As the world of technology rapidly evolves, mobile applications are becoming an essential component of our everyday lives. Mobile applications enable better user experiences in communication, entertainment, and business.
However, the Mobile App Development Life Cycle (MADLC), which consists of multiple stages and complex processes, produces smooth user interfaces and intuitive features.
In this article, we’ll examine each stage of the app development life cycle and demonstrate the significance of project management tools and software in ensuring a successful development process.
Let’s explore the world of mobile app development and dissect this complex process into six distinct stages.
Understanding the Mobile App Development Cycle
Stage 1: Planning
Knowing why you are creating a mobile app is the first step towards developing one. Begin by posing the following queries:
- Who is the mobile app’s intended user base?
- What function does the app serve?
- Why is developing the app advantageous to you and your company?
- How are you going to develop the app?
Although this is by no means an exhaustive list, these inquiries can direct your app’s planning process. Construct with purpose. Create an application that users will want to utilise. It takes planning at all to make that happen.
Having an outstanding concept is not enough at this point; you also need to nurture, polish, and establish a strong foundation for it.
Consider it like sowing a seed that, given the correct conditions and care, will blossom into a magnificent tree. Innovation occurs during the Planning stage, which lays the groundwork for the full mobile app development cycle.
Stage 2: Wireframing and Design
You can start designing the app once you have a plan for it. One should concentrate on functionality and user interface (UI) during the design phase.
The user interface (UI) of an application describes what users see and can do within it, whereas the functionality section focuses on the app’s actual capabilities and abilities.
Wireframing is a standard procedure for creating the user experience. Wireframing is simply a preliminary version of what users see.
It’s a method for organising the app so that the user can understand it easily. The flexibility of wireframe tools makes them particularly useful during the design phase.
Imagine wireframing as a wall covered in sticky notes, where you can add, move, and remove ideas based on what you think might be most useful for the user.
Though the development side of design is typically more consulting-focused, one or more dev team members ought to be involved from the start of the design process.
They must provide input regarding what your company can reasonably anticipate from the features of the app.
Stage 3: Develop
The development stage is divided into two distinct phases: building, which is the actual production of the final product, and prototyping, which is intended to be completed quickly.
Part A: Prototype
Although app prototyping may seem excessive or like it would slow down the development process, it can be a very helpful step in the process.
Quick builds, called prototypes in this case of the mobile application, are employed to test design concepts prior to proceeding with the full build process.
Prototypes are an idea’s first iteration transformed into a workable model of its operation.
You are unable to observe how the app draught functions in real life with wireframing and preliminary UI design.
Before formally entering the building stage, the app developer or development team can prototype the design and test their initial ideas to see what might be lacking or problematic.
Such early warning can help avoid long wait times and a plethora of mid-build adjustments that would severely impede the build process and hinder the timely release of applications.
Part B: Build
After working through the app prototype’s early kinks, you can now begin the build process. The majority of the work should be focused on the actual app build by your developer(s).
The final product’s blueprint is created here using the early designs, plans, and knowledge gained from the prototyping process.
Build tools have the ability to directly target the experience level of your developer(s).
Low-code or no-code development platforms might be the best choice for creating the app if you’re an individual or small business owner without a lot of development experience.
Enterprise mobile development platforms offer the widest range of features and options to skilled developers, although they may require a trade-off between speed and greater app capability and thoroughness.
The build stage of the mobile app development lifecycle is also when you should anticipate the most fluidity.
Probing further into the app build can reveal bugs that are not immediately apparent and also generate new concepts that were not considered during the planning and prototyping stages. The majority of the work should be focused on the actual app built by your developer(s).
The final product’s blueprint is generated here using the early designs, plans, and information gained from the process of prototyping.
Stage 4: Test and QA
Developers want to confirm that the app functions as intended at this point. To ensure that nothing “breaks,” mobile app testing goes through every action in the app, ranging from the most used to the least. Software solutions, specialised QA analysts, or crowdsourced testing solutions can all perform this testing.
A break could be:
- An inoperative external link
- A picture that fails to load
- An arrangement of button clicks or other interactions that results in the application freezing
A break could also manifest as any number of other possible issues that cause an application to feel unfinished or underdeveloped.
Aiming to reduce the amount of errors or breaks prior to app launch is something that every company ought to be doing. Without sufficient testing before release, an app runs the risk of failing immediately.
Because of the small sample size, early app reviews are incredibly important, and a sufficient number of mediocre or poor ratings can kill an app before it even has a chance to survive.
Stage 5: Deploy
All right, the application has been designed, developed, tested, and prototyped. You can now finally open the application.
The pricing of the app or other potential forms of app monetization should have been decided upon earlier by other departments within your company. Among the more popular options for generating revenue are:
- One-time purchase: There is only a single, upfront cost for the app, and there are no ongoing fees.
- Freemium: You can download the app for free and upgrade its features with in-app purchases.
- Subscription: The app has an ongoing, recurrent cost of ownership that is deducted regularly.
- E-commerce portal: As a web storefront gateway, the app can be downloaded for free.
An app store or app marketplace acts as an intermediary in most cases for large-scale deployment.
The middleman offers the app for purchase and/or download to users in exchange for a hosting charge and, occasionally, a portion of the sale price.
Remember the following expenses for launching and maintaining an app in an app store: Typically, the host levies a transaction fee for each download, a publishing cost, or both.
Step 6: Maintain
This stage, which is often overlooked, is the “lifecycle” portion of the “mobile app development lifecycle.” A mobile application’s lifecycle begins when it is maintained after its initial release.
What should they do if they discover an unanticipated issue with the app’s operation on a specific device? What would happen if you came up with a special feature that your app’s users would genuinely love having? Furthermore, when mobile device software and hardware change over time, how do you keep your app pertinent and functional?
One should carefully consider each of these questions before ever developing the app, and if not, one should do so right away after deployment.
If not, it’s the danger of your app aging out of date and losing the original intent behind its creation. For as long as the app is needed, proactive, ongoing maintenance should be the first step in keeping it functional and healthy.
Conclusion
Mastering the Mobile App Development Life Cycle is no small feat, but with Metafic Services by your side, it becomes a journey of innovation, efficiency, and success. Any mobile app development project must have effective project management, which is made possible by reliable project management tools and software.
An effective project management process guarantees that the finished product satisfies user requirements and industry standards from conception to deployment and post-launch maintenance.
Whether you use paid programs such as Microsoft Project or choose to use free alternatives, integrating project management tools is an essential part of developing a mobile application.
Adopting effective project management techniques is becoming more and more essential as technology advances if you want to remain competitive in the fast-paced world of mobile app development.
