An estimate that arrives instantly is a bad sign. A competent team responds with questions first: about users and volumes. A vendor that prices before understanding the scope is probably guessing, and a guess becomes a change request later — and you will pay for it.
Look out for a mismatch between the engineers on the sales call and the developers actually assigned. Ask for angular developers for hire specific people rather than roles in the statement of work, with a provision covering replacement. A provider that only offers abstract roles and will not commit to people is keeping its own flexibility at your cost.
Ask for access to the repository from the first week. A partner that hands over nothing between demos expects you to take delivery on faith. Visible commits reveal the actual pace far better than a slide deck. The same applies to the build and deployment setup: if nothing runs automatically, quality claims are unverifiable.
Ambiguous phrasing around code ownership is rarely an accident. The document needs to state in plain terms that the code, designs and documentation become the property of your software product development company as they are paid custom software development for government agencies. Also check the governing law and how payments are structured: a large upfront payment with no milestone tied to it eliminates the only leverage you have.
Last, pay attention to the working rhythm. Ask how many hours the teams will share with your working day, who answers your questions and on what response times. Some genuine overlap is usually enough; zero overlap turns a five-minute question into a twenty-four hour round trip. Careless writing in the sales phase rarely improves under delivery pressure.
