What to expect from a mobile app development outsourcing team?
Today, it’s obvious that people spend more time on their mobile devices for internet browsing, online shopping than on their desktop/laptop devices. Many companies already get a mobile app developed for their businesses, catering specifically to the increasing mobile users market. But, what do you do if your companies are not in the tech industry and don’t happen to have a team of in house mobile developers and UI/UX designers? The easiest and ideal solution is to outsource the app development process to an offshore software partner who already have the expertise and resources required to help develop your app from scratch.
Outsourcing is especially helpful when time is of the essence. The question is how to choose a reliable outsourcing mobile app development agency which possess the extensive experience and technical talents to execute on your plans?
In this article, we’ll explain the structure of a mobile app development team, their responsibilities as well as qualities required of candidates in order to help companies get an overall idea and start selecting their offshore software outsourcing partner.
What is mobile app development team made up of?
A typical mobile app development team usually consists of the following:
- Mobile Developers
The job of mobile app developers (for both Android or iOS) is to code the layouts design provided by UI/UX team, and implement all the required functionalities in the real application ensuring a pleasant user experience. Mobile developers are usually well-versed in mobile technology and should have experience in working with at least one specific platform (or both) and its languages:
- Java or Kotlin for Android
- Objective-C or Swift for iOS
For cross-platform mobile development:
- HTML/CSS/JS for Adobe PhoneGap and Cordova
- C# for Xamarin
- JavaScript for React Native
Apart from technical expertise, mobile engineers should also possess other skills such as self-research and keep up to date with new technology as well as agility – that is the ability to quickly develop a basic foundation for an app and continue to improve it further.
These skills would enable mobile developers to succeed in delivering such projects.
- UI/UX Designers
Similar to the web design process, the UI design of mobile app is not a one-step work. In reality, mobile design specialists first have to understand the specific business needs of users by working on specifications documents. After thoroughly assess the requirements, the team creates the app’s browsing mechanism and creates basic wireframes. Then, designers work on the look and feel of the app. If separate versions of app is developed for each platform, design team will need to replicate identical UI/UX for each one or creating a stand-alone design for hybrid apps.
A design team will usually provide different versions of the UI design and optimize them during the development process. Often, they will work on producing the UI/UX along with testing it: they take users’ input and constructive feedback from test use case and make necessary changes at any stage.
- QA/QC and tester
Nothing is worse than creating an app that’s full of bugs and errors. Taking on an outsourcing project of developing a mobile app, the offshore development firm will need to make sure the product they create is bug-free and fully satisfying users’ needs and expectations; in order to achieve that, they need to test their apps thoroughly before releasing.
QA and testers are the people responsible for the tasks of testing the entire mobile app to determine whether the product is ready to be presented to clients or launched into market. In addition to test and find out potential bugs and defects, testing team may also provide suggestions for product improvement and optimization to enhance users experience as well as app performance. App development companies that manage to provide end-users a pleasant experience will have a major benefit of attracting more users.
- Project manager
Again, similar to web app development project, a mobile app development requires a project manager. During the entire project, a project manager will assume numerous responsibilities which all lead to accomplishment of the ultimate goal producing an ideal mobile app.
In order to achieve such objective, a person must possess deep and broad knowledge of the business industry targeted by the app development project as well as be highly experienced with management skill, development methodologies especially with mobile development. A project manager is also responsible for the app’s consistency and ensure it meets client’s requirements described in the specification documents.
Generally speaking, a project manager will be a person in charge who should possess the followings:
- solid technical background,
- have good understanding of the business line,
- inspire, manage and lead human resources,
- possess high sense of responsibility,
- be good at multitasking.
- App marketer
A mobile will be just as successful as the number of users it can acquire. All efforts of building a mobile app would result in nothing if it is not recognized and used by users. To attract and attain users, app marketer will need to develop a marketing strategy by effectively communicating with customers, promoting on the product brand through various channels to help increase users’ awareness and adoption of product etc. App marketing turn the product into profit and consolidate success of the whole team work.
Other skills required of a good mobile development team
Proficiency
A talented mobile team is constantly looking to improve themselves by updating and applying the newest technology and best practice of mobile app development. Every single member of the team is expected to perform at efficient capacity to deliver high-quality work, they expect the same level of proficiency from their colleagues.
Cooperation
As the mobile app development team consists of various members whose works are interconnected with one another, for example mobile developers will code the design provided by UI/UX team while QA and testers will test and find errors to report back to developers for fixing etc. It is required that there's an established cooperation between team members themselves. Furthermore, a system of project management with clear rules and process should be implemented. Every part of the team need to be informed of the detailed information regarding project scale and requirement, explained what position they take part in and how it is connected with the others, as well as made aware of any important changes.
Efficient Time Management
Every team members and people involved in the project should be aware of the fact that the mobile app development process require various stages of work and each of these stages requires different skills and effort. No specific step of the whole process or member of team can differentiate itself as more important and mess up the schedule by spending more time making others wait for them to finish it. Good team members know how to cooperate and manage part of their work best in order to speed up the process ensuring on time delivery. There should be a detailed schedule with estimated milestone for a team to adhere to.
Conclusion
Mobile app development is a complex process requires various skills and consisting of multiple stages. In order for an outsourcing project of mobile app development to succeed, a mobile team should be highly experienced and diverse. More importantly, all the expert who are involved to work on the development of the projects need to take responsibility as well as getting the consideration and appreciation for all the effort and time they put in.
At TP&P technology, we strive to deliver high quality mobile app product developed at a very cost-effective budget. Contact us today to learn more about our competencies and consult with our experts regarding your custom mobile application requirement.
