Processes – Testreveal

SDLC – Software Development Life Cycle: Benefits, Stages And Models

Posted on September 6, 2019 by Super Admin Testreveal

Regarded as the crucial consideration before approaching the actual software development process, software development life cycle (SDLC) defines the industry standard and shapes the segments within the project.

In the world of IT initiatives, SDLC has a great influence on creating a comprehensive, well-managed structure of a development project while taking care of all the essential technical methods required to meet the ultimate fruition.

Slightly complicated yet quite substantial, SDLC follows certain compelling models and contains different phases starting from the ideation of the product to a complete fulfillment followed by the final release for the implementation.

Here we are going to explore the highly adoptable and flexible SDLC models that are practiced in modern times along with its popular benefits and stages.

What is SDLC?

From quality, accuracy and precision, the Software Development Life cycle acts as a methodical, systematic process for building software or a mobile application.

Regarded as an industry benchmark, SDLC basically ensures the quality part of work and emphasizes smooth flow and correctness of the end product. The end results down the SDLC process is high-quality software as expected by customers.

Abiding by the SDLC rules while shaping the product also affects or determines the time and cost taken to complete the project. Due to detailed plan and road map suggested by SDLC, one can easily look ahead and plan in advance and build software of their vision.

Each phase of SDLC cycle has its own value and deliverables, which eventually impacts the coming phases.

The basic importance of SDLC

Forms the foundation for project planning and scheduling
Helps estimate cost and time
Includes the project activities and deliverables of each phase
Boosts the transparency of the entire project and the development process
Enhance the speed and accuracy of development
Minimizes the risk potential and maintenance during any given project
Its defined standard improves client relations

What are the stages of SDLC ?

Every software development company goes through an array of stages as they embark on systematic process of development. From planning to design and development, here is a brief glance at the six essential stages of SDLC required to create flawless software:

Planning

Without a clear, visionary plan in place, it is difficult to align everything with your project goals and judge all its strengths, scope and challenges involved.

The planning is to ensure the development goes easy and smooth, meets its purpose and achieve its desired progress within given time limit.

Analysis

Analyzing the requirements and performance of the software through its multiples stages is key to deriving process efficiency.

Analysis always helps be in the know of where you exactly stand in the process and where you need to be and what it takes to pass through the next step down the path.

Design

After the analytical part is complete, design is the next step that needs to look forward to. The basic aim in this phase is to create a strong, viable architecture of the software process.

As it works by a standard adherence, it helps eliminate any flaws or errors that may possibly hinder the operation.

Development

Once the design is ready, the development takes over along with the efficient data management and recording. This is a complicated phase where clarity and focus are of great significance.

Post development, implementation comes in picture to check whether or not the product functions as expected.

Testing

The testing phase that comes now is inevitable as it studies and examines the software for any errors and bugs that may cause trouble.

Read Also: Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)

Maintenance

If the software has performed well through all the previous five steps, it comes to this final stage called maintenance. The product here is properly maintained and upgraded as and when needed to make it more adaptive to the target market.

What are the Models and Approach ?

The following are a few considerable models and approaches that you can integrate in SDLC for your organization.

Waterfall

A little too old and rigid, the Waterfall is one of the old-fashioned SDLC models that are not much preferred in modern software development ecosystem.

The reason it is not favored much is that the model is run on a fairly inflexible structure conditioning that the entire set of requirements should be determined from the very beginning of a project. This limits the freedom and flexibility of actual design and development.

Upon completing the development, the product goes though the test for meeting its initial requirements. If it not good enough, it is to be revamped– which is a lot of work.

Usually, software development companies resist dealing with Waterfall though it still appears to be an effective model for the handful of projects.

Iterative

The iterative method, as the name goes, deals with several iterations throughout SDLC cycle. By keeping it like Waterfall, the Iterative approach repeats the method in several stages of development instead of spanning it as whole across entire SDLC.

The result is, each step of it seems like a mini-project itself, making it more effective and less rigid than Waterfall itself.

Similar to Agile, the model adds value as the product advances and reduces the involvement of external customers.

Read Also: 12 Best Mobile App Development Tools 2019

DevOps

DevOps is quite celebrated SDLC approach among today’s software companies and IT firms. DevOps helps streamline the delivery and support by putting together the development teams and operational teams. Companies with advanced resources can make DevOps work successfully.

