FEATURE: MOBILE SDLC
F
ew regions across the globe
seem better prepared for the
smartphone revolution than the
Middle East. Device penetration across
the GCC stands well above the global
average and most countries already
have the connectivity infrastructure
necessary to support the widespread
usage of mobile services.
It is no wonder then that we have already
begun to see a number of regional
organisations rolling out their featurerich mService offerings. The time-tomarket for these mServices has been
remarkable and the features and usability
that most offer are truly impressive.
The uptake of these services has been
equally encouraging as users are eager to
engage with their service providers via the
convenience of their smart devices.
But in the rush to market, security often
takes a backseat. Consider for example
government agencies- to ensure that the
pace of mobile application development
and deployment is on track with the
deadlines of their country’s Smart
Government vision, the majority of these
agencies opt to have these tasks executed
by ‘specialised’ third-party providers. Once
outsourced, the applications follow a
Software-Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
which lays emphasis on on-time-delivery
above all else.
When a project’s main objective is to
get a feature-rich mobile application to
market in the shortest time possible, a
number of critical factors get overlooked.
The systematic SDLC should consist of
the following phases:
WHAT WE HAVE
OBSERVED, HOWEVER, IS
THAT IN ORDER TO MEET
STRINGENT DEADLINES,
THIS PROCESS IS
SHORTENED DOWN TO
ONLY THE REQUIREMENT
GATHERING, SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT AND
USER INTERFACE
TESTING PHASES
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