In general, the productivity of coding superheroes is measured by the number of lines of code and the quality of the code they write. It means, when the developer churns out the output compared to input, they are declared as productive. Presently, every company wants a productive programmer to accelerate time-to-market and enrich mobile app user’s experience that helps them stand ahead of the competitors.

Alas! All the developers are not productive. Most of them, pull their hairs when the deadline is around the corner, when finding the source of bugs seems a hard nut to crack in, or when the client is complaining about the features not meeting the business needs. The reason behind for not performing to the peak efficiency is they work hard, but not smartly.

The developer’s productivity can be augmented when they work prudently, make the most out of the time, and incorporate the best practices.

The coding engineers, project managers and decision-makers from the mobile app development companies that are known for high productivity and efficiency, follow these 9 pointers to focus on developing a mobile application:

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate

The regular meetings keep the information flow smooth, but it cannot be considered as the sole way to keep the complete team on the same page. The reason is the unavailability of a common platform for central communication keeps the team fragmented.

The developers when work individually is unaware of what other developer is working on the same part of the application, and then conflicts are certain and getting any information effectively is impossible. The productivity can be improved by keeping central communication platforms like- Slack, Jira, and Trello in the place where the developers can share all the relevant information.

Build the app the MVP way

Directly started working on the complex parts of the app is not a good decision for the developers because in this process they end up building the app where the basic functionalities won’t perform to the notch and contain design ambiguities as well.

It’s better for the developers to start building the app with minimum functionalities where the essential features and basic designs are engineered, and later, the app is enhanced on the grounds of user’s feedback and market response gained through analytics platforms like- Appsee. The analytics tools can be integrated with a single line of code and detect user behavior against several elements of the app in advance.

In this manner, the app can be developed quickly, launched swiftly, and deliver the unprecedented user experience.

The wireframe will enhance the understanding

The detailed documentation and client meetings are optimum to make the developers understand the business project needs accurately. The information is inadequate in the absence of rough blueprint which gives a complete understanding of the future app like- which feature to place on which page, how the functionalities will be connected, what’s the app flow, the user interaction points, and so on.

The developers should create a wireframe before heading to the coding, which can be created in a couple of minutes and get approved from the client so that they won’t lose the track at any stage. Also, it helps in better comprehending the exact purpose and functionalities of the app.

Prefer modern languages

The programming languages are constantly updating for years to make the code easy to write, read and maintain, and write the functionalities in minimum lines of code. Making a switch to modern programming languages is a smarter choice.

For instance, Swift has replaced age-old Objective C in the iOS landscape, and Kotlin is regarded as a great alternative to Java for Android app development. The mobile app developer productivity can be boosted when the developers prefer writing clean, clear and concise code by opting for modern languages.

Leverage latest toolkits

Just like coding language modernization, the tech giants also update the existing tools and provide new toolkits to accelerate app development. The set of new tools enables the developers to build advanced apps easily and quickly so that the time can be invested in important things.

For instance, ARCore toolkits are released by Apple and Google respectively for allowing the programmers to build the augmented reality apps at speed. SRKit API is released by Apple for the easier integration of voice functionality in a diverse range of apps.

Building and updating the apps according to the latest toolkits releases help the developers accelerate the development and stay sync with the emerging trends.

Avail third-party tools

It’s no brainer to write code from the scratch for creating a functionality when it’s already available to integrate at trivial cost and time investment. Also, there is no guarantee that the precious time you have put into building the functionality will definitely pay off. The chances of errors exist.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, it’s better to make the most use of the existing libraries, tools, and plugins. Be it for payment functionality, in-app search functionality, push notification functionality, social sharing functionality, and so forth, they can be implemented in the app in a few steps.

Besides, there are many cross-platform development tools such as Unity 3D, Xamarin, and PhoneGap which enable the developers to write the code once and then port the code to other platforms for building the native-like application for multiple platforms. It eliminates the waste of time, efforts, and dollars to build the app individually for every platform.

Automate the things possible

The repetitive tasks in the app development process are not just tiresome and monotonous while hurting productivity as well. Using the available tools and resources, there is a slew of tasks that can be automated such as using Perl for text manipulation and log mining, Eclipse for code refactoring, Bash profile for the command line, and Appium for automated testing.

With automation tools, a lot of time can be saved on unproductive tasks which boost up the developer’s productivity. For instance, with continuous integration, the developers can check the bug when the source code is moving into a source code repository, in addition to the detailed view of all the tests and bugs. It alleviates the need to spend a lot of time in finding why the build fails and chasing the bugs post-development in order to fix them.

The automated testing tools are largely used by the developers to scan the code and identify the possible flaws and issues in a matter of seconds. The early and continuous testing of the app save the developers from putting extra efforts at the end of the app development to find and repair the defects.

Continuous refactoring

The most often overlooked element of the app development is code refactoring because the process of simplifying the existing code without changing its external behavior doesn’t contribute to productivity. However, it’s the biggest myth with which the developers live in.

The code refactoring won’t add any new feature or functionality during development, but it’s a boon when the app is developed in agile environments. From iteration to iteration, it becomes tough to maintain and extend the code without code refactoring because un-refactored code tends to rot, which results in duplicate code, the corrupt dependency between classes and create other confusion. So, don’t ignore it.

The knowledge bank is a rescuer

When the developers stuck somewhere and unable to resolve the problem, then spending weeks on the same issue is not a wise decision. The developers can look for portals like- Stack Overflow, or Github (The open-source websites) to get the solution to the problems.

On Stack Overflow, the developers can post any type of app development related questions after creating a developer account to get the answer and increase the knowledge. Github is a good repository to view the logic and functionalities build by the other developers and overcome the development challenge.

Conclusion

Productivity gains have become the pre-requisite of every mobile app development company, but saddeningly, it’s challenging to make every developer stay productive. Also, pushing the developers too hard won’t work. The nine proven productivity hacks have an answer to the problem.

Before executing the app development strategy, the developers should implement all the tips to get the most out of the working hours and reach their goals. By just using the tools, third-party integrations, or automation, the equation of productivity will never get completed. So, productivity is about making certain decisions, and if you want to be genuinely productive, then follow all the aforementioned tips.

9 Ways to Fuel Up the Mobile App Developer’s Efficiency