An IBM study reveals 3 reasons why 75% of mobile development projects fail. The good news is that these problems are avoidable.
According to research done by the IBM Center for Applied Insights, the majority of mobile development projects fail for three reasons: budget, schedule and project objectives. These issues are driven by multiple factors, including mobile programming languages, OS platform choice, non-native user experience (UX) and backend systems.
The Xamarin enterprise mobile application development platform that was acquired by Microsoft earlier this year is a great answer to these challenges.
The enterprise mobile programming language
A flexible programming language that’s easy to utilize is a key factor for a successful mobile project. It’s for this reason that C-sharp (C#) is the language of choice for the Xamarin development platform. This is why Google software engineer Jon Skeet, and Scott Hanselman: a Principal Program Manager with Microsoft, are raving fans for developing mobile apps in Xamarin using C#.
By employing C#, developers building within Xamarin have speedy turn-around times, because they’re getting more done with fewer keystrokes than required by Objective-C, Swift or Java.
Another reason to love C# is asynchronous programming (async), because it keeps apps responsive. In Objective-C, Swift and Java, async requires callbacks and manual bookkeeping. C#’s language-level support makes async a no brainer.
For company leaders, this means that their developers are able to pump out code at a quicker rate. This speeds up time to market, iterations happen faster, and all of this reduces budget strain.
Going native
Smart executives know that to survive in the modern ecosystem it’s “iterate or die.” And one of the keys to enterprise mobility success is a smooth user experience.
Native rendering is vital to a project’s success, because today’s users demand fluid applications with native user interfaces, so apps must look and behave like a stock Android or iOS application. Xamarin does this through native user interfaces, native API access, and by leveraging platform-specific hardware.
Xamarin enables developers to create deep cross-platform experiences for native performance and high user satisfaction. To win the mobile game, designs must meet or exceed the performance levels of the world’s best apps from the initial launch.
Code sharing
By building a service layer with all mobile platforms in mind, organizations can share up to 75% of app code across all platforms. When using Xamarin.Forms, the codeshare can creep towards 100%. The platform-specific UI/UX and functionality makes up the remainder of the code, and Xamarin allows developers to benefit from shared projects and portable class libraries.
In the cloud
Something the IBM study reveals is that leveraging cloud services is a best practice for successful projects.
Xamarin’s test cloud gives teams the ability to test on hundreds of real devices at once, giving organizations the ability to conduct a same-day launch on multiple operating systems.
By testing for bugs before the initial release, and between iterations, the optimized app experience will help to ensure a successful mobile application. Detailed reporting and metrics are available in the Xamarin Test Cloud dashboard, helping identify the top priorities for bug fixes.
There are also a ton of benefits to using Microsoft’s Azure cloud services, because it provides a lot of value through its mobile app service. It facilitates cross-platform enterprise application development through built-in features for push notifications, enterprise single sign-on with Active Directory, online and offline data sync capabilities, plus social media integrations and scalability.
The successful app
Rather than building an app for a single platform in Objective-C, Swift or Java, organizations can benefit from their C# experience by sharing code, improving coding efficiency and launching native iOS and Android applications faster than building for one platform at a time.
Xamarin is available for free in Visual Studio for Windows and Mac, plus there is a robust Xamarin Component Store and training materials for developers.
Not a Microsoft shop? Not a problem. Xamarin and IBM MobileFirst, as well as Xamarin and Oracle, work very well together in the enterprise mobile environment.
- IBM Center for Applied Insights – Star qualities: What it takes for mobile development projects to succeed
- Project Management Institute – The High Cost of Low Performance
