Do not ask them about their "process." They will lie. Ask these to interrogate the best ecommerce software developers in the UAE.
1. "Can you show me the commit history for a recent project?"
The Trap: They will say "NDA" because they don't want you to see that one junior dev wrote the whole thing in a weekend. Software development companies that hide code are hiding something.
2. "Which specific machine learning frameworks do you use for personalization?"
The Trap: If they answer "We use AI," run. They should be naming ML frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch. If they can't name the tools, they are selling snake oil.
3. "Who owns the code if I cancel the contract mid-project?"
The Trap: Many agencies hold your source code hostage to force payment for unfinished work. The software development agreement must explicitly state you own every line from day one.
4. "How do you handle schema changes during high-traffic events?"
The Trap: They will stutter. If they don't mention blue-green deployments or database migration tools, they are planning to take your site down for "maintenance" every time they push an update.
5. "What are your current internal software development trends regarding security?"
The Trap: They will list buzzwords. You want to hear about automated vulnerability scanning and penetration testing in the CI/CD pipeline. Their awareness of software development trends tells you how modern your project will be.
6. "How do you estimate software development cost for scope creep?"
The Trap: They will give you a low hourly rate but hide the fact that they bill for "project management" and "meetings" that double the price. Therefore, this question will help.
7. "Do you use proprietary CMS or open source?"
The Trap: Proprietary means vendor lock-in. You can never leave them because no other developer can read their custom, undocumented mess.
