In the fast-paced world of technology, speed and efficiency can make or break a product. At Moonward, we recently achieved a remarkable milestone: we developed an App 143% faster than one of our competitors. How did we do it? Truthfully, the answer lies in a few things: our in-house development approach, our tried and true design process, and a commitment to agile methodologies that prioritise collaboration, rapid iteration and deployment.
In this article, we’ll take you behind the scenes of how the Moonward development process and systems propel us ahead of the market. Using a real life example, we will share how our unique approach not only crunched the time but also delivered a high quality product that left our client amazed.
To provide a bit of background on how this journey started, our client came to Moonward with an App that was already designed, developed and deployed on the App Store. Having had such a negative experience with their previous app development agency, instead of implementing new features and fixes with this company, they decided to restart their product from scratch — which we appreciate is no small decision.
Not unusually, our competitor relied on an offshore team for their app development, which led to significant barriers in the project, including late delivery, slow or no communication, and sadly a product that did not capture their vision. Our client described this experience with their previous app development agency as "not efficient and not pleasant".
Unfortunately, this is a story that Moonward hears all too often.
Before diving in, it's worth noting that Moonward not only delivered the project 143% faster than our competitor but also included more features and provided an exceptional experience for this client. This, of course, represents the ultimate win for our team at Moonward.
Now, back to the good part, here’s how we did it…
Often in the software development landscape, the actual design of the app is outsourced to another company who doesn’t understand the capability of the development team, or a graphic design agency who focuses more on the actual look of the product over the UI/UX. This can cause problems at one of the most crucial points of the development journey.
At Moonward, we pride ourselves on our fully integrated design and development team. We believe that design thinking drives great development. While our coding skills create great apps, it is in combination with thoughtful and intelligent design that we can create amazing results. The team at Moonward often uses the Blueprint Process as a starting point for all projects. The Blueprint Process lays the crucial groundwork for app development, ensuring our product is set up for success before any coding begins.
Through weekly meetings and open communication on our communication portal, Moonward was able to deliver new app designs which aligned with our clients priorities within a 6 week timeframe. At the end of the design process, our client said the team at Moonward truly captured the vision of the product. Importantly, once complete the App Blueprint was immediately ready to transition into development with our development team.
The Scrum Methodology is a framework of Agile Development that we use throughout Moonward. This way of working is renowned for its ability to deliver work quickly and efficiently, making it a popular choice for teams in fast-paced environments.
The Scrum Methodology has been a widely successful industry standard since the 1990s. Unfortunately, the agency space lags decades behind, still using outdated methods like waterfall for software development. Scrum's power lies in its consistent product delivery and flexibility. At Moonward, we leverage Scrum to deliver fortnightly deliverables to our clients, minimising the time between planning, development, and delivery. We understand that it’s unrealistic for a business to commit to a 12+ month build, the market landscape they're targeting will likely change dramatically during that time, often rendering their original ideas and goals obsolete, needing further time and resources to bring the features up to par.
At Moonward we break this clients app into manageable increments known as "sprints," and focused on delivering functional pieces of the product within short two week cycles. At the end of the two week cycle, Moonward deploys the functional work done within the sprint for the client to see our progress and importantly, enabling Moonward to adapt to changes and refine our work. This iterative approach allowed our client to provide frequent feedback and look for areas of continuous improvement. Early testing and feedback during sprints helps identify issues early, reducing the drain of fixing later.
Consistent and regular deployments significantly enhance both the quality and reliability of software products. By adhering to a routine schedule, development teams can quickly deliver incremental improvements, bug fixes, and features. This practice fosters a culture of continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD). Ultimately, this agile approach leads to a more responsive development process and a more robust application overall.
At Moonward we deploy every two weeks at the end of our sprint. This means every 2 weeks our clients receive something tangible that they can test.
This client in particular said they loved having quick and regular deployments so they could actually see the progress — a concept that they did not experience with their previous app developer until it was too late. Because when the App was finally delivered, it arrived in its entirety, leaving insufficient time for necessary changes or client testing.
As part of our App Development process, Moonward provided a feedback system as early as the end of the first sprint, so the client was able to test their own product alongside the development, as well as see any amendments resolved within the next sprints deployment.
Who doesn’t like a project delivered early?
In the world of software development, this is almost unheard of. I’m sure you could ask ten individuals who have built software with a company recently and nine of them would say their product was delivered late.
Early delivery means more time for critical testing, more space to comb through the finer details and importantly clarity on other elements surrounding the launch.
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Moonward delivered the app five weeks ahead of schedule. With this extra time we were able to double down on quality assurance, the design and development of additional features from the backlog, and importantly ensure a seamless and enjoyable launch experience for both the Moonward team and our client.
So there it is. That is how we were able to deliver an App 143% faster than our competition: proven design systems, a scrum methodology to development, a strong client-service provider relationship, regular and consistent deployments and an early and enjoyable delivery. And this is not a once off experience. This is just a recent one that happened at the time of the writing of this blog :)
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