This app failed because no one did enough testing and enough training. What I saw was a relatively simple app to input some data. The problem seems to have been

This app failed because no one did enough testing and enough training. What I saw was a relatively simple app to input some data. The problem seems to have been that they never tested it at scale and they assumed that all the users would be able to download it and use it. My experience is that customers hate to pay for testing once they see the product running. They assume that it's done. I had a customer tell me that if I did the programming right it should always work and testing should be minimal. I had to explain to him that that's not the case with software and testing is one of the most important parts of the software development cycle. He felt it was a waste and that I was looking to add extra costs for no reason. I bet there was not enough money. People seem to feel that a few grand will cover the costs. They figure 10k is an outrageous amount. What they don't seem to understand is that it will barely cover the costs of planning the app. Both the developers and the people that approved the app for use need to take responsibility. Too bad since it could have saved a lot of money and time in the long run. BTW, this could have been a Google Form with a spreadsheet as a back end. But user training would have still been an issue. You can't get around that.