BEST PRACTICES FOR BUILDING YOUR

Mobile Applications

A RapidValue Solutions Whitepaper

Authors: Rajesh Padinjaremadam & Ron Guida

The Mobile Roadmap

We are in the decade of mobility. Smart phones are driving Mobile Internet and App usage.
Since the introduction of iPhone in 2007, smart phone penetration has been growing
significantly. According to report released by ZentithOptimedia, smartphone penetration in
the worlds top 19 digital markets is expected to double from 35.5% last year to an average of
71.7% in 2015.

ASSESS

BUIL
D

Build
DEPLOY

Not only are smart phones getting more prevalent, consumers are spending more time on
them. According to Flurry Analytics , about 81 minutes per day are spent on smart phones
compared to 74 minutes on desktop internet. Businesses need to adapt to this changing
consumer behavior and consider mobile as one of the key strategic channels for the future.
Despite increasing prevalence of mobile teams and initiatives, the field is relatively young and
best practices are hard to come by.
Having worked on over 100 engagements and countless interactions with our customers
over the past Three years, we have put together a set of key considerations for navigating
your mobile roadmap. These considerations will help you identify opportunities and also
avoid major pitfalls while trying to implement mobility projects. We have categorized these
considerations into Three phases Assess, Build and Deploy based on the activity timeline
and a series of steps within each phase.

Best Practices For Building Your Mobile

Applications

RapidValu

A three-phase approach ensures your mobile

project is highly effective

ASSES
S

BUILD

DEPLO
Y

This phase ensures that an ROI-driven business case has been

built for the mobile project. And technology roadmap to fit
business requirements
and overall strategy has been identified.

This phase consists of User Interface creation as well as

iterative build and test of application. The objective is to
ensure value creation in an
incremental fashion, within short time-frames.

The third and final phase includes app approval and

distribution, training, maintenance, upgrades and
measurement. This phase is key to delivering and measuring
ROI.

Asses

Establishing a business case prior to starting

your mobile initiative is critical to the project
success
It is important to build a business case prior to investing in mobile. This helps in ensuring
a systematic investment with measured ROI, instead of building an app for the sake of
market presence.
Some of the benefits
calculation are:

to

be

considered

for

ROI

Enhanced revenues Increased number of purchases via mobile, higher number of store
visits and so on.

Lower costs Higher efficiencies in operations, saving on printing and postage

charges, saving on higher cost equipment.

Customer Satisfaction This may be hard to measure quantitatively. However,

can become a diferentiating factor in the long run.

Enhanced market presence and

visibility.
Some of the costs that need to be considered are:

Development costs External vendors, Internal team efort.

Support and Upgrade costs Apps will need to be upgraded on a regular basis, both in
terms of new technology as well as functionality.

Marketing costs Spend needed to get end-consumers to use the app.

Training costs Typical mobile/tablet apps do not require as much training as the web
applications.
However, it is prudent to allocate for training time, especially for enterprise applications.

Example Marriott Mobile Web App

Marriott.coms website built specifically for mobile
devices. Marriott Mobile generated more than $1.25
million in gross revenue in the first 100 days after
introducing direct mobile Internet bookings. **

**Source: Marriott News, Dec 23, 2008

Asses

And so is identifying the right technology

choice.

Mobile enabling technologies are evolving fast. It is important to select the right
technology, from the perspective of end-user usability as well as long-term scalability.
Typical choice to be made is between native apps and mobile web. Native apps can be built
with OS specific technologies like iOS, Android etc. or leveraging cross-mobile platforms like
PhoneGap, Appcelerator and Rhomobile. Mobile web apps can be built using technologies like
HTML5, JQuery Mobile and Sencha Touch.
The right approach and technology has to be evaluated and identified after thorough
analysis, considering factors such as:

Business Objectives

Usability

Platform

Cost

Examples

For retailers, a mobile website may be of a higher priority than an app as a large part of
search traffic will be generated through web-based searches.

For a hospital management application, a cross-mobile platform may be better suited,

as it provides the right combination of usability along with the ability to deploy apps on
multiple devices.

For a highly consumer centric music application, a native application is a better choice,
as it provides the best user-experience.

Build

Kick-off the project by setting up a

cross-functional team
Mobile engagements need a co-ordinated team assembled from cross-functional
departments. Some of the roles that are needed for an efective mobile team are:

Complian
ce (where
needed)

Quality
Assurance

User
Experienc
e
Designer
s

Effective
Mobile
Project team

UI
Graphic
Designer
s

Sales &
Marketin
g

Developers
Business

User Experience designers: For designing the end-customer experience and navigation.

