How much does it take to create a mobile app? I mean not only money but also human resources that should be involved in this process. A full-fledged mobile development team should create an app to provide you with a product of a high level. This team includes many specialists and all of them play their important role. How is mobile app development team formed and how is mobile app development process implemented in our company? We will reveal it in this article.
Mobile development team structure at Cleveroad - who is who
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.
Project manager
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.
What skills does this specialist should have?
- 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.
Sales and marketing departments
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.
Requirement analyst
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.
Designer
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.
Android/iOS app development team
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;
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 OS (iOS 10 and 11 today). 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.
QA engineers
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.