6 Efficient Tips To Save Time and Resources Building Mobile Apps
If you are developing a mobile application for your business or you are a mobile app development company that develops applications for clients, time and resources are quite critical. It is important to save time and money. There is high competition in all markets and getting your application developed has become critical in today’s business where it all comes down to standing apart from the competition.
This is the reason why mobile app developers are always scouting for the latest tips, processes, strategies and tools that can definitely help speed the development procedure and enable businesses to save time and money. Now, here’s a list of some of the best practices when it comes to reducing the time spent on mobile app development without sacrificing on the quality of development.
User Research
Most companies that need to develop a mobile app figure that the testing should come after there is a minimum viable product available. One of the easiest ways is to create a prototype using Figma or any other design tool and allow the users to experience the app flow and test its interface. This enables you to get valuable feedback about your application even before the team has written a single line of code. There are chances that a great amount of customer and market research has gone into the process of figuring out the company’s need for a mobile application. Hence, it makes total sense to keep your users involved in the development process right from the initial stage.
Even if you have an experience of developing hundreds of applications under your belt, it is almost impossible to gauge the user behavior and how users will respond to the logic that you have developed for them. So, it is important to enable users to experience a design prototype and click on the app flow before your team starts the development phase.
Cross-Platform Framework
If you have still not come around the idea of using a cross-platform framework, there is clearly no way that you are going to keep up with the growing competition in the market. For people who are unaware of the cross-platform framework, it simply allows you to get your app up and running on multiple platforms using a single code. It means that your development team can save time by not having to develop multiple codes for both iOS and Android applications.
It will soon be a thing of the past that businesses needed to have two separate teams of iOS and Android developers. By using a cross-platform framework, you can make your recruitment process easy and try to find quality developers who are experienced in working on cross-platform frameworks instead of looking for dedicated developers for iOS and Android.
Implementation of CI/CD
If there was one thing you wanted us to recommend, it would be a proper implementation of continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) in your app development process. With the help of CI/CD, the app development process is simplified and automated to a completely new level. CI/CD is also recommended due to the fact that it has been proven to make your development process easier and your users happier by offering a sustainable system. This allows developers to deploy code at a faster rate which helps save ample amounts of time and money for the business.
Agile Methodology
Agile shares most of its common principles with the CI/CD method which makes for a deadly combination. Agile development is focused around the theme of iterative development and organisation of cross-functional teams that work seamlessly together. The idea of agile development is to deliver value quickly to the customers and to increase the level of quality to your work. Two of the most commonly used agile methodologies are Scrum and Kanban. By adopting the agile methodology, it will completely improve your app development process and lead to faster development if implemented properly.
Design Review
If you have decided to go with Agile methodology and have started implementing Scrum teams, one of the main principles is to break down tasks into small sets of tasks that are easily doable. These tasks are also known as sprints and it completely breaks your mobile app development process into sets of weekly tasks with the purpose of focusing your efforts towards smaller tasks which are easier to implement.
It is a good idea to install design sprints when you are trying to save time to build mobile apps. The design reviews will offer a visual walkthrough of your development process and it will enable you to understand what you are building and also offer insights into the features that are built.
Try to Reuse Components
App developers are always looking to customise their projects and offer the clients a unique experience but despite those kinds of pitches, the foundations of mobile apps are quite similar. Mobile apps are always built on foundations that can be used again. By using reusable components in your app development, it saves you time and also provide a customised experience to the clients. If you are reusing components, it can mean that at least 30 to 50 % of the work has already been done and makes your entire project look more efficient.
This method gives you the consistency that you were looking for specifically when there is a client who has been working with you for a long time. Another benefit is that you are working on a code that has already been tested multiple times and has proven to work well in the market. This also reduces the time involved in testing the app as your app testing team has actually viewed and tested it multiple times.
Final Word
This may sound like a paradox, but the main key to increase the app development speed is to actually take it slow and ensure that you have laid down the processes which are bound to give you results in the long run. You must take enough time to plan your development process, research well and test various methodologies and tools to find and implement the best ones that are going to help you and your team take down the multiple projects that come your way efficiently. We hope these steps will help you with the app development process. Do you have any more questions or tips to add to this post? Let us know in the comments below or contact us today.
Dhruvil is a Writer & Marketeer for Nimblechapps, joining December 2014, based out of Sydney, Australia. He has worked briefly as a Branding and Digital Marketing Manager before moving to Australia. At Nimblechapps, he worked on Social Media Marketing, Branding, Email Marketing and Blogging. Dhruvil studies Business at University of Western Sydney, and also handles Operations for the company in Australia.