As it marries two teams active in different departments, it creates a greater advantage in the long run. For instance, the changes implemented during the process become more fluid and rapid while keeping risks to its bare minimum.

Agile

Agile defies basic Waterfall scheme of things and makes the entire process of design, development and testing an ongoing flow where developers, managers and customers all contribute together.

In a way, it breaks the shackle of treating everything as a part of huge steps.

Agile works by dividing the work in segments of few weeks which they also refer as Sprints. Teams handle the major chunk of customer-side requirements followed by testing.

Agile is friendly to startups and small companies that expect speed to be a major element.

V-Model

V-model is an evolved version of Waterfall approach with slightly different process steps. In this model, the next phase of development doesn’t really initiate until the previous one is done with.

This strict and limiting method is not usually recommendable for small-size projects with quick requirements. Due to its high risks and inflexibility, it might sound a little unfavorable.

Still, for projects with static needs or limited scope and early testing, V-model turns out to be easily managed and controlled.

Lean

Lean shares many aspects with Agile method including the way they both support faster delivery and continuous improvement model. The only difference is that lean model emphasizes best manufacturing practices that promise reducing excessive waste and efforts.

Since Lean SDLC approach focuses on diminishing waste (cost, scope, time) involved in any phase, it is more appreciated by organizations that believe in optimization of requirements related to hardware and procurement.

Prototyping

Prototyping is highly validated nowadays since at its base lies the idea of creating an early sketch of any newly introduced software or application.

The design team takes it on them to produce a product form that still doesn’t have full set of tested functionality. However, it is built to give customers a peek at what the mature product is going to be like.

Based on response and feedback gathered, Prototyping SDLC implements changes through the next phases. This low-risk model works well for companies adopting new technologies or are in its emerging state.

Read Also: 11 Steps To Create A Mobile Application

Conclusion: Pick the best SDLC approach

As you select the best from the pool of SDLC models, you must consider where your organization stands and what clients really expect.

Much of what you choose relies on the status quo of the existing market, standard practices and suitability of resources. There is no universal approach; one model is unable to fit every business structure.

While orthodox Waterfall works for some, Agile, DevOps or Iterative may seem flexible for others, or Prototyping.

You would like to consider consulting with a resourceful IT company before embracing an SDLC approach for your team from the list above.

Redbytes has enough expertise to help you know how different models come handy in certain business scenarios and industry environments. From our experience, we will guide you to the best fit for your software product.

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How to Build an App?

Posted on November 21, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

If you have never attempted for building a mobile app, the idea of building one now may seem a little more challenging. Let’s face it, if you are going to make an app from scratch, you will encounter tons of advices and recommendations. Of course, you can think of hiring an app development company. However, one must realize the purpose of building the app.

Do you want to become an app entrepreneur, or resolve a certain problem? You must have a clear idea in your brain before you venture into the domain of mobile app development. Once you do, you can gather strong insight to make your vision a reality.

To give you a brief sketch, here is the list of steps you need to build a successful mobile app:

1.Put Your Objectives on Paper

Before you start thinking about complex coding and design elements, define what you wish to achieve. The technology part comes much later. First, some of the questions you need answers to are:

What is it that your app would do for you?
What problems is it going to address?
Will users fall for your app design or idea?
How will it add value to the life users?
Have you thought about app marketing?
How a mobile app will drive growth to your business?

These questions are goal finders and will help you come up with a strong strategy to achieve it. A lack of direction and vision means fruitless efforts. So try to define the clear objective of having an app.

To envision the app success, first try to figure out your audience and why they would interact with your business. Whether online or offline, users want to see what benefits they would get from it. If they find none, they will simply abandon your app.

After the audience comes your own business plan. Your future app can touch many areas of your current business like customer retention, ROI, repeated business, brand engagement, productivity, operational cost and brand awareness.

2.Define Your App Functionality & Features

After following the first step, you are sure about what you want to accomplish by making the app. Now its time to consider the internal content of your app. At this stage, you can go on to be creative and define your mobile app’s scope that includes most functionalities and features. Note down all these essentials you need to perfect the solution and achieve desired goals.

You can do as much as you imagine especially when nowadays there are many paid as well as open source plugins shared by online community. Make sure you add features that truly add value to customers.

The mantra is, to first start with all the typical elements followed later by innovative tweaks that can interest and engage the audience gradually.

