游戏邦注：本文作者为Leo Sark，文中针对经验不足的Facebook应用开发公司寻找合作伙伴，他提出了4大建议。

如果公司对Facebook游戏或应用产生某个颇具潜力的想法，那么选择合适的开发商合作伙伴就显得尤为重要。公司在选择开发商合作伙伴时可以参照以下4点建议，以便降低项目风险，提高成功几率。

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1.做好准备工作

无论公司打算从何处寻找开发伙伴，都得事前做好准备工作。客户推荐是个很好的方式。但通常公司对于推荐者知之甚少，而推荐者通常会介绍自己的朋友、关系良好的客户或者合作伙伴。想要深入了解推荐者和开发商之间的关系，最好是仔细研究开发商曾为推荐者制作过的作品，以及他们合作项目所存在的问题且最终开发商是如何应对这些问题的。

公司得深入研究开发商的各个作品。因为开发商提供给公司的应用插件或者图片，未必是他们自己的作品，他们未必真正参与其中。开发商常常会把和其他公司合作的游戏/应用当作自己独立制作的作品，所以公司得仔细研究开发商在某些重要应用的参与程度。

Leo Sark表示，几年前他曾聘请某家开发商制作一款Facebook游戏。在前几次有关应用开发的交流探讨中，该开发商告诉他他们曾经开发过一款MAU（月活跃用户）超过300万的游戏。但后来游戏进入测试阶段的时间，他发现应用运作有问题，游戏的用户多为同步玩家。他于是决定深入了解那款号称MAU过300万的游戏的相关资料，仔细研究后，他惊讶发现，这款游戏的用户根本就没有300万，事实上它的MAU的最高记录才100万左右。像AppData之类的网站，用户只要付费后，就可获得游戏用户的相关历史资料（MAU & DAU），所以Leo Sark表示，这为他在初期选择合作伙伴省下了大笔费用。

2.评价开发商的业务流程

公司如果同具备成熟设计、开发、项目管理和QA管理体系的开发商合作，就可以降低项目的失败风险，对于打算和海外开发团队合作的公司来说更是如此。如果开发商缺乏稳固的业务流程，那么就有可能导致项目的失败。但这并不是说，没有成熟开发流程的开发团队就没有能力承担项目，只是说这样可以降低公司的风险。

一个很好的办法就是，公司通过提问相关问题，听取开发商给予的答案来了解开发商对于自己要求的理解程度。通常来说，开发商会称自己无所不能，而不说明潜在的风险和问题，他们通常只是为了完成交易，而没有真正了解公司的需求。游戏邦认为，没有充分符合要求规范的最终将难逃失败的命运。公司需花时间仔细评估项目的相关人员，特别是那些主要开发人员、设计师和项目管理者。了解开发公司应用于客户的项目管理方式、质量管理标准、交流工具和合作应用是个不错的切入点。

一旦应用进入测试阶段，发行日前也就近在咫尺，随之而来的就是大量的质量管理工作。作为服务对象，公司当然会十分投入，但公司并不希望亲自检查每个漏洞。最糟糕的是，有时开发商会将功能不完善应用直接交给公司，然后撒手不管，要求公司自己进行质量检查工作。

3.跳过没有附加价值的中介机构

许多数据中介机构可以帮助公司聘用符合要求的精英人才。中介机构并非专职设计和开发游戏，但他们可以帮助公司获取其网站中的开发资源。这表示公司得谨慎对待中介机构，他们不过是外包商店，并不能为项目带来附加价值，特别是当公司的开发合作伙伴身处海外。

中介机构并不提供咨询途径，而是充当外包商店的角色，这表示，他们接手公司的项目后，会额外收取高额费用（游戏邦注：该费用高于他们支付给开发合作伙伴的费用）。这就大大提高了应用的开发成本，同时他们又未能为应用添加附加价值，带来额外的利润。但中介机构能够帮助公司提炼构思，发现问题并且提供解决办法。优秀的中介机构通常对于公司应用和市场状况了如指掌，无论应用存在何种缺陷，他们都能帮助公司准确获取资源。

4.拟定适当的合同&协议

最后就是商业方面，公司得确保自己受法律保护。和开发商拟定协议的时候，公司得确保项目时间安排流程和付款条件都详细说明在内。公司得确保开发商只有在严格遵守时间表的基础上才能获得相应酬劳。同时公司还应该将退款条款也罗列在内，以防开发商无法按规定时间完成项目，或者应用无法正常运作。

