12 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Software Development Agency

Too many of the clients who come to us are arriving from a previous project that didn’t end well — half-finished, over-budget or with no one left to call when something broke. In almost every case, the problems were visible during the sales conversation. The right questions, asked early, would have surfaced them. Here are twelve we’d recommend asking any agency before you sign — including us. The questions matter more than the answers; how comfortable they are answering tells you most of what you need to know.

1. Who specifically will work on our project?

You’re often sold by the senior people you’ll never see again after kick-off. Ask for the names, seniority and CVs of the actual developers, designer and project lead who’ll be on your account. Ask how often they change.

Good answer: a named team, with experience, who stay on the project until launch.

Red flag: vague references to “our talented pool of developers” or an offshore team you only learn about later.

2. How often will we actually hear from you — and from whom?

The most common complaint we hear about previous agencies isn’t about quality; it’s about silence. Get the communication cadence agreed in writing before you sign: a weekly demo or written update, a named project lead as your day-to-day contact, a defined channel (Slack, email, calls) and a stated response time during working hours. Ask what a normal Tuesday afternoon looks like — if you send a message, when can you expect a reply?

Good answer: a fixed weekly rhythm, a named PM, and the same person showing up on every call.

Red flag: replies only come from the salesperson, or “we’ll sort the cadence out once we kick off.”

3. What happens if the developer assigned to us leaves mid-project?

People leave jobs. A serious agency has a documented handover process, code that’s readable by someone other than its author, and project knowledge that doesn’t live in one head.

Good answer: pair-working, written docs, a named backup who’s already context-aware.

4. Can we see a project plan from a similar build you’ve done?

Not a pitch deck — an actual plan. Sprint structure, milestones, demo cadence, who attends what meeting, how decisions get made. Process maturity shows up here.

5. How do you handle scope changes mid-project?

Every project has them. The question is whether they’re priced fairly, transparently and without delay. Ask for the change-request process in writing.

Red flag: “we’ll figure it out as we go” — usually code for invoice surprises later.

6. What’s your testing approach?

There’s a difference between “we test” (meaning the developer clicks around before sending it to you) and a genuine QA process with automated tests, defined coverage targets and a separate testing environment.

Good answer: a mix of automated unit, integration and end-to-end tests, plus manual QA on real devices.

7. How do you handle security and data protection?

Especially if you’re handling personal data, payments or anything regulated. Ask about secure coding practices, code review, dependency scanning, secrets management and how they respond to disclosed vulnerabilities.

Red flag: a blank stare, or a list of acronyms with no specifics behind them.

8. What’s your post-launch support model?

Most projects need a few weeks of fixes and small adjustments after launch. After that, you’ll want a clear option for ongoing maintenance — at a known cost, with defined response times.

Red flag: support is sold as an afterthought or vaguely costed.

9. Can we talk to two clients from projects that didn’t go perfectly?

Anyone can produce three glowing references. Ask for one where things got hard — a missed deadline, a scope explosion, a difficult relationship — and how it was resolved. The honesty of the answer tells you how they’ll behave when your project hits friction (and at some point, it will).

10. How do you estimate? And how often are you wrong?

A mature team will tell you their average over-run percentage and how they account for it. “We’re always on time” is either a lie or a sign they pad estimates heavily.

Good answer: a candid range, with examples of how they communicate when estimates slip.

11. What’s not included?

Read the proposal and look for what’s missing: accessibility testing, app-store submission support, content migration, training, post-launch hypercare, documentation. These often get quietly dropped to keep the headline number low.

12. If we wanted to take this project to another agency in two years, how easy would that be?

This is the one most agencies don’t want asked. The answer reveals whether they’re building something genuinely portable — clean code, standard tools, documented architecture, your hosting account — or quietly locking you in.

Red flag: a long, awkward pause.

How to Use This List

Send the questions ahead of the second meeting. Anyone serious will arrive prepared with real answers; anyone who isn’t will reveal themselves quickly. Score each agency out of 12 and compare. If one comes in 20% cheaper but scores 6/12, you’ve found your “cheap quote” — and you now know what it’s missing.

We score ourselves against this list publicly because we wrote it from twenty-plus years of watching projects either thrive or unravel. The agencies that answer all twelve well are the ones you should be talking to. We hope we’re one of them — but the value of the list doesn’t depend on you choosing us.