Every vendor demos well and every vendor has a portfolio. These twelve questions produce answers that are harder to rehearse.
About the work
- Can you give me a written scope with a fixed price before I pay anything?
- What is explicitly not included in this quote?
- What does an out-of-scope change cost, per day?
- Who exactly will work on this, and what else are they working on?
- How is migration priced, and who validates the result?
About ownership
- Do we receive the source code and database schema on final payment?
- Whose name are the hosting, domain and store accounts registered in?
- If we leave in year two, what exactly do we take with us?
About afterwards
- What is covered by support, and what is billable?
- What is your response time commitment, in writing?
- Can I speak to a client you delivered to three years ago — not last month?
- Have you ever had a project go wrong, and what happened?
The last question is the most useful one on the list. Every vendor with real volume has had a project go badly. One who claims otherwise is either new or not being straight with you. What you are listening for is whether they describe what they changed afterwards.