Application development is a great way to provide your organization with mobile access to important business functions. If your company is focused on B2C scenarios, it’s also important to provide customers with easy access to your goods and services. Nevertheless, there exist several negative application development myths. This isn’t surprising, as it has a pretty high barrier to entry. If you’re not a software developer or unfamiliar with code, it can be difficult to think about what actually goes into the process of creating an application. Businesses of all shapes and sizes create apps, but there are several myths surrounding this process. In this article, we will debunk five of some of the most common application development myths.
It’s Only About Your Code
When speaking about any type of software and application development, many people’s first thought is about coding. And with good reason. It’s a huge part of the process, and directly correlates to how well the application works. If you’re coding is bad, you’ll end up with a bad app. But successful enterprise application development involves a variety of aspects: coding, design, UX, testing, and more.
When you’re using an application, you never see the code. You see the user interface, or the content that’s accessible through the application. Even if the code itself is perfect, people won’t want to use your application if it’s hard to use, if it’s slow, or if it’s overburdened with useless features, bells, and whistles. Finishing the code base of a project is just one step. If people don’t like the look of your app or don’t enjoy using it, you need to fix your product.
Releasing the App Means Your Work is Done
Even if your application is created by the most experienced software developers you can find, nothing is perfect. There will always be bugs to fix, or features to improve. Once you release your application to the public, it’s likely that at least one of them will find something wrong at some point. Bugs need to be fixed, features need to be updated, the app will always need future patches.
In addition to fixing issues, it’s important to be constantly looking forward. As operating systems and mobile devices continue to evolve, make sure that your enterprise applications continue to work with newer hardware. If your application runs well and does what it’s supposed to do, it will continue to be useful as the years go by. Making sure that your software is future-proof and continues to function well is vitally important.
A Good Looking App Means Good Reviews
Everyone wants their app to look and feel clean. If your app looks aesthetically pleasing, it’s going to result in a much more positive user experience. But if the only good thing about your app is its appearance, you’ve made a big mistake. If the app is unresponsive, slow, or simply difficult to use, those issues will completely overshadow the appearance of your app.
Good products are the result of different teams coming together and creating something good. They’re a combination of different aspects, and if only one functions well, then you have a bad product. Make sure to put just as much effort into each building block of your app.
Porting to Other Platforms is Easy
This is a huge misconception, and is particularly prominent throughout a lot of technology spaces. App development is a time consuming process, and porting to another device, such as to Android from iOS, is just as difficult. iOS and Android are built on different code bases, and you can’t simply copy and paste. Developers have to translate one code into another, using different libraries and architectures.
This can lead to unknown bugs, previously solved bugs reappearing, and a whole bunch of other issues. Porting is a process that’s just as thorough, demanding, and complex as developing a completely new application. If your organization wants to release an app on multiple platforms, make sure to plan ahead accordingly.
More Features Means a Better App
It’s understandable to think that the more features an app has, the better it is. It’s great to have an application that can solve a lot of problems, or provide great value to its users. But an app should have a clearly defined function. When you’re developing your application, make sure that it’s only doing what you need it to do. No more, and no less.
Software development is about starting small, and making sure those small processes run exactly as expected. Then you can build more features, add more processes, make your software more complex. Overloading your enterprise app with too many features and tools can make it feel bloated, unresponsive, or result in other technical issues. Keep in mind why you’re developing an application in the first place, and stick to the main goals of your initial planning instead of falling for feature creep,
Want more application development best practices? Check out our guide on guide on Contractor vs. Employee developers.
- The 6 Best Application Development Podcasts You Should Be Listening To - February 21, 2020
- The 4 Best Application Development TED Talks for Practitioners - February 19, 2020
- The Best Application Development Events and Conferences to Attend in 2020 - February 13, 2020
Anna Birna Turner
Anna is an enterprise technology writer covering Marketing Automation, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Feel free to reach out to her at any time at abturner@solutionsreview.com
- The 6 Best Application Development Podcasts You Should Be Listening To - February 21, 2020
- The 4 Best Application Development TED Talks for Practitioners - February 19, 2020
- The Best Application Development Events and Conferences to Attend in 2020 - February 13, 2020
