Finding the right person(s) to take on your project can be a challenge. You’ll want to have an initial phone call or consultation with a designer, developer or development team to define what you’re looking to achieve and get a feel for your comfort working with them, their skill set, and overall fit for the project.

Before you sign a contact with an individual or team, it’s important to know what you are signing.

Most developers or development firms will sign a mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) from the get go to protect your idea – however, it’s worth it to note that most development firms don’t want to compete with you. Their business is to service you.

Another thing to figure out before you sign a contract is whether your project is going to be charged on a time-based model or whether the project will be completed for a flat fee. If your project will be charged on a time-based model, it will be even more important for you to have clear deliverables outlined in the contract.

After you sign a contract, typically this is when you’ll start wireframing.

Wireframing is essentially the visual architecture of what will go on each page of your app and how it all links together. Wireframing is important to define the full scope of the project and to have a mutual understanding of what will need to go into the app. For more see What is a Wireframe.

After wireframing is complete, you’ll typically start the design phase where you’ll get high-resolution .psd files created that are mock-ups of what the app will look like when it is created.

This stage is where you will flesh out logos, colors, styling, fonts, etc. and really nail down the look and feel of your app. Once you’re happy with the visual design, you’ll move onto the development stage.

While working through the development stage, it is important that you, as the client, are updated of the progress at every step of the process. Typically this is done through some project management tool such as Basecamp, Asana, etc.

Mistakes made at this stage of the app creation process can be costly, so it will be essential for you to have regular communication with the development team you’re working with.

Beta testing or user testing is done after you have a finished version of your app. Beta testing is used to test your app under various environments and conditions to make sure that your app isn’t released with major bugs or crashes, and that real users are comfortable with using the app.

Typically this is lumped into the development contract so make sure to ask if testing is included before you commit to working with a development team.

The day has finally come! Your app is finished, tested and ready to launch. The process of publishing your app to the app store can sometimes take a couple of weeks. On iOS, Apple manually reviews each app submission and may ask you to make changes before publishing it. Getting press around your release will be important to help you get exposure. Here’s a great article from Mashable on 15 Tips for Launching A Successful Mobile App.

After launching your app, it is imperative that you get feedback from your users so that you can make future updates to your app and incorporate feedback in the changes. You will also want some sort of mAPM system to be able to track the performance of your application.