As the use of mobile applications continue to become more and more a part of your customers’ daily lives, a mobile application development strategy is no longer something that can be put on the back burner. The development process is now much more than hiring quality designers and programmers and handing them product specs. There are a lot of questions that need to be clearly answered before investing in often pricey mobile products. You need to have a game-plan!
How are your customers going to use your applications and what kind of customer will be using them (age, income, etc.)? What platform are you going to build on? IOS, Android, Windows Phone or cross-platform? Which one is going to give your customer the best experience? Should you get the app done as quickly as possible or should you spend an extended time trying to perfect it before launch? These are just some initial questions that need to be answered, and if you are not familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of each, you need to consult experts or you’re going to pay for it in the long run.
Once you have answered the above questions and have set a clear understanding of what your organization wants to accomplish with its mobile offerings, it now becomes a matter of execution. Do you contract a team or are you building the applications in house? Ideally, you want a partnership with a development firm or an in house team because, remember, the mobile ecosystem is constantly changing and it’s a constant effort to update your products.
Your team is in place, now how do you make sure they produce products that align with company objectives and are within budget and on time? What development methods are best? Traditionally, software development has been done in a waterfall or linear fashion and some developers still use this technique. However, what is now widely viewed as best practice is the Agile Scrum methodology. An agile development methodology allows companies to respond quickly to changes or opportunities in the marketplace without restarting development from square one. What if you start developing your applications and a new technology or customer trend explodes tomorrow rendering your mobile strategy useless? You need to be able to adapt and, therefore, need to make sure your development process is agile.
The bottom line is, developing a mobile development strategy is no simple task and cannot be taken lightly. Whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 500 company, there is a lot to consider and getting it right is becoming more and more important for your business’s success. Not only do you need a skilled development team, you need an experienced management team and people who know what it takes to put your mobile strategy in motion, like the experts at Fortuitas.
