SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT. Notes for Startup Founders. March 25 th, 2015

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1 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT Notes for Startup Founders March 25 th, 2015

2 Brian Pham Professor, School of Applied Computing, Sheridan College Adjunct Professor, School of Computer Science, University of Guelph YuFan Dong Computer Science Student, University of Waterloo QA Analyst, Oracle Eloqua Rahil Shah Computer Programmer Student, Sheridan College Android Developer, Freelancer Yash Tilva Computer Programmer Student, Sheridan College Web Developer, Freelancer

3 AGENDA Managing a software endeavor Useful tools Choosing the right dev platform

4 MANAGING A SOFTWARE ENDEAVOR

5 SOFTWARE: BRIDGE OR GARDEN?

6 PROBABLY GARDEN! Never complete Launch is just the first release Change is inevitable: New features Competitors Business Strategy etc. Incremental design vs Big design upfront Continuous release The Agile Samurai

7 AGILE DEVELOPMENT The Agile Samurai

8 The Agile Samurai AGILE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

9 YOUR DEVELOPMENT TEAM Gardeners vs Builders Generalists vs Specialists Masters vs Journeymen vs Apprentices Front enders vs back enders How to recruit and hire great software engineers

10 USEFUL TOOLS

11 WEBSITE & BLOG Design Template Monsters {Wrap}Bootstrap CMS Magento SEO Google Analytics

12 WIREFRAMING / MOCKUP

13 VERSION CONTROL Collaboration without conflicts Branching and Merging History/Journal

14 TESTING & TEST AUTOMATION Required for continuous delivery Dedicated Quality Assurance Issue Tracking Regression Testing

15 CHOOSING A MOBILE DEV PLATFORM

16 CLOUD-INTEGRATED MOBILE APPS Few mobile apps are stand-alone Sharing data between users Making use of complex computations/services Client-Server model is often used Aka front-end and back-end

17 CLOUD-INTEGRATED MOBILE APPS Server (aka back end) Runs on the cloud, processes data, might call other web/cloud services Completely under your control Client (aka front end) Runs on customer s device, displays UI, sends data to server Many types of device Cross-platform is often desirable The dreaded Web vs Native debate

18 WEB VS NATIVE Two opposite ends of the spectrum Native Rich user experience Snappy Can utilize latest hardware capabilities Can take advantage of new OS features Expensive for cross-platform apps

19 WEB VS NATIVE Web/HTML5 Write once, run anywhere (WORA) Not as sleek Good for Information-based applications Form-based applications Online content viewing Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc. Apps that don t want to go through the app stores Apps that don t need advanced access to hardware

20 COMPROMISE #1: Main Ideas: Mask the differences between platforms using a specialized browser: The PhoneGap browser More advanced hardware access can be enabled via the PhoneGap browser: The PhoneGap API Your web app is bundled with the PhoneGap browser, and the entire package is then distributed as a native app via app stores

21 PHONEGAP (CONT) Pros Is a web app WORA With more hardware access (than reg browsers) Web developers feels at home Cons Is (still) a web app Not as sleek and snappy Hardware access is limited to those allowed by the PhoneGap API

22 COMPROMISE #2: Main Idea: Mask the differences between platforms with an interpreter Programmer writes app code in JavaScript Code gets interpreted on mobile device by a modified JavaScript engine JS Engine call native API

23 TITANIUM (CONT) Pros Is faster than web apps Is sleeker than web apps Native looking UIs More hardware access than web apps and PhoneGap WORA Cons Not as fast as native Interpreter engine Hardware and graphics API is limited to that allowed by Titanium

24 COMPROMISE #3: Main Idea: Mask the differences between platforms using a cross-platform execution engine (VM/Runtime)

25 XAMARIN (CONT) Pros Compiled code Higher performance Closest to native (Almost) full hardware access C#/.NET: Large dev comm WORA??? Semi-wora Cons Require more knowledge of native Oses Some UI code need to be platform specific App Logic is still common! Tools licences

26 OTHER THINGS WORTH CONSIDERING Time to market Stage of product Your own expertise Talent pool Development cost

27 FURTHER REFERENCES Pro Git Selenium Testing Tools Starter Building cross-platform apps using Titanium PhoneGap for Enterprise Xamarian Mobile Application Development for Android

28 THANK YOU!