UI Graphic designers: For graphics and branding.

Marketing & Sales team: Especially for customer focused apps in order to ensure
efective way to market and sell the concept.

Business team: Provides scope for the project as well as user acceptance criteria.

IT development team: Team that is primarily involved in the development of the

engagement. Usually this team may need multiple skills especially when developing
applications for different platforms like IOS, Android, Blackberry etc. If the application
being developed uses cross platform tools like Rhomobile or PhoneGap or HTML5, then
skills required for each of those tools will also be required.

Quality Assurance team: It is highly recommended to have an independent testing

team for device testing which provides both manual testing and automated testing
support.

Compliance team: These skills are needed where the application needs to adapt to
compliance requirements like HIPAA.

Build

Creating a compelling user experience is the

next step
Example Flipboard iPad app

Though there many news aggregation apps

available today, one of the applications that creates
a unique experience is Flipboard. What diferentiates
Flipboard is the clean and simple UI coupled with a
reading experience uniquely designed for the iPad.
Users have chosen this application over most other
news reader apps though Flipboard did not have the
first mover advantage.
Users get to chance upon new content in such an
easy way thereby increasing the stickiness of the
application making users to browse more than what
they initially started to read.

Building the right user experience is the key to a successful mobile engagement.
Traditional software development did not give this aspect too much importance. Most
developers still focus on functionality rather than end customer experience leading to
functional but non-sticky applications. Experience Engineering is the new paradigm in the
mobile world.
Users in the mobile world have a lot more choice now and will pick the product that gives
them the best overall experience. Building stickiness and wow factor is very important.
Mobile design should take care of aspects like screen size, connectivity, bandwidth,
designing for a variety of devices and creating the best navigation experience.
Mobile has some unique features compared to desktop. For example, smart mobiles have
cameras, they can determine your position using GPS, detect motion, scan barcodes etc. These
features can be used innovatively to enhance user experience to increase customer stickiness
to your app. For example, delivering the right coupon when a user walks into his favorite store
will significantly increase customer satisfaction.
In short, mobile projects should be driven by customer experience and UX designs rather
than software functionality alone.

Build

Build your projects in an iterative way to

deliver incremental, measurable value

Mobile development is best accomplished using an iterative development approach. This

approach is what we call a Self-Funded Model and typically uses an eight to ten weeks
iteration cycle. The benefits of the first iteration partly fund the cost of development of the
following iterations and if the app is successful can even fund the full costs by the third or forth
iteration.
Following are the key steps to this model:

Split overall scope into small chunks of functionality.

Identify quick wins.

Group functionality into multiple iterations prioritizing on quick wins.

Launch the first version of the app.

Take customer feedback and launch new functionality in six to eight weeks iterations.

Main advantages of this model are:

Benefits-focused development approach rather than features.

Better customer satisfaction due to constant feedback and delivery of functionality.

Increased flexibility to customer needs or changing requirements.

Early iterations expose and mitigate risks.

Management can make tactical changes to the product.

Build

Example A Large Accessories Retailer in US

RapidValue has helped a US based womens accessories retailer build a catalog application
using its Xcelerate methodology. This retailer has over 150 stores across the US. The key
benefits to consumers and employees were identified and the first version of the app was
released in just six weeks. This was rolled out to all
stores in the first version. The second version of the app was rolled out to consumers.

Every subsequent release brought new features and incremental benefits. Six months after the
launch of the first version, the app is currently in its fourth version.

DESIGN, BUILD & TEST (FOR EACH PHASE)

Build - Release 1

Build - Release 2

SPRINT 1

SPRINT 1

SPRINT 2

SPRINT 2

SPRINT 3

SPRINT 3

Code lagging
TESTING
AND BUG
FIXING RELEASE 1

TESTING
AND BUG
FIXING RELEASE 2

Final Release

Build

And do not under-estimate Integration effort

Most mobile engagements need integration with cloud
applications or enterprise legacy applications for them
to work smoothly. Moreover, integrations are not one
big bang to be done at the end of the project. Leaving
integration decisions to the end, results in a lot of
rework and this can be as high as
40% of the overall efort.
In order to avoid this, Integration design should be
taken up in parallel to mobile application design and
should be given a higher priority. Also all APIs needed
for Integration should be developed earlier to the
mobile component development that
needs it. Therefore, efective project planning with dependencies
is required.

