With a rising need for promotion and in search of new distribution channels, apps for businesses became a must-have option for many companies. Statista claims that mobile app revenue will reach $940 billion in 2023. Keeping this in mind, you can figure out the profit that mobile apps can bring to your business.
Nevertheless, it’s easier said than done. App development is a complicated and time-consuming process. It requires you to treat user research with great seriousness, carefully plan your budget, and stay on top of modern app development trends. It is crucial to get the app checked by a mobile app testing company before launching it to ensure it works smoothly across different mobile devices. In this article, we’ll figure out popular software development methods, features for various niches and discover teams that can help you with software development.
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Figuring out General Requirements
The subject of primary importance is to understand that software development is a multi-component process. Apart from programming, it also includes quality assurance, UI/UX design, business analysis, and even more activities. Software engineers work together with other team members to deliver quality software to their customers. This is the reason you must choose only experienced software development company.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the development stages and specialists involved in each step.
Planning Phase
The planning phase is a very initial stage of your project. During this stage, business analysts help you decide on your project requirements, build a feature list for the software, and come up with a rough estimate for the software. It’s impossible to calculate a precise price for the project because the requirements may change during the development process, so the price will change too.
When you reach an agreement with business analysts, they will write specifications for programmers based on your requirements and wishes. Developers build the projects strictly following the specification.
Design
UI/UX designers put in a lot of hard work to create an attractive design and user-friendly interface. Designers take care of wireframes, prototypes, mockups, fonts, and the design of every element. Final app development costs depend on the time designers spend on the project. The more features they have to design, the higher will be the cost.
Software Development
Software engineers take care of the logic for your app. App developers from UK should be experienced with a tech stack required for a certain niche. For example, to create an Android uber-like app, developers have to be proficient with Kotlin or Java and understand how to use geolocation services.
Quality Assurance
QA engineers’ responsibilities are to test the project and document all issues, vulnerabilities, and bugs. Later on, this information should be passed to software engineers so they will be able to fix all software’s flaws. Don’t underestimate the importance of testing. Vulnerabilities and bugs may worsen user-experience or even lead to data leaks.
For now, we’re clear with all stages in software development. However, there are a lot of additional aspects that should be cleared out before contacting a software development company. One of them is the choice of the development approach. Now, we’ll walk through the most popular options.
Native Development
Those unaware of software development may wonder what is native development. In plain language, native development requires your team to build the same project for different platforms (Android and iOS) individually. During the development of native software, engineers use languages designed for specific platforms. For Android, these languages are Java and Kotlin. iOS projects require developers to use Objective-C and Swift.
Native development grants high productivity and smooth animations inside the app. Additionally, power-intensive features like GPS navigation and photo/video processing require the correct allocation of the device’s resources, which can be achieved only with native development.
Cross-Platform and Hybrid Apps
The main benefits of these two approaches is a short time-to-market. With the help of different development frameworks, engineers can build one app for both platforms. However, cross-platform and hybrid apps have some distinctions.
Cross-platform apps require a native code to manipulate the app’s UI. Everything else can be managed with frameworks like Xamarin, React Native, PhoneGap, and others. Finally, both parts should have a communication bridge. This bridge is the point where cross-platform apps lose their performance. Due to the conversion of the code from one language to another, the app loses FPS. Still, there are some frameworks that can build cross-platform apps with outstanding performance, for example, Flutter.
Hybrid apps display the content in a web-view. They also can be developed only once for both platforms. However, these apps have the poorest design among all the options, and they also lack custom features.
Industry-Specific App Requirements
Apart from the points listed above, you have to think about the features that are integral in a particular field. You have to analyze the market, understand users’ needs, and assess risks to create outstanding and profitable software. So, let’s figure out what are the requirements for different scopes of activities.
Food Delivery
Map integration is an essential feature of every restaurant app. With its help, new clients can find the location of the restaurant on the map and build a route to it. Moreover, if you have a delivery option, you can transmit customers’ position to couriers and vice versa in real-time.
Don’t forget about essential features like menu, shopping cart, and checkout.
Feature list for a food delivery app:
- Registration/Authorization
- Menu
- Meal details
- Text chat
- Geolocation
- Shopping cart
- Checkout
Healthcare
Telemedicine apps are gaining momentum because of the convenience they provide to patients. While patients don’t have to waste their time in lines, physicians observe more patients remotely than physically in the same period of time. Plus, they can manage prescriptions and monitor patients’ health conditions at any time.
Here’s a list of main features required for a telehealth app:
- Registration
- Keeping and viewing EHRs
- Search for a physician
- Video conferencing
- Text chat
- Managing appointments
- Payment system
- Review system
- Notifications
Streaming
Streaming is a modern form of entertainment popular with different groups of people. Video streaming services allow viewers to enjoy their favorite content at any time, while live-streaming bridges celebrities and influencers with their audiences.
Here are the features for a streaming app:
- User registration
- Creating a personal user profile
- Online streaming
- Comments to broadcasts
- Search
- Server-side (ability to convert stream)
How to Find a Tech Partner?
The fate of the project depends on a software development partner that will build your project. To get quality service, you have to choose a team wisely. Usually, entrepreneurs decide between these three options:
- Outsourcing software development
- In-house development
- Freelance developers
Let’s take a closer look at each of them.
Software Development Company
Outsourcing is a common practice for entrepreneurs that plan to develop their own software. Usually, offshore companies charge less than in-house teams and deliver the same quality. Plus, you’re able to cut side expenses like office rent and purchase of software and hardware.
Still, it’s a tough challenge to find a reliable vendor. We recommend using services like Clutch and GoodFirms to monitor companies’ rankings and analyze clients’ reviews.
In-House Team
If you’re going for an in-house team, you have to find an office where you will place your developers. In-house developers charge the most of all three options because you have to pay a salary, rather than a fixed price for a project. For example, the average American mobile app devs earn $80,000/year. A small team of three developers will cost you $240,000/year. In some outsourcing destinations, this is the price for a whole project, including testing and design.
Freelance Developers
Freelance developers are the cheapest option available. But that’s their only advantage. Unfortunately, it’s hard to manage a team of freelancers while working on a large project. Moreover, they usually don’t enter into contracts, that’s why they can quit the development process at any time.
Moreover, freelancers don’t conduct in-depth testing of their software. That’s why, after months of waiting, you can get a product full of bugs and vulnerabilities.
Wrapping Up
To sum up, business app development is a complicated process with its nuances and pitfalls. With the right planning, it can bring obvious benefits to every business. But to get software that will match your expectations, you have to find a determined team of developers.
