Build5 min read
12 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Software Development Company in London
The questions that separate a genuine senior team from a sales front, covering ownership, seniority, delivery cadence, security and what happens when you want to leave.
By Zynoff.ai Editorial, Senior engineering and growth team
Key takeaways
- Ask who will actually write the code and insist on meeting them.
- Ownership of code, accounts and designs from day one is non-negotiable.
- Weekly shipped work beats a polished project plan.
- The exit terms tell you more about a provider than the pitch does.
Questions about people
The pitch team and the delivery team are often different people. Find out before you sign.
- Who will write the code, and can we meet them before we start?
- How many years of experience do they have in our stack?
- Will there be an account manager between us and the engineers?
- What hours and time zone does the team work in?
Questions about ownership and exit
If the answers here are vague, walk away.
- Do we own all code, designs, IP and accounts from day one?
- Is the work built in our GitHub, cloud and tooling, or yours?
- What is the notice period, and are there exit fees?
- What happens to in-progress work if we leave?
Questions about delivery and quality
Cadence and evidence matter more than methodology names.
- When will the first shipped work land, and what happens if it does not?
- How do you handle testing, security and dependency updates?
- How are priorities changed, and does it cost extra?
- How do you report progress, and against what metrics?