Using Mobile-D methodology in development of mobile applications: Challenges and issues...

Using Mobile-D methodology in development of mobile applications:

challenges and issues

Dario Supan*, Klaudia Teković*, Jelena Škalec*,

Zlatko Stapić

University of Zagreb

Faculty of Organization and Informatics

Pavlinska 2, 42000 Varaždin, Croatia

http://www.foi.unizg.hr/

CASE25 – Developers conference - 11.06.2013. – Zagreb, Croatia

* Students at University of Zagreb, FOI Varazdin

http://www.foi.unizg.hr/

Agenda

Supan, Teković, Škalec, Stapić: Using Mobile-D methodology in development of… - CASE25, 11th June 2013 2

Introduction

Project example information

A glimpse view on Mobile-D methodology

Challenges and issues

Conclusion

Supan, Teković, Škalec, Stapić: Using Mobile-D methodology in development of… - CASE25, 11th June 2013

Introduction 1/2

to keep development costs down and ensure high-quality software,

mobile application vendors must approach software development

with a commitment to internal efficiencies

transition to iterative and incremental delivery methods to keep up

with the rapid pace and constant change inherent in the industry

agile methods

3

Mobile-D methodology

Introduction 2/2

based on combination of eXtreme programming in terms of

practices, Crystal family of methodologies in terms of scalability

and Rational Unified Process in the terms of life-cycle coverage


Mobile-D methodology

eXtreme programming

RUP Crystal family

Project example information


Mobile application ePula was developed while we were taking course “Software Analysis and Design” at Faculty of organization and informatics.

The idea of this application is to help tourists who visit the city of Pula so they can easily go sightseeing.


A glimpse view on Mobile-D methodology

6

1. Explore: The aim is to establish initial project as well as to prepare foundation for future development.

2. Initialize: The purpose of this stage is to describe and prepare all components of application, as well as to predict possible critical issues of project.

3. Productionize:Includes implementation of required functionalities using

iterative and incremental development cycle.

4. Stabilize: The goal is to finalize the implementation, including integrating subsystems if needed.

5. System test & fix: review whether the application is developed according to requirements of clients and whether it contains all required functionalities.


Inputs and Outputs

7


Explore

8

Planning has direct impact on project success and represents the major part of the mobile app development.

establishing the stakeholder groups

defining goals of the mobile app

choosing members team

deadlines

development environment

* Management Board


Initialize

9

• this stage places emphasis on exploring the requirements and architecture of future mobile applications and the preparation of technical and human resources.

...permits changes and adaptations to the project plan to its requirements based on current knowledge.

• this stage can only start when the previous stage Explore is finished.


Productionize 1/4

10

is the third stage and its aim is to implement the principal

functionality of the mobile application.


Productionize 2/4

11

Story Card

•Number/ID

•Difficulty

•Type

•Effort

•Priority

•Date and status

Productionize 3/4


Task Card


Productionize 4/4

13

Acceptance Test Sheet

•Story

•Description

•Expected result:


Stabilize

14

• Finalize the implementation and the documentation of the

mobile application.

• Improve and ensure the quality of the mobile application

Finalize the software architecture, design and UI documents.

...100% of the required functionality of the project

is working and is corresponding with the

requirements of the customer.


System test & fix

15

The last of the five stages is aimed to test the system according to the documentation, provide information on the possible shortcomings, allow the team to remove defects and deliver the mobile application without errors if it is possible.

System test system is tested as described in the System Test pattern.

Found defects are documented for the purpose of the Fix iteration.

Challenges and issues

Implementation challenges:

• Lack of examples

• Predefined iterations

• Many documentation artifacts

• Lack of standard diagrams

Documentation challenges:

• Documentation alignment

• Naming

• Test definition challenge

Team Challenges:

• Team work

• Team size

• Communication

• Deadlines

General methodology challenges:

• Applicability

• Clarity

• Sequencing


Implementation challenges

• Lack of examples:

Official web site describes Mobile-D, but does not say how to write Story or Task cards

There are not many examples of the usage of Mobile-D like for other methodologies

Inability to compare project documentation with similar projects







• Predefined iterations:

Mobile-D requires predefined iterations

Hard to predict how many iterations are going to be needed for completing mobile application








• Many documentation artifacts:

Because of the large number of iterations, it’s required to fill a lot of forms (Story/Task cards)

It generates many documentation artifacts and makes it hard to differentiate whether the artifact is important or not






• Lack of standard diagrams:

Mobile-D divides complex process into tasks

If your programmers gotten used to write code based on diagrams instead of user stories, that may represent a problem


Use case diagram

Sequence diagram

Activity diagram

vs. Story / Task

card

Documentation challenges

• Documentation alignment:

For every major mistake that programmers make should be created a new task for the purpose of fixing that error

In most cases, new task entails new acceptance test sheet, too

It can make documentation look kind of messy

• Naming





• Naming:

Many ways to identify story and task cards:

Assign unique number works fine if you don’t have many story

cards

A word that corresponds to some part of the functionality





• Naming

• Test definition challenge:

You should write acceptance test sheet along with its story card

If you write test sheets when you’re ready for testing part of iteration there is a high probability that you will forget to write test for some part of the functionallity


Testing Story card Programming Acceptance Test Sheet

Team challenges

• Team work:

Team members must have confidence at each other so they should be in good relations

Team members should be excited and committed to accomplish team goal

• Team size

• Communication

• Deadlines


Team challenges

• Team work

• Team size:

Mobile-D is more suitable for smaller teams (up to ten members)

• Communication

• Deadlines


Team challenges

• Team work

• Team size

• Communication:

