There is no I in App Development

App development may have originated with lone programmers working away in their bedrooms to deliver new social media platforms, games or workflow tools, but we are a long way past that now. When delivering an app aimed at thousands or even millions of users, it is a collaborative, team process. However, when this process encompasses feedback from multiple departments, and each department has several people contributing feedback, the whole process can become complicated, slow and potentially even lead to bad products delivered late.

Teamwork and group cohesion are therefore not just fancy management buzzwords in this instance – they can lead to real world impact. But achieving this is not easy. Quite often during the app development process, customer requirements arrive as a myriad of different documents, emails and spread sheets. With so much information flying around, crucial pieces can go missing or be misinterpreted. Trying to include customers and project managers in this process complicates things further. Yet their input is invaluable. For instance, assistance from sales personal can aid app development greatly and possibly speed up the testing and development process.

And it is not just the challenge of including customer feedback that is problematic. Internally it can be difficult with different programmers working on separate issues. A lack of internal collaboration can lead to common app design failures. For instance issues such as bad specifications, a lack of documentation, poor implementation and development, needless QA testing and the wrong features being delivered become major problems.

So the challenge is clear. How can you incorporate so many people’s views and issues while simplifying the storage of test data and results? The answer is an enterprise grade test management platform. Having a repository that can store results from multiple platforms and include both manual and automatic testing is key. In addition, having it either stored in the cloud or natively hosted on an internal server means data can be accessed securely by multiple users. This all helps enable agile software development and keep all parties up to date. It can also provide a way to keep track of issues and ensure they are handled during the testing process.

Teamwork is now a cornerstone of app development. Processes have evolved to include many people in different departments, and keeping them all in the loop of what is happening is now a necessity. Thanks to new software platforms, this process has been made significantly easier. The net result is that apps can be developed and tested faster — and can be better suited to their audience.

Find out more about how Apexon can help with app development and testing or contact us here.