3.Wireframes and Use cases

Wireframe means a lot in the world of mobile app development as it adds vivid clarity to the app making idea. Wireframe is a stage where foundation of your app is built. With a mature, well-shaped sketch of what your app will look like, Wireframe contains the skeleton of your design and its functional elements. It walks you through your app’s layout and flow.

As you go online, you will discover a reliable amount of wireframing websites that help you bring your idea to life and see the possibility becoming a reality. You are through with the objectives and desired functionalities of your app and have done your market research.

The visual guide of your wireframe helps you:

Measure what all users can achieve
Clarify your app’s future potential
Grasp the thought process involved in use cases
Understand the stages and steps required to complete each task
Optimize the flow and user’s journey to fulfil each goal
Revamp the design layout and find the most functional screen
Eliminate unnecessary flaws and confusing elements
Reduce development hours and even resultant cost

You can prepare the wireframes both online and offline. Offline method involves pen and a paper or ready made templates. Some of the thinkable online options include: Fluid UI, Adobe Suite, Proto, Moqups, Gliffy, Mockflow, JustinMind, Pidoco, Protoshare etc.

For better results, you may try one mock-up for each use case which includes the entire screen flow users take from opening your app to completing a task.

4.Shape the back-end of your app

At this stage, you go a step beyond building a wireframe and truly start developing your app. Using the storyboard of app functioning, you can design back end and examine the functionality.

Create the clear flow of diagrams that contains servers, APIs and database. For this purpose, you can either choose do-it-yourself app builders or go for tools that do it for you. Alternatively, if you are fresh in the business, you can ask reliable back end service providers that offer services of hosting and app data usage.

Don’t lose the clarity or add confusion in this phase. Create clear diagrams so that everyone working on the project can work in precise directions. In case of technical struggle, your wireframe should reflect the changes.

Here are the good examples of back end services for you: Parse, Kumulos, QuickBlox, Amazon AWS, Appery.io, Kony, Microsoft Azure etc.

5.Test the Wireframe

Before you move on to the next crucial phase of app development, it is time to test the user experience and flow of your app based on its visual representation.

Testing the wireframe will result into understanding of the ease of screen flow, detailed use case analysis and areas where improvement is needed. This exercise will save you frustrating repeated hard work in the future.

Testing Solutions

There are certain online prototyping tools that allow designers to generate highly interactive wireframe. You can even connect the static mock-ups and use cases with its online capabilities to simulate the wireframe for the purpose of testing.

All you have to do is simply put your project in there and create a new prototype and start testing the screens. Some of them are all-in-one tools that also enable you to share it with your colleagues and customers to assess users’ full journey in the app. Some of the useful tools for use case simulation are InVision, Justinmind, Marvel, Photo.io, Sketch etc.

6.Build the app

This step is the most crucial to seeing the well-determined face of your mobile app. At this stage, a lot of things are mulled over before implementing any app development action. One of the points of brainstorming while building the app is whether to choose Native app development or Hybrid apps.

a) Native app development:

Based on a chosen operating system, you build your app from scratch for separate OS. In native app development, it takes heavy coding efforts as one needs to focus on both Apple app store (iOS) and Google Play store (Android) independently.

Despite being gruelling and expensive, native apps will result into robust and reliable performance. The downpoint is, two separate developer teams are employed for both the platforms for separate code bases. For this reason, any custom feature will take a few weeks or months before its deployment.

b) Hybrid apps:

It uses cross platform mobile app framework that allows you to build apps across multiple platforms. The pro is that the same code base is distributed across different OS.

If performance is not a big problem for developers, Hybrid apps offer amazing ease and speed of app development. They work on a single code base that is deployed on both Android and iOS.

Some of the widely preferred framework options for hybrid apps are Xamarin, Phonegap, Ionic, Framework7, Appcelerator Titanium, Onsen UI, Sencha Touch, Kendo UI.

With the help of app builders, the puzzle will make sense as database, server and APIs are synchronized to work together. During the app building process, you may sign up and make an account in Play store or Apple store to launch the app in time.

7.Create User Interface

Creating a finest UI for your app is again one of the most critical stages of app design and development process. Here designers will use their creative knack and imaginative mind to carve the design of interface that can attract millions of users.

