Mobile App Development Team: Steps to Build an App at Cleveroad

A mobile development team is a living organism that performs different tasks applying joint efforts. The development team should have all skills needed to create a high-quality app. And each team member in our company is engaged in the development process of iOS or Android apps to do their best. Let's start from the very beginning.

The person who is responsible for the implementation of the whole project and project delivery. This professional manages the project and connects all departments with each other. Project manager communicates with the customer directly, discusses all issues regarding a mobile app being developed and settles all disputes that may arise.

• First, of course, he should know well how business strategy in mobile app development should be built properly;

• Second, he should be tech-savvy, be able to understand what technology is preferable for that or another project. Knowledge of how to apply different development methodologies is very precious, and we require our PMs to have this skill obligatorily;

• Third, a project manager should have some experience in psychology. To understand customer's needs and demands, to find a right moment to offer a customer a good solution and so on. Not to mention about communication skills to make a contact with a customer.

• And, fourth, he should be attentive. It is necessary to check the documentation and make sure that the development is implemented according to specification.

Our PMs are also good at performing a few tasks simultaneously. Because it is the main point of their work.

Sales managers are the ones whom all customers contact with when they plan to order the app development from a specific company. Sales managers provide customers with a general information about the company and technological stack mobile app developers are skilled at. After estimation of your future mobile app, sales managers notify a customer about the total cost of the app development. If the customer approves the price, sales manager hands over all connections to project manager.

As for marketing team, marketing strategists help promote the future product, create advertising materials, elaborate the strategy for each specific product to make it popular.

Not all app development teams include this position in their staff, but, for example, our company has RA department where trained specialists help project manager optimize the specification and calculate everything considering all possible solutions. The main goal of requirement analyst is to find out what problems the customer has and provide him or her with the most efficient solutions.

The work of designers is not so simple as it may seem at first sight. They not just only create a user interface and user experience of the app. Designers also work with a special documentation and they elaborate the whole process stage by stage. Otherwise, it will be impossible to create a good software product.

Designers should create wireframes first when they analyzed and elaborated the documentation. Then, if everything goes well, they proceed to experimenting with UI and UX for iOS or Android platforms, depending on the project. Designers' task is not only to create a good design but also make it attractive using all modern technologies related to design. At Cleveroad, mobile app team includes experienced UI/UX designers.

When user interface/user experience is created, the main part of the development begins - a building of the app structure and functionality. Here Android and iOS developers apply their skills to create a mobile app. We will determine mobile application developer responsibilities. How does development process differ in iOS and Android department?

Android developers

• Android developers use Java, Kotlin, and C++ partially to create native apps;

• Android Studio is the main integrated development environment for Android devs;

• Android OS is the most popular in the world, there are a large number of devices running on Android, and it is important for Android app developer to understand what devices customer plans to use. Development time and cost depend on it;

At Cleveroad, when we create Android apps, we provide them with a support of older OS versions down to 5.0 or 4.4 even if they are built for 8.0 Android version.

iOS developers

• iOS app developers use Objective-C and Swift to build good native apps;

• For the development process, iOS specialists use Xcode as an environment for apps building;

• Unlike Android apps, our iPhone app developers create an app only for two last versions of iOS. There is no sense to build an app for older version since they lose their popularity fast.

On the whole, there is no large difference between iOS and Android development processes. Teams of developers can work in a bunch if they create one app for two platforms.

Upon the development of first software version, it should be tested to verify how it works, whether everything is functioning properly or not. And QA engineers should make sure that a built app works according to specification. At Cleveroad, our QA specialists perform different types of testing, it allows them to check how an app is functioning under various conditions.

If there are any bugs in the app, QA engineers send it back to developers for revision. Only when QA specialists approve everything, the app will be sent for release.

That was the main mobile application development team structure that is able to create a fascinating software product together. You saw application development team roles and responsibilities. And now we should consider important aspects of the development process for all participants to follow.

There are some crucial factors our specialists cannot ignore, and it is necessary to follow them in order to succeed.

We would like to list crucial steps we need to take to create your mobile app. Our iOS and Android development teams perform the following:

Everything starts with this phase. We should understand what type the app will be, how it will work and what challenges it will solve. A mobile development team is engaged in the building of use cases that a future app may perform potentially. Also, it is necessary to determine the business value of the future project. Having made a proper research, we can proceed to the next point.

Then, our designer can make sketches of your future app simply drawing it in any graphics editor to understand how it complies with your vision. It can help development team to determine the usability of the app on the basis of use cases and customer's vision.

Here it is necessary to perform feasibility assessment to determine what backend should be developed, what systems can (or cannot) be used. It can be achieved with the help of app functionality assessment. Besides that, all requirements should be assessed on the basis of the platform since Android and iOS operating systems have it's own particularities. Also, the development process of your future app depends on whether it will be a hybrid app, cross-platform or a native one. At the end of this stage, your app can be modified with some new features or some of them will be removed due to some strong reasons like inability to implement it or another one.

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Prototypes make it possible for the customer to see how the app will look and how it will work. A quickly built prototype will lay the foundation of mobile app development. The customer can advise what he/she would like to change to avoid unexpected revision in future especially if the budget is limited.

It is the first stage of app development process itself. UI/UX designers are involved in the creation of user experience of the app, their task is to make UX intuitive and clear for future users. This process is rather long and it requires a lot of time. When UX is ready, Android and iOS developers can see the whole functionality, how it should work and what processes should be implemented.

This is where main mobile development team members come in. Android and iOS developers start creating the structure of the app, they make it alive and functional. The development process is implemented according to Agile methodology, we consider it the most convenient methodology that helps achieve the best result.

Our QA engineers do their best to shape up your software and make it completely free of any bugs. There are many types of testing and the goal of QA specialists is to provide the app with all testing types that are preferable in this specific case. When the last bug is destroyed, the app can be sent to release. It is a happy end!

A mobile development team can work successfully only when it works in a bundle, as we said above. It is the main secret why the company succeeds in what it does. Cleveroad company always keeps up with all requirements our customers have and we do know what the word 'responsibility' means. Do you have any mobile or web project you want to create? Contact us, and we will make it real. Besides that, subscribe to our blog - it contains hot and interesting news. Subscribe button is on the right side.