MVP to Testing Mobile App Development – 5 Hacks to Speed Up

1. MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

A
Minimum Viable Product
is defined as a product that provides only the main USP of your final
product. App developers create the MVP to check whether the technology
begging their main features is robust and whether the prospective users
of the product find any use in this feature. The MVP is generally tested
on many users before being improved further and released to the general
public.

Here are the steps using which you can create a Minimum Viable Product.

• Firstly, try and figure out the problem you are solving and who
  your target customer is. For this purpose, you might need to conduct
  a complete market survey. Through this survey, you can attempt to
  understand what the pain points of your customers are. Based on
  these pain points, you can figure out a design for your product. In mobile app development, it is also essential for you to figure out
  the customer base that you will be selling this product to. It is
  crucial since the app’s design and feature set needs to be directed
  toward this customer cohort.
• Now, you must conduct a proper analysis of your competitors. If your
  competitors are using any open-source software, find out the
  intricacies and limitations of this software. Download all the apps
  that will directly be competing with you and determine the feature
  gaps that exist within them. Read the customers’ reviews on the app
  store for each of these apps and check the most common complaints that
  users have against these apps. This exercise will enable you to put up
  a much better product than your competitors. If you can fill the
  feature gaps and relieve your app of the complaints users have with
  others.
• Next, you must define the user flow of your MVP. In the minimum viable product, you must focus only on the main service that your app will be
  offering. For example, if your app is selling products of a
  particular genre, your overall flow must enable the user to find a
  product, add the product to the cart, and pay for the product. Try
  and make this user flow as lucid as you can. The more complex this
  flow gets, the lower the chance of users shifting to your app.
• Finally, you must list down all the features that you think are
  necessary for your app. There are probably several features that you
  want to market to people. In the survey of prospective users you
  conducted earlier, you might have gained some insight into which
  features are more important to people and which features are
  relatively less important. Once you have this information, you can
  prioritize the features that you will include in your MVP.

At the end of all this analysis, you need to build your app and test
it. The first test is carried out virtually to check for bugs and any
features that do not work. When the test results are successful, you can
test your app on prospective users and analyze their reviews.

2. Go Agile

The agile mobile app development strategy is very similar to the most
viable product strategy but includes some more iterations. In agile app
development, the MVP is first published, and features are then
continuously added based on the users’ responses. The following are the
steps of every agile iteration.

• The first stage is the Planning Stage. During this stage, you can plan out the number of hours of
  resources required, the development platform you will use, the type
  of app you are aiming for, the genre that your app will belong to
  and other technicalities.
• Once you have planned your technological requirements, you can dive
  deep into the features required of your app. It can include a brief
  customer survey to determine the most important features for your
  prospective customers. These are the features that the app will then
  be built around.
• Now, you need to Design the App. The app’s design phase is the most integral since it goes from
  planning the app’s flow to the user interface. The app’s design is
  often a make-or-break feature for the customer and must be paid
  great heed to.
• Next is the Development Phase. Based on the technological, feature-based, and design decisions
  you had made earlier, you can now develop the app on your chosen
  platform. Make sure that your development process translates your
  requirements as closely as possible.
• In the Testing Phase
  that follows, you must thoroughly test the app for bugs and
  performance. This first sub-step can be automated testing, in which an algorithm attempts to find out whether there are any
  problems with the app. Next, you can do a small focus group test to
  determine problems that users might face.
• Finally, you draw up the application documentation, wait for
  approval, and release the app.

Do keep in mind that a single cycle is never enough to develop the
complete app. Every time you put some features out in public, you will
receive reviews. Based on these reviews, the agile cycle needs to be
followed again and again repeatedly.

3. Basic and Simple Wireframes

A wireframe is as simple a concept as it sounds. It is the basic
blueprint or schematic of the app that you are looking to create. A
wireframe provides you with an idea regarding the steps you need to
create the perfect mobile app. Wireframes also speed up your mobile app
development process by laying out a clear plan and giving you a target
that you need to achieve.

• To create a mobile app wireframe, you first need to focus on the
  features you are keen on delivering. Even before you have begun to
  develop the first blueprint, review the app genre, you will be
  developing the app for and the major demands of consumers in that
  genre. The app that you will be creating will be built around these
  demands.
• Next, you can start focusing on the user experience. It is where
  the user flow and the design first come into the picture. Determine
  your app’s main motive and design the easiest way for a user to
  fulfil that motive.
• You should now start to create your design on paper. You can look
  at your main competitors’ UX templates and try to determine what
  makes these templates work. Aim to understand what design features
  your genre’s users tend to favour and incorporate them within your
  app.
• There are various ways that you can build your wireframe. While
  sketching an app screen like a storyboard is a more traditional
  method, you can also use online portals to create app wireframes.
  These portals have fantastic tools that help you recreate your user
  interface to the most accurate extent possible.
• After creating the wireframe, you need to prototype your app. It
  means checking whether all the primary user interface options of
  your wireframe are working. You can walk through different user
  flows and check whether each of them leads to the intended
  outcome.
• Once you have ascertained that your app is working, you can present
  your idea and begin working on its back-end aspects.

4. Outsourcing

Outsourcing
is one of the most common methods mobile app developers use to speed up
their app development process – especially if the app creators have no
app development or coding expertise themselves. However, there are
several considerations to be made when you are choosing an app
development partner.

• Most importantly, you need to check the expertise that different
  app developers or app development companies show through their
  previous work. You then need to determine whether this expertise is
  in line with the motives of your app.
• Even if the mobile app developers have a favourable set of apps
  previously created, you should check with other similar companies
  about the market reputation of these app developers. Check whether
  they are professional and punctual and whether their products
  generally require significant reworks.
• You can also hold consultations with various app development
  companies and try to find out their response to your needs. Choose
  the app development company that understands your needs best.
  Previous experience generally helps companies determine what you
  want, and inexperienced players can have difficulty getting to the
  crux of your issue.
• Even before you start approaching app development partners, you
  should decide on a budget that you will be spending on app
  development. Outsourcing app development
  can come with significant costs depending on the type of app
  developer you are looking at and the app developer’s location.

5. Automated Testing

Automated testing can be effective in reducing the time-to-market of
your mobile applications. Through automated testing, you can assess your
mobile app efficiently and in significantly less time. There are several
advantages to automated testing.

• Automated testing allows for a much faster feedback cycle for your
  app by virtue of experiencing no human intervention. The whole app
  development team saves testing time and can utilize this time in
  preparing documentation and paperwork. It helps you in releasing
  your app much faster than through conventional testing.
• Additionally, automated
  testing
  saves you business expenses. Regardless of how expensive your
  automated testing subscription or infrastructure is, it will likely
  not be as expensive as hiring a whole testing team. Moreover,
  automated testing does not have specific hours of work and can
  continuously provide results relevant to you.
• The coverage of use cases provided by automated testing is also
  much more comprehensive. If you are automating the testing process
  yourself, you can introduce several new use cases that are more
  important to you. Otherwise, all use cases are tested to ensure that
  the chances of failure are minimal.
• As compared to a human testing team, automated testing
  will also provide much deeper insights into your app’s robustness
  through advanced analytics. It also offers more features and the
  ability to customize testing as per your needs and
  requirements.