Always remember that UI is not just about creating fascinating aesthetics, but it should also reflect how easily app users can navigate. Try to process every feedback you received from testers so that your final interface design reflects them and leaves no scope of disappointment.

Ask your graphic expert to give you high resolution screens with impressive visual appeal from the wireframe you prepared earlier. To reiterate, always prioritize the need of users when working on the look and feel of your app. User feedback are indeed the best resort for building an impeccable UI.

8.Test your app

After your have accomplished developing the mobile app, it is time to test your product. This is to ensure your app is bug-free and delivers intuitive user experience. There are two types of tests: internal and external.

Internal testing has you and the people from your own team pretending you all are users. It helps identify any bugs or UX problems.

In external testing, people who test and try your app are not familiar with your app. This tests help scoop up the kind of bugs and UX flaws that you could not detect through internal testing.

Some eminent app testing tools you may consider are: Katalon, Appium, Ranorex, eggPlant, Calabash, Sauce Labs, Robotium etc.

Live Environment Beta testing

You have already filtered your app through many stages of testing to produce an excellent, fully functional app. Now you need to test it for the live environment.

For Android app, the process is simple unlike iOS where the environment is austerely controlled. For Android, just upload your app apk file on any Android device and start testing it.

For beta testing, iOS urges you to use a special platform called TestFlight. Apple believes in specific discipline and precise directions to use its beta platform. Here you have an opportunity to get reviews about your app from beta testers so that your app will be polished further before going live.

9.Release and Launch

At this point, you can see your app idea transformed into an app reality. Hopefully, your app will solve users’ problem or has features that will attract them. Now the product is ready to venture out in the world. So start distributing.

When it comes to marketing and launching your app, Android and iOS both work differently. It is easy to release the android version to Google Play store and see your app getting downloaded. In Apple store, your app will be reviewed first. Hence, it may take a week or so before it goes live in iOS market.

To make your app visible and searchable in the app store, you will need to optimize the app for respective stores, which is called ASO (app store optimization). Many a time, ASO tricks are enough to get your app to be noticed by users within the store.

However, there are many other ways to promote your app outside the app store such as:

Email Marketing
Content Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Press Releases

Last Word:

Either your hire an app development company or do it all yourself, make sure you have all the knowledge and resources for building a successful mobile app. You must be conversant with what all the efforts that go into creating a functional, aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly app. You will find a wealth of resources and community online to usher you down the path. Hopefully, the steps explained here will ease your concerns and enlighten you.

Fundamentals of Mobile App Development for a Start-up

Posted on November 13, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

Year after year, the need to realize that mobile apps has become the formidable tool to attract customers and drive sales has inspired businesses to invest in mobile app development. The mobile-first strategy stems from the fact that the use of mobiles not only helps customers engage with the products but also allows them to interact and respond to what they experience. Be it shopping online or chatting with friends, mobile app users remain increasingly dedicated to their personal devices for assorted purposes.

The reason why today’s companies, big or small, are thinking of having a business mobile app is that more than 50% of people in the world uses smartphone. It comes as no surprise that nearly 70% of the global internet traffic is coming from mobile devices.

Such an enormous amount of mobile users offers a solid ground for business owners and marketing strategists to build a viable app.

A survey from Clutch.co reveals that close to 47% of small businesses across the US view the launching of their mobile apps as a wise investment and a fruitful plan for future profit.

However, to meet the rising demands from customers is a massive challenge for both business app owners and developers. Building complex enterprises apps could be quite a leap for start-up organizations who have just ventured a few good steps in this area. In order to fulfil the expectations from client’s side and of consumers, these start-ups require a strategic investment of exceptional research abilities, flexibility and stringent work methods while developing an app.

Here are some of the most essential fundamentals of mobile app development for every mobile app creating start-up company who wants to make it big in the business:

1) Cross-platform Enterprise Mobile Apps

Despite the fact that any start-up can achieve their goals through gradual from-basic-to-scalable process, the best way to hit the mark in quick efforts is to conform to cross-platform app development standards. To elaborate it further, startup companies that start building apps that work equally well across all device platforms are among those getting recognized faster in the world.

From utility, banking & finance, travel & booking appointments right down to social media and online shopping apps, modern customers are looking for sophisticated apps that accommodate all of their needs, the smallest and the biggest. Hence, the enterprises that deliver the software products and services desire to shake hands with those developers who have world-class expertise to take up sharp challenges and develop multi-facility apps designed to work across many available platforms.

