Major lesson - NEVER go with a FREELANCER. Always prefer a small or mid size team company. Even though they charge couple hundred more - you get more credibility and even there is a world war or natural calamity - the company will go on.
Few pointers before signing up any project -
1) Get references from the vendor and talk to the references. ( Strictly over phone and not even through skype ) - Ask your questions to references and get clarified.
2) Setup Face to Face video call with the software vendor.
3) Ask for his linkedin, Facebook ( without confirming the identity - never work with him even if he is low at prices )
Some of the questions that we usually ask before signing up a vendor -
1. How many people are on your team?
2. How many projects have the programmers who worked on your team have done?
3. How long have they been employed?
4. What’s the experience of the project manager? Can I speak to them before starting off and get an intro and spend some time with them?
5. If you follow agile - what are the sprint deliverables for each week? When is the sprint review meeting? Is this intimated to us at the start so we can follow progress easily?
6. Can we use trello to manage tasks and follow progress? When do we plan all the tasks?
and few more - we usually have 1 hour meeting to review the vendor before signing up.
On the other side - This is the process that we follow with our clients too.
Shameless plug: We're a small team of 20 people ( dev, designers, business dev. ) - Core technology programming and development for Adult industry
