Choosing the right development partner

Selecting the right development company is a crucial step in the process of software development and consists of more than asking formal questions about the company’s professional capabilities. When you are still thinking about creating your own mobile application, you need to clearly understand how to start the process to achieve success with your product on an app market.

Google has revealed ways to build the correct application development process that starts with finding the right business partner and team.

Where to begin your search for a reliable business partner

If you have no company in mind, you can start creating a list of potential development companies to better evaluate their service level, current technology knowledge and reputation. For this, you can refer to recommendations from other businesspeople in social network groups, attend trade shows to get acquainted with related exhibitors or directly contact particular companies you liked through an Internet search.

This assessment will help you understand the total number of people you will require for your app development and understand the business environment and approaches a development company offers. The best companies deliver high quality products, take pride in what they do and provide deep insight into the development process before it has started. Excellent development companies will readily overview your proposal to add more valuable ideas and improve the final result.

How to proceed with your request for proposal

If possible, it is best to outline the app’s key features or requirements before submitting your proposal request. This will facilitate the discussion process with your prospective company candidates as you will be able to better evaluate responses to your questions and understand whether they are can add any relevancy to your business needs.

Some of the requirements and features you may include into your app development guidelines:

• Ensuring excellent user experience on different devices (smartphones and tablets)
• Using Google’s material design which ensures three-dimensional constructions
• Implementing Android design requirements
• Ensuring the app meets Android quality standards for user interactions, functionality, performance and test procedures
• Determining whether the app will be database driven to avoid later extra costs
• Adding applicable Google Play services to enable Google-powered features of the latest versions

How to determine that you are going to work with the experts

The team you are going to rely the development of your app will need to understand how to apply the latest updates in Android. Although many versions of Android are available and used, having the latest release and going back to the most popular versions, will determine the incremental difference that will help turn your app into a successful market product. Technology progress relies on a user’s desires and expectations, and features enabled through platform updates play an important role in making a mobile app attractive to the consumer.

Mobile apps that rate less than three or less stars are unlikely to get as many downloads as apps that receive rating of four stars and more. In most cases, the major reason is two reasons:

• The user experience that is not good enough to deserve consumers’ ratings
• You have not gone to your “inner circle” and ask for great ratings

Your development partner must possess the necessary technology knowledge. It’s wise to ask them to show examples of Android apps they have created and then download them to view the ratings and evaluate the app’s performance.

Setting up the development process

A detailed list of estimated development time provided by a company will let you review and compare the information you already have about them and evaluate any potential risks you may encounter. Also, you will learn about the company’s pricing model and will negotiate to discuss the terms that provide flexibility for the entire development process.

Organizing the development process

Once you are getting ready to get underway with your project, your need to set up a project plan for your own responsibilities and obligations apart from the app development team that you are going to work with.

Delegating all major tasks related to Android app development requires your direct involvement in all project phases, starting from an interface design up to the product marketing efforts when the app is complete.

Starting the development process

Before your app development team begins to work on the project, it is vital to discuss your business goals with them. Involving the development team members with that in mind ensures a better understanding of what is expected from development. Share your vision and commercial expectations. By letting them know the specific business goals you are pursuing, you lower the chances of receiving a product that has design or functionality that does not match your vision.

To establish rapport, there are practices that have been proven to be successful:

–    Share information with your development partner. Understanding goals, requirements and benchmarks sets effective communication during the whole project development.

–    Determine and communicate what criteria you are going to use to measure the app’s success (e.g., number of downloads, customer reviews) to provide a better insight into your strategies.

–    Talk to the team members about your level of involvement and how you see the development process progressing and discuss procedures you would prefer for better efficiency.

–    Inform the team members about your priorities most important application features.

Deciding on effective and fast interaction

Timely decision making, instant exchange of information, and an open dialogue are crucial for communication during the project development. Informing your development partner about everything that relates to the project is important. Any lack of critical information may impact the outcome.

Here’s what Google suggests to nurture effective interaction:

–    Ensure that you and your supporting staff are always available to answer any questions that the development team may have.

–    Conduct scheduled meetings to talk to your partner team and get an understanding of how the developers are working, resolve any minor issues and track the development progress “in-person.”

–    Cooperate and discuss the project development with your team or staff to keep the app development focused and the development process aligned to your business needs and expectations.

Defining app development method

The mobile app development methodology should be clear both to you and your project development team. Among existing development models, the agile approach is most widely used.

Some common tips to follow during the development are:

–    Placing your user (consumer) central to all thought processes. This includes designing with the end user in mind and building in the ability to track their activities using the app to gain valuable insight.

–    Beta-test your product before launch to garner users’ feedbacks and an understanding of what might go wrong after the app hits the market. Then make those improvements.

–    The step-by-step development process should be understood by everyone involved in the project. Consistent updates to all involved will result in better control and implementation of the app development.

App development process vs. outcome

Once the project planning stages have been completed and a development team has been selected, project execution becomes yet another step in helping you make your ready-to-launch product successful. Direct and regular involvement during the development process is a significant factor leading to a positive outcome.

Your participation in the project implementation involves constant interaction, good understanding of the development method to measure the progress, readiness to negotiate and discuss changes in the app, and control over the testing phase.

Maintaining positive communication at all times

All project correspondence and discussions that provide transparent information and details about the future app help develop trust between you and the development team and ensure a better outcome.

The best practices for interaction with your development team include:

• Maintaining regular communication that allows you to follow your app development during all stages
• Ensuring you can access your key team members, using technology (conducting calls through Skype or Google Hangouts, exchanging emails) or meeting in person if possible. Obtaining phone numbers in case of emergency calls is extremely important.
• Scheduling meetings (typically on a daily basis) involving interactions for updates and progress tracking and ensuring there are no blocking issues
• Conducting meetings with your internal team to ensure your development team is working properly and none of the requirements are confused or misinterpreted.
• Remembering that working with remote teams from other countries means interacting with individuals whose communication culture may differ from yours. Be precise.

Before development, it is best to discuss the tools and techniques your remote team members typically use for communication and make your own suggestions to come up with the most effective communication model for your project.

Understanding how your app will be developed

Knowledge of the app development mode that will be used by your remote team ensures your better management of the whole implementation process. Agile approach is almost ubiquitous for app development. At the same time, different methodologies may be applicable for different projects (Scrum, APM, PRINCE, etc.).

The right product development always focuses on the consumer. Before your project gets into the implementation phase, be sure to discuss the development method you prefer, your expectations during the development, and ways to deal with any unplanned changes to maintain the timeframe.

The app as a product does not have a complete development cycle because its success on the app store depends on offering users a better service, new features, richer UI design, and adjustments to platform changes. The app development process should capture these possible future changes and prepare the team for making predictable updates and improvements.

Putting the mobile app for a test

Keeping the architected code and testing regularly help optimize the development process and make it cost-effective. The cleaner the code is, the easier and faster it will be to make updates to the app when the time comes.

To achieve the best results after the development phase, apply the following recommendations:

• Apps should be developed to match the latest Android version.
• It is important to conduct first tests using the most popular mobile devices. Testing on mobile devices that are not so frequently used should be added gradually and as needed.
• Time-test your beta app to see whether a user is satisfied with the app if using it several times a day and then after several days and determine why the usage is what it is. Test results help create an excellent end-product.

Before the app release and start of the marketing campaign, select a group of beta testers to conduct testing to reveal errors that have not been located during the internal testing by the development team.

To release the mobile app, add your development team as a user to your Google Play account. This way you will maintain full control over your account while providing the necessary level of permission to the team to work with the app’s data, such as statistics and revenue details.

Content created by our partner, Onix-systems.