2) An Approach Towards Dynamic Functionalities

Since enterprise mobile applications clearly mean developing apps with dynamic functionalities, startup industry must work on providing high-end superior-quality apps from scratch. The end users of such apps can be business users or, alternatively, consumers. They like to explore a heterogeneous set of interactive functionalities such as GPS, transactions, messages, responsiveness, sensors, and even audio/video. This should support their phones, tablet, wearable devices and IoT connected gadgets.

For this dream to be real, your mobile app development startup firm must be conversant with using right tools, technologies, research capabilities and development processes.

3) Innovative Apps can Accelerate Startup Growth

Now a days, enterprises refuse to compromise on developing apps that are creative, innovative and thoughtfully designed. Corporate Enterprise companies are especially interested in having an app that helps them connect with their customers and represent their business like a tangible brick-and-mortar structure. They demand dynamic app options for managing their account and customers, tracking their online behaviour, or creating a rich social media for enhanced level of engagement.

With large number of apps being developed and released every day, it is pivotal for mobile app development startup industry to give shape to an influential, result-oriented app that befits all magnitude of businesses and acquires maximum customers.

4) Discern the Clarity of your Goals:

Knowing your goals enrich your vision and helps you develop apps that hit the precise pain point and transform into a remarkable success story. Define and set your final goals where you want to reach so that you can make a clear strategy and avoid confusion down the path of development. Once you are aware of the outcome, it becomes easier to face the challenges down the line.

The primary goal of having an app is to penetrate the existing digital market, engage customers and boost sales number.

Proper analysis:

detailed analysis of the product and target audience helps you build an effective app. Find out the actual behaviour of the target market and trends that are heating up, which will in a way determine the demographics of end users – business customers or youngsters or children. Align with customer’s exact requirements so that you will be able to match the developed product perfectly with the envisioned product.

Test of compatibility:

If you are on your way to build an impeccable mobile app, make sure it is compatible across all platforms and devices used by the target audience. Cross-platform mobile app development therefore is preferred more than native apps to reach maximum users.

5) Choice of Technology

Before choosing any technology platform, one must ensure it is feasible in every way possible. The final product must come out robust, usable and highly functional. The most ubiquitous platforms are iOS, Windows and Android, and they are evolving rapidly with frequent handy updates. These platforms make it practically possible for developers to build unique features and impressive interface to deliver outstanding user experience. Choosing the right platform means your apps will be supported by numerous devices used by customers.

6) Security and Speed Efficiency

Monitoring the responses of the app functionality is conceived as the best idea. Doing so eliminates the scope of errors and eventually builds an engaging and interesting app. Make it a practise to identify obstacles in the existing product and improve its standard before its finally deployed.

Security problems are potential threats to customers who will become the end users of the app. Choose a reliable, secure, authentic resources and industry-standard processes to build the app to ensure its highly secure.

The app you design must be able to function and run in the normal internet environment. Make sure the app remains effective and healthy so that users can access it all the time. Also, the app should respond instantly to process customer requests in time.

7) Testing Quality and Consistency

Testing the app is a crucial stage for any developer as it confirms whether or not the app is ready to venture into the online app store. Anideal app testing method must include testing on different devices of varied screen sizes in order to measure its performance and view its compatibility. Check its quality and how it appears on all the devices. This will help you check if all the features and functionality of the app works consistently on all devices that customers are likely to use.

Apart from this, the developer must also necessarily maintain the consistency while coding the app to make sure the entire mobile app development process, along with its documentation and program updates and interface, is genuine, consistent and unblemished.

8) Introduce a Pilot Version

Once the development team is confident that they have built a well-tested, mature and fully functional app, they can go for launching the pilot product. The course of ideal mobile app development must end with the launch of pilot version. It helps developers receive the feedback and responses from the users and judge the success of the app. you can approach your colleagues, friends and family to use the app so that you can practically find loopholes if any. Their feedbacks can be taken and processed to assess the functioning of its top features so that you can determine its most admired and underrated features.

Finally, get ahead of the competition

Mobile apps are in great demand, and enterprises require better face of apps to accelerate the growth prospect of their respective business and improve their existing working system. The challenges are intense and need your skilled efforts. One of biggest challenges in this area is fierce competitors. Therefore, start-up mobile app development companies must invest their focus to deliver the highly evolved and innovative product that gratifies customers, earning them high ROI.

