The Process of Mobile App Development Explained

So, you have decided to develop your own product. You have this fantastic business idea, and you have hired the most talented team to work on it. But something doesn’t quite go right along the way. It feels like you, despite being the owner of the whole project, are left out of the development flow. You don’t know what is exactly happening at each stage of the development and when the team moves on to the next stage.

At Crysberry, we know that it works another way. We understand that outsourcing development is not easy for you as a business owner who wants to be kept posted along the way.

Let’s take a quick look at the Uber company. The Business of App states that “14 million Uber trips are completed each day.” The total number of rides exceeded 10 billion trips, it is available in 65 countries.

What do you think is the reason for such popularity?

We believe the reason is in their transparency. The client no longer has to sit and wait for the cab. He can now track the position of the cab on the map which makes the process incredibly transparent and clear.

Aiming for the same, we are willing to put our development flow on a display to make sure our clients understand each stage of the process.

We strive to have full transparency at all stages. We want our customers to trust us and have a clear understanding of what we have done at any moment of time.

And for this, here you can find a description of our development flow with short explanations on the components of each stage.

But before we move on to the first stage of the whole development process, let’s see how we have our work done here, at Crysberry, to ensure that all our clients have a chance to monitor the development flow at all stages.

What are iterations in mobile app development?

We break down the creation of each product into small repeating development cycles called iterations. The duration of such iterations varies from one week to a month depending on the client’s needs and the functionality developed.

We aim to have one feature or a piece of the specified functionality that we are going to develop during each iteration. This way, we close one task at a time and can easily track product development progress.

Besides, a client can add his comments on what he wants to have changed or edited along the way.

At the end of each iteration, our clients get a Demo presentation of the feature. We want them to see what has already been done and how well the results correspond to the functionality we initially agreed on.

No pitfalls or shadow play. We’ve got it all transparent.

A word on our improved communication model

As we have already once said, business people speak the language of business while techies use specific language of technologies. And there is a gap between these two categories of people.

Their communication is vital to the overall success of the project and aiming to improve it and cover the gap between them, we offer a Project Management specialist for each project.

This professional knows both languages thanks to his technical background profound business expertise, and thus, can easily unite both sides.

Having a remote team develop your software can be much easier if you have a real professional in charge. He will translate the business needs of the company to our IT minds to ensure that the product they deliver will surpass the client’s expectations.

Not only he makes sure that all the team members have tasks to do but also that the project will be completed within the set timeframe and according to the initial plan.

With a Project Manager on your project, you can be 100% sure that there will be no sad surprises.

Now, let’s see what stages each development flow consists of and what exactly happens at each one of them.

6 phases of mobile app development

1. Requirements gathering

The development process starts with initial calls and requirements gathering. Our tech leads work closely with the business owner at this stage. Their goal is to find out what exactly he expects from the app, what features are needed, what tasks the application should perform, and what are deadlines.

During this time, we help a business owner to conduct a proper business analysis with sufficient information on the target audience and desired functionality to meet this audience’s needs. We help him brainstorm for the references if there are any available and in-depth research of the niche.

Moreover, the team creates a detailed product backlog and offers the first product estimation.

Once we gather all the specifications, our team moves to the next step – the app’s prototype development.

2. Developing the prototype

Prototyping is an excellent way to save the business owner’s precious time and money. Instead of communicating with the team and discussing all the features in theory and then waiting for them to be developed only to see for the first time what they will look like and how they will function, he gets to see all of them applied in a prototype.

At this stage, our Designers get down to business aiming to create a visual representation of the final product to show what features it will contain and see how well it meets the expectations of the customers.

We develop UI/UX prototypes for all kinds of products including mobile and web apps.

Thanks to such an approach a client can actually see the app before we develop it and add changes if needed.

As soon as the design is ready and the client is 100% happy with it, we move on to the planning stage.

3. Project planning

Finally, the Project Manager along with the tech leader of the chosen technology pick the best-fitting methodology, recommend the best collaboration type for this particular project and choose the specialists to assign the development of the product to.

It is important to do everything right on this stage, as proper planning eliminates different risks associated with development. Such risks can result in huge financial and time loss.

Later, we break down the development process into several iterations having specific tasks in each iteration.

And another important thing that takes place at this stage is the estimation of the project. Depending on the Payment Method the customer chooses, the cost of the project development might be fixed or flexible.

4. Product development

Once our IT minds developed the plan, they start working on its implementation. They work on a project according to the plan created by the customer along with the Project Manager and Business Analyst.

Quality Assurance department tests every piece of their hard work in order to ensure the highest performance of the app on all its development stages.

5. Quality Assurance

Despite being present at all stages, our QA experts test the app before its release one more time. All this is done with the client’s expectations and business needs in mind, as we understand what troubles untimely bugs and unfixed errors can bring.

We perform the release of a project in the form that we previously agreed on in the beginning. It might be an updated app version, a ready-made project or the clean code delivered to the client. These conditions are discussed during the initial calls and requirements gathering.

6. Support and maintenance

Crysberry offers our Technical Support and Maintenance for your project if you want us to maintain your product after release. We can discuss the terms and rates for each product individually. Our team helps the client fine-tune the app or add some changes to it after the release. We do realize how important those first days of the project existence are: it needs constant maintenance and support!

Project responsibilities

We have different skilled workers responsible for each of the development flow stages. To make sure our customers realize whom to contact or who is responsible for delivering results on each of these stages, we have composed a list to answer all your questions.

• Business Analyst performs requirements gathering on our side. It is possible to contact him personally to clarify certain points or develop the specification list for the app.
• Developing the prototype is the responsibility of a UI/UX Specialist under the supervision of a Project Manager. He does all the communication.
• PM controls the project planning stage. He performs all the tasks needed during this phase.
• The development process is in the hands of the developers. Again, PM supervises and organizes them. Should the client have new requirements or questions, he can sound them to the PM or to the developers. It depends on the involvement of the client in the development process.
• QA Specialists performs Quality Assurance. Project Manager controls them.

We strive to keep the transparent development so a client can get answers he needs at each of the stages. Should you have more questions about our development flow do not hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to answer your questions and do business together!

l.sidorenko