Introduction to the application development lifecycle

Applications have come a long way—from simple software packages to the backbone of enterprises—making life easier for everyone involved. Previously, the application development process required manual configuration of storage, networks, and processing units. But today, with cloud infrastructure at the forefront, app development is more organized and business-focused.

Behind every good app is a significant investment in planning, strategizing, development, and feedback loops, to ensure it's secure and future-proof. This process, which sets the tone for project managers by helping them understand the market, labor needed, and potential roadblocks to ensure quality, is called application development lifecycle management (ADLM).

What is the application development lifecycle?

Application development lifecycle management is a methodology that facilitates better communication, project planning and management when developing applications. It's often confused with the software development lifecycle (SDLC), which is a subset of app development lifecycle management.

The SDLC focuses on planning and deployment, to ensure a stable software release. ADLM, however, takes a long-term approach that includes multiple application development iterations, to incorporate updates, feedback, and effective resource management. This continues until the application is decommissioned or transferred to the next version.

Stages of the application development lifecycle

1. Ideation

The ideation phase transforms scattered ideas into a technical guide with realistic expectations. Brainstorming sessions gather and share ideas among business stakeholders. This phase establishes the vision, outlining business analysis, end-user expectations, and the product's lifespan.

Developer teams are crucial to making the plan a reality. They provide input on features, user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, and potential development challenges. Competitor and market research is another important aspect of the ideation phase, helping set expectations for both the product and the business.

2. Planning

With the blueprint from the ideation phase, the planning phase moves on to resource gathering. The project plan is laid out based on user expectations. Key planning activities during the discovery phase include:

• Estimating costs
• Setting project deadlines
• Determining the number of developers needed and hours required for project completion
• Calculating potential overhead needs

3. Design

The design phase is where the app's UI/UX is first visually represented. In traditional development, the user flow and layout are manually sketched. But modern SaaS app development platforms use tools like Figma for design and low-code platforms that offer click-and-configure UI, abstracting traditional app development processes.

4. Development

Once the plan is approved and the application's look and feel are designed, development begins. The development team adheres to the timeline decided in the design phase, following the chosen app development lifecycle approach and technology stack.

Collaboration among developers can involve everyone working on the same part or different development teams working on different parts in real time. Cloud computing can substantially minimize this need for coordination.

Low-code app development platforms allow business teams and citizen developers to handle the basic structure and workflows of the app. The IT team is pulled in for backend configurations and advanced UI work that requires a professional coding tech stack. These platforms make the app lifecycle easier to manage, with built-in features like environments, logs, and data models that work seamlessly on the backend.

5. Testing

Regular and rigorous testing of app components ensures the app is market-ready and fault-free. This process detects anomalies and minor bugs that could impact the app's functionality. Testing is repeated at regular intervals to include every update the product goes through.

This phase also includes quality assurance (QA), to make the app compliant with global privacy and security standards. Most low-code platforms are also compliant with the latest standards, which can also certify apps built on them.

6. Deployment

The better the app development lifecycle, the faster the development, testing, and deployment phases will be, as it plugs the gaps between various teams. Deployment happens based on the testing phase and the results of quality checks.

Deployment can be easier with platform- and device-independent app development platforms that ease the code-signing and integration processes. This eliminates the need for developers to build apps specific to devices and platforms and maintain them over the long haul, thereby diminishing the need for dedicated teams for each ecosystem.

7. Maintenance and feedback

Maintenance and feedback are as important as all the previous six steps combined. This phase is critical to the product's shelf life.

Once the app is released, changes to user demands, glitch debugging, feature additions, and mobile app security must be performed continuously to stay relevant in the market.

Common challenges in app development

Application lifecycle management is a long and continuous process that comes with challenges that are both common to all stages and stage-specific. For example, automation testing is a time-consuming process that can cause quality gaps if not executed properly. This is specific to the testing phase, but it affects the overall quality of the app. Some of the generic challenges in app lifecycle management are:

Shortage of financial resources

Budget constraints are the most common roadblock in the app development lifecycle. This can be due to poor planning and resource allocation, or because of evolving demands and changing market conditions. In some cases, cost-cutting and better planning can revive the project, but if the extent of the financial crisis is severe, projects of any size can stall.

Developer talent shortage  

Developer shortages arise from factors like educational gaps, the need for advanced technologies, geographical factors that lead to the concentration of talent in big cities, the lack of skill development programs to empower youth, and competition from large corporations.

Communication gaps  

Communication gaps can slow down projects, leading to rework and delays. Language barriers, lack of collaboration tools, and strict adherence to processes are common causes of communication gaps.

Security breaches

Although not as common, security breaches are the most serious of challenges. They can take down not only projects but organizations as a whole, violating user trust and leading to an outflow of customers. Privacy and compliance go hand in hand, which is why it's essential to have threat planning sessions and tools that are compliant with the latest standards.

The benefits of application development lifecycle management

• Time: The application development lifecycle provides a blueprint of the entire project up front, enabling efficient resource allocation, well-planned timelines, and on-time releases.
• Cost: Better development practices lead to better resource management. ADLM keeps overspending and alternate development channels in check, eliminating significant costs due to shadow IT and poor planning.
• Management: Lifecycle management helps organizations manage the big picture, scheduling, and error detection. All tasks are organized and tracked, making it easier to manage projects and plan business activities, such as version releases, announcements, and goal setting.
• Developer efficiency: ADLM improves developer efficiency. With a proper plan outlining timelines, the technology stack, potential integrations, and bottlenecks, developers are better equipped than in a development process that lacks ADLM.

Setting up your app development lifecycle

You can never have a one-size-fits-all approach to software development. It depends on the resources at hand, the expertise level of developers, the budget allotted, the project scale and estimated turnaround time, and the technology stack being used. For projects with an abundance of resources, capital, time, and professional developers in place to build, scale, and maintain them, the traditional software and development cycle often works perfectly.

However, most enterprises are constricted by bottlenecks related to one or more of the above, which leads them to a more business-centric approach using low-code platforms. These app development platforms abstract the app development lifecycle into stages. Low-code platforms are also highly scalable, with a short learning curve that significantly reduces delivery time without compromising on security and privacy.

Adhering to a structured development lifecycle can help organizations ensure efficient resource management and ultimately drive higher profitability.