Development of mobile applications: stages, timing and cost of work

What do you need?

Even today, when you apply to an app development company, you come across a variety of possibilities. The team of professionals will offer you not only to develop a custom app with a set of unique features, but also to choose the methodology of creation management.

The traditional cascade approach is replaced by the energy-consuming and cost-effective SCRUM. When choosing a developer, be guided by their expertise, portfolio and experience in your specific area, availability of project managers and QA-team with technopark (application testing takes most of the development time), as well as legally formalized agreements - the latter will guarantee your security.

After a brief tour of the team, let's talk about the classification of applications:

• Native - written in programming languages focused only on a specific Android or iOS platform. This allows them to install quickly and work easily, fully interact with the technical capabilities of the gadget and do not depend on the Internet connection. The creation of a native app is notable for its high price, and is therefore considered a far-sighted strategic move;
• Cross-platform - an application that is created for several mobile platforms at once. Cross-platform development tools do not use HTML5, but third-party programming languages whose code is compiled into a native application for each platform. Cross-platform development is suitable for non-customized projects, and can be efficient and less costly in resources.

In addition to the technical characteristics, we can also talk about the type diversity. Applications can be divided into the following groups - your next app is probably already in one of them:

• Entertainment (games, image processing, audio and video formats);
• Assistants (information search, weather applications, etc.);
• Social networks;
• I-commerce (ability to buy through apps);
• B2B applications in the structure (internal systems of control and organization of processes within the company).

Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, monetization methods and conversion potential - to make the right choice, first contact a business analyst and a technical specialist, who will conduct an audit and make recommendations. From the big picture, let's move on to the process of creating the app and the team involved.

Stages of mobile app development

We at ARTJOKER give preference to the SCRUM method, which allows us to implement a project not sequentially (stage by stage with lengthy approvals and revisions at additional cost), but flexibly - different tasks are performed simultaneously, which allows us to assemble a ready-to-launch product as a Lego-constructor quickly and for a predetermined amount. Development is divided into three stages, in which the following work is done in parallel:

1 - Stage 1: Preparatory

• Drawing up the TOR for the development of the application. For template solutions this stage is quick, but for something unique it may take time. If you are planning to monetize the app in the future, invite a business analyst to monitor the market offers, as well as promotional specialists - the right advertising will allow you to quickly and efficiently attract the attention of your audience.
• UX (User eXperience) development - we will prescribe scenarios of user behavior, schemes of moving around the application and functionality. A usability specialist will promptly give recommendations, it is much easier to tell a user how to use an application than to modify its structure over and over again.
• Development of the "skeleton" of the application: the navigation elements, lists, buttons, which will be supplemented by the main code.
• Design development.

Team: Project manager, UX specialist, designer.

2 - STAGE 2: "Work Hard"

• Development of the basic functionality of the application, i.e. why the application is created, what problems it will solve (in this case it is important to start from the competitors' offers and look at the best examples in the field).
• Development of the server side and API (where the information is stored and most often processed) + testing.
• Learning to use the server side.
• Design implementation.

Team: project manager, designer, Android/ iOS developer, server side and API developer, QA specialist.

3 - STAGE 3: Project delivery + preparation for launch

• Filling with information (sometimes you may need a copywriter).
• Testing (this stage of work takes a lot of time - only after finding and fixing all the bugs can you release the application "into the world").
• Bug fixing - the last technical modifications.
• Handing over the project to the client.
• Placing the app on Google Play and the App Store is the main part of the promotion work. Dedicated specialists issue requirements (keys - which are used to write accompanying texts, placement, etc.), through which the application is tested and validated by app stores and becomes available to a wide audience. If the app is for internal communication (B2B), then this block of work can be skipped.

Team: project manager, Android/ iOS developer, server side and API developer, QA specialist.

Development time: 60 to 90 days.

Creating an application is a clearly structured process, but systematic work can be found only with experienced developers.

• On average, it takes about 400 hours to develop an app on iOS, and about 350 hours on Android. 20% of all work is spent on QA (checking), the remaining 80% is allocated for the development itself, design, etc.
• If the application involves server support and API integration, the term increases by an average of a month or two.

Cost:

On average in Europe (including CIS countries) the cost of the application is - $25-50 dollars per hour. In the same range works South American. On average for all work with European developers (including Ukraine) - this is 70000 - 100000$.

The most expensive developers in the UK - their minimum is $ 71 per hour. For comparison let us take Indonesia, who have a maximum price for an hour of development - $ 35. Why is there such a difference in prices? It is all about expertise, which is confirmed not only by the number of works, reputation (articles, speeches at conferences), as well as knowledge of English.