Can you develop a mobile application without a tech background? Do you have a great idea for a tech-product? Are you getting overwhelmed when dealing with developers and agencies? Here is how to be on-top.
If you don’t have a degree in Software Engineering, chances are that you will try and hire a freelancer or an agency to help you develop your application.
To start, lets discuss some challenges that you might face in your app development process:
- If your project is not well documented, your project costs will increase sharply and your project will not get developed in your required timeline.
- The freelancer or agency you chose is not delivering your project on time.
- The freelance or agency keeps increasing your costs due to add-ons
This blog helps non-tech people manage their tech project and avoid these problems.
IDEA GENERATION
- Concept: the first step is to brainstorm and define the purpose of developing the application and the functionalities that you think will be necessary.
- Scope of Work: You need to then work in collaboration with your Software Development agency to drill-down on the functionality. The Agency must offer technical guidance at this stage and help you fine-tune your document.
- Work Break-Down Structure: Once your Scope of Work is ready, you need to then collaborate with the agency to develop milestones for your project, which is called the Work Break-Down Structure. Develop milestones by prioritizing features based on importance.
Develop a payment plan that incentivizes the Agency to develop to achieve milestones quickly and as per agreed deadlines.
UI/UX DESIGN
Create wireframes: Wireframing is the process of making rough drawings and graphs that help you understand how the Mobile Application journey will flow and how a user will navigate the App
User interface (UI): User interface development happens using tools like AdobeXD and Figma to develop screens for your app. Your agency uses your wireframing concepts to design screens
User experience (UX): User Experience needs to happen simultaneously with User Interface. This involves creating journeys for users and building the navigation around your screens e.g Authentication journey, Product Management journey etc.
DEVELOPMENT
Choosing a Tech Stack
- Choose a Technology that is suitable to your App. Customers usually make the mistake of choosing based on “trends” but this should not be the case.
- You agency must explain why they are using a technology? How does it help you achieve your desired goals better than other technologies and how it can help you save cost.
Developing in Phases
- If you are looking to build a tech-product and don’t have development knowledge, you should research different types of Software Development Life Cycles. Ask your agency what model they will follow? https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/software-development-life-cycle-sdlc/
- Ask your agency to provide you with a Systems Architecture document.
- Your Work Break-Down Structure should define bi-weekly or monthly milestones for your project. Make sure you review and approve the application after each milestone so that you can track the progress of your hired agency.
TESTING AND BUG FIXES
What testing tools is your agency using
Check with your agency to see what tools they are using for testing. To test application responsiveness, your agency may use tools such as Selenium.
To test functionality, make sure your agency is doing unit-testing and is providing you with unit-test cases.
Manually test your app yourself at the end of each milestone
You should test your application progress by asking your agency to send you builds at the end of each milestone.
- Check how your application is responding on different devices. Try to open your application on different devices and check how your application responds in terms of design
- Your agency should provide a list of functionality they made in the current milestone. Test all the features one-by-one and report any bugs to your agency. Frequent checks will allow a quicker turnaround time for your application.
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LAUNCH AND DEPLOYMENT
Deploying the app for release on the App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android) involves a lot of compliance in todays times. Apple and Google are both increasing their standards for apps and this causes app developers to meet all compliance requirements indicated by these Apple and Google during the app review process.