It is not that uncommon for development projects to run two, three, or even more times the original budgeted cost. What happens? Why do apps end up costing so much more than intended? Apps don’t have to break the bank if you know how to keep costs under control. Here is how.
1. Work from the Most Important Features to the Least Important Features
If you start with the vital features and work progressively toward the less-crucial ones, you can hit the stop button any time you need to stop the development and save money.
If this is your first development project and you’re unsure how things go, a great way to assure that you can get a functional app without going over budget is to begin with the most critical features and work in order of importance from the most to the least important. Then, if you do go over budget and need to bail out, you can deliver a functional app that will be worth something.
2. Engage in Open Communication With Your App Developers
Any project is only going to go as well as the communication. Have you thoroughly explained your desires and plans to the developer? Do you regularly communicate with those who are doing the actual work? It is much more expensive to let the project stray off track and then ask the developers to come back and fix it than it is to stay in close touch with them during the process and make sure it progresses like you expect it to.
3. Make Sure Your Developers Understand Your Industry and Your Business
Does your developer understand your industry and are they able to identify where your business fits within that industry?
When working with a developer, make sure that they have a good grasp on what your industry is about, as well as how your particular business fits within that industry. This assists their development efforts from the design phase through deployment, because they have a clear picture of what it is your app needs to do to be most effective and meaningful to your user base.
4. Keep the Design Simple and Clean
Fancy design does not always make for a better app, but it does always make for a more expensive development project. Lots of graphics, heavy content, and other design elements really rack up the development costs, when a clean, simple interface is often preferable to the elaborate. Unless you are in an industry where visual aesthetics is truly important (such as fashion, home interior design, architecture, art, etc.), opt for a simple interface that users can navigate easily and quickly instead of a fancy one that nobody can figure out how to use and costs way too much.
5. Give Users a Way to Provide Feedback (and Listen to It)
User feedback is a great way to make an inexpensive development project work for you. Start simple and deliver the most critical features and functionality. Then take the user feedback and use it to build on and expand the app into its eventual form. This way, you are not overspending for features that nobody really wants or needs. You invest in the basic features that make the app useful, and then create an app over time that is exactly what your users desire it to be.
Are you ready to start your app development project? Turn to the developers who can keep you within budget and still manage to deliver a product your users will adore. Talk to us to get started today.