The best way to get ahead of the competition is to extract feedback from experts who have substantial experience in using or reviewing the similar product. Being in involved in the competitive IT scene, your app must have something unique to offer and have better run speed, stunning aesthetics and good accessibility.

The 15 Crucial Mobile App Development Process Steps

Posted on October 4, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

The mobile app development process streams through a variety of phases from market study to development to deployment and support. It should be noted that many of these phases are often overlapping.

Here is a close look into the major steps of the development process of an app.

1. Project Proposal

Before the proposal of your project, there should be a great deal of homework done to determine the purpose and validity of your idea. This is a very difficult task requiring expertise, experience, and exposure. The right knowledge of business, audience preferences, user stories, market trends, risks etc are critical to accurately predict the success or failure of an idea. The clients could draw conclusions themselves if they have enough knowledge about the field or could approach a number of mobile app development companies with their project to get a clear picture.

There are several things that you should discuss before committing to a project like your requirements, budget, time availability etc. A lot consultation with your mobile app development company is to be made before signing the contract.

2. Sketching Your Idea

Handrawn or otherwise sketches should be created that could depict your idea roughly. This would be your inceptive step in the documentation process and it lays the foundation for future UX designing. The sketch should include the approximate features that you want to include in your final product.

3. Developing a Strategy

This step is the planning phase, which forms the backbone of the entire procedure. The process is given a compact framework and implementational directions are set. You should schedule each phase in the project by allocating time and resources. Decisions about the approach, focus, and business model are taken during strategy development.

4. Prototype Building

During wireframing, the architecture of each single page is defined. Prototypes are created using wireframing tools like Balsamiq and Visio. This serves as a neat mock-up of what you have to develop in the end, along with visualizing user interaction by various demonstrations.

5. Defining the Back-end

The backend services that could support your app by linking them to the cloud storage, backend application APIs and a lot of other features are defined in this step.

6. Testing the Prototype

Once the prototype is finished, testing should be done. You can approach your friends, colleagues, family members, and other experts that you may know, as well as attend an event or festival and meet strangers who have similar interests to test run the prototype and find any working defects or dead ends. Ask them for their honest feedback and suggestions for improvement. Based on these information, you could streamline the features and functionalities of your app before beginning to code.

7. Starting with the Initial Steps of Marketing and Collection of Maximum Feedback

Actively attending events and festivals also has another major advantage. You can meet your potential customers, publishers, and other professionals like you. If lucky, you may even get a chance for media exposure.

Marketing early will help you to improve your app’s visibility. You could start marketing by building a landing page, advertising through social media, blogging, video promotions etc. If you do not concentrate on finding your place in the market from the beginning itself, you may have to deal with a tough job later on.

8. Building the Back-end

The back-end generally handles data storage, and security. Most of the apps rely on certain features that uses back-end. Usage analytics, push notifications, extended security, communication and monetizing the app through ads are the most common examples that use a back-end service.

9. Building the Designs for Your App

Here, you are stepping on to the visual designing stage, where you actually flesh out your app. You have to fashion the different skins for your app in terms of color scheme, style, layout, fonts etc. The graphic designers’ expertise will determine the perfection of the user interface.

10. Testing the UX

Testing the UX is unavoidable because, user happiness is very important for the success of any app. For success, it is not just enough for your app to acquire customers. You should know how to keep your customers engaged and continue using your app, once you’ve acquired them. Apps that undervalue UX design, often end as a failure.

11. Continue with Development

This is where the actual coding of the app begin. The client will be frequently updated about the progress made by the mobile app development company. This is because, coding is an expensive process and efforts should be taken in order to minimize the possibility of mistakes. The tools and SDKs used will depend upon factors such as the platform for development and programmers’ skills.

During the coding phase itself, quality assurance testing will be initiated to remove all the major bugs present and avoid crashes. For e.g., testing will be done to detect issues arising due to the particular hardware, network availability or the application components itself. Testing is also done to ensure that the required specifications, feedback suggestions etc. are included.

