Development Stages Of a Mobile Application

Mobile Application: Suppose you are a company that needs to offer a new digital product to your customers or an entrepreneur with a business idea that wants to have a presence on mobile devices. In that case, you are about to enter the world of software development.

Many are unaware of the work behind creating a mobile application, the stages that this type of project has, and the human team necessary to make it a reality.

Next, I will recount the main stages of developing a mobile application, and I will mention some key points to take into account at each location.

Scope definition

Before venturing out to look for specialized companies and requesting quotes, it is advisable to have a clear idea of ​​what is needed. From now on, we will call it ‘requirements.’ The requirements come to be a textual description of the characteristics that you want your mobile application to have.

The more detail you have of what you want, the more precise you will have what you can receive in the quotes. It is precious that you have supplemental information such as reference applications and sketches of how you would like your application to look.

Tip #1:

Do not request a quote with the following message: “I would like to know how much it would cost me to develop an application like Rappi.” It is a recurring error in some people who only ask for quotes indicating the reference application. This only shows that you are not taking the project seriously or have no idea what you want.

In these cases, the quotes you will receive will have a very high cost or be far from reality because the applications that exist in the market have too many features, which have been developed over extended periods in different iterations and based on metrics of the behavior of their users.

1. Planning

With the scope, you can now request quotes and evaluate these proposals to start the project’s development. Once you have decided which company you will work with, the initial step will be planning the project.

In this phase, a work schedule generally reflects the list of activities to be carried out until the project is closed. This schedule will have essential milestones such as the delivery of advances in a particular time that allow you to visualize the progress of the development and, in turn, give feedback to the team that is developing it. It is also essential to define the project’s deliverables, such as the generated documentation, the design file, the source code, and others.

The agency or consultant will make available to the project a team with specific roles to cover all stages of development. Similarly, as a client company or project leader, you must assume a monitoring and control role, which is summarized in approving the deliverables and giving timely feedback at each stage of the project.

Tip #2:

When starting the project, designate the people who will approve the proposed design of mobile application, deliverables, and others. Do not try to involve many people in decision-making because it will negatively impact the project’s duration. For example, leaving app design approval to 5 people will cause the design stage to extend from 7 to 15 more days.

2. Requirements analysis

As a first activity, we have the analysis of the requirements at a very detailed level to define the requirements in detail and be clear about the primary and secondary flows of the application. Similarly, the particular rules of the application associated with the business or the differential value of the application must be clear.

At this stage, it is necessary to arrange meetings as many times as required to align with the agency team and you as a client or owner of the product. That is to say, the characteristics of the application are detailed, and as a result of them, the activities that the team will carry out are broken down.

3. Application design

Once the scope has been defined and the requirements detailed, the UI/UX design team proceeds to make a visual proposal of the main screens of the application and create a flow with them. This is to present it to the product owner and receive their approval or feedback to apply the necessary improvements.

Once the approval is received, the secondary flows and complementary screens are designed. In the end, you will have a complete design of all the flows that the application will have; this will be a primary input for the software development team.

4. Software development

The requirements defined in the project’s scope and the graphic flow of the entire application will serve to explain a set of tasks that the programming team will develop.

Together with the programming team, the project management team will define the deliverables to have progressive advances. The client will show these as the application is built until the final version is available.

5. Software development

The requirements defined in the project’s scope and the graphic flow of the entire application will serve to explain a set of tasks that the programming team will develop.

Together with the programming team, the project management team will define the deliverables to have progressive advances. The client will show these as the application is built until the final version is available.

6. Tests or testing

Once the programming stage is completed, a series of functional tests will be carried out to check the correct operation of the application and detect possible issues that will be reviewed before publishing.

Then, a demonstration of the application to the client is carried out. In addition, joint tests are carried out to obtain their final feedback before publishing the application.

7. Application publication

At this stage, the application is configured for its launch, the required information sheets are filled out, and the applications are digitally signed to upload to the store.

In the case of Google Play, the time it takes from when the application is submitted until it appears in the store is on average 24 hours. If it is the first time, future updates usually take 3 hours. In the case of the Apple Store, the average is three days.

Tip #3:

It is essential to process your account in Huawei App Gallery, Google Play, and App Store in the company’s name at the beginning of the project since platforms such as Huawei and Apple request information about the company to validate it and register it.

8. Maintenance

An application, like all software, needs maintenance because the software industry is constantly changing. Specifically, new models of smartphones or new versions of operating systems are usually launched in the mobile market. In both cases, it is necessary to extend the support of our application for these new versions.

On the other hand, the policies and conditions of the app stores are often updated. So our applications must be aligned to prevent them from being removed from the stores. In some cases, the requirements of third-party services used in the application may vary, and it will also be necessary to update these components.

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