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6 product planning mistakes companies should avoid

6 product planning mistakes companies should avoid

Mobile app development projects flounder due to several causes. Inferior UX design, No originality, unable to offer value could be chief reasons. But, usually product failure leads to a failed mobile app planning phase. These are six common mobile app planning errors and actionable tips to bypass them.

6 Usual Product Strategy Errors & Ways To Avoid Them

1. Consumes a lot of time to begin

Several mobile app projects take a lot of time to begin. This is not a very good sign. Creating a futuristic blueprint and offering existing business value is a tough balancing act to perform, and in several cases, companies fail to adapt quickly. Also, technological transformation is very tough to predict, making it nearly impossible to satisfy stakeholders to park their money in development projects for dealing with future scenarios. The longer you keep your idea with you, tougher it gets to totally define a functional and feasible framework for development.This can negatively impact your product’s prospects.

How to keep this at bay

One of the difficult aspects of the development process is to begin. To bypass a long drawn-out mobile app development and launch procedure, it’s ideal to put all your high-level information, research, and specifications in a single document by making a PRD. With a PRD as the basis of your project, you can easily communicate technical viability execution plans, and risk and change management strategies to all team members and stakeholders.

Also, it is a must to opt for an iterative, agile method and concentrate on rapid prototyping. With product needs turning very clear cut, focus your efforts on introducing a minimum viable product (MVP), and building and iterating off your learnings.

2. Coming with product devoid of user value

It’s very tough to ascertain which features and functionalities are essential for user value. Correspondingly, it’s not very convenient all the time to view the full range of technical prospects. The onus is on product team to take the customer through product requirements planning to find out the ideal development solution. A detailed product definition stage comprises developing customer requests into firm product specifications, which can be easily learnt by engineering. A PRD document has the propensity to shape your requests into a robust product specifications. Devoid of proper communication, you would not be able to find out the several consequences of features on product performance.

Way to avoid the same

Gauge the needs for creating a good product vis-a-vis your product beliefs. It’s pertinent to ponder critically over user assumptions, technical assumptions, and business assumptions. Your team has to have knowledge of the market, upcoming trends and technologies, and options for the product to specify the needs for a successful results.

3. Devising needs In A Vacuum

Products can be very complicated, including various systems, subsystems, and functionality; obviously, their needs are complex as well. The certain organizations suffer due to lack of diversity within the team. Product teams must have several people with various areas of expertise: product owners, product managers, developers, engineers, architects, and UX/UI designers etc. This makes sure that several perspectives and opinions come together to carve out a well-thought out product.

How To Avoid It

Engage team members – product owners and product managers, designers, developers, etc. – in product strategy and conceptualization. Agile approach is based on a unified approach, implying several members of your project team collaborate tin the entire product development process, including product definition.

4. Confusing innovation with value

If you rush to include innovation and development expenses can go up. New technologies and abilities can at times trigger panic and turn the execution of new features haywire. This kind of problem can be arrested with proper mobile app planning; a PRD permits lesser errors between development handoffs and highlights the requirements to ascertain the essentiality of feature alteration.

The way to bypass the same

Be focused on your product objectives and keep in mind that you are devising a product for a certain target user. Will this feature or functionality offer anything new or value to the end-user? Is this necessary for the product? If the answer for these is no, then you do away with the feature or implement the same in future not now.

5. Ignoring Competitive Threats

Market viability is imperative for any product, and competitive threats can spoil your development plans. Apart from keeping track of the customer, you must be observant of emerging trends and technologies. At times, your competitors will launch products with features very alike to yours. In such a situation, your team might have to pivot. Yet again, a PRD can be very helpful in these situations as you might have already discussed and documented several solutions to certain features that suits the scope and budget of your project.

The way to bypass the same

Industry and competitor research should be an essential part of your product strategy.

What is your competition providing?

How is your product distinct?

The needs and problems your product solve that other products don’t?

These questions can be ignored at your peril. It’s essential to know your rival’s strengths and weaknesses to make your product unique. With good research, you can highlight your product’s USP.