12. Test an App

Finally, when your app is built, the next step is testing. The main purpose of testing is to validate end to end business flow. There are two ways to test your app:

• UAT testing (User Acceptance Testing): This step of testing falls on the final phase before moving on to the marketing or production of the app. It is done to clarify whether all the necessary things are added within the app

• BETA Testing: Allow the beta users to test your app either via an open solicitation for participants or enrolment of groups identified previously. Their feedback will help you figure out whether your app’s functionality operates well or not

13. App Security

Most of the app development companies now spend immense amount of money and time to protect their systems from hackers and online risks. Mobile apps are the most susceptible area in a system. Besides the lack of protection, such damages can also happen through insider targets. Therefore, it is important to identify the cyber threats at the start and implement necessary counter measures.

14. Release to the Market

Once your app development has completed, and you’re happy with the final product that you have in hand, it’s time for you to launch your app into any digital app repository of your choice, if it is not meant for in-house deployment alone. This process can be time consuming depending on the stores that you opt for your app’s release.

Regardless of the stores, it is important for your app to have interesting screenshots, description, app title, and logo so that it will catch your customers’ attention. After all, you spent all this time waiting for your app’s release and getting people to click the download button. For that, you should also continue with your marketing efforts even after the release.

15. Maintenance

You’re thoroughly mistaken if you think that your job is over, immediately after you release your app into the market. Apart from marketing help, there are other services that every app owner needs to take from the mobile app development company viz., post-launch support and optimization. Based on the user reviews that you get, you would have to optimize your app’s features and functions. You should incorporate platform updates and release newer versions, if you want to survive the competition and retain the audience base.

Conclusion

The process of making a mobile app/mobile app development process i.e, from concept to its launch undergoes many crucial steps. So it’s important for developers, organizations and project heads to understand all the stages before getting started.

4 Ways to Build a Mobile Application

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

Any new developer interested in mobile app development faces the following questions.

If I want to do mobile app development where should I start from? Do I have to build from scratch? What options do I have to build a mobile app? What are the pros and cons of each option?

Well, there are a few options to help you decide the approach required for building your first mobile app

Bring Idea to Reality

This is the most popular form of mobile app development. If you have an idea and if it is something which has not been done before, you can develop that into a mobile app. You can do it yourself or ask a developer or mobile app development companies to do it for you.

Pros

Free Hand – You can develop and make changes as you want it to be. Everything is under your control.
Ownership – The IPR of the app resides with you. You are the owner of the app. If the app gets popular, the source code and publishing rights can be sold to other companies/individuals.

Cons

More efforts – Since the idea is new, challenges to implement it are unknown. More efforts will have to be put to implement the idea. You have to take care of every aspect of design and data flow.
Risk – Risk is more in building an app from scratch. All the efforts may go in vain if the idea could not be implemented or users do not like the app.

Clone IT

This is another form of mobile app development where developers emulate popular apps. The idea is to take a pie of market share from the popular app by building a similar app.

Pros

Less Surprises – Since the idea is already implemented, the challenges are less. Hence the time to develop is also reduced.
Less effort – Since the app is already present, you have to emulate the functionality with same or extended features. You don’t have to put effort in conceptualizing it.
Less Cost – The cost of developing the app will be low as less effort is needed. Also, this app can be offered to users at a low cost. If everything is identical, the market share can be easily captured.

Cons

Clones vs. originals – The experience tells that clones have not been able to emulate the features and success of the original app. If you want to sustain in the market, the cloned app should be bug free and feature rich.
Competition– There will be other developers cloning the popular mobile app to get the pie of market share. In this case, your race is not against the original but the cloned apps. The shelf life of cloned apps is usually less. To be popular, you need to be unique from the other cloned apps.
Less Returns – The returns on investment will be less in comparison to original ones.

App Flipping

App flipping is a popular concept in mobile app development. It consists of 3 steps

The developers can buy source code for popular app
Give a makeover to the app by redesigning skins and adding new features
Publish your app in the app store

Pros

Only design change is needed – Since the source code is d for already existing app you need not have to write the functionality again. You just have to redesign it. Change the skins, graphics and icon and you are good to go.
Less effort – Less effort is needed as you just have to do design work.

Cons

Coding Skills Needed – Since you have bought the source code, you have the control now. Any change needed to be done has to be done by you. So, you need to have some knowledge of coding.

