What To Ask Before Developing Custom Software Apps
It’s important to ask as many questions as possible. Clearing up any and all ambiguities early is crucial, planning comes first but collaboration even between developer and client needs to be continuous. Custom software app development is an intricate process, understanding the specifics and asking the right questions will ensure the best result for all involved.
Who’s The Target Audience?
One of the most important. Is it for customers or clients to use? Maybe it’s a front end web application to assist customers with products or services. You need to niche down more as well, consider aspects like age, professional level, geographical location, etc.
The software could be for in-house. It might be employees who are using it, in which case it needs to be cleared up what is the distribution within the company and the scale. Is it for everyone or is it only for managers and team leaders to handle company tasks?
What Are The Objectives?
Discover and outline exactly what is to be accomplished. Creating milestones at the planning stage can give everyone a good idea of what the result will look like. Doing this early can allow for discussion and alterations before any development begins, this saves time and headache later.
What Platform is it For?
This could be a single platform or aimed to be developed for multiple platforms. Possibilities involve all mobile platforms, Windows, Mac or even Linux and Unix based systems. This has to be decided and would be a core question to be answered.
What is The Budget?
Never worry about discussing and asking about the budget, it has to be outlined and explicitly stated. Avoid any disagreements later by stating each step, feature and even developer costs precisely.
Are There Design Requirements?
You don’t want a whole application built only to discover its design does not reflect the brand’s aesthetic. The user experience is important to get right whether it’s being developed for customers or employees, it’s critical that the design team has a full brief before even a draft is outlined.
What Quality Assurance is There?
Being transparent about these benefits everyone. Software quality assurance (SQA) assures that all features and processes comply to a defined standard. This itself helps to ensure quality and incorporates the whole process from the requirements until after release.
What is The Timeline?
How much will it cost? And how long will it take? Classic combo of questions. Time-frame can directly correlate to a big portion of the cost. Make sure you have realistic dates set for milestones, release and even account for the event of unforeseen issues.
What Are The Expectations After Completion?
It might seem far off but establishing expectations after completion are good to get out in the open at the start. Is support or training required? What is expected when a bug or an issue arises? Dependencies go out of date too or features become obsolete, how will this be handled? The last thing you want is for the application to crash and be left dead in the water with no one around to help.
At Axis Software Dynamics we are there with you every step of the way even after the launch. Our goal is to support you throughout the development process and after. Contact us today, and we will gladly answer any questions you have and strive to bring your vision to life.
