One of the most important, yet often overlooked aspects of app development is the testing phase of the project. This one to two week phase of the project is usually rushed through when projects fall behind, yet by doing so, you can truly hurt the quality of your application as well as its likelihood to advance through Apple’s rigorous testing. For those building apps that don’t need to go through Apple’s testing, while you may be able to publish them, any errors or bugs found in the app will easily be found by your users, which can result in poor ratings, bad reviews, and ultimately a more difficult time in selling and promoting your app.

When picking a development company to work on your application, make sure that you ask about their testing methods. Do they have different mobile devices to test on? Are they using simulators? Simply testing on one device does not ensure that your app will work across the board. Even with the iPhone, there are different models, running different operating systems, so your development company needs to make sure to test on different versions.

For those looking to develop their application in house, Daniel Dern offers up some suggestions on how to test your application in his Software Quality Connection article. However beware that some of these options can be costly, and if you skip this step, or do not do a thorough enough job, you may spend more time and development efforts in trying to fix mistakes and bugs once the app is launched, than you did in initially developing the app.