Discussion on:

10 ways to avoid choosing the wrong development tools

Hi, Thanks for the information

An important factor to evaluate a vendor is to ask for references. Don't be shy to ask for names and telephone numbers. Also look for standard service packages like http://www.2sky.be/Content/SP%20Vidyano%20Jumpstart%20v3.0.pdf

As part of an Architectural Solutions Team, we deal every day with situations in which we must choose the best suited technology for a project. This article writes down pretty much our selection process. If I would've been asked to assign weight and re-order the different variables detailed here I would probably set #6 as the first one to think about and would assign a +3 to the weight. #7 is dependent on the previous one, and definitely having in mind the integration (#2) would be my next point to sort out.

Thanks for this article as I'm sure will help a lot of people get their ways around choosing a dev. technology.

I completely feel you on your view when it comes to being more careful in choosing your software! One of the hardest things is trying to deal with new product that doesn't serve your purpose. And even worse, is admitting that.

Thanks for the tips!

Other good resources for readers trying to find the best software for the job - http://www.itninja.com/software

David Malmborg
I work with Dell

is there any official vendor help at all? If the option of support is a user forum and your developers are not used to that then it probably won't work for your team. Some people just need someone to call and get help from, some of us don't but I find that while I can cope fine with forum support I end up becoming the support for the whole team and then I don't get anything else done. Number 6 is very important.