There is something about great mobile applications that separate them from the rest of the clutter. They have followed an evolved development process involving rigorous research, thoughtful designing, testing over a thousand devices, a full beta lifecycle, and then deployment. They are different as per genre, solutions, design, user experience, target market, and more, but the quality brings them together.

What inspired the quality? Does it come from the skillset of a good developer? Or is the magic in the idea itself? For us and thousands of other mavens of technology, following the standardized mobile software development lifecycle ensures the success of a product. In this blog, we would be going through the different phases of the mobile app development cycle, including development and consideration.  

Mobile App Development Cycle and similarities with SDLC 

Modern-day mobile app development is a process similar to the software development life cycle. Mobile applications are becoming more and more efficient and complex. It is as difficult as developing a web application or desktop app.

The development process can be divided into large chunks that overlap each other. E.g., it’s ubiquitous for a mobile app development company to start the backend development while the design is not finalized. Or the app would be regularly tested as the developer use the CI/CD process in the new version of the application.

Furthermore, the software development life cycle is easy to incorporate with common development approaches such as Agile, Spiral, Waterfall, etc. Let’s explore the different phases of the mobile app development cycle.

  1. Inception

It all starts with an idea, and it becomes possible with fundamental questions. Here are some of the things you should ask yourself before you start the development work.

  1. Competitive Advantage 

What makes your app different from your competitors? What are the similar apps in the market?

  • Infrastructure Integration 

Is your existing infrastructure scalable enough to meet your new needs?

  • Value

What value do you want to add to a user’s life? What is the usability of the app?

  • Mobility 

How should your app behave? Would you need any other new-age technology solutions to improve the app’s usability and user experience?

This set of questions help you in defining the use cases of your application. It also helps you understand how many things your app can be used. Define all the useful areas of the application; it will help you design the application better. Also, it defines different focus areas for you to work on.

  • Design Application 

Now that you have made a list of all features needed in an app, now is the time to determine its design. Application design should be user-friendly; it is essential for the user experience.

  1. UX design 

Apps would be distributed on different platforms such as Android, iOS, and Windows. The various platforms that the app will be targeted should feel made of the platform. functionality has to be at par on each platform and also the hardware brings more complexities.

  • User interface (UI) design 

Once the UX is determined the next step towards designing is UI. It is like coloring the canvas. The UX is a black and white mockup, while the UI design includes colors, graphics, and more. UX deals with the app functionality and UI makes it engaging. Each device and platform have it would design guidelines so, you would be requiring the help of professionals. 

  • Development 

Some companies prefer to simultaneously start the development work as design. Which is a good approach to helping reduce the development time. Once your idea has reached some maturity, often working prototypes are developed to validate the functionality of the application and defining a new paradigm for the app. 

  • Stabilization 

The app has to be bug-free before the launch. The stabilization process involves the removal of bugs from your app checking its functionality, usability, and performance. Once the apps development process starts simultaneously companies can start the process of stabilization to correct anything in the initial stage before it becomes a huge problem and increase the cost of the development. An app goes through certain stages of development prototype, alpha, beta, and release version. According to your app, the definition of these stages changes, but all in all the purpose remains the same. 

  1. Prototype: the app is still in the proof-of-concept phase and has only core functionality and other different working parts. Major bugs are present. 
  2. Alpha:  Core functionality is code development is completed and major bugs are still present and the outlying functionality might still be missing. 
  3. Beta: Most of the functionality is completed and some testing has been done along with bug fixing. Many major issues remain. 
  4. Release Version: All functionality is done, the app is well tested, bugs are removed and the app is ready for the release. 

There is no specific time when the app testing should start, but if a performance issue is found in the alpha stage it’s early enough to start modifying the architecture before the code has been built on pretenses. 

Also, as the app moves further along the lifecycle, the app should be subjected to more and more rigorous testing to gain insights for improvements. For an instance, the app should be shown or made available to key stakeholders, for them to check the app before it is distributed in the market. 

  • Distribution 

Once stabilization is done, it’s time for the app to get released in the market. Different platforms have different distribution guidelines and options. 

a. iOS

– Apple App Store (Globally available online app repository for the apps built for iOS) 

– In-house Deployment (Internal deployment of the app for corporate use)

– Ad-hoc Deployment (Primarily for the development and testing limited to properly limited and provisioned devices) 

b. Android

– Google Playstore 

– AppBrain 

– Handango

– Amazon App Store for Android 

– GetJar

c. UWP 

The app users can down the app from Microsoft Store. Developers submit their apps for approval and then they can be downloaded from the store. 

Wrapping Up

Looking for expert developer? Choose i2TECHS mobile app developers that help you develop highly engaging mobile application from start to finish young mobile app development process. We use the method along with agile development methodologies to decrease the development cost and time while helping you deploy a world class application in the market.