How Much Time is Needed to Develop Fully-Functioning a Mobile App?
In a digital world with over 400 billion app downloads, increasingly more businesses are looking to stay competitive by developing their own mobile apps. However, before getting started, it is important to know what you’re up against. Understanding the mobile app development process and the associated costs goes hand in hand with the time required to create a mobile app.
An overview of the time frame involved to build a mobile app
Numerous parameters are involved in the process of developing an app for mobile. In general, it depends on the software company you choose to work with, the experience of the people in that company, their commitment to the process, your input, and so much more. Before we can understand how much time it takes, it is important to acknowledge the different stages involved.
Starting from the initial planning process all the way to launch and going live, we’re talking about an interdependent process involving people, namely developers, project managers, team leads, QA engineers, and designers. Based on the size of the app, platform (iOS or Android), and complexity, businesses must understand why it takes a certain amount of time in development first.
Brainstorming ideas & research
Before doing anything else, business owners and application developers must put together a mobile app brief or a document containing requirements, project overview, and expectations. For your chosen app provider to understand what you and your business need, the brief in question will help them acknowledge the overall project.
Brainstorming an initial idea and doing market research to understand what value can bring is critical. In general, this phase takes the most time because once the idea is formed, surveying the market to gather input will help build the MVP. The next step is segmenting your audience, defining the target market, and analyzing the competition.
In general, the process of research takes a couple of weeks. In the end, you should have:
- An MVP (minimum viable product)
- Several app prototypes
- A defined target market
Planning, design sprints & idea validation
To get started on the mobile app creation process, planning and validating the idea come next. It’s a detailed process that involves business owners to make several decisions pertaining to app configuration, and whether to have the app developed for iOS, Android, or both. Designing sprints is equally important as it is meant to help test various aspects of your app.
Usually, it takes about 1 week to complete a design sprint. In simple terms, sprints matter because they allow companies to acknowledge whether or not users find value in the features of the mobile app. Also, for the developers of the app, it’s a process that allows them to understand how complex it is to build, why users should use it, how user-friendly the app is, and more.
Full-stack mobile app development
Three core elements must be built in the development stage: front-end, back-end, and UI. The development may take between 6 to 12 weeks, but it’s not a general rule of thumb. It all depends on the experience of the team, how fast they work, and how well they work together. To increase user experience, graphic designers handle the visual aspects of the app. Back-end developers link the UI part to the system, enabling suitable functionalities.
Testing and deployment
Following the development process, the next step is testing the app. At this stage, it’s natural for your app to have bugs and demand improvements. In general, testing is done for a couple of weeks, as well – between 4 and 12, depending on complexity. The end goal is to make sure the app is error-free.
As for changes and improvements, these are usually done before deployment and big launch. Gather as much feedback as possible from users, and choose your launch platform wisely – iOS, Android, or both. This stage can take anywhere from another 4 weeks up to 20 weeks, depending on the feedback received and changes that must be made.
Final thoughts
Developing a mobile app takes time, patience, and a lot of collaboration between business leaders, software developers, and development teams as a whole. An exact timeframe cannot be given as every mobile app is different. Based on complexity, it takes from 3 months to 1 year to develop a mobile app. To streamline the process, the best you can do is work with a trusted, experienced app development company. The team at App Maisters have over 20 years of experience in developing agile mobile apps, and they can help your business, too. Get in touch for further details!
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