Mobile App Development Process Steps: Things You Didn’t Know About It

Mobile app development is more complicated than you would have anticipated. Well, there is no way you can think that we are scaring you! You will become comfortable with the process, once you have read this article.

The world is swiftly pacing towards the less code to no code trend, but we do not think that will happen anytime soon. This means the mobile app development process will still be initiated with research, Lean Canvassing, Documentation, Tech Stack selection, and so on so forth. The whopping number of mobile and web apps has pushed entrepreneurs to walk an extra mile for developing a standard & functional application.

We wouldn’t go into the statistics because you would have already figured it out yourselves. However, we would just say that your mobile application ideas should be pragmatic and uniquely solve a real-life problem. If you Google search for the best mobile app ideas, you would find hundreds of them, but which one falls under your agenda is one of your onerous jobs to find out. You should not be comfortable with running a hypothesis about various app deas but with something that shows certainty.

If you have a business idea, you can connect with experts in the industry to validate it and then initiate the mobile app development process.

If this is clear to you, let us begin with the step-by-step procedure of developing an application. The first step to create an app is to develop a Lean Canvas model for your business.

Step 1: Lean Canvas

You would have quite frequently heard the phrase “doing it lean way” in the tech world. So what is “Lean Way?”. Lean Canvas is another version of the Business Canvas Model introduced by Ash Maurya. Lean Canvas is a nine-block document giving clear insights about the business.

Entrepreneurs rely upon Lean Canvas because it covers everything from business ideas to problem-solving strategies to its execution. Let’s look at the nine sections covered in Lean Canvas.

1. Problem;
2. Customer Segments;
3. Unique Value Proposition;
4. Solution;
5. Channels;
6. Revenue Streams;
7. Cost Structure;
8. Key metrics;
9. Unfair advantage;

We have written a detailed guide on how to write a Lean Canvas for your project. In this blog, we have also explained each block’s importance and the things each section should cover. The lean canvas is one of the important phases of mobile app development because it allows you to measure the progress and focuses on problem-solution fit.

Step 2: Prepare a Product Requirement Document (PRD):

Brainstorming the application idea and deciding upon the project goal is quite taxing. However, once you are clear with what you want to build, you can start preparing a PRD. PRD preparation comes under the scope of a product manager who defines the product’s capabilities and the team’s initial benchmarks.

PRD is articulated in order to give a better understanding of the product and how it can be saved from wasteful & costly affairs. A PRD encompasses the product’s specifications, purpose, functionality, features, and behavior. It is a collection of requirements, functional and non-functional, and covers “What” and “How” answers.

It acts as a stepping stone or, say, a blueprint with all the product’s insights to keep all the teams & stakeholders aligned.

The various sections of a PRD are:

• Key Objective;
• Product features;
• UX flow /Design;
• Performance metrics;
• Key Dates;
• System & Environment requirements;
• Assumptions, constraints, and dependencies;

A PRD document should be drafted with much accuracy because it highlights all the product-specific issues that need to be addressed. Time and again, you have to revisit PRD and keep it updated with every change (if made) in the document. For further details, you can refer to this blog about How to Prepare a Product Requirement Document?

Step 3: Design a Wireframe:

Another important step of the mobile app development process is wireframe designing. A wireframe lays the foundation for the application’s UI/UX. The wireframe depicts the journey of a user through the application. It is a blueprint that highlights the page structure, content hierarchy, and user flow.

You can prepare a wireframe either using a pen & paper or by using online tools. Wireframe defines how a user will navigate from one screen to another and how the pages are connected internally.

In a wireframe, you can show the positioning of the call to action buttons, arrows, and even menus. Once the wireframe is ready, you can show it to your stakeholders, investors and make a more convincing proposal.

A wireframe should be simple in design and without multiple colors. A gray or black & white scale is more preferred in a wireframe. You shouldn’t go for stylish fonts and topography while designing a wireframe. Just like the PRD, a wireframe is also iterated for keeping it up-to-date. The document is open for access to all the team members who refer to it for understanding the functionality and important elements of the app.

We have written a blog series covering all the mobile app development process steps. You can find more information about wireframing.

Step 4: Technology Stack Selection:

The fourth step in the process is the selection of a technology stack for your project. The right tech stack allows you to leverage the benefits of the market and help you develop a cost-effective yet functional application.

