10 Steps To Understanding The Mobile Application Development Life Cycle
TechsPlace | Mobile applications have provided very simple ways through which users can access all their preferred platforms. Since the first mobile app was developed, there have been plenty of mobile applications being created, ranging from social media to games and lifestyle, that has impacted every person in the world who is using a Smartphone.
Mobile application development has emerged as one of the biggest industries in the world and has an annual turnover of billions. As per surveys and reports, more than 80% of the total time spent on a Smartphone are channeled to mobile applications.
But it is not as easy to develop an application as it is when it comes to its usage. Developers undergo a lot of processes while creating a mobile application. As time is passing, dedicated developers are now looking for a more seamless process of development that saves their time as well as effort.
Though making a readymade solution is not possible when it comes to development as it requires a lot of ideas and creativity, some prominent steps can be taken to take a deep dig into the mobile app development lifecycle. Through these ways, a strong, convenient, and sophisticated application can be developed in less time and cost.
10 Steps To Understand The Mobile Application Development Lifecycle
- Find Your Market Or Target Understand
- Create A Proper Plan
- Create Prototypes
- Release Your Prototype
- Make A Design For The Application
- Do A Test Run Of The Application
- Pre-Deployment Activities
- Deploy The Application
- Support
- Providing Updates
Find Your Market Or Target Understand
This is the first step of any development process that applies to every business. It is important to discover the potential customers along with the market, both virtual and geographical, for a successful implementation of the application, no matter if it’s someone’s first mobile app or he/she is experienced.
It is important to choose the right audience to get the application to climb the ladders of success. Also, the app must be creative in its way, even if the idea is similar to other old apps.
To stand out in the competition, it is important to display the uniqueness in this industry. To detect the target audience, it is important to research the idea of the app properly.
The research must comprise the main aim of the project, what it has to offer to the audience, and who can get benefited from it. The developers must also think about the content that the app must have at an early stage of the development cycle to overcome failures of testing.
Create A Proper Plan
The next step includes creating a roadmap of the whole development as well as the deployment process. It consists of expectations from the app in the coming years. The aspect of money must also be kept in mind while planning.
It includes various things such as the amount of money required to build the app, the function of in-app purchases, and paid apps as well as premium features.
Marketing strategy is an inseparable part of planning. It also consists of finding out the MVP (Minimum Value Product) of the app for future references.
Create Prototypes
App developers have a tendency to move into the development phase after discovering the market. Many tools are present to help them in the future. These tools may include workflows, push notifications, wireframes, and many more.
It not only helps in enhancing user experience but also helps in getting an insight of the app into the real work. It is recommended to gather such tools before applying them to app development so that they function properly and suit the purpose of the application.
Release Your Prototype
To know the real worth and prospects of the app, it is important to put it on for testing. Releasing a prototype is an efficient method of knowing what the fully-developed application will look and feel like.
It is easier to take out mistakes from it and implement it into the main program. One must select honest reviewers with fruitful feedback to get the maximum benefits.
Make A Design For The Application
After the prototype of the application is made, it is important to decide how the application will look. One option is to open posts of mobile app developers for hire and recruit for front-end development.
It is important to go for a creative approach and innovate rather than following templates. Users pay attention to the design of an app, and if it doesn’t attract them, there are fewer chances that they will install it. This is why designers need to do deep research and come up with an attractive and unique design.
Do A Test Run of The Application
It is testing all the parts of an application before its deployment is very important. Many parts stay untested in the traditional testing, and hence the testing team needs to conduct end-user testing.
Continuous testing and post-development testing are equally testing. All parts from the code, from the design to the interface of the design need to be tested.
Pre-Deployment Activities
Development companies need to do some things before deployment. They need to decide on the platform where they will deploy the application and the marketing strategy that will be opted for.
A marketing budget is to be decided, some companies want to deploy the application independently, and for that, they will need a website of their own. These activities make way for a good deployment event and make sure that there is nothing that can make the market weak.
Deploy The Application
Deployment of the application is one task that takes a lot of planning and arrangements. There are many things that app development companies need to do to launch the application at the right time in the right way. The event at which it is launched, how it is launched, the medium, and many other things impact the app and its market.
Support
There might be something that some people don’t like, or they might face a problem with it. It is important that mobile application development companies pay attention to these things.
There should be a support system that is integrated with the application. The app development company should make sure that they solve all the queries and fix all the bugs that the customers tell them about.
This is important to gain the trust of the users and keep the application error-free. Without this, the mobile application development process can fail miserably. Users have the power to post a review about the applications, and before creating a strong opinion, users try to gain support.
Providing Updates
Providing updates for different bug fixes and performance enhancement is important. The market changes, the requirements change, and that is why mobile application development companies need to change too.
Many things decide if the users will keep using an application or not. The design, user experience, and the features that applications have are those things.
All these things need to be updated regularly so that customers stay with the application. It has been seen that applications that provided fewer updates went out of the market, and the applications that kept updating went to the top. The budget and the scope, all the things can get void if the application is not changing with the requirements of the users.
Conclusion
Developing a mobile application needs discipline. All the steps that have been mentioned here have a great impact on the quality of the application that is developed.
Developers and the mobile app development company need to follow all the steps with care and need to keep researching to make the application better.
Tarun Nagar is the Founder & CEO of Dev Technosys, a global ranking custom software development company in the USA. Here you can hire dedicated developers with 10+ years of experience in enabling then Startups which are now global leaders with creative solutions, he is differentiated by out-of-the-box IT solutions throughout the domain. He is known for his visionary qualities and adaptability to technology and trends, passionate as he is in every aspect dedicated to making IT simple, accessible, and approachable for business enterprises.
