Over the last few years, an app has emerged as the most powerful tool for businesses to engage with their customers and build their brand. So if you too are eager to jump on the app bandwagon and take your business a step ahead, you’re on the right track.
Well begun is half done, no doubt. All you need now is a team of savvy app builders who will execute your vision to perfection and give you an app that your customers will love. And picking that team wisely will be one of the most important decisions you ever made for your business. App development is not a one man job, and you will need a full stack team complete with designers, developers, marketers and a project manager.
Related: Ways To Overcome The Challenges Of Managing A Virtual Team
That’s right – a project manager. A lot of people forget to realize the importance of a project manager in app development, and assume that a designer and a developer are all they need. There are just so many critical requirements only a good project manager can fulfill, which is why you need to make sure your app development team has a project manager before you hire them. To truly grasp how important this is for your app, here’s an overview of the 6 key project management skills your app development absolutely needs:
Setting Clear Goals and Deadlines
App development involves various teams of different professionals working on different stages of the app development cycles with different methodologies and priorities. With so many differences, keeping the homogeneity of the app intact and making sure it reflects your vision and business values at all times is crucial. A project manager is the one who keeps all these different professionals focused on one larger goal.
Right from the very start, the project manager sets clear goals for the final product and sets deadlines for the various stages of the development cycle. This helps all teams adhere to their deadlines and know exactly what they are required to do.
Improving Collaboration between Developers and Designers
When different teams work on a project, it is likely that there will be differences of opinion and possible disagreements at some point. An app can only be truly effective when it is the perfect combination of aesthetics and functionality, two things that are quite prone to conflict with each other. To strike that perfect balance, your app designers, and your app developers need to be extremely collaborative with each other.
A large part of the responsibility of improving this collaboration lies on the project manager. It is important that the designers and developers get involved in each other’s process early on in the development cycle so they can envision the end product together, and also communicate with each other regularly to keep the development consistent and harmonious. A good project manager sets the stage for a collaborative environment right from the start by making the developers a part of the initial design sprints and facilitates open communication channels throughout the development cycle.
Streamline Different Workflows
Designers perform sketching, wireframing and prototyping. Developers handle coding, iterating and testing. There are tools, frameworks, languages and libraries. There are milestones and hand-offs. There is just so much happening in a single app development cycle that it’s easy to lose a sock somewhere in the process. A seasoned product manager keeps a firm hold on every process and makes sure all the different workflows are streamlined and no essential element is missed out on.
Cost Control and Resource Management
No matter how big a company is, the budget is almost always limited, and resources always need to be used optimally. Between different teams working on different areas of your app, it is easy to lose sight of the budget constraints and go overboard with the resources. Having a project manager at the helm of your team makes sure that all resources are utilized to perfection and the project stays within budget.
Quality Assurance
A good app development team values the quality of your app very highly and strives to give you the best possible product. However, having a project manager makes sure that firm quality standards will be maintained. He/she takes accountability for the end products and prepares for contingencies.
Single Point of Contact
The app goes through the hands of various departments and is constantly in a state of flux. Having a project manager gives you a single point of contact for whenever you want to get an update, make a query or simply take a look at your app’s progress.
Conclusion
So as you can see, all of the above aspects of app development are extremely important if you want a truly world-class app delivered on time and within budget. So make sure you only hire an app development team that has a seasoned project manager taking the wheel. This way, you achieve a consistent, well-rounded app development. Even if you are on a shoestring budget and trying to keep costs down, hiring a team too small with no project manager may not be a wise idea. A good project manager helps save more money in the long run and is an expense totally worth it.
Author Bio: Almeda Brook is a freelance writer for MoveoApps, her skillfulness is writing about technology, business, and digital marketing. Previously, she worked as a Content Marketing Strategist at a software startup. She graduated with honors with a dual degree in Business Administration and Creative Writing.