Example Integration within Mobile Commerce application

For one of our customers, a US based retail chain, we are currently building an innovative and
unique m-commerce application that helps provide the wow factor to customers and increase
usage. This applications UI can be controlled from the backend by an admin and can be
changed frequently to keep the novelty factor. In order to ensure that this application works to
meet the dynamic requirements , it had to be integrated for various functions like product
management, inventory management, user management, shipping, tax, order management,
payment integration, Facebook and Twitter.

Build

Plan appropriate amount of testing effort

Mobile testing can take considerable amount of time
even though the development timeframe may be
short. This is because of the unique nature of mobile
and fragmentation of devices.
For starters, testing should be not only planned on simulators
but also on physical devices. Also, there may be multiple
devices from various manufacturers for operating
systems such as Android and Windows Mobile. Each
device may have a diferent screen size and
features.Your application may not work as intended on
all devices. Therefore, the application should be
thoroughly tested for any issues and defect-fixes before
implementing it.
Moreover, in-house testing teams might not have all the devices and hence tools like
DeviceAnywhere or
Perfecto Mobile can be used for remote testing on actual devices.
Mobile testing may also need in-field testing for applications that use GPS, maps etc. This
means that someone has to travel to a few locations and test the application, especially
features like serving coupons or deals when user is near a shopping area.
In-field testing is also needed for testing under various network conditions like 2G/ 3G
and network switching.

Since most mobile projects tend to be iterative in nature, automated testing can help in
reducing overall testing efort. Some of the automated testing tools that can be considered are
SeeTest, TestPlant, Robotium, Android Monkey and Selenium.

Example A Large Education Provide in the US

One of our clients, a $ 4billion education provider in the US, needed continuous testing
eforts for their mobile initiatives. We set up a dedicated mobile testing lab for both manual
as well as automated testing. The independent testing lab provides a validation and quality
assurance service and ensures that the product that is launched in the market is bug free.
This lab also certifies the app for various devices.

Deplo

Deployment of native mobile apps for

consumers will require you to understand
App Stores and approval processes
Native apps are typically distributed to endusers through an App Store process. Mobile web
applications do not need to go through an
approval process.
Some of the key store-fronts are Apple AppStore, Google Android Market, Windows
Marketplace, BlackBerry App World and
Amazon Appstore. In addition, there are a
number of other App Stores that can be used
for distribution.
Some of the app-stores require an approval process for the apps to be made available to
public. Where an approval is required, it is important to pay attention to the approval
process.
Apple Store has a manual review and approval process, while Google Store does not have
an approval process. It is imperative to understand the approval guidelines and timelines
involved, to ensure that you have a launch process as planned.

Examples

Apple guidelines indicate that apps which do not have significant native features may
be rejected. It is therefore advisable to have only those applications that have
significant native components to be built as native apps. Apps that have only links to
videos etc. may be better built using HTML5 or mobile web frame-work.

Typically, Apple approval timeline ranges from one week to three weeks, therefore at
least two weeks timeline need to be planned to ensure that apps are ready to be
launched (For example - If you want to show-case an app in an event, you need to
complete the app development and testing at least two weeks in advance).

Note: You can always reach out to Apple for an expedited approval with a valid reason.

Deplo

While enterprise apps would require you to be

familiar with enterprise distribution methods

One of the key challenges associated with an enterprise app is to deliver the app to all/relevant
employees. One of the ways of distributing an application intended for the employees of an
enterprise is to distribute the app on App Store, but requiring credentials, so that only
employees can access with the right login. However, this may not be considered safe for apps
involving information requiring high security.
An alternative mode of distribution without going through the App Stores is an enterprise
mode of distribution in case of Apple. Apple provides an enterprise mode of distribution to
distribute applications to employees of an enterprise. In this case, an app is hosted on the
server and an email or SMS with the webpage link is sent to the target device.
Another option to deploy applications within enterprises is to use a Mobile Device Management
software like Zenprise or AirWatch. Most leading MDM providers provide an ability to setup
enterprise app-stores which can then be used to distribute apps to enterprise users.

Examples

For an in-store catalog application that we deployed for a retailer, we used an

approach of getting the app on the App Store with authentication. The app was also
made available to users in the public domain, but with different content.

For a sales catalog app deployed for a medical device manufacturer, the approach was
to go through enterprise distribution mode, as the app content was more sensitive, as
well as there was no information that was relevant for general public.

