consultants need access to the technical environment of your project.
They need access to the project management system, code repository, collaboration tools, etc. Provide this access.
Introduce the new team members to your existing team. Explain the roles and responsibilities. You need to explain your project plan and schedule. Provide detailed explanations about milestones, acceptance criteria, milestone review processes, etc. Establish accountability.
Interview tips for hiring web consultants
Keep the following interview tips in mind when hiring web design consultants:
A. Prioritize relevant web development consulting experience over theoretical knowledge
Check whether candidates have sufficient hands-on knowledge. Don’t focus on theoretical knowledge only.
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This assessment could be hard if you interview freelance website consulting professionals. You won’t be able to judge their real contribution to projects.
Hire web consultants from companies like DevTeam.Space that provide credible website consulting services. We diligently screen web consultants.
B. Review projects done by candidates for past clients
The best web designers should have an impressive portfolio of projects. You should also be able to verify their claims by talking to their past clients. This verification is easier when you hire from hybrid software development companies like DevTeam.Space.
C. Evaluate the project management experience of senior web consultants
You need senior website consultants to have sufficient project management skills and experience. Ask situation-based questions to evaluate this aspect.
D. Assess knowledge of the important tech stacks
Web consultants should have adequate knowledge of important tech stacks. E.g., they should know about full-stack development, MEAN stack, MERN stack, etc. They should be able to suggest the appropriate tech stack to the architect.
E. Evaluate the understanding of SEO (search engine optimization)
Assess the understanding of SEO. An experienced web consultant should know sufficiently about aspects like meta tags, keyword usage, etc.
Sample interview questions to hire the right consultant for web development
You would typically ask open-ended questions to judge the professional experience of website consultants. A few examples are as follows:
A. How do you ensure that the website meets non-functional requirements (NFRs) like scalability, performance, and maintainability?
What should you expect to hear?
You should expect the candidate to explain how factors like architecture and tech stack influence the NFRs. Web consultants should know about the important application monitoring tools. They need knowledge of aspects like security and compliance testing.
B. How would you help the web development team to gain productivity?
What should you expect to hear?
An experienced web consultant should mention how different programming languages and web frameworks help to gain productivity. Consultants should explain how aspects like code reuse and coding guidelines can help your team improve productivity.
C. How would you implement an effective CI/CD environment?
What should you expect to hear?
The right web consultant should explain how to use DevOps processes, methods, tools, and practices. If the candidate prioritizes collaboration among developers, testers, and DevOps engineers, then you have got the perfect match.
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This guide should help you to hire competent web development consultants. Meanwhile, take a few minutes and fill out a DevTeam.Space product specification form.
An account manager from DevTeam.Space will contact you. They will explain how our competent web development consultants can make a difference to your project.
