How Not to Lay an Egg in App Development: Worst Clients’ Mistakes

Have a successful website but don’t want to stop at it, willing to create a mobile application for your business? Most likely, you’ve already tried to assess the costs and looked for a reliable developer. However, a lot of obstacles are yet to be overcome to get the best value for money.

Below are the common mistakes made by clients when they choose app developers. Try to avoid them, and you’ll be able to hire godlike coders, just like the developers from idapgroup.com!

#1 Unqualified Contractor

Regardless of the type of project, it all starts with the competent project management and qualified staff with experience in developing mobile applications.

An owned team of developers is justified only if the application is really big and plays an important role in business. In all other cases, the team will cost you a lot while the result is still at risk of being poor. The solution is the full or partial outsourcing of tasks to create an application on the contractor’s side. But how not to make mistakes when choosing a contractor?

After the initial market research, you can estimate the budget for the development of the project and determine the deadline. Many companies follow the simple principle “the cheaper, the better,” but such an approach brings tons of problems. For obvious reasons, you shouldn’t contact freelancers or studios creating cross-platform applications on universal frameworks such as PhoneGap or XAMARIN. Instead, focus on average market prices and deadlines.

At the next stage, select those studios that had work experience relevant to your project. Study their portfolios and invite the most suitable companies to the meeting.

#2 Incorrectly Estimated App Price

Carrying out market monitoring without a clear technical task, the customer receives a price range based on the experience of previous projects or subjective evaluation of the contractor. The evaluation includes:

• Mobile platforms (IOS, Android, etc.).
• Native or cross-platform development.
• Supported devices, etc.

But how to determine whether the cost of project development is too high or not? For it, you’ll need an approximate estimation of the total amount of effort required for the project and the development budget. You will need detailed estimates of the project so that you understand what the cost of the application is.

#3 Ineffective Interaction with Developers

Excessive bureaucracy can be an issue if the customer wants to control all stages of development. When working with the average budget, it is difficult to find a contractor who will respond positively to such attempts. Also, true professionals know better than others how to do their work. The other side is the complete or insufficient control or initiative from the developer. So what’s the formula for effective interaction with the contractor?

First and foremost, you need to set a clear goal. Define the project objectives and basic requirements. The work on the project should be based on an accurate technical assignment with the prototypes of the application screens and the project implementation schedule. For projects with a long development period and changing business requirements, Agile and Scrum will suit.

Another important factor is regular meetings. Text communication is one of the worst channels; the voice is slightly better, but nothing can replace personal communication.

#4 Broken Deadlines

Inexperienced contractors who are not able to adequately assess the work may call an inadequate deadline, which leads to the fact that the freelancer breaks it. It often happens for a reason both sides don’t understand the project’s complexities until the end and do not account additional processes like design, testing, acceptance or technical support. They have no knowledge of software design and experience in creating a system architecture that is ready for cheap scaling.

However, even experienced developers can make mistakes in the assessment of labor costs. If you evaluate the project on the sly, the semi-annual plan may get stretched into an annual. To reduce the risks, implement the schedule of releases and penalties for breaking the deadlines for the separate development stages. On the customer’s side, this requires discipline in agreeing on the stages of work and timely payments.

#5 Refusal of Testing

Sometimes it turns out that the number of mistakes grows exponentially while the developer “does his job silently,” and they can’t be fixed without completely rewriting the project code. The development of such a system is impossible as it is unclear how to develop it. The reason is that there is no testing phase and quality assurance or its poor execution.

Make sure the app undergoes manual, semi-automatic and automatic testing!

#6 Non-Working App

Usually, the reason for a non-working app is a misunderstanding. If the work is performed not to get the final result but to get hours paid; if any minor deviation from the technical task is penalized; if no one is responsible for delays; most likely, you won’t get a properly operating app.

Do not make a decision based only on price. You need a working product, not a cheap one. Use this criterion when all others are equal. In an attempt to save, you may get a product that brings nothing to your business. If the budget does not allow you to choose a reliable company, select only the required functionality and start with it. In this case, you will have an opportunity to get acquainted with the work of the company at lesser risks.

Can’t single out the functionality needed? Postpone the app development!

Lucy Adams is an essay writer and blogger who never refuses to cover intriguing topics. Feel free to share your brilliant ideas. Given all Lucy’s contributions are free, you have all chance to add valuable materials to your blog at no cost!