Why and How To Look For Specialized IoT Developers

IoT is conquering the world — at the moment, the number of connected devices has exceeded 23 billion, and it is expected to reach 75 billion by 2025. Now, when the market is still growing, it is the best time to enter it with a new product. But deciding on the idea and developing a detailed roadmap is not enough to launch the project — it is also essential to find a team to work on your smart device. We recommend to look for specialized developers from the same industry which you’re planning to enter, and here’s why.

Why It Is Better to Look For a Specialized Team

The thing is that IoT is something more than smart home gadgets — it consists of diverse categories and subcategories, and there is probably no team (or developer) in the entire world who would be equally experienced and good at all of them. However, choosing specialized developers can bring you a lot of benefits:

• Industry experts will bring you a lot of benefits apart from writing the code — they will also suggest the best solutions for different problems, provide you with ideas on the product development, and help with many other things (for instance, what features MVP should include).
• Higher quality of your smart gadget — a team with relevant experience already knows what difficulties are waiting for them and how to avoid these dangers.
• Higher demand on your device — gadgets of better quality are always in demand, and this works especially well in the IoT environment, which is full enough of devices with problems with connectivity, security, and so on.
• Your project will be completed on time or even earlier — an experienced team won’t have to redo certain parts of the project, it will do everything right on the first try.
• You are unlikely to go beyond your budget limit — the reason here is the same as in the previous point (your team will do everything on the first try, so extra funds on fixing the problems won’t be required).

The benefits are obvious, so it is important to shape the idea of your smart gadget and decide on the IoT subcategory. Then it will be easier to look for developers, as the chosen subcategory will significantly narrow your search down. Here are some categories and subcategories of the IoT sphere:

Consumer IoT

That’s probably the most popular category — it includes wearables, voice assistants, smart home devices (and their hubs and controllers), smart entertainment gadgets, etc.

Commercial IoT

In turn, commercial IoT focuses on devices which help businesses to develop and work without any problems: inventory control devices, plug load control gadgets, and so on.

Industrial IoT (or IIoT)

Finally, IIoT covers smart cities, industrial security systems, smart grids, and other subcategories.

All these categories and subcategories require different skills. When it comes to IIoT, it is extremely important for a developer to be able to connect and set up dozens or even hundreds of smart gadgets! But in the case of, for instance, a fitness tracker, everything is pretty simple — there is no need to go for the same sophisticated manipulations. Therefore, a team with a great experience in working on wearables and voice assistants is not likely to deliver a good IIoT solution.

How to Find a Specialized IoT developer

Now you know why it is important to look for a specialized developer or even an entire team of developers, so it is time to tell you how to find a trustworthy professional with related experience who will be able to fine-tune your smart device and make it absolutely ready for the market. Here are a few tips:

Look for end-to-end IoT solution providers

IoT projects usually involve building and fine-tuning smart gadgets, developing special apps, ensuring connectivity and security, and many other things. We highly recommend you to look for a company which would be able to assume all the above-mentioned parts, except, probably, the production of the gadget. If you find several partners, they risk to misunderstand each other and, therefore, deliver a product of low quality. But only one team can entirely focus on your project and cover all of its aspects. Apart from this, look for teams providing support after their work on your smart gadget was done — if there is a need to update the device after the release, it will be much easier to cooperate with the same IoT partner again than to look for a new one.

Take a look at your potential partner’s portfolio

That’s the most obvious thing to do, and one of the most important ones. Any self-respecting team or developer has a portfolio to prove their expertise, so after you find several companies which can deliver an end-to-end solution, check their portfolios! Choose teams which have experience of working on more or less similar products, and consider only them. For instance, are you developing an object tracking gadget? Then look for a team with the related experience, as it already knows all the nuances and potential difficulties.

Check the feedback

After you have several options, check feedback from the companies’ previous clients, if it is shared. However, trustworthy companies usually have nothing to hide, and reviews can be found exactly on their websites. It will be also useful to find out what users think about those smart devices these companies worked on. Pay special attention to security — it is one of the most significant concerns in the IoT world, so it is great when the smart devices your potential IoT partner has worked on, have no security issues.

After you find several companies which fit all your requirements, you can make a final choice on the basis of their rates, location, and readiness to start working on your project. And by the way, if your project is related to the consumer electronics, wearables or smart home subcategories, we would be pleased to give you more detailed recommendations about it.

What Software Requirements Mean

First of all, let us quickly remind you what software requirements are. So, you have an idea of a really nice and promising app, and even have already found a team of true professionals to develop it. Now, it is essential to work on software development requirements — a document specifying what your application is supposed to do and how it should perform.

Usually the document includes the following points:

• Description of the purpose and objectives of the software
• Functions of the product
• Characteristics of the user classes
• Description of the operating environment
• Implementation and design constraints (language requirements, hardware limitations, etc.)
• Security requirements
• External interface requirements

This list is not full, but we are here not to explain all the details on HOW to develop software requirements. If you have any difficulties, a good and experienced team will always help you to deal with this task. No, we are going to tell you WHY the requirements are so important and WHAT benefits their development will bring you.

How You Can Benefit From Correct Requirements Development

Well-developed software requirements which are easy to understand can significantly save your budget, efforts, and time, and that’s the most obvious and general advantage. Here are some more details on what is hiding behind this benefit.

No Misunderstanding Between You and Developers

People think differently, so it is not enough to tell your team that you want, for instance, a smart home app. Your developers and testers can’t read your minds, so they may build a smart home app which will be completely different from a product which you wanted.

A document with software requirements can exclude even the tiniest possibility of this situation — it will allow the team to implement your idea without asking numerous follow-up questions and redoing some parts of the project several times. Therefore, your budget won’t suffer too much, as the project itself won’t require hours of extra work.

No Problems With the Design Idea

Words are important, but pictures are much better when it comes to the product design. Usually, software requirements include diverse sketches which help to visualize your application. This trick minimizes the risk of misunderstanding as to how the app should look like. Again, everything will be done right, so it won’t be essential to spend extra time and funds on fixing serious design mistakes or creating everything again from scratch.

No Need to Stick to the Same Team All the Time

Did a team which seemed to be professional turn out to be not that experienced? This happens sometimes. Well, if you decide to hire another team, you won’t have to explain everything to them from the very beginning. Just provide them with a document with all the software requirements, and that’s it.

No Lack of Interest

A document with well-developed requirements will show that you are a serious and responsible client, warm up the interest of your team, and give them extra inspiration and motivation to work on your project. A dedicated team is not a 100% guarantee of your app’s success, but it is one of the important factors.

Here is one more thing to mention — you will be able to enjoy all these benefits only in case software requirements are built BEFORE the start of the development process. The document must be detailed, but having some flexibility is still a good idea — the requirements may slightly change during the app development, and this is normal. Besides, a certain degree of flexibility will let your team make their own suggestions on how to make the product better.