We live in a world where a new mobile app is made every day, and users have very high expectations when it comes to performance. There’s not only an excess of ideas but also stiff competition between app development companies. The team you hire are not only the ones you trust your business with, but they are major factors to the success of your business. If you experience issues with the mobile app developer you’ve hired, don’t ignore them. Reevaluate your app developer based on warning signs and decide whether or not to fire your app developer.
Here Are A Few Signs to decide whether or not you should fire your app developer:
Requirements, Expectation and Budget
Many app developers that work for a company or don’t develop apps for a living can have a real challenge with creating the requirements, expectations and budget. This can really become a financial drain and become a miss if your app isn’t finished on time as you can lose out on market opportunities.
At SolutionBuilt we build many mobile apps and help our customers refine their requirements, build project plans with a fixed time and cost in our Solution Design phase.
Frameworks
We have seen this multiple times where a customer hires an app developer based on price. The developer chooses the framework based on their familiarity with that Framework, yet it’s not an optimal solution for future growth and scalability, maintenance cost and so on. At SolutionBuilt we are agnostic when it comes to frameworks as we have developers that can cost in most any language. We give the customer multiple options for consideration along with the associated build and maintenance cost. For instance, we had a medical mobile app that required security and HIPPA compliance built on React Native. While React Native is an awesome framework, the customer really needs their apps built on Native iOS which uses the software language of Swift and Android on Kotlin and Java.
Design
It’s important to also have a user experience designer with experience in mobile apps to design your app. You never want to rely on a mobile app developer for this as they are more sophisticated than an average user, and also in most cases not trained in user experience design or human factors engineering.
Project plan
Now that your app is designed you will want to approve project plan that details the time required for each end every page and feature of the app. You will want to meet regularly to discuss the progress of the apps timeline. If you’re not receiving regular updates or you haven’t seen any progress on your app, chances are it’s not on schedule and the app developer is working on another project and not focused on yours, a valid reason to fire your app developer. Throughout the entire software development life cycle, the team you hire internally or an app development company, should work closely to maximize efficiency and make the most out of the timeline. With regular meetings and reviews of the app, you should be poised for success in meeting your time to market.
No Detailed Progress
If you’re not given any designs, prototypes, or beta versions of your app, it’s a troublesome sign of unreliable mobile app development services. You should be a part of the design, development and QA process and have opportunities to give feedback regularly. The delivery process should be well-structured and clear to you. Regular delivery of working app is a key indicator of the work being done correctly.
No Developed Plan
You should be given a fixed fee and timeline for the project and be vary wary of scope creep and change orders as it can impact your app projects cost and launch date. The primary reason why a team fails to deliver this is a lack of experience. While it’s impossible to predict exactly how much time every single line item will take exactly (some take more, some less), a seasoned app development company will be able to deliver your app ahead of schedule or on time. This is why it’s crucial to set expectations, requirements and to enter the solution design phase for your mobile app before signing an agreement and making your first payment. Otherwise, the team you’ve hired might deliver the wrong product and you might have to put up with unnecessary and costly delays.
Broken Communication
There are a number of communication issues you will face while working with outsourced teams, starting with time zone, language and cultural differences. While these issues can be managed by adjusting your schedules and establishing convenient communication channels, more profound problems are not as easy to ignore. Developers can also fail to ask the right questions or to suggest better solutions, and this might lead to a result that doesn’t satisfy your requirements. Working with an offshore mobile app development firm, you may lose the advantages that come with lower rates with a trade-off for inflated estimates, timelines and a team that really doesn’t have your best interest, which can cost you more in the end than building your app with a USA based team that wants your business today and in the future.
Solution Design
A key indicator of quality is how well a mobile application development company helps you take your requirements and create solutions and app designs that meets your users needs. To do this, your app development team should be able to demonstrate their critical thinking, domain experience and have references for you. A good developer will give you advice and help you evaluate and improve. A professional team always has a number of team members that should be involved on this process including, app designers, developers, and project management resources to create solutions, budget and time limitations into consideration.
No Transparency
Crucial moments and information should not be left unclear. If you don’t know where the code is stored, how the project is managed, and which tools the developers use then you’re out of touch with your own project. A mobile app developer should always share these things with you: the tools implemented, the process, and regular updates on progress throughout different stages, and updates on the app’s progress. Remember that the documentation, designs, and code should be yours to use at the end of the engagement. You need to have full access to the design source files, source code, code repositories, database, and backups. Your developer should never keep you in the dark when it comes to your project; if you’re seeing signs of no transparency between you and your developer, then it’s time to fire your app developer.
Wanting to reduce costs by offshoring app development or hiring an internal team can be more costly in the end more often than not.
- Smaller development companies and app freelance app developers may not have a team that works well together when there is a challenge.
- Many developers have experience in one language, or limited software development experience working with one product, don’t have the same real-world experience as a mobile app agency.
- Offshoring can often be riddled with constant bugs and changes, sometimes even needing to re-do parts or the entire app from scratch.
- Hiring app developers internally can be much more costly on an annual basis than hiring a mobile app agency as you still need a team to accomplish what an app agency can do more efficiently for the initial build and ongoing app maintenance as they have experienced teams designer, android developer, iOS developer and a project manager.
So those are some reasons to consider whether or not you should fire your app developer. Get in touch with us today if you want to discuss your ideas or if your app development process is not up to your standards. We can help you out and get your project running smoothly again, or if you’re looking for a reliable and experienced team to get you from start to finish. CALL US TODAY! 404-835-7730