6. Unable to choose between needs and privileges

You can’t implement all features in the first version of your product. It’s a must to understand the main feature suitable to resolve your users’ central issues. Devoid of proper communication, it’s tough to ascertain the features that are essential and the ones that are good but not a must at this juncture.

How to tackle the same

Put in place a classification system to prioritize features. Sit with your project team to ascertain the features that are important to have versus the features your product can ignore to start with.

Finally

A well-thought out product planning offers your app a good chance in the market. By bypassing the product strategy errors mentioned above, you can offer your team an opportunity to succeed in the market. A mobile app requirements document is a handy tool to get a clarity of requirements and how your product can achieve the same.

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Which is best approach to software development: Agile or Waterfall

Which is best approach to software development: Agile or Waterfall

Coding happens to be the first thing that occupies our mind when it comes to software development. Software development is a long drawn out process as it entails in depth analysis, viability assessments and planning, prior to kicking off coding. After all, there is no point in spending time and effort on an idea that is wasteful. For instance, you are holding an event and have solicited the presence of a few but if you have not planned the event well, everything will fall apart. The same holds true for software development. In this write up, we will be touching upon two of the most regularly used approaches to software development—Agile and Waterfall.These two approaches are utilized for any management project, they are commonly utilized for software development. Agile and Waterfall methods happen to be two types of Software Development Life Cycles (SDLC) that assist you in setting up the method of a new project for design, development, and testing of the software. The approach you select initially defines the sequences of these stages. What sets apart Agile and Waterfall methodologies is that the former permits an iterative development and the latter adheres to strict sequence. Now let us understand these a bit better.

Also Read : The Agile Way Of Testing Software ?

What do you mean by Software Development Life Cycle?

Software development has several stages. These stages happen to be Need Evaluation, Planning, Software Designing, Software Development, Software Testing and Software Deployment which together is called SDLC . Based on the project and preferred outcomes, we have various methodologies to this lifecycle. While Waterfall and Agile happen to be usual approaches, there are others as well including V and V model, Spiral model and Prototype model. Based on the needs and other specifications (like industry, type of software, the technology used), we arrive at the approach to utilize.

Waterfall Method

Also called Linear Sequential Life Cycle Model, Waterfall is an extremely sequential approach. As it is obvious by now that the method adheres to a strict pattern, implying that the software development process proceeds merely to the next stage when the first one finishes properly. It’s meant for simple projects having no future development. The Waterfall method comprises seven phases

– Start: The beginning where you conceive the design.

-Origin & Assessment: Collect and save the things needed for your software development project such as system, software requirements, etc.

– Devise: At this stage, you will ascertain how your software will work and the elements essential for coding.

– Build: It is the implementation time when you code all components of your software & test it alongside; you also merge every element with other units to enliven the software architecture in the design phase.

– Examining: This phase warrants excessive testing for users, finding bugs, etc. You must go forward and backward in this stage to tackle the problem that you find in the tests.

– Execution: This is the final stage where the software goes live to be utilized by the clients.

Advantages

As clear as daylight: The timelines and deliverables regarding the project are arrived at beforehand. This establishes a lot of clarity and collaboration between the development team and clients.

Excessive Documentation: This approach needs excessive documentation of every phase cutting out the prospects of mistakes or misunderstandings.

Effective Work: You do not require to have the full development team for a sole task. This method gives a clear view of tasks to carry out permitting each individual to concentrate on their activities while others involve themselves in other facets of work.

Build: This is the implementation time when you code each element of your software & test it alongside; you also merge each element with other units to bring the software architecture in the design stage to life.

Hands-Off Approach: It hinges on a hands-off customer approach as post the initial design & plan, there is minor or zilch customer presence till you reach the review phase.

Demerits

Deficiency in customer engagement: Some projects need a lot of customer involvement based on the product. Also, at times clients do not like a hands-off approach. In any case, this approach leads to frustration as well.

