Once your App Idea is finalised your next course of action is to understand how much investment is required in designing and developing the App Idea.
When asked this question to IT Companies, I heard this from Project Managers “It Depends”. Well yes, it is partially correct. The core cost evaluation process includes the time required to develop the application multiplied with the hourly rate of the developers. There is an entire process to understand the right budget that is required for developing an Application.
I have tried to design this Infographic with all the details which are required to understand the cost estimation process and have described each component to clear the picture on what all it depends on.
While I proceed you would also understand why I have mentioned “Right Budget”, any application that requires a specific time to develop, if spent under that, there is a huge possibility that the developer missed on functionality, overlooked security, or have coded a buggy App which might affect the performance of the App in the Long run. Spent over the budget, it would be a sheer loss to the organization.
Let’s understand how to evaluate the right Budget for your App Idea.
For evaluating the budget the first process is to get the exact requirement of the app documented. Once the flow is finalised we recommend to get a wireframe created, this would help in getting all the screens that would be required to complete the flow.
Once you have got the App document and wireframe finalised, get the admin discussed, all the essential items that Admin would have. Every reports that you would need to evaluate the performance of the business.
These all would help in finalising the complete project requirement. I would suggest going over the entire document really carefully, these are long documents but really important.
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Once you have the Wireframes ready you can consult with the graphic designers to get the estimates on designing all the app screens. Based on your designing preferences you will get the estimated cost of designing the application in a PSD format which will help the developers to code the exact design as you have finalised.
Right after this document ask your developer to break down the entire requirement module wise. I suggest this should be in small blocks mentioning each component of the app. If this is on Android, IOS, Web and Admin then this should be followed for each part of the project.
Once you have the hourly breakdown of the application you can estimate the total hours required to develop the application. Now the time is for some testing. I suggest Tester should be involved module wise and give an estimate for module wise testing and finally the entire application testing.
Testers usually create test cases beforehand. There are generally 3 types of testing, UX/UI testing, Functional Testing and Security testing. Ask the tester to give an estimate on all the three types of testing. You can choose how strong testing you are in need of.
Now the turn is of the project manager or project coordinator, these are people who also acts as a Business analysis team member who collects all the requirements and gives them the shape of documents. The total hours invested in collecting the requirement, creating the document, calculating efforts and giving the hourly breakdown is also added to the project cost.
Now you have the exact hours that you would need to develop the project.
Technology also plays a vital role in deciding the right budget. Based on the technologies, the hourly rate of the developers would be decided. High-end stacks or new techs cost higher as the developer’s availability is less compared to languages which are from a longer period.
Location of the Developers also plays a vital role in deciding the hourly cost of the Android developers, IOS developers or backend developers. If you are planning to work with an in-house developer by hiring an IOS developer or Android, you would need to check the average pay scale for the developer in your location.
If you are planning to hire an app development agency in your location, you can check the hourly cost of developers, and if you want to lower down the cost you can opt for an offshore development agency, I have detailed research on the hourly rate of developers around the world.
Apart from this there are some other factors also which plays a vital role in deciding the project cost.
Technology and Frameworks affect the effort hours.
If you select a certain framework based on features from your functional document, you might get inbuilt features. Your total effort hours are reduced drastically as the developer finds it less time consuming to deliver the modules.
Like in the case of eCommerce App Development, there are several CMS like WooCommerce, Magento, nopCommerce and others which already have several eCommerce features that developers would not need to develop and will in return save time in development. So you need to discuss this with the developers or research for the frameworks online.
Third-party integrations, server, and Annual Maintenance
Third-party integration like payment gateway, SMS gateway, Map integration and several others. Based on the requirement of the business flow this is added to the app, and the cost to acquire this is a sheer addition to the project cost.
The server also plays a vital role. Based on your project requirement, the technology chosen and expected usage of the app, you would need the server configuration. This is a service that you can choose from across several service provider. I advise going with reputed and branded companies as they have a huge customer support team for any server related issues.
Once the App is developed there is always a need for maintenance, there are 2 types of maintenance which is generally opted by App owners. Based on the budgets, you can opt for annual maintenance or on-demand maintenance. If you opt for Annual Maintenance, based on the scope that you would decide the cost may range between 10% of the total cost of the project to 25%, this does not include the new scope on the app.
Final Words
Based on the facts mentioned here you can come up with the total required investment. I advise you to do a deep investigation in each factor and do not just get on the cheapest. There is nothing cheap in this world everything has its price, with cheap you can cost your entire business.
Education is cheap; experience is expensiveRobert KiyosakiTweet