A technology stack consists of all the software development tools, programming languages, UI designing tools, and frameworks. All these elements form blocks, also referred to as stacks.

The four essential elements of a Tech Stack are:

• Front-end development;
• Backend development;
• Development platform;
• Additional functional attributes such as performance & security;

Front-end development defines screen interactions and is developed using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Back-end development is also known as server-side programming. Backend development covers programming languages, frameworks, Design patterns, microservice architecture, web servers, and databases.

Suppose you decide on the technology stack at the early stages of your app development process. In that case, you can also hire developers accordingly. Detailed information about tech stack selection is provided in this blog here.

Step 5: Prototype Development:

Application prototyping has gained a lot of traction recently. The prime reason behind this traction is prototyping helps you build empathy with the audience. It is a visual representation that covers the development processes, elements, interaction, and functioning.

Prototyping takes you one step ahead of the blueprint. It allows you to validate your business idea before it is presented to the audience.

Prototyping isn’t a rocket scient, nor do you need to have coding knacks. A designed prototype can be referred to at any stage and be iterated as per the business goal. We will highlight a few benefits you can have by prototyping your business idea.

• You can always have a room for improvement;
• You can sell your business idea;
• It reduces the chances of waste of resources & development time;
• You can identify the business problem at an early stage and fix them easily;
• You do not need any hands-on experience to develop a prototype;
• You can easily set up a communication channel between the teams.

Crafting your application’s prototype builds you things having a purpose. You can use prototyping tools and explore the guide here, to initiate a robust prototype app development.

Step 6: App Development company selection:

Google might help you with the query “the best app development company,” but would not help you with the selection. Selecting an app development partner is indeed a task to be carried out with utmost responsibility. There are hundreds of thousands of mobile app development companies available at your disposal, but which one will solve your purpose really matters. To look out for options, you can either rely on word of mouth, online platforms, or attend related conferences.

If we highlight the team at a glance, then you will need a project manager, sales manager, Scrum masters, iOS/Android developers, designers, and QA engineers.

If you are to select an app development company, then you should look out for the following things:

• Check their years of experience;
• Look out for transparency;
• Check their portfolio;
• Discuss the cost;
• Check the online reviews and feedback they have received from the previous work partners;
• Ask them about their after-support;
• Ask them about their work policy and process;
• Discuss your project deadlines.

This is just the highlight of what all you should do. Refer to this blog for detailed information.

Step 7: Project Management & Delivery Milestones:

There is always a to, and fro discussion is going on between multiple teams working over a project. Some ask for improvements, some demand workforce. However, everything passes through the product owner, and s/he decides on the deliverables.

These product deliverables are often referred to as project milestones. A product manager is responsible for taking care of the things that might fall out of the line. If s/he misses out on any, then it may doom your business. They have to take care of all the practices, procedures, and rules that are addressed in project management.

Many project management methodologies can help you scale up your project. Allow us to highlight popular methodologies you can go for.

• Agile Project Management;
• Scrum Project Management;
• Kanban Project Management;
• Waterfall Project Management;
• Lean Project Management;
• Six Sigma Project Management;
• Prince 2 Project Management.

You can refer to the details of each of the methodologies and how they can be the best fit for you in the blog here.

Project milestone management gives you a clear picture of the product and clears all the ambiguities around it. You can start conceptualizing things and avoid any major setbacks.

Step 8: Quality Testing of the App:

You do not want to put your app’s reputation at stake by releasing a bug-full product, do you? Well, no one would ever wish to. Hence, we need to check all the application quality aspects before it is released into the market. A product should be tested rigorously by the QA team.

A QA team consists of three key players, a QA engineer, a QA analyst, and a QA tester. The roles and responsibilities of each of them differ, but the end-goal remains the same.

A product’s code is checked for its standard and reviewed by fellow developers to check its authenticity. QA testing is a repetitive process performed to ensure the release of a glitch-free product.

The QA teams check for the below-mentioned issues commonly. They definitely go into the specifics later.

• User data input;
• Functionality issue;
• Messages and notifications;
• Performance issue;
• Device Functionality;
• Security issues;

They can either perform manual testing or go for automated testing depending upon the project needs. If you want to refer to the quality assurance strategies and practices, you can click on this blog.