公司务必在合同生效后，尽快提供清楚明了的工作文件。公司首先得对功能要求和时间规定有清楚说明，然后才着手设计和开发内容。这是经验不足的开发公司常犯的错误，他们常常对于项目时间安排缺乏明确概念，或者完全对项目时间安排和预算置之不理。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

4 Secrets To Hiring A Facebook Developer Who Will Succeed

So you have an idea for a promising Facebook game, or an application?  One of the most critical business decisions you will have to make is which development partner you should hire. Here is a list of key elements you’ll need to take in account during your development partner selection process to help you minimize risk and position your application for success;

Do your homework

No matter where you find your developer, you must always do your homework. Asking for client references is always a good start, but you usually don’t know who the references are, so often developers will give you their personal friends, or “friendly” clients and partners. Try to dig deep into the relationship between the provided reference and the company and ask for specific examples of work the development company has performed for the reference, some problems that may have occurred during various projects and how the developer responded to those problems.

Always research any work samples that the developer has given you. Just because you receive a link, or screenshots for an application that the developer has produced doesn’t necessarily mean it’s actually their work, nor does it indicate the developer’s true level of involvement with it. Often developers put games/apps as a part of their portfolios that they’ve collaborated with other companies on, so try to understand their level of involvement with critical apps listed in their portfolios.

Several years ago I hired a developer to create a Facebook game that my company was working on at the time. During the first few conversations while addressing creating scalable applications, the development company told me that they once built a game that supported over 3 million monthly active users. After our game entered its beta phase, we noticed major performance issues when the application received too many simultaneous players. I decided to purchase the application’s historical data that the developers told me had over 3 million MAUs. When I saw the data I was shocked to find out that the app they mentioned never got anywhere close to 3 million users, in fact its highest MAU count was slightly over 100k. Websites such as www.AppData.com provide paid access to historical user trends (MAU & DAU), so I could have saved a lot of money by purchasing this data early on in my development partner selection process.

Evaluate the Company’s Processes

You can minimize the chance of failure by hiring a company with mature design, development, project management , and QA processes. This is particularly crucial when working with offshore development teams, which further increases your chance of failure if solid processes are not in place. This does not mean that a company with less mature processes is less capable of delivering your project, but it does help you to reduce the risk.

A good way to check the developer’s understanding of your needs is to ask specific questions and hear the developer’s input. Typically developers that say they can do everything, without outlining potential risks and problems, are just trying to close the sale rather than understand the full extent of your requirements. A project that is taken on without full understanding of the specs is often destined for failure. Take time to evaluate the personnel that will be involved with your project, particularly the lead developers, designers and project managers (years of experience, qualifications, list of projects under the belt…). It’s also a good idea to ask about which project management, qualify assurance and communication tools and applications the company uses to engage with its clients.

Once your application reaches its BETA phase and is close to launch, a heavy load of quality assurance will need to be performed. As the client you will be involved, but you don’t want to take the time to personally diagnose every single bug. A nightmare scenario is a developer that hands off a partially functional app over to you and expects you to perform all of the quality assurance yourself.

Avoid Agencies that don’t add value

There are many digital agencies out there that can connect you with the right level of talent for your needs. Agencies typically don’t have full time design and development staff, but instead connect you to development resources that are a part of their network. This means that you have to be very wary of agencies that simply act as outsourcing shops without adding any value to your project, especially if their development partners are located offshore.

Agencies that don’t offer a consultative approach are typically acting as outsource shops, meaning that they take on your project and charge a mark up on top of whatever they’re paying their development partners. This increases the cost of the application without adding any additional value to justify the added margin. Look for agencies that help you refine your idea, outline problems and offer solutions. A good agency will a solid understanding of your application, the market and can connect you to the right resources no matter what gaps your game/app may possess (analytics, game design & development, distribution, etc).

Structure Proper Contracts & Agreements

At the end of the day this is business, and you need to be properly protected from a legal standpoint. When structuring your agreements with developers make sure that the milestones and payment terms are clearly outlined. Try to make sure that payments get released only when developers hit certain milestones (e.g. alpha phase with a fully functional avatar and combat system). Also try to incorporate some refund terms for when time sensitive milestones are not met, as well as if the application does not function properly.

Don’t forget to make sure that a well outlined scope of work document is in place shortly after the contract is executed. You want to have a clear roadmap of all the features and milestones in place before jumping into the design and development phases. This is a mistake junior development teams often make, paving way for ambiguous milestones and throwing off the timeline and budget for the project.（Source：Social Times）