The journey of application development begins with ideation. It passes through several phases, including market research, sketching the concept, wireframing, coding, testing, and launching it finally. But even after implementing these extensive steps, you cannot ensure that the app will become successful with multiple downloads. You may have to see the reverse side of the picture where your app fails to impress the target audience. You will come across various statistics and reasons for app failure, but you must evaluate and analyze critically what went wrong. App failure is not restricted to an unresolved bug or an overlooked defect; there may be deeper issues that lead to an unsuccessful launch.
GoodFirms Roundtable is a series of podcast discussions and interviews where industry leaders and top business executives share their experiences and views on various topics related to IT services, the latest technologies, market trends, etc. All such information becomes valuable insights and serves as a learning curve for people planning to start their businesses.
For this round of podcast discussion, GoodFirms has interacted with Sunil Jagani, President & CTO of AllianceTek.
AllianceTek, a company that started with the core focus of bringing software engineering services to clients across the globe, is currently a leading IT Solutions provider and mobile app development company offering a broad spectrum of solutions, such as business process automation, cloud, collaboration, CRM, enterprise content management, eCommerce, business intelligence, etc. Based in the US, Australia, and India, the company specializes in application development, UI/UX design, application integration, legacy system migration, etc.
The podcast discussion will unfold the following points.
- Mistakes encountered during app development and key learnings from them
- Best market research strategies for mobile app development
- Critical factors to consider before launching an MVP
- Important frameworks or techniques to plan, monitor, and deliver projects successfully
This podcast is also highlighting the following aspects.
- Best testing procedures to implement for making projects successful
- How to speed up software development and optimize overall workflow?
- Vital tips for choosing the right app development partner
- How has GoodFirms helped AllianceTek establish trust and long-term relationships with clients?
What mistakes have you encountered in app development projects, and what have you learned from them?
Developers commit various mistakes while carrying out app development projects. We can categorize them into two categories. The first part focuses on what common issues occur from the product owners' side, and the second part deals with issues from the development team's side.
To start with issues from the product owner's side, many app development projects begin without proper market research. People come up with an idea but need help to differentiate whether that idea is a feature or an application. Also, they need help understanding the domain. So if the project caters to a specific domain, the product owner must have a clear vision or goal.
Budget constraints, or limited funds, are one of the core challenges that lead to product or app failure. Other common pitfalls include poor UI/UX, inadequate testing, poor communication between clients and the development team, overengineering the product features, etc.
Marketing is an integral part of the app development process, which shouldn’t be considered an afterthought. Also, not identifying the app's core features will lead to unexpected delays in the project. The app development team may encounter problems due to unplanned roadmap planning and updates.
According to research, 72% of new mobile app-based products fail to meet their expectations because of inadequate market research. This means that doing market research and identifying use cases is important. So please shed light on some strategies to perform market research before developing a mobile app.
Market research is one of the most essential strategies in the app development process. Market research outcome helps identify the core areas where your app can get a competitive advantage. I’ll share some critical strategies to perform market research before developing a mobile app.
- Study the domain/market, identify the target audience, and determine the problem the app will solve.
- Getting a thorough knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the product.
- Identifying obstacles and strategies to overcome the weaknesses.
- Determining the business model and validating the same against accepted practices.
- Creating a viable marketing strategy.
While we are talking about mobile app development for small and mid-sized companies, it is often recommended that they develop an MVP for testing the waters. But what factors should companies consider before launching an MVP?
A popular old adage says, ‘Measure twice, cut once.’ In the case of mobile app development, I would say measure ten times and cut once, which means defining the envision.
You have core workflows of the application, which we call working wireframes or HTML wireframes. Also, while working on wireframes, you get several ideas and opportunities for open brainstorming sessions. And the clients love these sessions. So, we give the option to our clients to decouple the design phase from the development phase.
We also ask the question to our clients what is more important for them; time to market or reduce the risk.
It is crucial to identify core features, ensure it solves the core problem, and validate the user journey on the app. For example, you can define the core architecture and UI QX software in the design phase. You can develop clickable wireframes, which will actually run with a click on the mobile device. Also, you need to choose the right technology and technology partner alongside the right architecture and cloud services to ensure high availability and a robust app. Collecting feedback from potential users and measuring results is critical to apply insights to the app roadmap.
