3 Best Practices to Qualify a Mobile App Development Partner

Mobile technology is changing at a relentless pace and requires agility, a quick go to market cycle and new skills. Enterprises generally choose to outsource development as they cannot meet these demands internally. As outsourcing can pose some challenges, this article lists some recommendations that can be used to qualify a mobile app development partner and work with them successfully.

Key Challenges

• Measuring the technical skills of a development partner when the technologies are not familiar can be a challenge
• Outsourcing generally works best when the specifications are correctly defined, but mobile is best developed in an agile process
• The choice of tools is often made by Mobile app development partners which result in a lock-in and added tool diversity

The next few years, the requirement for mobile applications will grow much faster than the internal IT organizations capacity to deliver them. Considerations and concerns for employee-facing applications differ significantly from those for consumer-facing applications and include concerns about security and integration with backend enterprise applications. With increasing pressure to develop and deploy mobile apps, outsourcing mobile app development is the best way to deal with it. Organizations should follow these best practices to help qualify mobile app development partners.

1. Identify App Development Partners that have the Right Skills and Processes

Constant and rapid innovation is the key to driving mobile app development projects. It is important for you to identify your role in the mobile app development process. While your organization should be able to provide detailed business requirements, the partner should bring in its mobile expertise and help identify areas where mobile innovation can occur. This balance and the associated app development process, will be fundamental on how you qualify and work with your app development partner. Some other aspects that you need to check are

• OS updates for devices are constantly hitting the market. Though it is important to make sure your iOS app or Android app, is always updated to the latest version of the OS, a reliable partner will suggest that you plan and update the app for major OS updates only.
• It is also important to make sure that your app development partner uses real devices for testing and does not test only on the simulator.
• Your development partner should have standard processes and successful deployments covering
  • mobile user experience
  • integration with enterprise applications and testing
  • process of approval by Apple and Google Play Store

2. Build Agile based working practices

Most mobile app development companies are comfortable working in a model where they receive a highly detailed specification, then they develop and test to this specification. The reality is that it is not always possible for you to flush out detailed specifications and that is where you need a development partner who can understand the concept and then work iteratively with you until a satisfactory first version is ready. A development partner who is ready for this approach should be able to satisfy the conditions below

• Your partner must be able to help you define your mobile strategy. In other words you need a partner who can offer strategic-level support and a business-oriented consultancy. Such as working knowledge of beacon technology in retail environment
• Agility does not always mean sticking to the sprint cycle and length but in the ability to deploy for you test versions more frequently
• Development and deployment process of the mobile app must include thorough documentation and proper configuration management to ensure that there is no loss of intellectual property throughout the iterative lifecycle of the project.

3. Carefully validate Pros and Cons before embarking on Technology and Tool Choices

Your mobile app development partner should be able to support a mix of mobile development architectures that include mobile Web, hybrid and native. While Mobile Web helps reach the widest audience, hybrid provides platform portability but requires strict rules on standards-based development. Native, on the other hand supports the best user experience. You should look for the following while selecting a mobile app development partner

• Make sure the partner is not using proprietary tools and libraries unless you own the IP of custom-developed mobile app
• Establish clear understanding for licensing and ongoing fees. This will help establish the total cost of ownership (TCO)
• Your app development partner must have experience with back-end systems to help give you strategic support and robust integration capabilities for your enterprise applications
• If you decide to bring the development of the app in-house, your development partner must be willing to offer the knowledge transfer and training.

The pace of mobile app development is accelerating and has already transformed the way we work and consume content and interact. IT leaders should take into account the above best practices to help find a good mobile app development company and gear itself to match the expectations and meet internal demands for a custom mobile app development. QuicSolv Technologies, has, over the past decade catered to enterprises of different sizes, strategically achieve their mobile app development goals and keep them ahead in the innovation curve.