Our take on Challenges App Developers face and how to solve them

Delivering High-end app solutions is the goal of every app development organisation, but it creates countless challenges on every step of the development process for software developers. These challenges often appear when the real-world realm connects with technology limitations. 

When we interviewed a few fellow developers, we found out that the biggest problems pertaining were due to the negligence of defined structure and communication breakdown. We listed down challenges that need to be addressed and provided recommendations to reduce the impact they have on the end product.  

Let's go through each one of them: 

1.     Issues with communication breakdown 

When a project is undertaken, A team is formed who work on the project together. Every member of the team has to understand a project’s coding strategy and objective to deliver unparalleled results. This requires discussing and understanding the requirements of clients. A developer who is unclear about facets of a project cannot build an app. 

The communication gap can happen with the client. A non-native software developer may face language barriers with an offshore client. This often has to do with taking insights from the spoken words. Coordinating with different time zones can create additional difficulties. 

The Fix

When it comes to software development, communication skills are just as important as technical skills. Here is how you can improve them:

1. Be Proactive: Don’t be afraid to ask questions about the project. Clear your doubts with your team members and client. Ask for additional details related to the project to not miss anything important. 
2. Keep client and team updated: Synchronise productive times and schedule meetings with clients in an account of different time zones. Keep your team posted about your work schedule so you can plan and discuss the project accordingly. 
3. Follow Up: To avoid listening comprehension do a follow up with an email. This will clear any gap in interpretation and help set goals in line with the same vision of the project. 

2.     Requirement Volatility

Requirements change with changing user needs. Sometimes the requirements change when the app is in the middle of development. Sometimes clients come with business ideas not aware of the app requirements and ask developers to create requirement documentation. Altering design and restructuring the code as per unspecific requirements cause the biggest challenge to developers. The knowledge in most cases is not transferred to developers due to lack of clear scope and end-user need study. 

The Fix

Business requirements are necessary to meet organizational objectives. They outline how the product or solution will address the needs of its users. Thus, the first and foremost thing is to ask your clients to provide clear documentation. In the scenarios where the client is not aware, discuss and agree on the scope of the project. Ask business experts to share their understanding of the user needs and requirements. Create clear and concise requirement documentation and confirm agreed-upon requirements.

3.      Not Understanding the User

Delivering User-centric solutions is the need of any business to be in the industry. If we go by statistics, 62% of users uninstall an app if they experience app crashes, poor loading time and complex structure. Development team needs to understand what their users want. As programmers can’t interact with users directly, it creates a challenge for them. 

The Fix

Don’t assume talk to business consultants who have direct access to users and ask them to review, analyse and share details with the development of their market study. Create an app through Agile Development to update the app as user demands change. Test your product, pick users from the audience set and ask them to try the app. Know their reaction, make necessary updates, fix bugs and issues before launching the app in the market.

4.     Issues with Integrating Third-Party APIs

Handling unexpected outages by an API challenges developers. Sometimes a particular client wants the support of particular APIs, which may or may not be compatible with the product. The developer needs to test its compatibility with the product which may lead to extra cost. When API servers of Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Twitter go down; developers need to update and inform users of the disruptions. 

The Fix

Ask the client of the third party API requirement. Inform the extra cost which may incur to the client before moving with the development process. 

5.     Technology-related issues

Technology advances come with various challenges: 

·       Keeping up with the technology

As technology continues to grow and expand, developers need to keep up with new and updated versions of Frameworks, tools, and libraries to deliver value. The updated versions or new technology makes the job easier but at the same time developer are under pressure to continuously upskill. 

The Fix

Allot time to learn systems: Squeesh time slots from your work schedule to study and learn about new tools. If you think the updated version can improve your workflow, practice the tool till you get accustomed to it. 

·      Switching from one technology to other

An ongoing project demands to switch technology as it is more efficient, effective and require less development time. For example, – JavaScript is the most popular language but it is not easy for developers to build a complex design on it. While the new Flutter technology uses Dart language which is quite easy to code and requires to code once across all platforms. At times, even client ask developers to switch the technology to save development cost and time to launch the product. But adopting new technology require restructuring and rebuilding the code. 

The Fix

Learn Pros and Cons of the new technology from fellow developers who’ve developed the app on it, before switching to it. Re-examine the current technology to be sure if switching is the only best way to solve the problem.

 ·      Working on New Technology with Limited Resources

New technology may look great for the project development but it comes with a drawback. The drawback of not having sufficient resources to build a complex structure. 

The Fix

Follow blogs and tech updates to learn about use cases. Join developer communities and groups like GitHub to seek help from fellow developers. Reach out to the company if any information is not given in the technical documentation.

6.     Working with pre-built apps

Every developer has to work on projects created by someone else at some point. for instance, A company onboard a client who might have an app to work on written by another developer. This situation can cause problems.

The developer who originally wrote the code is no longer working on the app and client didn’t have a brief about their work before switching to another developer. In such scenarios, the developer finds themselves in trouble figuring out the code. 

The Fix

Working on another programmer’s code can be a problem, but it is solvable if the best approach is used: 

Take responsibility from the beginning in figuring the code. Spend more time reading and understanding the code. Learn how the other developer worked on it, go by learning app structure and style. You will have an easier time adapting to the code once you understood. 

7.     Time estimation

When developers undertake the project, they give a time estimate. But at times are unable to meet deadlines because of change in requirements, certain features took the time or maybe in debugging the code. 

Estimates are important in software development. They can be a basis for price quotes and project schedules. Schedule delays cause problems and may compromise trust.

The Fix

Design a proper workflow to make the development process more manageable. Breakdown the workflow in a series of smaller tasks. Look at each small task to provide time estimates to complete each task. Breaking down the project will not only help in meeting the deadlines but also will make the process easy. Provide time estimates to clients after adding yourself a buffer time to avoid any disturbance caused delays. 

Final Words

Each of these challenges can be solved if you have a clear understanding of the problem and you’ve set out the order to out beat the challenges. Above fixes and recommendations are provided after implementation and defined practices in the organisation. This article aims to solve related issues faced by developers as per the true and tested information.