Mobile Device security should be a key consideration while

deploying enterprise mobile apps, especially the ones accessing
corporate documents or corporate data. Security has been
important in the laptop world as well, but in mobile world,
security assumes paramount importance just because the device
is mobile, with a higher possibility of losing the device.
Some of the leading Mobile Device Management players like Zenprise,
Sybase Afaria and AirWatch handle mobile security aspects as well.
However, a careful mapping of your enterprise security
requirements will have to be completed to ensure that the right
solution is implemented, that suits your needs.

Examples

CIO at a large financial organization wants to ensure that the enterprise data that is
accessed on user's mobile phone is secure, and is wiped off if the device is lost.

IT organization wants to ensure that the apps that are installed on the employee's
device can be controlled and managed centrally.

Ensure that users abide by password policies to ensure that the password cannot be
broken.

Deplo

And of course, enterprise mobile security

cannot be left open

Deplo

Training should not be ignored for enterprise

mobile apps
Mobile and tablet apps are normally much more intuitive and user-friendly than
traditional web-based applications and hence require less user training.

However, for an enterprise app, it is prudent to budget cost and efort for training to ensure
that you obtain maximum results. Especially for apps requiring data entry (e.g. by service
technicians or sales people in the field), planned training sessions would eliminate any
potential for errors and maximize overall returns.

Examples

While deploying an in-store sales catalog system for a retailer, RapidValue conducted
training sessions and workshops for a key set of field sales people at their annual
conference. These sales people in turn acted as trainers for the store sales people.
This ensured that the app was used by the in-store sales people in an efective way,
resulting in high level of customer satisfaction.

While deploying a mobile hospital management mobile system, training videos were
created and sent out to all the key personnel using the system including pharmacists,
specialists and practitioners. A systematic training and tracking program ensured a
smooth deployment without any surprises.

Deplo

Plan for ongoing maintenance & upgrades

In most cases, mobile and tablet apps require
constant updates due to multiple reasons

of

Constant changes to technology new releases

Operating Systems and new features

User feedback As mobile is an area that is

evolving quickly, new features as well as
different ways to use and navigate the apps
are always brought in by the users. Of course,
the best mobile app is built by listening
to your customers continuously, and
improving on a regular basis. Most of the
mobile apps ecosystems have built-in
mechanisms for feedback, and this provides a
great source for improvement opportunities.

It is always useful to plan and budget for on-going maintenance and upgrade costs in advance
as part of
your planning exercise, as that will ensure a better ROI realization.

Examples

A mobile shopping app that costs about 200K to develop (and integrate with the
retail/ecommerce system) could potentially cost about 50K per year for subsequent
functionality upgrades and changes. However, the incremental efort may bring the
maximum ROI, ensuring customer feedback is incorporated.

Moving an app to another platform (from iPad to Android tablets for example) should be
considered as an independent project. The efort itself may be only about 50-60% of
the original project as the integration aspects have already been addressed, but this
still needs to be looked at as a separate efort with independent planning.

Deplo

And last but not least, measure the app

effectiveness
As they say, you cannot manage what you cannot
measure This is true for mobile apps as well. As this is
an emerging field, measurement of user behavior is the
key to obtaining relevant insights. Having the right data
on user behavior also puts you in a position to monetize
your apps, by providing relevant information to your
advertisers.
Once the app starts getting used, it is important to
monitor key data parameters generated by the app.
Valuable information on the app usage including time
spent on specific pages and advertisements can be
obtained and charted, if the app has been designed with
this in mind. A lot of valuable information to finetune the
app, can be obtained by closely monitoring this data.

Examples

In one of the end-to-end iPad based magazine publishing solutions that we built for a
leading health care publisher, we built an analytics module that was able to track a lot
of good information, like the total time spent by the user per magazine issue, time
spent on each page, time spent on each ad etc. The client was able to use this
information to efectively sell advertisement space and was also
able to identify the sections of the magazine that generated maximum interest.

Enabling Mobility

Best Practices For Building Your Mobile Applications

16

RapidValue

Enabling Mobility

About RapidValue
RapidValue is a leading provider of mobility solutions to enterprises worldwide. Armed with a
team of 175+ experts in mobility consulting and application development, along with
experience delivering over 200 mobility projects, we ofer a range of mobility services across
industry verticals. RapidValue delivers its services to the worlds top brands and Fortune 1000
companies, and has offices in the United States and India.

www.rapidvaluesolutions.com

+1 877.690.4844

Best Practices For Building Your Mobile

MobilityApplications
Information Series Jan 2013

www.rapidvaluesolutions.com/blog

[email protected]

RapidValue
RapidValue

Enabling Mobility