Frequent contact with customers is considered a peculiarity of this methodology

The problem may represent the clients, who are not communicative and willing to assist the team

• Deadlines


Team challenges

• Team work

• Team size

• Communication

• Deadlines:

Deadlines are representing one of the most common challenges, not only in this methodology, but in general

Because of the deadlines, sometimes can happen that you don’t follow the recommended stgages such as planning day, working day or release day


General methodology challenges

• Applicability:

Mobile-D is designed to be aplicable on many areas such as for financial, logistical and many other applications

Each of the mentioned usage requires different adjustment

It is often necessary to strip down the methodology and to keep only those artifacts that are useful in the context of a specific application, company and team

• Clarity

• Sequencing



• Applicability

• Clarity:

Lack of examples and many artifacts can represent problems when using Mobile-D

When someone first get in touch with Mobile-D it is hard to understand it

Most of the programmers are used to write source code using UML or other diagrams, but in Mobile-D they do it using Task card

• Sequencing



• Applicability

• Clarity

• Sequencing:

It is very hard to predict number of iteration that are going to be needed for each stage

It is possible to predict less time than actually needed causing delay of release day

The reason of that is inexperience both in using Mobile-D and developing mobile application


Conclusion

Mobile-D methodology presented itself as a viable discipline in

mobile application development

it brings its own advantages and disadvantages

teams that are familiarized with

the methodology and are

prepared for mentioned

obstacles would find

many benefits in

its usage


Looking forward to your questions

32 Supan, Teković, Škalec, Stapić: Using Mobile-D methodology in development of… - CASE25, 11th June 2013

[1] R. Holler, “Mobile Application Development: A Natural Fit with Agile Methodologies.” VersionOne, LLC., 2006.

[2] P. Abrahamsson, A. Hanhineva, H. Hulkko, T. Ihme, J. Jäälinoja, M. Korkala, J. Koskela, P. Kyllönen, and O. Salo, “Mobile-D: An Agile Approach for Mobile Application Development,” in Proceedings of Object Oriented Programming Systems Languages and Application, Vancouver, 2004, pp. 174–175.

[3] V. Rahimian and R. Ramsin, “Designing an agile methodology for mobile software development: A hybrid method engineering approach,” in Research Challenges in Information Science, 2008. RCIS 2008. Second International Conference on, 2008, pp. 337–342.

[4] Y.-J. Jeong, J.-H. Lee, and G.-S. Shin, “Development Process of Mobile Application SW Based on Agile Methodology,” in Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Advanced Communication Technology, (ICACT 2008), Gangwon-Do, 2008, pp. 362–366.

[5] VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, “Mobile-D Online Presentation (Web Application),” AGILE Software Technologies Research Programme, 2008. [Online]. Available: http://agile.vtt.fi/mobiled.html. [Accessed: 16-May-2012].

References


[6] CRaG Systems, “Incremental Development,” A UML Tutorial Introduction, 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.cragsystems.co.uk/uml_tutorial/the04/08the04.htm. [Accessed: 05-Aug-2013].

[7] P. Abrahamsson, A. Hanhineva, H. Hulkko, J. Jäälinoja, K. Komulainen, M. Korkala, J. Koskela, P. Kyllönen, and O. Salo, “Agile Development of Embedded Systems: Mobile-D,” ITEA, Agile Deliverable D.2.3, 2005.

References


Information on authors

Dario Supan, B.Sc.

[email protected]

After finishing gymnasium, Dario Supan, because of his love towards computer science, decided to go on Faculty of Organization and Informatics. In 2012 he becomes Bachelor of Science in information technology. He continued his education on the same faculty on graduate study program in informatics, Business Systems Organization. At the moment of writing this text, he was interested in design and computer graphics. In general, he is fascinated by space and science fiction.

Klaudia Teković, B.Sc.

[email protected]

Klaudia Teković was born on November 21st 1990 in Pula, Republic of Croatia. She completed the university undergraduate study program, Business systems on Faculty of Organization and Informatics in 2012 and she continued her education on the same faculty on graduate study, Business Systems Organization. She has interests in modeling business processes and data and finding solution by applying ICT.



Jelena Škalec, B.Sc.

[email protected]

Jelena Škalec became Bachelor of Science in information technology on Faculty of Organization and Informatics in 2012. Jelena continued her education on the same faculty on graduate study, Information and Software Engineering. Currently, she is a teaching fellow and she is interested in information systems development.

Zlatko Stapić, M.A.

[email protected]

Faculty of Organization and Informatics

Pavlinska 2, 42000 Varaždin

tel: +385 42 390 820, fax: +385 42 213 413

Zlatko Stapić, M.A. works from 2006 as a Teaching assistant at the Information Systems Development Department at Faculty of Organization and Informatics in Varaždin, and attends two doctoral programs: Information sciences at the same Faculty and Information and Knowledge Engineering at the Computer Science Department at the University of Alcalá in Spain.



Recently, Zlatko is intensively engaged in developing applications for mobile devices, which is also the subject of his research in the dissertation, and it is particularly important to notice that he is developing for multiple mobile platforms, including Android, Symbian, Windows Phone 7, Nokia Qt etc. Zlatko's more detailed resume, a list of all papers, projects and awards, and other important information can be found on his personal website: http://www.foi.unizg.hr/djelatnici/zlatko.stapic.


http://www.foi.unizg.hr/djelatnici/zlatko.stapic

http://www.foi.unizg.hr/djelatnici/zlatko.stapic

Using Mobile-D methodology in development of mobile applications: Challenges and issues...

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