App Development: from idea into software

The accelerating pace of business digitalization, along with a period of social isolation that demands new digital solutions, has ended up encouraging the entry of entrepreneurs into the software development universe. In most cases, they do not know much about the subject and have a lot of questions about the process that starts with an idea (a starting point), goes through an app development, and ends with a new application made available to user interaction. With that in mind, we are going to talk about how that process works here at SoftDesign and also talk a little about developing time and publication in app stores.

Product Conception

At SoftDesign, the first step in creating an app is its Product Conception. On average, it takes about four weeks to be concluded, including weekly meetings with our company team and the client. The service stage can be divided into three phases:

• Ideation: it is the phase in which we discuss the business model, the best way to maximize profitability, and how to reach user engagement. During this phase, we do some research to figure out what problem the application will solve and whether it is indeed relevant to potential users. Thus, we can come up with an app that is really needed/ desired by users.
• Structuring: after the ideation stage, we think about the product structure, designing interaction journeys between users and the product, and also creating low-fidelity prototypes. This phase helps us to address some questions such as: what functionalities should the application have; what technologies should be used? The purpose is to think about not only functionality, but also scalability, reliability, and so on, to make the app feasible in terms of technology.
• Planning: at this point, we will be thinking about high-level planning. What will be the launch strategy? Can we launch a Minimum Viable Product? What could we learn from launching an MVP? How far would we like to go in the short, medium, and long term? At this point, the purpose is to develop a feasible application in terms of business, considering investment and time estimates.

Throughout the three phases, we will be using the techniques of Design Thinking, Customer Development, and Lean Startup in addition to concepts of Business Models and Platform Business, among others. All are considered relevant to designing a digital product as a whole, taking into account technical and business issues.

Discovery Cycle

After Product Conception, Software Development begins. At SoftDesign, it means that a go-getting and multidisciplinary team has been assigned to work on the app’s development and management, performing the Discovery and Delivery Cycles simultaneously. The Discovery Cycle work is carried out by the Product Owner (PO) along with a UX/UI Designer, always supported by the client and, if necessary, all the team. We are continuously focusing on the application, as the digital product is constantly being improved and refined. Activities include:

• Proper understanding of new opportunities or problems derived from the business (potential partnerships, possible value propositions) or submitted by current app’s users, if there are any (feedback, usage difficulties, new ideas, analytics data).
• Analysis of solution options to address the opportunities or problems by studying roadmaps and prototype designs and, in cases of a lot of uncertainty, using validation tests or user experience testing.
• Prioritizing, which consists of reviewing the product roadmap to decide how to fit the new items analyzed.
• Improvement / Refinement, that is the detailing of the project items providing sufficient information to enable the team members to discuss and pass it on to the Delivery Cycle.

Delivery Cycle

The Delivery Cycle is composed of sprints that run for a fixed period of two weeks. Each sprint goes through the following steps:

• Day 1 – Planning: we plan the working schedule for the following two weeks, defining the objective and the items to be developed within this period.
• Days 2 to 13: our team holds daily short meetings to reorganize the sprint strategies and address whatever challenge comes our way.
• Day 14 – Review: the team reports what has been developed during the two weeks to the client. Together, the results are analyzed and according to the client’s feedback, the team can make some improvements and adjustments to the work for the upcoming weeks.
• Day 14 – Retrospective: at the end of the sprint, the team discusses ways to improve the work process to further qualify deliveries.

At SoftDesign we don’t believe in one-sided creation. Therefore, app development should be a collaborative process: our team works hand-in-hand with the client. One of the major objectives of working on sprints is to ensure participation in product development and full transparency in what is going on. Planning and Review ceremonies make the client participate actively in product development, discussing every step of the product evolution with the team. Moreover, online tools like Jira allow the client to follow up on the work process and interact with the team.

Publishing, Support, and Operation

In addition to the Discovery and Delivery Cycles, our team provides assistance to our clients in publishing, support, and operation which are essential to applications. Some tasks included are:

• At the moment the app is first released, our team starts the process of creating the production infrastructure (cloud server), as well as the configuration of the application stores.
• When the application is up and running, our discovery team assists the client in planning ways to test the business hypotheses with actual users, in addition to helping them go into operation, answer questions and structure the support operation.
• After the first live version, our team starts working simultaneously on new items and support levels 2 and 3 – issue solutions, infrastructure monitoring, etc.

The Team

App development requires more than just a programmer. The SoftDesign team consists of a Scrum Master, a Product Owner, a UX/UI Designer, Developers, and Quality Assurance Analysts.

• The Scrum Master (SM) is responsible for helping the team use the best methods to achieve better productivity and quality. The Scrum Master also supports impediment solutions and pursues the continuous improvement of the delivery flow.
• The Product Owner (PO) is always in contact with the client. He is responsible for helping prioritize strategies to meet the product objectives in the shortest time possible, as well as discussing every operational detail of the app, helping describe its acceptance criteria.
• The UX/UI Designer provides support throughout the Discovery Cycle, proposing and testing ways to create a useful, worthy, and hoped-for product (UX), in addition to working on the design of the interfaces (UI);
• The Developers write the code, review their peers’ code (peer review) and perform the first tests i.e. the product unit tests.
• Quality Assurance Analysts (QAs) perform manual tests and also develop automated tests to eliminate the maximum number of bugs still within the development process.

How much does it cost and how long does it take for an app to get ready?

Without a prior analysis, such questions are difficult to answer. Some applications may take two months, others may take a whole year and thus, have impact on costs. For an estimate, you first need to know:

• How complex the application is: how many screens are intended and which functionalities will be made available to users?
• Will the application communicate with a web server or will it work alone, just by accessing the data from a cell phone?
• Will the app be developed for both iOS and Android? Do users have cell phones from both operating systems? And what is the best technology to use?
• Is the goal to develop a full version of the application or a Minimum Viable Product to test the idea in the market?

In other words, to have cost and time approximate estimates for developing an application, you first need to think about the solution. As you may have noticed, at SoftDesign these questions are answered in Product Conception, where we build the product roadmap and manage to outline with some degree of visibility what should be done next. Whatever the case, it is necessary to understand that an app is a software, and technology is a market that involves highly qualified professionals and all of that has an impact on costs. If you are not prepared to invest, our hint is to carry out the Product Conception stage to organize the idea and seek investors for your project. Be careful with the idea of the app being ‘ready’. Even thought the application is being developed, has been published, and has users engaged, it still needs to be evolved and sustained. Therefore, do not minimize your future projections. Moreover, we know that nothing can be more expensive than developing an application that nobody wants to use. Thus, through the entire process, we keep carrying out Discovery and Delivery. In other words, we do not act as a ‘software factory’ in the old models. We look at the product strategically along with the client, working on continuous experimentation and learning so that we can develop a hoped-for and worthy product.

How to begin?

Now that you understand how the app development process works at SoftDesign and have clarified some important questions about costs and developing time, it’s time to put your idea into practice. Contact us so we can talk to you about creating your app. 🙂

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