Managing Mobile App Development Costs: 3 Essential Considerations

Have you ever wondered about the cost of developing an app in Singapore? The city-state is one of the most rapidly expanding locations and it attracts businesses from the entire world.

However, it’s not easy answering how much to make an app would cost, even for an experienced app development company such as ours.

There are just far too many variables which affect mobile application development costs and it would be inappropriate, to say the least, to provide even rough estimations. A mobile can cost as little as a few thousand bucks or as much as quarter million, depending on a range of different things.

Naturally, as you get in touch with the app development company of preference, they would have to provide you with a mobile app development cost estimate based on your preliminary or, even better — in-depth and thorough requirements.

If you’d like Swag Soft to provide you an estimate for your app, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

While we won’t be able to give you that mobile app development cost estimate in this article, right off the bat, we’d like to provide you with 3 essential considerations for managing that cost and making sure you stay within budget.

Managing Mobile App Development Costs

It goes without saying that proper management and mobile app development costs planning are quintessential to combating the scope creep, to contain your expenses and to achieve your expected return on investment (ROI).

Having said this, let us provide you with three essential areas that will enable you to have greater control over the cost of your overall project.

Area #1 — Inevitable Changes in Development and Your Original Product’s Goal

When it comes to mobile app development, change is inevitable. Regardless of how good your planning is, chances are that you’d have to accept and undergo certain changes.

This is due to external forces which are oftentimes out of your reach to plan and foresee. These include competitive threats, emerging technologies, as well as user request — they can all crop up throughout the development process, causing mobile app development teams to rethink the product requirements from the get-go.

In other words, deviations in the product could cause the mobile app development costs to inflate and yet, it’s something you’d have to go through if needed.

The key here is to build flexibility and to make sure that you direct the change back towards your originally defined product goal.

It’s highly recommended, if not vital, to devise a well-structured product requirements document (PRD), throughout the early stages of the development because this will provide the mobile app development team with the necessary standing point to move forward.

Area #2 — Proper Communication During the Mobile App Development Process

Once you’ve set your foundational requirements for the product the project will move into development. You’ve successfully defined the scope of your MVP and now it’s time to start building.

At this stage, however, there are a few things you can do to avoid additional and unnecessary development costs.

Mobile app products, especially those which are more complex, are usually made of various systems, as well as subsystems, This means that the requirements are likely to go through multiple stages of development.

This runs the risk of getting lost along the translation at some point during the process. It is very important to manage and to balance the transfer of knowledge during every single technical requirements intersection against the actual business requirements.

This will prevent the development of costly mistakes which can easily inflate your costs beyond your initially designated budget.

Communication is key — make sure that you stay in touch and voice your concerns throughout the entire mobile app development process.

Area #3 — Connect Your Features to Your Users’ Pain Points

One of the most important things to do when you start a mobile app development process is to set clear goals and to determine the business outcomes.

There are two traps that you can easily fall into, however. The first one is over-conceptualizing and the second one is, well, under-conceptualizing.

In order to ensure that you don’t get caught into them, you’d have to prioritize product features for the mobile app development team to align on the functionalities which relate directly to the pain points of your core users.

You need to think about the problems your users are facing and how is it that your mobile app will solve them.

Failing to think strategically means that you are risking more money on additional functionalities which don’t have to necessarily deliver value.

Conclusion

There are plenty of factors which will impact how much it would cost to develop an app in Singapore. It’s safe to say that the price is rather individual and determined on a case-to-case basis.

However, the above principles are evergreen. They will help you contain your spendings within a relatively predetermined budget and potentially prevent any overspending.

Originally published at swagsoft.com.sg on February 12, 2019.