Twelve questions to ask before you hire a software vendor.
Most vendor problems are visible before the contract is signed, if you ask the right questions. These are the questions we would want a buyer to ask us, and to ask everyone else they are considering.
How they build
| Question | Why it matters | A good answer includes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. What do you start from on a new project? | A team that rebuilds sign-in, permissions and infrastructure every time charges you for it every time. | Named components or a platform they reuse, and how long it has run in production. |
| 2. Which decisions do you settle before building features? | Identity, data model, security and integrations are the most expensive things to change late. | A specific list, and when in the project each one is decided. |
| 3. Who will actually do the work? | The team in the sales meeting is not always the team on the project. | Named roles, where they sit, and whether any work is subcontracted. |
| 4. How do you define done? | Without written acceptance criteria, every disagreement becomes a negotiation. | Acceptance criteria agreed per deliverable, before work starts. |
How they price and handle change
| Question | Why it matters | A good answer includes |
|---|---|---|
| 5. Is this fixed price or time and materials? | Hourly billing puts the risk of an estimate on you. Fixed price puts it on the vendor, for the agreed scope. | A clear model, what scope it covers, and what sits outside it. |
| 6. How do you handle a change in scope? | Change is normal. An undefined change process is where budgets break. | A written change process: how a change is priced, approved and scheduled. |
| 7. What happens if a deliverable fails acceptance? | You want to know who pays for rework before it happens. | Who fixes it, at whose cost, and for how long after delivery. |
What you own and what you depend on
| Question | Why it matters | A good answer includes |
|---|---|---|
| 8. Who owns the source code? | Ownership decides whether you can change vendors, hire your own team, or sell the company cleanly. | A written ownership statement, and how any shared or licensed components are treated. |
| 9. What does the system depend on that you keep? | Shared platforms and libraries can be a strength or a lock-in. | A list of retained components, who maintains them, and the terms if you leave. |
| 10. How is our data secured? | You stay responsible for the data your product holds. | Where data lives, how it is encrypted, who can access it, and which standards apply. |
After launch
| Question | Why it matters | A good answer includes |
|---|---|---|
| 11. What support do you provide after go-live? | Most of a system's life happens after launch. | Hosting, monitoring, backups and response times, stated as numbers in the contract. |
| 12. What can you show us that is running today? | Claims are cheap. A live system is evidence. | A product or system in production you can see, ideally built the way they propose to build yours. |
How Norse answers them
ADAPT, the platform every Norse project begins on, built from two decades of mission-critical work for banks, insurers, manufacturers and public institutions.
Identity, notifications, file transfer and infrastructure are in place from the first scaffold. That often removes 3 to 10 days of setup work from the critical path.
Fixed price where the scope is well defined. Time and materials, with a budget cap and weekly reporting, for open-ended and discovery work.
You own the code written for your business. Norse's platform components are licensed to you, and you keep running the versions you have if the relationship ends.
AutoDocs 365, our own product, built and running on ADAPT.
Set out in writing in every proposal. Ask us for them in the first conversation.
Questions people ask
Should I always choose fixed price?
Not always. Fixed price works best when the scope can be described up front. For open-ended research, time and materials can be the fairer model. Ask each vendor which they would recommend for your project, and why.
How many vendors should I compare?
Enough to see a real difference in answers. Ask every vendor the same questions in writing so the answers are comparable.
Ask us all twelve.
Bring your shortlist and your questions. In 30 minutes, you will get straight answers and a practical recommendation on the right delivery path.