Buy the App

You also have the option to buy the complete app and not just the source code. If complete app is d, you get the rights to use icons, names, keywords and everything else. The IPR now resides with you. The advantage is that you don’t have to redesign it since you own it now. Any benefit starts accruing from the date of . However, they turn out to be costly and you have to maintain it after . If you are not a developer, maintaining it can be difficult.

These are some of the ways through which you can start your first ever mobile app development.

Uncovering the Mobile App Development Process

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Super Admin Testreveal

Mobile app market is on a rise these days. As a result, more businesses are venturing into mobile app development and you may be one of them. Wondering what goes into the development of a mobile application?

Well, here are the steps:

Determine What you Want to Do

Before beginning mobile app development, you have to decide upon the purpose of creating the mobile app, the techniques that will make your app successful and the platforms your app will work on. This will help you to determine the user interface design needs for your mobile app. Also, analyse the problems or needs of the audience that your app intends to solve.

Research

Do a little research to understand where you stand in the market. Analyse the success of other mobile app development companies that have created apps similar to yours. This will help you to understand the mistakes they have made and then, you can try to make it right in your app. Also, know who your potential customers will be based on research and real customer feedback and try to determine why they will be interested in your app.

Bring in the Technical Team

Hold discussions with all technical teams involved in the mobile app developmentprocess. This will help you to determine whether your idea of the mobile app is practical and whether it will be a success. Also, the discussion helps you to have an idea about the time within which the app will be completed and the budget.

Sketch your Ideas

Depict your ideas in the form of rough sketches. The visual representation of your concept will help you discover usability issues if any.

Determine if your App is Technically Feasible

It’s now time to determine whether your app will function well with back-end systems. Decide upon the devices and platforms your app is going to work on.

Review the Changes Made

By now, you may have made many changes to the initial strategy. It’s time to hold discussions and review the changes.

Create a Prototype

Use wireframe tools like Balsamiq and Visio to create a prototype of your mobile app. You can then bring in real-users to test run your prototype and collect their feedback and suggestions. This helps you to have an understanding of the working of your app and what needs to be included in it.

Start Marketing

Find a place in the market right from the beginning stage of your mobile app development. This will make the job easier for you later. You can start a landing page for your app, start a blog, use social media platforms, post videos and use any media possible to let the audience realise your presence.

Design

This phase of mobile app development begins before you start coding. At this stage, the interactive features and other aesthetic features in terms of colour scheme, style, layout, fonts etc. are designed. Despite having great features, a poor UX design alone can lead to the failure of the app. Therefore, it is important to test run the designs before you fix upon a design. At the end of this phase, layouts are created to let the development team know that this is how you want your app to look, feel and interact.

Build

It’s now time to build your app. The tools and software development kits used for the mobile app development are chosen based on the platforms the app will work on and the skills of the developer. Usually, the Agile approach is used for mobile app development as it gives importance to collaboration, clarity and easy adaptation to changes.

Test

The testing process is usually done simultaneously with the coding process to determine bugs and other defects at the earliest. This can help to fix defects itself, thus saving time and unnecessary expenditure.

BETA Testing

BETA testing is a type of user acceptance testing where the app is tested among real users. It is important to perform BETA testing and garner feedback from the users. It will help you to understand what features of your app works for the targeted audience and what doesn’t.

Launch

This is the day you have been waiting for. If you are happy with your final product, wait no longer. Choose an app store and make your app’s presence felt there with screenshots, app description and title.

Maintain

Your job doesn’t end with the release of your app. It’s also important to upgrade it with new features to keep the users interested.

The 14 Crucial Steps of Mobile App Development [Infographics]

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Super Admin Testreveal

Mobile app development has been sought by the majority of businesses these days. Fortunately, many business owners have realized that it is hard to survive the battle in the market without abiding by the business tactics and measures that are prevalent today. Even though this is a very thoughtful decision, a lot of failures are still visible.

Analysis shows that one of the main reasons contributing to app failure is the ignorance of the app development process on client side. They jump straight away into project proposal and app development, once they find a suitable mobile app development company, without examining if their expectations are actually practicable. Most are not interested in acquiring any knowledge of the details of development or procedures involved. They basically just want to an app, like they any commodity from a retail store.

Read also:

5 Reasons to Outsource to a Mobile App Development Company

Each of the app development process is something that has a highly individualised nature and the outcome has a huge dependency factor in several of the decisions taken during the inception phase. This infographics will give you an awareness of the most important steps followed under the mobile app development process.