{"id":1482,"date":"2026-07-28T09:31:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightfirms.co\/blog\/?p=1482"},"modified":"2026-07-28T09:31:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:31:55","slug":"before-you-hire-a-development-company-ask-for-these-12-deliverables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightfirms.co\/blog\/before-you-hire-a-development-company-ask-for-these-12-deliverables\/","title":{"rendered":"Before You Hire a Development Company: Ask for These 12 Deliverables"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most vendor conversations end the same way: a proposal document, a quoted price range, and a start date. What rarely gets asked for is proof that the vendor has actually thought through how the project will be built, tested, secured, and supported after launch. That gap is where a large share of failed software engagements begin, not because the developers could not code, but because nobody defined what they were building against before the contract was signed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fix is simple. Before signing with any of the many software development companies<\/strong><\/a> competing for your project, ask for these 12 deliverables. A serious vendor will have most of them ready, or will be able to produce them quickly. A vendor that cannot, or pushes back on the request, is telling you something important before you have spent a dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. A Written Project Roadmap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A roadmap should break the project into phases with rough timelines attached to each, not a single end date three months out. Look for named milestones (discovery complete, first working prototype, QA sign-off, launch) rather than a single bar on a Gantt chart. If a vendor cannot produce this before the contract is signed, they have not actually scoped the work yet, they are estimating it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. A Software Requirements Document<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is the single most important piece of software project planning, and the one businesses most often skip. A requirements document should translate your business goals into specific functional requirements: what the system must do, who uses it, what data it handles, and what “done” looks like for each feature. Without this, scope disagreements later in the project become a matter of opinion instead of a matter of checking a document both sides signed off on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. An Architecture Plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ask for a description of the technical architecture before development starts, not after. This does not need to be a 40-page technical spec, but it should cover the core technology stack, how the frontend and backend will communicate, where data will be stored, and how the system is expected to scale. An architecture plan produced after the fact is really just documentation of decisions nobody reviewed in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. A Sprint Schedule or Delivery Cadence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If the vendor works in sprints, ask for the sprint length, what gets reviewed at the end of each sprint, and how you will see progress along the way. Vendors who cannot commit to a cadence, or who describe delivery only in terms of a single final handoff, make it harder to catch problems early, when they are still cheap to fix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. A QA and Testing Strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ask specifically how the vendor plans to test the software, not just that they will “test it.” A real QA strategy names the types of testing involved (unit, integration, user acceptance), who is responsible for each, and at what point in the schedule testing happens relative to development. Agencies that treat QA as a final step squeezed in before launch tend to ship more bugs, because testing was never built into the schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. A Security Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Security should be a documented part of the plan, not an assumption. Ask how the vendor handles authentication, data encryption, and access control, and whether the project will need any compliance considerations relevant to your industry (healthcare data, financial data, and so on). A vendor with a clear, specific answer to this question is a different category of partner than one who says “we take security seriously” without naming a single practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. A Deployment Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Find out exactly how the software will go live: whether there is a staging environment, how rollbacks are handled if something breaks after launch, and who is responsible for the deployment itself. A vendor without a clear deployment process is more likely to treat launch day as a stressful, high-risk event rather than a routine, tested procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. A Maintenance and Support Plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What happens the day after launch matters as much as the launch itself. Ask what is included in post-launch support, how bug fixes are prioritized and billed, and what the process looks like for adding new features later. Many vendor relationships sour specifically because “maintenance” was never defined in the original proposal, and both sides discover different assumptions about it after the invoice arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. A Communication Framework<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This should specify who your point of contact is, how often you will receive updates, and what tools will be used (a shared project board, weekly calls, async updates, or some mix). Vague answers here (“we’ll keep you posted”) tend to predict vague updates once the project is underway. A defined communication framework is one of the simplest indicators of how a vendor actually manages client relationships day to day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. A Realistic Cost Breakdown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ask for a breakdown by phase or deliverable, not just a single total number. This makes it much easier to spot where budget is concentrated and to have an informed conversation if scope changes later. A single lump-sum quote with no breakdown makes it hard to know whether you are paying for design, development, QA, or project management, and makes any future negotiation much harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. A Risk and Assumptions Log<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every project proposal is built on assumptions (about data availability, third-party integrations, existing systems, and so on). Ask the vendor to list theirs explicitly. This single document often reveals more about a vendor’s experience level than anything else on this list: experienced teams tend to name specific, project-relevant risks, while newer or less careful vendors tend to leave this section generic or skip it entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12. A Documented Handoff and Ownership Plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before the project starts, clarify what you will own at the end of it: source code, credentials, documentation, and design files. This should be stated plainly in the proposal, not left as an assumption. Some vendors retain more control over code repositories or infrastructure access than clients realize until they try to switch providers later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Use This List in a Vendor Conversation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You do not need all 12 deliverables finalized before your first call. What you need is a vendor willing to walk through each of these areas concretely, with specifics rather than reassurances. A useful approach:<\/p>\n\n\n\n