[Checklist] A Comprehensive App Development Guide to Build Your Mobile App

Like in other kinds of software development, app development follows a life cycle of planning, building, designing, testing, and deployment. Knowing this information can greatly help you when the time comes when you need to explain how you want your app to look and function. It can also help you to create your own mobile app development checklist so you won’t make any mistakes before, during, and after the app has been developed. When the questions “How to create a mobile app for your business?”, “how to develop an app for beginners?” raised on your mind, you have to prepare the mobile app development checklist & review the best mobile app development guide to build your app.

That said, we have outlined every stage in the development process & app development tools via this app development guide for your ready reference.

First Step – Inception or Discovery Phase

This is technically the stage where you begin sowing the seeds of your app. After all the planning, entering the inception phase means you are committing to create mobile app. This stage also includes revealing and describing your app idea to the company or development team you have chosen to work with.

Be sure to clarify all the pertinent details with each other. Besides revealing your app idea, description of the project, and possible app mockups, you should also be mindful of the following documentations.

Document	Conditions	Responsibilities of
Technical documentation for MVP (minimum viable product) scope	Client’s business idea, app descriptions, and mockups	PM, BA
System components architecture	Taking into consideration the need to integrate a third-party system, writing or working with existing API, or modifying its frontend and backend	PM, Architect
Technical Investigation Report	Figuring out the best time to integrate third-party systems and recommending solutions to certain tasks	DevOps, Backend developer, PM, BA
Audit Report	Working with the system already in place	PM, Developer, QA, BA, DevOps
Marketing Strategy	Offering post-inception services	Marketing specialist, PM, Designer
Presentation	Offering post-inception services	Marketing specialist, PM, Designer

In the end, the inception phase should make it clear to the development team your specific requirements, the project’s feasibility, and determine the mobile app’s MVP scope.

Second Step – Technical Documentation Phase

The technical documentation phase outlines everything discussed in the inception phase. It basically serves as a manual of the app and serves to document everything from start to finish. Tools we normally use for this phase include Google Docs, Sheets, Presentations, Google Drive, and our own project management system.

That said, expect this phase to provide an account of everything concerning your app. You’ll find most documents structured as such:

1. Intro
2. Explanation of the app’s purpose
3. Definitions of technologies that will be used
4. Tests that need to be done
5. Timeframe
6. Budget
7. Concerns and doubts

What steps do development teams usually take during the lengthy technical documentation stage?

Here they are as follows:

• Keep a smooth stream of communication with the client to know the projected volume of app users.
• Freely recommend alternatives and other methods for which the project can be fulfilled.
• Know the app’s primary functions
• Expound on the level of requirement
• Suggest the app’s interface structure
• Classify the overall app architecture

Once the preliminary technical documentation has been created, only then do the teams discuss costs and scope with the client. With all the requirements known by the team, it’s now their duty to construct an app development project plan, which should include all basic features that need to be added as well as possible functionalities that can be implemented.

Third Step – App Prototype Phase

The development team then builds a prototype of the app based on the requirements and technical documentation shared in the previous stages to create mobile app. Oftentimes, the team uses a sketch first to demonstrate how the app flow will look. But for us, we also rely on wireframes to provide better visualization of the app’s structure.

Afterward, we develop the actual prototype that the client can already interact with and get a basic feel of fundamental features. Next, we collect and put together all the wireframes to finalize the design. We use Invision, Marvel, Balsamiq, and Framer as primary tools to do these tasks.

Fourth Step – Designing Phase

With the prototype now available, UI/UX designers can now start working on the app’s design. Of course, this always takes into consideration screen sizes that your app has to accommodate. Expect the team to already be able to demonstrate to you how the app will flow and feel.

Since we’re dealing with design, the development team should start focusing on developing visual elements like app navigation layout, buttons, text fields, icons, among others. How long this stage lasts depends a lot on how complex your app is. DCI’s design team relies primarily on Adobe XD, Sketch, Invision, to cite a few, for this phase.

At the end of the design phase, the development team should beagle to provide you with:

• Separate app designs for Android and iOS
• The UX wireframe
• A more interactive prototype

Fifth Step – Development Phase

This stage, as its label implies, is where the bulk of the actual app development takes place. The team will start developing the basic frontend and backend aspects of the app. Depending on the platform, we use the following technologies:

Platform	Technology
Android	AndroidNDK, JAVA, Kotlin
iOS	Swift, Objective-C
Cross Platform	ReactNative, Flutter, Ionic

To ensure transparency, we provide regular updates to the client all throughout the entire development phase. This is why we also ensure that effective communication channels are always kept in place.

Sixth Step – Testing Phase

Testing eliminates any potential issue so it should never be skipped. Our development team usually conducts different types of tests to apps like device compatibility tests (makes sure the app can be run in various screen sizes), security tests (ensures data is never compromised), interface tests (checks whether essential aspects like navigation and buttons are working properly).

Unless requested by the client, the project will not advance to the last phase until we are satisfied with all tests and the tune-ups have been done.

Seventh Step – Deployment Phase

Post-development deployment paves the way for optimal mobile app marketing. This considered, the deployment phase mainly deals with the preparatory steps you should take to fulfill app marketplace requirements. Use the following as a table to know what you need to do for both iOS and Android apps.

Android	iOS
Test the app’s quality	Test the app for further issues (i.e. bugs, crashes, etc.)
Confirm the app’s total size, screen compatibility range, and platform	Explain possible in-app purchases and other features that are not readily apparent in the App Review notes
Specify the app’s content rating	Make sure that all vital app information and metadata is correct and complete
Prepare promotional tools (e.g. videos, screenshots, and other visuals)	Make a demo account available with required login info included
Develop and upload the finalized APK
Plan the beta release

Of course, any app development project is never complete without a server (at least, this applies to the majority of apps being developed nowadays). We make sure to use platforms that capitalize on cloud technology to the fullest like AWS, Google Firebase, Azure, etc. for high scalability and faster app performance.

Conclusion

Almost all kinds of effective mobile app development follow a seamless procedure from start to finish. And even then, an app never really sheds its ability to grow, assuming it was built with scalability in mind (which is almost always a given nowadays). Now that you have a solid inkling of the mobile app development life cycle, it should be easier for you to plan, budget, and make crucial decisions as your app enters each development stage.