Tough to effect changes: This method believes in following a strict sequence and this makes it tough to go to the previous one to effect changes. This can be problematic if a developer confronts a roadblock. Software development needs adaptability, more so as you cannot expect customers to be familiar with software totally from the start.

Last-Minute Testing: This is a method bound by time. It is not unusual for development projects to go behind the schedule as coding consumes a lot of time. Resultantly, to catch up with the deadline, software developer teams dilute the testing stage by doing a rush job.

Also Read : Which software development approach works best ?

Agile Method

As for the Agile method it is based a lot on involvement and adaptability. It has 2 chief components, such as time and teamwork. In this method, rather than building a timeline for the total software development project, you dissect the same into personal deliverable pieces. These deliverables are known as sprints, each of them involves a few weeks. Once a deliverable is through, it’s submitted to the clients for assessment. This assists in us drawing the plan for the next one.

Advantages

Client engagement: This promotes a positive culture of constant engagement between customer and development team.

Flexibility in terms of Deliverables: It permits dynamism as far as deliverable is concerned. It depends upon the sequence of significant tasks. For instance, it offers flexibility to unleash the basic software prior to building the full suite.

Highly Adaptable: This is the best part of Agile method. It offers customers a clear idea of what is accomplished and what is not; the developer can easily get into the planned sprints devoid of any hiccups.

High client involvement: It is fixated with clients as they get involved in each stage of development.

Demerits

Tough at times: It needs the whole development team to be involved in one project. This is very tough for development companies having several projects happening simultaneously.

Expensive: Time-based sprints permit planning, but prospect of deadline breaching the limit becomes higher. Also, in case a project needs to develop extra sprints, it can be a bit expensive.

Excessive Communication: This method needs very good communication, the developer has to be in regular touch with the client in the entire project.

In the end

The method to use hinges on several factors. For example, Waterfall is ideal when there is no or less need for client interference while Agile would be perfect if the project needs regular feedback and engagement of clients at every stage. Agile is basically meant for complex and big projects devoid of limited budget. You must factor in every facet prior to reaching the end game.

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What can we expect from Bootstrap 5?

What can we expect from Bootstrap 5?

From the time it burst on to the screen in 2011, Bootstrap remains a very well-known open-source CSS framework to swiftly develop contemporary, responsive, and flexible websites and applications. The newest superior avatar of the framework is 4.5.2, and the Bootstrap has unleashed its newest beast called Bootstrap 5.

After a lot of work on its features, the Bootstrap team finally showcased the first alpha version of the eagerly awaited Bootstrap 5. There are several changes yet to arrive,Bootstrap 5 Alpha offers us a feel of the all new features and enhancement to expect in the upcoming version. Let’s explore in detail the new things making their way into Bootstrap 5.

Bootstrap 5 New Features and Highlights

Like any other major release, expect a lot of modifications in Bootstrap 5. So, let us focus on the changes and fresh arrival in the new version of Bootstrap.

Freshness Galore

The docs pages of Bootstrap 5 are not full-width any more. This modification was done to:

Render a new look and feel to the Bootstrap site.

Enhance readability.

Take the dominant app characteristics from a website and make it more content-like.

Also, it is receiving an excellent new logo influenced by the CSS. In the new logo the alphabet ‘B’ is a rounded square tied by entwined braces.

These alterations have been made to ‘Blog’ and ‘Icons’ sections, these can be seen in other website zones in future.

#Switching from jQuery to Vanilla JavaScript

For the last nine years, Bootstrap was fully extracting jQuery’s power to provide incredible features such as drop downs, carousel, menu expansion, etc. in their websites and applications. But, the entry of contemporary JavaScript frameworks such as Angular, Vue, and React, has prompted the Bootstrap team to remove jQuery as a dependency from version 5.

Rather, Bootstrap 5 depends on unadulterated vanilla JavaScript to provide behaviors such as popover, slider, dropdown, etc. Resultantly, projects developed on version 5 are very much lightweight and quicker, with better control and upkeep over your code. The proverbial icing on the cake is that you can still utilize jQuery if your project depends on it.