According to research, many projects are late or fail due to a lack of good coordination and detailed planning, so what techniques or frameworks have you developed for successfully planning, monitoring, and delivering projects at AllianceTek?
At AllianceTek, we have developed different advanced frameworks to plan, monitor, and deliver projects successfully.
The first is creating a detailed sprint-by-sprint plan on Azure boards and having a common understanding of deliverables and timelines among all stakeholders. We spend a lot of time designing and developing solutions for our clients every day, trying to help them streamline their business processes and scale their operations. We have devised a robust operational excellence model and incorporated that with a consistent framework.
You can monitor the development progress regularly, and conduct testing developed modules in parallel. You must also have a checklist of tasks to complete any development phase. We have an automated checklist that monitors every project.
Ensuring Effective communication all the time is essential to provide clear and complete visibility to the clients. Also, regularly validating the developed modules with stakeholders periodically is crucial to bring continuous improvement.
Many projects in our industry are done on an ad-hoc basis or non-standard way. It can lead to a delay in task completion and create anomalies for the developers. To combat that, we have created a lot of frameworks, including checks and balances, that guide our projects and empower our people to focus on creative tasks.
All your efforts and resources invested can be well-spent if the mobile app is not correctly tested before hitting the market. What testing procedure do you recommend or use at AllianceTek, that has been critical to many successful projects?
Testing is an art because it becomes impossible if you look at the smallest application and try to do exhaustive testing. Even a small application has several test cases.
The QA team must create a detailed plan and test cases for each requirement. The type of testing is based on the objectives of building the application. You build your test case based on the most likely workable scenarios. You must involve your entire testing team right from the beginning of the project.
The test team must be part of every change, update, or evolving requirement. Also, you shouldn't jump in too early with the automated test but emphasize more regression testing that helps manage automated test scripts, validate the QA sign-off module with stakeholders, and get the user acceptance testing done.
There is also no deployment on production without signing-off QA.
It's no surprise that businesses care a lot about the software development speed and the release date, and every organization is under pressure to reduce time-to-market. Can you share some actionable tips on how to speed up software development and optimize overall workflow in a tech company?
Sunil Jagani has shared some actionable tips to speed up software development and optimize the company’s workflow. These include;
- Identifying the experienced and skillful resources
- Expanding your team to its fullest potential
- Identifying the various requirements and allocating them to different small teams
- Setting a clear roadmap and deliverables for each team and tracking the same
- Limiting the work in progress and keeping items in a shippable state
- Having a lean approach by focusing only on what matters
- Avoiding technical debt by simplifying the architecture as much as possible
- Focusing on automating the tasks
- Identifying the right development and collaboration tools
- Ensuring effective communication among the team members
For a company having limited resources of its own, one may often venture out to find the best development team for developing the perfect mobile app for their business. Can you please share something, perhaps like a checklist, that companies can use to choose the right development partner?
The first and foremost aspect is to have a clear understanding and vision of what you want to achieve and what kind of development services you need. You need to find a potential and reliable technology partner with the same expertise. It means you need to search for a company that is ready to take up the responsibility for the outcomes. It must be ready to deliver your objectives and not just the tasks. You must also check the potential partner’s portfolio and relevant experience.
You also need to check the partner’s technical expertise, the industries they have catered to, and the latest tools they implement. They must build and bring the best practices to the table, guide you to make the right decisions and stand by the decisions they make for you.
You also must ensure that the partner company implements the best security practices. It should engage in proper engagement models based on the project requirements. You must ensure the company is process-oriented and determine what checks and balances they implement to ensure success.
Speaking of choosing the best mobile app development company, can you please highlight how your association with GoodFirms has helped you establish trust with potential clients and build lasting relationships with them?
GoodFirms is a top-notch leading review and rating company that is helping us get potential leads. The original users’ reviews at GoodFirms also serve as case studies that help us prove our capabilities on the platform and get better client reviews.
To listen to this podcast, you can click here.
What’s Next
The churn rate of mobile applications has increased owing to various reasons, such as complexity in features, difficulty in-app navigation, unattractive UI/UX, etc. The road to engaging users and retaining them over time is becoming more challenging and intricate. Hence, mobile app development companies are carving out strategies with the help of the latest tools, technologies, and data insights to identify the friction points and minimize them.
If you are also interested in sharing your knowledge and experience on any topic that can benefit our listeners or audience, please send an email to [email protected].
