Quit worrying about the technology, it's your people and processes that need to change
With the increasing focus and
provision of tools to aid the move towards mobile-first enterprise applications
it is easy to think that the challenge to mobilise the workforce is becoming
easier. In actual fact the emergence of Mobile Application Platforms and
increasing available development environments is starting to expose another hurdle
with enabling the remote worker.
The challenge has moved from
being one of a technical nature to a people and processes problem. Many large
companies have IT teams that have grown in to large complex organisations built
on a history of updated process, procedures and progressive hiring. They are
ill-equipped to deal with the radical game-changing requirements demanded by
the mobile-first generation of products.
Time to Market
Many industry observers are commentating
on the challenges of go-to-market mobile solutions that are still taking 12+
months to reach their target clients. Mobile device manufactures are rolling
out updated hardware faster than this. The software-based solutions need to be
there almost immediately. Gone are the days where projects required a 3-month
requirements and analysis stage. These days users outline their desires to a
combined design and development team, a few quick sprints later a Proof of
Concept (PoC) app is ready for review and test. The production release is
simply this PoC app plus a little re-factoring and some thorough testing.
Disposable apps
Simple apps such as those
providing basic form-based information capture can be developed and deployed in
a matter of hours. It is becoming increasing popular to develop apps that are
only useful for a matter of days. Just consider the efficiency benefits over a
paper-based solution when using a tablet device to perform a one-time data
capture operation that automatically populates a backend inventory system.
There is simply no need for extensive requirements gathering, solution design
and comprehensive testing. In many case there is no need for an IT team, users
can drag-and-drop to create their own apps.
OpEx vs CapEx funding
The shift from large complex,
multi-functional business support systems to smaller, targeted point solutions
also challenges the traditional view of project funding. There is simply no
time to introduce a lengthy ROI-based review to justify spending on a mobile
solution. In many cases thus would literally take longer than the deployment
phase. Mobile app development needs to be treated as a service to the business
and allocated funding from the OpEx budget.
Small customer-facing, multi-skilled development teams
Many large IT organisations
are structured with departments aligned with disciplines. This no longer works,
business analysts don’t have time to spend weeks producing comprehensive
requirements documentation. It is simpler, quicker and more efficient for end
users to work directly with app designers and developers. Mobile-first
development teams need to be multi-skilled and comfortable with exposure to the
end clients. This is not a ‘normal’ experience for many IT specialists.
Testing, support and maintenance
Clearly it is paramount that
mobile-first solutions work correctly and can be supported and maintained. This doesn't mean someone needs to closely follow the development team tracking
their every move. It means ensuring a thorough and appropriate test regime. The
exact level of testing will depend on the application, it’s importance, it’s
longevity and the impact on business operations if something goes wrong
(risk-based testing).
Structured coding, the use of
standard libraries and common platforms all contribute to helping support
future modifications. A well built software application with suitable
documentation should be understood by all development teams. The
standardisation of code for app development, particularly the use of HTML5, has
further increased the community of developers able to adopt and modify code
build elsewhere. This all removes the legacy opinion that software solutions
need additional technical writers to document all aspects.
Adapting to the changing environment
Before embarking on the route
towards Mobile-First solutions, businesses need to review if their current
infrastructure, process and even people are correct aligned to meet the new
challenges. As Darwin observed many years ago, the organisations that will survive
this mobile revolution are the ones that can adapt to the change.