8 steps for creating a successful mobile app

Published: 15.04.2021.

Find out what you need to create a mobile app

In today’s world, where everything happens in an instant, the mobile app market is growing at a rapid pace. To create a successful mobile app, you must follow a systematic approach to the mobile app development lifecycle. If you are reading this text, you are probably interested in what is needed to achieve this goal. For you, we have prepared 8 steps for creating a successful mobile app, which will help you in this process.

Ready? Let’s go!

When you get an idea for mobile app development or how to make a mobile app, you will have a lot of questions over your head, such as:

What should I know before developing a mobile app?
What is the life cycle of mobile app development?
What are the steps in app development?
How to develop a mobile app from scratch?
How much time does it take to develop an app?

To be honest, we get a lot of such questions too. So we decided to share our knowledge with you and all our future clients. If you plan to develop a mobile app, be sure to bookmark this article in your browser. Why? Because this article will help you understand the basics of iOS and Android app development step by step, as well as the methodologies used. You will surely find many answers on what to do with your new mobile app idea, however, you will surely not find such an extensive explanation of the app development process.

8 Steps of Application Development

Step 1: Discussion on Project Requirements

To start off, we’ll have a typical short, informal phone call with you just to check if we can help you and if we can move forward with your project idea.

What do we expect from you, our clients?

First, we want basic details from your side, e.g. what kind of application you want to develop, what is your budget, what is your timeline, do you have any other existing application similar to the concept of your application? Basically, the more we know about your idea, the better we can help you.

At this stage, the goal is to gather enough quality information regarding the concept of your application. Based on these information, our team will prepare an offer for you, along with the initial elaboration of the functionalities. Basically, our goal is to check the feasibility of your idea and suggest the best way of technical implementation of the project.

Step 2: Business Insight and Estimation

After consulting with you, we have an initial meeting where we decide on the team members and give recommendations or suggestions for the development of your application. Our procedure in the meeting starts with the inclusion of quality assurance (QA), since early inclusion of QA allows for a better understanding of the customer’s requirements. Questions related to the flow of the application are addressed in a very early initial stage.

Once the analysis of the requirements and design are “frozen”, i.e. no more requirements related to functionalities and design can be added, QA starts with the creation of tests. We try to cover maximum positive and negative scenarios during the definition of the tests. This allows us to make a proper estimation of the costs for your application and provides a feasible concept of the actual mobile application.

Step 3: Sketching the Application Wireframe

Once the project is set, all the requirements are understood from both sides and communication methods are set up (e.g. Bitrix, Skype…), the question arises how much time will it take for the design of the application. Designing the application is the most complex step in the process of developing mobile applications.

What is an application wireframe?

A wireframe can be understood as the skeleton of your application. It helps you to understand the flow of the system and gives a rough idea of how the system would work. The wireframe helps in precise estimation of the timeline of the application development. It also helps the designers to understand the bit of the flow of the system and helps them in creating flawless and accurate designs of all the elements of the application.

Why do we need a wireframe? What is the importance of a wireframe?

An application can have many features, e.g. you want the possibility of a chat in the application. But there is a whole range of different types of chats, e.g. one-to-one conversation, group chat, timeline management. This particular requirement can be clearly noted in the wireframe and gives the stakeholders a view of how the flow of the chat would work.

Step 4: UI/UX Design

UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) are definitely the most important elements of any application. Before we start preparing the initial UI and UX design of the application, we ask you for answers to questions such as:

What color would you prefer for your application?
Basic color and font settings
What applications do you like?
…

What do we deliver during this phase?

The design sample includes the initial screen (splash screen), application login or sign-up form, home page. After sending the design sample for confirmation, we wait for your feedback and make any changes according to your wishes.

After the design is approved, we start the process of creating a prototype of your application, in which you will see the design and functionality of your complete application without writing a single line of code.

Step 5: Application Development

After the final confirmation of the design and prototype, we move into action with programming your application. The project manager defines tasks for the programmers and creates a systematic plan of steps for developing the mobile application in order to achieve the set goals.

We value your time and money, so we discuss with you every suggestion or decision. The progress of the mobile application development process is made known to you “by passing through the screens of the developed application screens”, and through our project management tool, Bitrix.

More info where you can read about the technologies we use for developing mobile applications.

