A clear project scope can help you avoid mishaps in the later stages of mobile app development.
Key takeaways:
- It’s essential to have a clear project scope before outsourcing your mobile app project.
- Doing so will ensure everyone is onboard from the start, helping you avoid scope creep and deliver the app on time and within budget.
- Your scope statement should include a detailed project overview, an outline of the technical requirements, a timeline, and budget expectations.
- Once you’ve defined your project scope, Shockoe can help you execute it to perfection.
When outsourcing mobile app development, you don’t want to aim too small or too big. Rather, you want the project size to be just right: small enough to be achievable, but big enough to capture all deliverables.
Clearly defining the scope of your project can help you start on the right foot and hit all project deliverables within budget and on schedule. Here’s all you need to know.
What is the project scope?
Project scope is a way to establish the boundaries of your mobile app project, define responsibilities, and set up procedures for verifying and approving completed work. It includes the tasks, goals, deadlines, costs, and deliverables you’re working toward.
Why a clearly articulated project scope is crucial when outsourcing mobile app development
A well-thought-out and clearly defined scope of work can keep your team focused on common objectives and guide them when they need to pivot – like when they need to make decisions about change requests. This is particularly crucial when outsourcing mobile app development.
Moreover, it can help you avoid scope creep, when project deliverables exceed the agreed-upon scope. It happens when some parts of the project end up requiring more work, effort, or time because of miscommunication and poor planning.
Remember, sharing the project scope with all relevant stakeholders right off the bat is key. This will ensure everyone is on the same page about the goals and timeline, and help you avoid overwork, project delays, and even low-quality deliverables.
Ultimately, a clear project scope provides a strong project management foundation and ensures your project team executes everything to your expectations without diverting or wasting resources on out-of-scope elements.
How to define the scope of your mobile app project
Broadly, the scope of your mobile app project requires three important considerations:
- The result you want to achieve (i.e. the deliverables)
- The time it will take to complete the project
- How much you’ll pay for it
Gathering and recording accurate and precise information that reflects all requirements will smoothen the development process, allowing your project team to meet expectations on time and within budget.
Here are four important guidelines you should follow when outsourcing mobile app development:
1. Draft a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
It’s good practice to start with a confidentiality agreement between you and your solutions provider before sharing the mobile app idea.
An NDA binds the vendor not to share or disclose information about the mobile app project with third parties and permits you to take legal action if they breach the agreement. More importantly, it allows you to elaborate your strategy and app idea in the project scope without leaking information.
2. Create a detailed project overview
The project overview should specify what your app is about, the problem it will solve, how it will solve it, who your target audience is, and which business model you’ll use.
- Problem – What customer pain points will your app address? Is it a transportation and logistics issue like drivers performing manual, disconnected tasks throughout the day? Are in-store shoppers experiencing long checkouts or having trouble finding the products they want? Or is it something else? Be as specific as possible.
- Solution – In this section, you should elaborate on how your mobile app will solve the problem, including core features, how the app will work on different users’ ends, and the actions it’ll enable them to perform. You should also state whether you’re building the app for iOS or Android.
- Target audience – Define who will use your mobile app. Is it for consumers or businesses? Remember to specify users’ demographic characteristics like region, gender, age, income, education, and interests.
- Business model – Specify the model that’s best suited to your business needs and explain why that particular one is better than others.
3. Clarify the technical requirements
This is the main section of your project scope. It’s where you include all the technical details for the mobile app. Combining text with visual content like videos, pictures, diagrams, graphs, and flowcharts can help present your project scope in more detail.
Below are some useful tips for documenting your mobile app’s technical requirements:
- List all the components your mobile app requires.
- Define all your system’s users including the admin and end users.
- Include the core features and functions, and other key technology considerations such as the method for building the app (native or cross-platform), and third-party integrations (such as connection to a payment gateway, SMS gateway, or external device for data collection).
- State the software development lifecycle (SDLC) you prefer and include as much detail as possible. For example, if you’ll use the waterfall model, state all milestones. If you’ll use the agile model, specify how long the sprint will be.
- Describe the level of maintenance and support you will need initially, and whether you’ll require continuous enhancements.
4. Timeline and budget expectations
The final details to include in the project scope are the timeline and budget expectations.
State when you intend to start building the mobile app and when you expect to launch it, then break it down into tasks and modules. This is extremely crucial since the timeline and complexity of building the app are directly tied to the total cost.
Another factor that affects cost is who builds your app. There are generally two options for outsourcing mobile app development: hiring a freelancer or an app development agency.
Hiring a freelancer can be a good option when you only have specific needs such as coding, app customization, and functionality deployment. However, this also means you’ll handle other aspects of app development such as research, planning, design, and marketing – which can quickly add to costs if you don’t have an in-house development team.
An outsourcing company with a multi-level team structure usually offers the most effective strategies to build an app from the ground up. That way, different specialists – software engineers, project managers, quality assurance engineers, business analysts, and more – can share the responsibility to shorten the development pipeline and deliver a better product.
Build a stellar mobile app by outsourcing to Shockoe
To avoid additional costs and unnecessary complexities in the later stages of app development, it’s best to start with a clear project scope. Remember, even a well-articulated scope is only as good as its execution. It’s crucial to hire the best outsourcing company for your needs.
Shockoe gives you the best of creativity, collaboration, and reliability in your app development. With experts from unique and varied backgrounds by your side at every step of the way, you can be confident in building a mobile app with an edge.
Build your mobile app faster with less hassle. Schedule a consultation today or call 877.696.7001 to get started.