Switching Your Website Development Team Without Risk

Oct 21
12:14

2014

Alex HD

Alex HD

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At some point of time, all of us have had to take the decision to axe the existing service provider and hire a new team due to various reasons which were causing a hindrance to progress. This article explains how you can easily switch your software service provider, without causing any friction or widening scope for harassment in future.

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A business owner is often faced with the dilemma of deciding whether changing his / her Software Vendor or Development Team will boost the efficiency and progress of the website thereby improving productivity of the business. Many of us have had to take the decision to axe the existing service provider and hire a new team due to various reasons which were causing a hindrance to progress. This article explains how you can easily switch your software service provider,Switching Your Website Development Team Without Risk Articles without causing any friction or widening scope for harassment in future.

Make it Quick

The crux about making the switch is to do it with speed, without allowing time for the old team or provider to brood over the matter and make matters sour. Dealing with a hostile provider may also delay the process and strain future relations, which maybe necessary in ensuring that the software transition happens smoothly. You should be ready with a detailed list on what exactly you want from your old vendor and also draft a timeline outlining how you want to go about the transition. This must be placed before the old vendor and discussed with his firm or team to ensure that they have understood the plan.

Pre-Planning and Study

Before the old provider is approached about the switch, make sure that your new vendor has understood the system and is capable and ready to take on the task of servicing your existing system. Many a times you may realize later that even your new developers are as unsuitable to manage your website, just like the old ones were. Allow your new team to study the website and all the bells and whistles with it, so that there is no scope fora shabby job in future.

Knowledge Handover

Software developers often incorporate work-arounds, patches, beta versions, test software and leave bits of code undocumented and often forgotten. These may lead to anxiety for the next team that takes it on and also be a cause for confusion. When diagnosing a compromise or security issue, you will be left perplexed at the test code that was forgotten about. It's best that both the team's sit face to face and crease out any difficulties that they maybe having.

Documentation

Documentation of the entire website and software is something which should be present at every stage and hopefully the prior documentation which was made, will come in handy for the new team to understand the intricacies of the software and intention of the previous software team. The entire website with sitemap must be well-documented with exhaustive number of screenshots and adequate number of examples to illustrate the functionality.

Keep them parallel

Before you discontinue the services of the old team that you are switching from, ensure that the new team needs nothing more from them and is not dependent on their knowledge or information to continue servicing your website. This may mean paying extra for the old team to continue their support and may also mean putting up with the delays and whims of the old vendor.