Mobile Apps – Selecting The Right Agency | G2Guide

Mobile Apps – Selecting The Right Agency

Business needs should drive the choice of technology for your mobile app which will in turn influence the selection of the ideal development team, upfront development costs, ongoing maintenance costs, product performance and its expected useful life. Programming languages, platforms, frameworks, databases, containers, etc. is the stuff your mobile app depends on. This short post explains why technology decisions will be one of the most important determinants of the most appropriate development agency for your project. In a subsequent post I will explain how technology also affects your budget and total cost of ownership.

THE NUMBER ONE CONSTANT IS CHANGE

The technology landscape is rapidly changing. If your organisation wants to develop a mobile app, you need to know that “native” mobile apps are typically developed in SWIFT for IOS or JAVA for Android. Native apps are built to run directly on your mobile device’s IOS or Android platform. However, alternatives such as hybrid or cross-platform apps have gained considerable ground, especially as a way to reduce complexity, to speed up development and to lower development costs.

Other alternatives, such as Progressive web apps, have come a long way in terms of their ability to mimic the functionality of native apps. In fact, some experts predict the fall of native mobile apps precisely because of advances in Progressive Web App performance and capabilities. Some alternative mobile app development technology options are significantly better suited to specific use cases than others – for example, if you need a very simple MVP you might consider a rapid prototyping tool like Meteor – and promise much lower development costs and shorter delivery times.

For other organisations, especially those with clearly defined requirements for internal use mobile apps, you might consider RMAD (rapid mobile app development), particularly well positioned to enable staff with no programming skills to rapidly assemble mobile app prototypes and continuously iterate. In summary, you should consider the various technology options dispassionately and make sure that the technology solution is closely matched to your organisations’ needs, irrespective of the skills and resources that your favourite agency currently has available.

AGENCY BIAS IS THE OTHER CONSTANT

Of course, most agencies will be inclined to recommend the technology that they are most familiar with. From the agency’s perspective, this makes sense – they want to use the skills they currently have and engage their otherwise under-utilised resources. Some of the most promising technologies are routinely overlooked due to capacity constraints, skills shortages and simple agency bias. Training takes time and requires investment; even the largest agencies will choose to operate within their comfort zones, irrespective of actual client need.

Agencies can be expected to seek to maximise returns from their technology training investments. If you are building a mobile app, you should always undertake your own due diligence before engaging an agency – use your business needs and preferred technology as the starting point in your hunt for the best qualified team to develop your product.

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March 05-2017, Written by Segun Osu Leave a comment