It is impossible to deny the value of mobile application development nowadays. More and more companies adapt, so their processes can be handled on mobile devices, and more and more tech enthusiasts create new ideas on how to improve activities we encounter every day.
However, when you enter the world of mobile development, you should keep a clear mind and understand what threats you may encounter. GBKSOFT as a top software development company has gathered the list of the main risk in app development you should be aware of.
Your Application Isn’t Demanded
At some point in our lives, we all become driven by some great idea we are very proud of. Being inspired by your project is wonderful, however, make sure that your fascination with the idea doesn’t interfere with sound judgment.
It’s hard to predict exactly what people want and need, especially in the initial stages of the project. Instead of only relying on your intuition, try to incorporate it with analytic approaches and marketing research. With their help, you will be able to define the real needs of users, and hence, come up with a functionality set they will appreciate. Otherwise, you risk wasting money on the product no one will want to use.
You Overstuff Your Application
Another threat is to go too big for the first releases. You may aim to build and launch immediately the best and the most convenient application. But you are risking here again by assuming what the user wants and demands.
For this problem, the decision to start with an MVP is a wise choice. MVP, or a minimal viable product, is an initial version of the software that has just enough features to be useable. It’s not an unfinished software piece, it’s just a system with minimal functionality. By releasing MVP, you will be able to test the core idea of your application on real users, receive their feedback, and sharpen your app further.
With such an approach, you will be able to save money and use them for developing and adding only those features that users actually need.
Your Application Isn’t Design to Maintain a Sufficient Number of Users
When you start to create any software product, you need to have a long-term vision for your project. It’s essential to the development process, as your expectations and plans may determine the choice of technologies and platforms.
The application with one thousand active users will demand one technology and approach, while the app that needs to maintain 100 thousand will definitely need more powerful and optimized ones. If you don’t consider this point while developing MVP, after some time, you will be bound either to redevelop the system from scratch or to mitigate the problem and use some wasteful solutions that will cost you a pretty penny.
Discuss this matter with your software architect and determine what choice will be the most cost-efficient but suitable for your current and future plans.
You Have Chosen The Wrong Platform for Native Application
With native app development, you basically have two choices: Android or IOS. For most companies or startups, working simultaneously on both projects might be an excessive financial challenge.
That is why you should also carefully choose what platform to work with. Basically, you have one shot, as if you make a wrong pick, you may be unable to raise funds or persuade your superiors to allocate a budget for a second try with the other platform.
Hence, you need to study your audience. The percentage of Android and iOS users changes over the countries, occupations, and other factors you may detect and analyze. By knowing what mobile phones are most used by your audience, you will be able to choose a more promising platform.
You Think That Your Development Is Over After The Initial Release
Even when your application is finally ready for its users and is uploaded to the App Store or Google Play, it’s not the end of your journey. If you have released a product for a wide audience, it will certainly demand constant support, feedback gathering and analyzing, bug fixing, etc. With the released application, you will be able to better understand the weak spots and bottlenecks your project has, and ergo, level it up.
The same is implied for applications for narrower audiences, for example, the mobile app for business internal usage. While you need to handle a lesser amount of inquiries, your responsibility is also high, as the company’s operations and employees’ work may rely on the application availability.
You Haven’t Taken Care of Cybersecurity Measures Enough
Cybersecurity is a crucial aspect of any application, whether it is web or mobile. Nowadays, almost every app uploaded on our phones has access to sensitive information like locations, credit card data, email or phone numbers. Without sufficient data measures, it may be exposed to cybercriminals who will definitely take advantage of it. The Top IT Security course helps you to prepare for such threats in advance.
As a result, you will not only let your users down but suffer from significant financial and reputational losses. A lot of data leaks end up with lawsuits that oblige companies to compensate huge sums to the victims. For many small and medium-sized businesses, such a case means bankruptcy and shutdown.
To prevent the worst scenario from happening, you need to consider cybersecurity measures while developing an application. If you are developing a data-sensitive application, for example, a banking app, cybersecurity should be a significant part of your strategy you shouldn’t save on.
In Conclusion
Risk management is an important practice for every development team. App development requires a lot of resources from its initiators, and hence, it may also suffer from a lot of risks that can undermine the efforts of every stakeholder.
Understanding risks, how they can impact your project, and what probability of happening they have will help you avoid significant losses or mitigate issues you couldn’t get away from.