Step 9: User Testing:

You may make all the efforts to prepare a user-centered application. But, you will be taken aback if you find yourselves failing at the real customers. And hence, we need to perform user testing. In user testing, the application is tested for real participants; their navigation, interaction & behavior is studied during testing.

User testing is an important concept of the mobile app development process. The reason being, it checks for the intuitiveness & user-friendliness of the application. You can check whether the user uses Heart Vs. Brain during the interaction with the application. You can optimize the content and make an impeccable application accordingly.

User testing is often interchanged with usability testing, but it has a minor difference in its functioning. You can perform usability testing with five users only if you are running tight with budget & timelines. The three important elements of usability testing are facilitators, Tasks, and Participants.

Each one of them has a different role to play in collecting valuable insights into user behavior. Go and check out this about Importance of User Testing

Step 10: Application Deployment:

Once you are ready with your application from its qualitative and quantitative aspects, the next thing you need to worry about is its deployment on various platforms. You will need an expert mobile app development company’s advice to define ways of channelizing your applications.

By deployment, we mean shifting of the app template, code, and resources to a temporary location. The temporary location should be capable of matching all the environmental needs of the app. This location, aka deployment platform, will host the app. It should be publicly accessible and have sufficient storage capacity. It should be in full capacity to run as middleware and restart automatically.

You can deploy the application in four specific ways,

• Native deployment;
• Hybrid deployment;
• Web deployment;
• Mobile Enterprise Application platform

The selection of the deployment platform has a major role in defining the application’s efficiency and effectiveness. Refer to this blog about Mobile App Deployment Process

Step 11: Feedback and Iteration of the application:

An application is incomplete without knowing the feedback about the experience your users had suing your application. Feedback is about the stories your user share with you after interacting with your mobile app. Having said that, you can either have positive feedback or a negative one depending on the treatments your users receive on the application.

Feedbacks help you in releasing a perfect product by addressing the customer’s pain point. It should be carried out on a regular basis in order to improve upon the quality of the product.

Here are the few benefits of collecting feedback from users:

• You get to know the gray areas that need improvement;
• You can increase customer engagement;
• You have a chance to generate referrals & recommendations;
• You can build brand loyalty;
• You can make data-driven decisions;
• Allows you to improve upon UX and ensure customer retention;

There are various ways to collect feedback, including survey form, social media platforms, in-app surveys, customer calls, and more. Go and check this blog about How Feedback & Iteration make a difference?

Step 12: Know about the factors affecting variation in the cost of app development:

The more you pay for app development, the better is the quality is a myth. A higher price for app development should only be paid if you plan to include advanced features in it. Functionality, complexity, team structure are some of the factors that can drastically affect the overall cost of app development.

You may receive a different price quotation from software development companies, but you should ask them to break down the price of each of them. Some costs may look upfront, while some others are hidden charges. However, let us give you a price range between which you can expect your final cost of app development.

Simple and basic application:

You can expect the development price to be between $10,000-$15,000.

Database App like News application:

You can expect the development price between $15,000 — $45,000.

An App with a few advanced features, like any on-demand application:

You can expect the development price between $ 45,000 — $ 1,00,000.

An advanced feature-rich application like Gaming:

You can expect the development price between $50,000- $1,50,000 or more.

We have written a detailed description of all the factors affecting variation in the cost of app development. You can check out the blog here.

Step 13: Focus on Good design:

You can not take a short-cut while you are designing an application that can survive in the market. A stellar design can catch thousands of eyes and do wonders for your business. Isn’t it the primary reason why you love browsing Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn? Well, we believe so.

An impressive design connects empathetically with the users and makes them feel overwhelmed with the app. They love the sleekness and thereby spread the word about it. A stunning design benefits you in the following way.

• Helps you increase sales;
• Make user attachment;
• Captures positive feedbacks;
• Can be used as a marketing tool;
• Increases brand image;
• Connects with the user;

You need to follow some thumb rules while designing an application, which we have discussed here in the blog about Why should you focus on good app design?

Conclusion:

Any entrepreneur, experienced or novice, needs to know the mobile app development process’s important steps. This process consists of a series of steps that have to be performed religiously to ensure a bug-proof product release.

We hope this blog helps you identify any flaws or gaps (if any) in your way of doing development. Connect with us for any further information.