4 Crucial Phases of the Mobile App Development Lifecycle

With 2.2 million apps in the iOS App Store, creating high-quality apps coupled with solid marketing strategies is the only guarantee for success.

But with so much competition, the chances that you will be able to deliver a winner are extremely low unless you follow a documented app development process. Another consideration in the process of finding the Best Mobile App Development company is whether to build native, web or hybrid apps. Native, built-from-scratch apps generally perform better than other app types and can take full advantage of the device’s built-in features.

Here is the process our customers go through when they hire us to build their mobile app and take it to the market.

1. Idea

The first step is that flash of insight, the IDEA. Once a client has an idea we recommend they compile details by answering some of the following questions.

• What platforms should this be on — iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone?
• Will it be static or will it have new content added on a regular basis?
• What features will it use?
• The camera GPS, accelerator or other hardware.
• Will it link to Twitter Facebook and other social media assets?
• Does it require 3D animations or connections to back-end databases?

2. Design

Understand user behavior, needs and perspectives to better empathize with the user.

Wire-frames and story-boarding: This is when you start working on the look and feel of your app, since you already know the features and outcomes you will seek to deliver to the user.

Ask these questions while creating user journeys:

• What is the context behind a user opening your app?
• How many taps or swipes would it take for the user to create their profile or upload a photo?
• How can a user discover new content?

3. Development

As the development progresses, the app will go through a number of phases.

In the alpha phase, the core functionality is present but not tested. The app is still extremely buggy, and non-core functionality doesn’t exist.

In the beta phase, most of the proposed functionality is incorporated. The app has also gone through light testing and bug fixing, though some issues might be present. At this stage, the app can be released to a select group of external users for more testing.
After the bugs in the beta phase are fixed, the app will move to the release candidate phase where it’s ready for release.

We use Agile development methodologies during this process of the app development life cycle.

4. Testing

With mobile app development, it’s a good idea to test as early and often.

Doing this will keep the final costs low. The farther in you go into the development cycle the costlier it becomes to fix bugs. You should always refer to the original design and planning documents while building out the various test cases.

The different types of testing during this phase include:

• Usability testing
• Compatibility testing
• Interface testing
• Services testing
• Low-level resource testing
• Performance testing
• Operational testing
• Security testing