5 Phases of Mobile App Development

We often come across clients with great ideas for a new app, and they wish to have the app developed and got into the market as soon as possible. But the truth is that even when using lean software development approach or Agile methodologies, it still takes time and money to build an app.

While various factors come into play when building a mobile app, it takes a minimum of three months to make a mobile app’s initial version, and it takes more than six months to build apps with advanced functionality and more features.

To get a rough idea of how long building a mobile app takes let us take a more thorough look at the process of production from start to finish.

1. The Discovery Phase

As trite as it sounds, all great apps began as ideas. If you don’t have an app idea, the best place to start is to train yourself to always think of things in terms of problems and potential solutions. You want your brain to instinctively ask “Why do we do things this way?” or “Is there a better way to solve this problem?” If you can identify a problem or market inefficiency, you are half way to your idea! When you done with the idea, You need to discover it as working solution.  

‘Make sure you know the right way to write a Scope of Work document.’

The discovery or inception phase is about refine the idea of the app.

Infrastructure Integration: what are the existing infrastructures that the app will integrate or extend? Also, apps need to be examined in the context of mobile form factor:

• Form/Mobility- how will the app work in a mobile form factor? In what ways can I add value using technologies like camera, location awareness, etc.
• Value: what value will the users get from this app? How are they going to use it?

 Once all the features has been captured, it becomes much easier to start the process of designing an app.

2. The Design Phase

At this phase, you already know what app you need and how it will looks like. Now is the right time to start system development.

Start by assembling your ideal team as they know all the project requirements. First you need to create Workflow design and chart for the project to set boundaries for certain responsibilities.

The role of each and every team member, Core responsibilities, and functions are need to declare and documented in this phase.

Once approvals on the tasks assigned to relevant departments are obtained, it’s time to go to the next stage.

3. The Development and Testing Phase

After successfully completion of the designing phase, It is time to start developers to start working on the project. The development process is cyclical and iterative. It goes hand in hand with testing so that any bugs or errors in the program can be caught and rectified at the earliest opportunity.

In this phase, we need to track record of the daily work, perform regular reviews and progress. So, we can make sure that the project proceeds like clockwork.

4. The Deployment Phase

       At this point, The app is ready to rock world after undergoing rigorous development and testing. In this phase you will need marketing and advertising team to help popularize the app.

The marketing team should create buzz around the app with articles and write-ups by influential journalists and bloggers. The team needs to announce to anyone who shows interest in the app before its launch. Another way to promote the release is via email blast and mentions on your social media platforms.

A robust marketing campaign is just as important as the app itself. Therefore, make sure that you never underestimate the marketing bit of the process.

5. Maintenance and Updates Phase

 The life-cycle of the application development does not end with releasing your product. It’s important that after your product gets in the hands of the users, you continue providing necessary updates and maintenance.

This is important because it avoids a situation where the app retention rate drops. The other name for the maintenance and updates phase is the post-development phase.