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The business world has moved quite a way ahead from the bricks and mortar concept to the digital podium. Not a handful, but there are thousands of brands that are tangibly nowhere, but have quadrupled their customer base to millions and billions in a short period. So, how did they do it?
The answer is simple. These brands knew that more than 2/3rd of mobile phone time is spent on applications. They milked this opportunity by building a company that runs using software and nothing else.
In simple words, they brought the products and services to the palms of the customers – a convenience that can’t be surpassed in any way. The world acknowledged the potential of Software Development, which resultantly made almost every company, be it a small-scale business or multifaceted organization, to have a digital identity.
In today’s world, entrepreneurs need to consider software development as a prime marketing tool for succeeding. As having software has become an indispensable instrument for businesses to reach out to its targeted audience, it has given birth to a new segment altogether, i.e. Software Development companies.
The demand for software development, also termed app development, has increased rapidly, eventually becoming a dilemma for companies as to which one to trust. When hiring an app development agency, the one thing that strikes primarily in the mind of an entrepreneur is to “Go for The Best”.
How to Improve Your Software Development Process?
While hiring a top app development service provider yields the best results for a company strict on their financial plans, they would want to be conservative on resources and even prefer the second or third best option for their app development process. Here are some key ingredients that can help in the smooth processing of software development. These include the following 8 easy ways of enhancing the software development process.
Checkout The Manpower
Time is money, especially in business terms. A company will always want its software to be built in the least time possible; of course, without compromising on the quality. To ensure that, it is always best to look for an app development service provider that has the right size of team readily available to work on the company’s perspective software. And yes, the size of the team only matters if those people have hands-on experience.
Prefer Skilled Developers:
Inspecting the previous work of the developers is a great way for the company to be assured that the right team is being employed for their software development process. Interacting with the team – not just the project manager – can help an entrepreneur in ascertaining the caliber of the developers being engaged.
This is where businesses have to pay a custom software development team providing cloud services for a while.
Be Precise:
It is the job of the company or individual to allow developers to have a better understanding of the software they are looking to build. For this, they must provide clear and complete specifications about their application beforehand. Any eleventh-hour changes in the functioning or features of the app are not only going to cause extra rework and time but also resources which the company might already be running short on.
Keep It Simple:
As it is said – “Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication”, a company or an individual should try to keep their application simple and to-the-point. Not only does this help in minimizing the system complexity during software development, but also it is preferred by customers engaging with it. No customer or client would want to find a company’s application to be like solving a puzzle. Apart from these reasons, one should keep the software simple and user-friendly to keep things smooth when the bells ring for expansion and addition of new features, products, or services to the software.
Ask for Visual Presentation
After making things clear at their end, the company must ask the software development agency to provide a visual presentation on how the process of the software will go through the pipeline. Having the visual presentation of each step will allow the company to easily track the progress, understand the process, and easily ascertain whether or not the software will be built in the time agreed upon.
Steer Clear from Technical Debt
One of the most common reasons for software failure is Technical Debt. An entrepreneur must know the fact that a deliberate attempt to release software faster can make things go haywire. It should be understood that there can always be a slight difference in the planning and execution of an action. Also, one should agree to the time extension if it is necessary for a better-coded software. Yes, this appears to be contradicting the “Time is money” concept mentioned earlier, but exceptions and amendments can always be made, especially in business.
Say No to Cowboy Coding
Cowboy coding refers to the software development process where a developer or a group of developers have autonomy on the algorithms, frameworks, coding patterns, schedule, tools, and languages. Generally, Cowboy coding occurs when there is little or no involvement by the company getting the software developed. Therefore, tracking the updates, asking the questions (silly ones as well), and giving a surprise visit to the center (where the app is being developed) is strongly recommended to the company getting the application developed.
Don’t Let Bugs Bug
In any software development process, bugs are inevitable. This doesn’t mean that they should be saved for later treatment. Bugs are like a tumor, so a company needs to get them removed the moment they appear to be hindering the app. While the developers might not find it important to share the presence of bugs and avoid dealing with them until the app gets developed, the business user must demand to get the bugs dealt with right away whenever they arise. This is important because a developer with fresher memory of the programming can fix bugs sooner, thus saving time during the testing process.
In addition to the above means for improving the software development process, what a company could consider as a measure for fruitful software is to get feedback from customers. They should get the app (while it is still in the testing period) used by a group of customers and ask about all the “ifs and buts” they come across when engaging with the apps. The feedback of the customers should be taken seriously and must get sorted by the developers regardless of the time it takes. Ultimately, the app is going to be used by the customers only.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How to know the feasibility of the app?
A company can know whether or not the idea of the app is feasible by first getting a prototype created and providing it to a certain group of people to see if they find it interesting enough to get engaged with.
Which mobile app category to put the app on?
Although one must always try to get the app built in such a manner that can be put in any of the categories available in Apple Store and Play Store – if that doesn’t seem to be possible in certain companies’ cases, look for primary as well as one secondary category to increase the reach of the application.
How to protect an app idea?
The last thing that an entrepreneur would want is to get their idea copied and application built before they launch it themselves. To minimize that possibility, the company should sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with an app development agency at the earliest.