Step 6: Q/A Testing (Quality Assurance Testing)

When you decide to build a new application, it is inevitable to continue with the testing of the application. This will help you maintain low costs and build a quality application. The further you get into the higher phase of the mobile application development cycle, the more expensive it becomes to fix software bugs and glitches.

Of course, you can do the complete Q/A testing yourself and reduce the cost of application development. On the other hand, we definitely recommend that we do it for you, as top experts in mobile application development.

Namely, when developing mobile applications, before finally announcing it to the world, our QA team performs various tests to ensure that the application works flawlessly. Take a look at the difference between functional and non-functional tests included in the mobile application development process.

Functional test: Through this type of test, the application is tested according to the client’s functional requirements/specifications. It provides the appropriate input data and expects the correct result, testing the user interface. In short, all user requirements specified by the Client are well tested.
Non-functional test: It focuses on good software quality, especially on non-functional aspects such as response time, security, scalability, usability, performance. It includes all tests not covered by functional testing.

In short, the application is tested to verify usability, compatibility, interface and performance.

Step 7: App Publication

How to publish an app on Appstore and Playstore?

Don’t worry. We help our customers to transfer their app to Appstore and Playstore without any additional charges.

What do we need from your side?

In order to publish the app, we need only the developer accounts credentials for each of the stores. That means you need to open a developer account for each store, through which the apps can be published. Of course, if that is too hard for you or you don’t know how to do it, feel free to contact us and we will do it for you.

Is it easy to publish an app?

The AppStore and Playstore have strict policies for app publishing, but we are quite knowledgeable in this domain where our experts can help you “launch” your app live.

Releasing an app to the app store involves the following:

Once you submit your app to the Apple App Store, the iOS app goes through a review process that can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. It depends on the quality of your app and how closely it follows the iOS development guidelines. If your app requires user login then you must also submit a user account along with the developer account.

Unlike iOS, Android does not have a review process. The app becomes available in the app store within a few hours of submission.

Step 8: Post-Production Support

As your app will get more and more users downloading your app, you will start to receive feedback which you can (and should) implement in future versions of the app as an app update. Every app needs new features and technological updates, so this is the last step in the mobile app development process. Of course, as soon as the first version of the app is released, the development cycle starts all over again.

So, get started right away and leverage your mobile to promote your business!

Need help creating or submitting an app?

Do I need to have everything figured out before that first call with you?

Not at all. The first call is just a short, informal chat to see if your idea is something we can help with. Come with whatever you have, even if it is only a rough concept. We will ask about the type of app, your rough budget and timeline, and whether there is anything similar out there. The more you tell us, the better we can shape the offer, but you do not need a finished spec to start talking.

Why do you spend so much time on wireframes and design before writing any code?

Because fixing things on paper is cheap and fixing them in code is expensive. The wireframe is the skeleton of the app. It shows how screens connect and how a feature like chat actually behaves before anyone builds it. We also turn the approved design into a clickable prototype, so you can try the full flow without a single line of code being written. By the time we start programming, both sides already agree on what we are building, which saves time and money later.

Can I handle the QA testing myself to save money?

Yes, you can run the testing yourself and cut the cost that way. We do not recommend it though. Our QA team gets involved early, while requirements are still being defined, and runs both functional tests (does each feature do what your spec says) and non-functional tests (response time, security, performance, usability). Bugs caught late in the cycle are far more costly to fix, so having experienced testers on it usually pays for itself.

How does publishing to the App Store and Google Play work, and is there an extra fee?

We submit the app to both stores for you at no additional charge. All we need from your side are the developer account credentials for each store, so you will need to open an Apple and a Google developer account (we can walk you through that or do it for you). Once submitted, Android apps usually go live within a few hours since there is no review. Apple runs a review that can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on how closely the app follows their guidelines.

What happens after the app launches? Are we done at that point?

Launch is really the start of the next cycle. Once people are using the app you will get real feedback, and the best apps act on it through updates and new features. Operating systems and devices keep changing too, so apps need ongoing maintenance to keep working well. We stay involved with post-production support so your app keeps improving instead of going stale after release.

How long does it take to build a mobile app with you?

There is no single answer because it depends on the scope. The timeline becomes clear once we have the wireframe done, since the number of screens and the complexity of features (a simple one-to-one chat is very different from group chat with timeline management) is what really drives the schedule. That is exactly why we wireframe early: it lets us give you a realistic estimate of both time and cost instead of a guess.