Top 5 Mistakes Companies Make on iPhone/iPad Projects

1. Failing to research and test your idea firstSo you think you have an idea for a million dollar App?Thats great, but before you go and spend a considerable amount of timeand money creating it, wouldnt it be a good idea to spend a bit of timeinvestigating and proving if people actually want it?Before you even begin to think about developing your App you should betalking to people who may be potential customers in the future and seewhat they think about your offering. Does it interest them? Would theypay for it? What would they be willing to pay?Have you researched the App store to see who your competition is?What are you providing that they arent?Countless projects are doomed to fail from the very beginning becausethis first step gets skipped and the people managing the project just“know it will work”. How can you know if you dont ask? © 2011 Richard Hart - All rights reserved.

2. Not having a solid understanding ofthe nature and complexity of iOSdevelopment.Developing for the iOS platform is unique. It is not like developing for theweb and the rules that apply there, dont apply here. This is one of the mostrapidly evolving platforms and technologies on the planet .It requires highlyknowledgable and skilled talent to build exceptional applications.A lot of companies see a tremendous opportunity in the iOS and mobilespace right now, but have no real expertise in this area. The fake it till youmake it approach simply wont work here, you either know what you aredoing, or you dont. If you dont have the expertise and understandingneeded in this area, find someone who does and dont wait till its to late.As a developer, it pains me to see mangled broken projects that have clearlybeen development by people who have no idea what they are doing andthen asked to fix them after the fact.Why not do it right the first time? © 2011 Richard Hart - All rights reserved.

3. Setting unrealistic/artificial deadlinesYou may be interested to know that even relatively simple iOS projectscan take at least 3 months to complete and most non- trivial projects caneasily take 6 months to a year!Time and time again I see companies approach developers with projectsthat will take quite a bit of time and impose deadlines and timeframesthat are completely unrealistic. Asking for a sizable App to be built 1or 2months before Christmas is a really bad idea.You should not be setting dates and telling people when your App will beready until your engineering team has something thats ready to show.Putting your team under unnecessary stress and pressure may actuallydelay your project in the long run.Your real goal should be to get the minimum feature set up and runningas quickly as reasonably possible and not trash your team in theprocess. Remember you can iterate and publish updates as often as youneed, but you need to ship something! © 2011 Richard Hart - All rights reserved.

4. Failing to use the right peopleSo youre planning on contracting everything to offshore developers, orfinding a student, or posting into craigslist for the lowest bidder?Well I hope that works out for you, but you know what, it probably wont.Like many things in life, you get what you pay for, and when it comes toskilled developers this still holds true.It always amazes me how companies never have the budget to doprojects correctly from the start, but always seem to have the budget toredo projects several times over that have been done incorrectly.Working with a local developer who actually has the necessary skills andexperience will more often than not save you time and money in the longrun.Would you want an amateur mechanic working on your $60,000 sportscar? If not why would you hire and amateur developer to work on your$60,000 iPhone or iPad project? © 2011 Richard Hart - All rights reserved.

5. Underestimating project costsThe final mistake I see a lot of companies make is failing to understandhow much actually work is required to build exceptional Apps and thelevel of expertise that is required.A reasonable sized project may require 1 or more developers, 1 or moredesigners, sound production, video production , user interface design, aproject manager and this can easily add up to hundreds of hours of time.You could easily spend $30,000 on very basic App and from there moveup to $60,000 for a moderate App and then climb well over $100,000 fora complex project.A good iOS developer can easily run well over $100/hr because they arein such high demand right now. As employees, senior iOS developersare commanding salaries of $100,000 or more.Projects can fail or completely stall out if there is not a sufficient budgetin place, so try and make sure your budget is sufficient for the App youare trying to build. © 2011 Richard Hart - All rights reserved.

This Presentation was Prepared By Richard Hart(iOS specialist in Apps for kids, health, the environment and education) rhart[@]richardhart.ca www.richardhart.ca

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Top 5 Mistakes Companies Make on iPhone/iPad Projects

by Richard Hart

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Top 5 Mistakes Companies Make on iPhone/iPad Projects Presentation Transcript