A Guide To Explain Cost Involved In Software Development

A normal day in the life of a user starts with an app and ends with an app! If the thought is provocative, imagine living without your mobile phone and apps in it. Imagine there are no applications available to ease our lives. As scary as it sounds, the non-existence of software applications in today’s time is challenging for every person on earth.

The dependency on software applications is increasing day by day and we as end-users have no restrictions on it. We realize how important software applications are and what role they have in our lives. From shopping to banking, education, connection, entertainment and more, all are available through apps.

When a software application development company gets a progressive request from businesses with varied ideas, they work on developing the software applications and launch them to users for the use. In our previous blogs, we already stated how software applications are developed. The planning, team requirement, quality assurance, testing, budget, maintenance, and support all is needed to make an application live.

While the budget is defined in the starting before the development starts, there are few post-development costs associated with software development. We are going to talk about those costs in software development.

1) Functional Services

You may get software developed by a software development company but with time it may start to wear out in terms of features and functioning. Every quarter there is an update available for app to upgrade it as per the latest trends.

During development, a business may ask the team to include some features that would later require some subscription to run. This is a post-development cost that a business has to incur while the app is updated from time to time.

To manage the challenge of this functional service cost, the business needs to have a transparent discussion with the software development company and let them know about the expectations. This would save the embarrassment later for both the business and the end-users.

2) Bad Designs

Another factor that could add up the cost is the development of application but with bad designs. Designs play an important role in the success of software applications. It’s the first thing a user looks at and decides to explore the app further. Now when it comes to bad designs, the app would not be liked by the user and may soon be sent into the trash, uninstalled and deleted.

To revamp the application, the business would need to get the app redesigned and launch it again. This would require additional costing as designing is not a very cost-effective affair. Other than that, launching the app with a new face is another marketing and promotion process that demands huge costing once again.

The business could deeply associate with the software development company and ask them   to follow the guidelines of designing and branding as suggested by them along with the ideas taken from the application designers.

3) Security Breach

Another thing that is ensured in software application development is security. This is essential as there is a threat of data loss, hackers, external intimidation, malware, etc. that could ruin the safety and functioning of the software application. Thus, security is discussed in priority with the software development company to make the app safe and secure.

However, sometimes a business may go with security inclusions that are cheap and not very effective. This could lead to app disaster and open to threats and hacks thus hampering user experience to the core.

To safeguard the app, the business again has to implement strong security mechanisms that demand more money! Businesses should go with strong security mechanisms during the first phase of software development.

4) Development Process

Nowadays we have quite a lot of options when it comes to software application development. Apart from the traditional waterfall model, there is agile, RAD, Iterative, Scrum and more. One can choose any model to get the development process started.

The main thing here is the alterations in the costing as per the chosen process. The traditional waterfall model comes at a fixed price. However, it doesn’t allow modifications in the app during development.

While with the agile development process, the development is quick,  free of errors and robust; it does demand extra cost which may or may not be familiar with the business.

Conclusion

Wrapping up, the idea of software application development is always welcomed and appreciated. The process of development is surely time consuming but the results are accepted and utilized well by the users.

The challenge erupts when the post development cost associated with the software application starts to creep up.

A custom software development company may or may not always be transparent about the post development cost but it’s essential for both the business and development company to keep the expectations clear in the starting itself.