Building an app with full functions that work great means a lot of time and effort invested in preparation and planning, often before writing the first line of code, because the software development process is complex.
Multiple factors like technology changes, talent sourcing, economics and more can cause a twist in the software development process, so we present to you how to challenge the 8 main issues in software development with solutions found by our experts.
1. Hard to Properly Define Ideal Users
It’s not always easy to properly define the app’s audience and targeting the right people is one of the key flaws in the entire software development process, also recognized by Forbes.
You can have the nicest design and the best functional software product, but all the effort, time, and money invested in building it can be worthless and better used somewhere else if there isn’t an actual need for it on the market.
Doing the essential market research before beginning the development process and finding out if the need for the digital product really exists is a great way to prevent disappointment. Simply conduct the market analysis and define your target users well.
2. Time Management Challenges
When it comes to the software development process, time management is indeed a tricky issue that tends to be one of the most common ones in the industry. Avoiding underestimating the necessary time to launch an app and overestimating your capability, like the tendency that many companies have, keeps you away from delays in delivery, budget overruns, or quality issues.
Failing to develop the plan detailed to the maximum on how the process of software development will be implemented, will have you rushing to fix bugs, test, and iterate before the launch, which will have you not noticing certain key details and preventing certain errors to appear. And eventually, you will have to spend more time and effort returning to what was done too fast, with disregard for all possibilities, including the bad situations you could have encountered.
Avoid facing an issue like this by planning in detail your software development process, splitting into small tasks the larger ones, and thinking of ways to manage those pieces. Also try using one of the nice project management tools available such as Asana, Github, or Basecamp that will help you track the progress of completing each task.
Team meetings often encourage great time management, so daily scrums work well for everybody. You might wonder what scrum is. Well, it is the agile development method focused on a flexible and fast iterative & gradual process. The opportunities to share the progress made by each member are important as well as discussing the next steps, the next projects, discovering blockers or risks on the way, and solutions to fix them and avoid threatening the project plan. Making sure every team member spends their time on the right tasks is one of the keys to reaching success in what comes next.
3. Testing and its Importance
Quality assurance (QA) is a vital process in software development that often gets overlooked. QA isn’t just testing for bugs and potential issues with the code. It’s about ensuring that users’ expectations are met and the final product is reliable, secure, and stable.
Developers sometimes complete tasks hastily to meet tight deadlines without leaving enough time to thoroughly test every feature.
To solve this problem, a company can outsource to QA testers who would ensure that the final product meets all standards and expectations and that it’s ready to be introduced to users.
4. Poor Communication Between Customers and Development Teams
Lack of communication between the software development team and the customer is a common issue in software development that causes delays and underwhelming quality of the final application.
When the project doesn’t have sufficient documentation and project teams aren’t communicating frequently, there is a risk that software development teams can misinterpret the requirements. When these misunderstandings go undetected, it results in an app that doesn’t meet the goals of the business. If these misunderstandings are realized, it generally takes additional time and budget to make any necessary adjustments, resulting in delays. Clarifying ambiguity through frequent, precise communication and thorough documentation helps minimize this risk.
The best way to prevent this problem from arising is to ensure open lines of communication through weekly meetings and communication tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. Asking lots of questions and coordinating frequent check-ins during development to ensure alignment is important as well.
5. Hard to Find and Retain Skilled Developers for the Project
Sourcing quality talent is probably one of the most difficult issues in software development. The high cost of hiring, shortage of qualified workers (particularly for specialized coding skills in a specific language or platform), and plenty of competition in the field contribute to this.
To compete, businesses must offer competitive compensation packages, a positive work environment, and interesting work.
Occasionally, talent may leave during a project, putting timeline and project knowledge at risk. To hedge against this, businesses should focus on upskilling their current talent, cross-training team members and thorough project documentation.
6. Crowding Features Within the App
One of the biggest challenges in software development hides in a desire to put too many features in one application. This tends to result in an app that tries to do everything, but lacks rich functionality and performance in the most important features.
To prevent this unfortunate thing from happening, businesses need to focus on making an app that specializes in one to three key features, rather than making a seemingly robust app that covers several different functions. By maintaining a healthy product roadmap, businesses can organize future development around key features and themes.
7. Limited Resources to Complete the Full Development Cycle
Lack of budget is another frequent software development issue that usually arises due to the unexpected complexity of software projects. This can happen when the project was initially underestimated or when unexpected challenges arise during the software development project.
Thorough estimations and detailed project planning at the start of the project minimize the risk of unexpected challenges that can cause a project to exceed the budget. During development, using free resources like code libraries, APIs and scripts also help keep costs low.
8. Issues With Integration into Other Apps
Problems with integration are yet another common software development problem that can put your project scope, timeline or budget at risk. This can happen when some companies do not anticipate which hardware and software their users are working with. For instance, you might build an app for iOS then later realize your ideal user base is mostly on the Android operating system. Another way this problem shows up is when your app integrates with a third-party API but that API doesn’t offer the functionality you need, or it isn’t ready on time. Delays in co-development with a third-party API can delay your overall project timeline if proper expectations around timeline and functionality are not set.
Conclusions
Our wish is to help you better understand all it takes to avoid common traps in the software development process and industry, and we shared our experience over the years.
When companies plan their projects in detail, research their audience before developing useful products liked by the end users, the development process becomes specialized in one key area rather than making the mistake of being too broad.
Furthermore, more focus needs to be on Finding and retaining great software development talent should also be one of the main focuses, because this is how successful projects are closer to their goals.
Teams need to work together closely, always share potential issues, and try finding the best solutions together. We hope that our insights provided in this article will inspire you to make the right choices that will lead you to a successful launch of your new app.
Contact us to find out more about who we are, what we do and how we can help you.