This has to be a game-changing modification effected in the framework in the last few years, rendering Bootstrap a perfectly chiseled out framework that merges with contemporary JavaScript-oriented frameworks.

Intuitive Font Sizes

Devising a website with mesmerizing looks on several viewports can be very challenging for some developers. To enhance readability on diverse viewports, you presently have to manually specify particular font sizes for a certain viewport using media queries.

To ensure that the process becomes convenient, the new version of Bootstrap will be having responsive font sizes automatically. This helps resize the typography elements on its own as per the user’s viewport via Bootstrap’s side project, RFS engine.

No Assistance for Internet Explorer

This happens to be a major shift after jQuery. There won’t be any assistance to Internet Explorer as Microsoft is totally focussed on Edge browser, which is based on Google’s open-source Chromium engine. Also, Internet Explorer has lost its relevance to present day web development technologies as it doesn’t support existing JavaScript standards. Resultantly, web designers and developers can totally concentrate on developing modern web pages instead of fretting over breaking any code on older browsers’ versions.

Enhanced Grid System

Bootstrap 5 rests on top of the current grid system. Rather than doing away with the present grid system and bringing in something totally new, the Bootstrap team has had various enhancements to it, to enable everyone to upgrade to the new version smoothly.

An overview of what’s new in the Bootstrap 5 grid system:

A fresh extra-extra-large (xxl) grid tier for resolutions ≥1400px.

.g* utilities replace .gutter classes, similar to padding/margin utilities.

The new grid system takes down the form layout options.

Inclusion of vertical spacing classes.

By default, columns do not have position: relative.

Do Away with Card Decks

Usually Bootstrap developers are required to write heavy-duty code to make cards with equal widths and heights, which aren’t attached. This takes a lot of time, so no longer there in Bootstrap 5. The new version eliminates the card decks as it provides more responsive control with the improved grid system.

Navbar Optimization

The Navbar element is an integral aspect of Bootstrap, which are commonly used by developers. Bootstrap 5 optimizes the navbar by:

Eliminating unwanted display: inline-block from Flex child components

Taking down line-height: inherit;

Incorporating a default “container” element to the navbar

Also, the Bootstrap team has executed a dark dropdown through dropdown-menu-dark class, which converts the dropdown menu into a black background.

Custom SVG Icon Library

Bootstrap 5 launches new, independent, and open-source SVG icon library created skillfully by the co-founder of the framework himself. This means you no longer have to utilize third-party icon libraries such as Material Icons or Font Awesome.

As these icons can be accessed as a different package, you can utilize them in your projects prior to the official launch of Bootstrap 5.

Moving from Jekyll to Hugo

Bootstrap was utilizing Jekyll as its documentation static site generator from the beginning. But, in the past few years, Hugo has become the quickest and most dynamic static site generator.

Considering the fact that Jekyll needs the Ruby installation and provides a slow static site generation, the Bootstrap team has made a switch from Jekyll to Hugo in version 5. Written in Go language, Hugo entails zilch external runtime dependencies and is very quicker than Jekyll.

CSS Custom Properties

Bootstrap 5 presently permits you to utilize CSS custom properties. As there were just a few root variables unleashed for color and fonts in version 4, the new version makes them available in various elements and layout options. This implies that you can define and reuse values for styling. As a result, your theme development experience will be enhanced a lot. Bootstrap 5 intends to nurture both Sass and CSS custom properties’ abilities to turn the framework even more flexible for developers.

Optimized Forms

Bootstrap 5 brings a disparate, committed section for Forms documentation and elements. The chief intent of this step is to provide all kind of forms they deserve. Together the new section, they have refurbished all of Bootstrap’s form controls. Dissimilar to releasing custom form controls in version 4, they’ve turned totally custom in Bootstrap 5.

A Fresh, Useful API

The fresh avatar of Bootstrap contains a brand new utility API to take down or alter the default utility classes. The new API is akin to the utility-first CSS framework Tailwind CSS. It brings a universe of prospects to make utility classes for sizing, spacing, positioning, etc.