App Development is like Building a House: The Build Phase

Over the years, we’ve come to think of designing and developing apps like building your dream home.

Development requires planning, designing, and building – just like a house. If you were building your dream home, you’d want to ensure you’ve thought of everything. Bringing your app idea to life is no different.

When you build a home, you hire people to help you. You need an architect to ensure your house will work for you and your family, an interior designer to make it both pretty and functional, and builders to turn those plans into reality.

You have the vision, and they have the expertise to make your dream a reality. So do we!

In the last few weeks, we have taken you through our development process – from planning and designing to building your app, which is today’s topic. In the coming weeks, we will take you through launching your product and everything that follows.

Introducing: The Build Phase

We’ve completed the Planning and Design phases and now have a set of Blueprints and a Prototype. After weeks of planning to develop the best version of your idea, we’re finally ready to build your app.

How do you go about building an app?

There are many different app development methods; we develop in two-week cycles.

Why? Because we find it helpful to break the Build phase down into smaller chunks. At the end of each two-week cycle, we update you on our progress and give you a working demonstration.

We’re following the Blueprints and the Prototype during the Build phase, so we tend to make limited changes at this stage in the app development process.

Usually, a design tweak or three comes up during these two-week cycles, but if you want to add or remove functionality, we need to talk that through in more detail.

I’m developing an app for my business; can my team get involved in the Build phase?

Yes, of course.

You will have a project manager at Appt, who works with you throughout the Planning, Design, and Build phases. We’ll ask for a project manager on your end as well. Both project managers are responsible for coordinating internal parties, which helps the development process to run smoothly and efficiently. Our project manager will work with your project manager to ensure you have what you need to involve your wider team as and when necessary.

We’ll also ask for a decision-maker on your end, who will be responsible for signing off on each phase. Sometimes, the project manager and decision-maker is the same person.

Do you test as you go along?

Yes, we do. Our apps are thoroughly tested internally throughout the Build phase, and we test your app before we release it to you for additional testing.

You will be given plenty of opportunities to test the app yourself, and you may want to arrange for potential users to test the app. Before the app is ready to be released, we go through quality control.

During quality control, you’ll test the app and provide us with feedback. If you find any technical bugs during quality control, we’ll deal with those before release.

We can also arrange what’s known as external penetration testing if that’s needed. Penetration testing, or pen testing, involves your app being systematically tested for security vulnerabilities. It’s considered standard practice in some industries, and it’s a good idea to conduct regular penetration testing if your app will be processing or storing sensitive data.

What happens when the app is ready for release?

First off, congratulations! You now have your own app.

It’s time to submit your app to the app stores – that usually means Apple’s App Store and Android’s Google Play. We’ll help you submit it to your or our developer account. If you want to register your own developer account, you’ll need to pay a fee and grant us access so we can help with ongoing maintenance and updates.

So, now what?  

Like your dream home, your app will need regular maintenance to stay at its best. From hosting to ongoing support and development, we can partner with you to keep your app looking and working as it should.

Do you have an app idea to bring to life?

Get in touch today to discuss it and get started.

Before your free consultation, read about the Planning and Design phases to know what to expect.

Next up… from support and marketing to IP, this series has exciting blogs planned. Stay tuned!