SD Times Issue 188 by BZ Media

Author:BZ Media
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SD Times;
Published: 2007-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

keeping it secure—truly a contradictory assignment.

SETTING EXPECTATIONS

The first step, explained Aberdeen Groups wireless and mobility research director, Philippe Winthrop, is cutting the scope of the project down to the barest minimum. "The key to developing any good mobile application is really about going and doing a business analysis around what is core versus context," he noted.

"It's not about trying to put the kitchen sink in there," Winthrop said, "but really making sure that you've only got what is absolutely necessary, and that you spend an extensive amount of time on the usability testing to ensure that the application is going to, as efficiently as possible, do what it is intended to do. It becomes that much more critical on such a small device, that has such a thin pipe, where it's very limited in terms of the screen size."

Anthony Carrabino of Microsoft, senior product manager for SQL Server,

noted that putting data in the hands

of mobile workers is only the start.

It's not good enough to get the

data out to them; what you

really want to do is to get those users to edit and update that information and follow them wherever they go, so that when they get connectivity, the connection happens in a very reliable way."

His colleague, program manager Liam Cavanagh, added: "Realistically, even with the coverage of cellular networks, it's not prevalent to have connectivity wherever you go. So that's why we have synchronization: being able to take the information that's important to those workers and be able to put it onto a mobile device, so that they can access it regardless of whether they have a connection or not."

Part of that initial scoping is making sure that synchronization is taken into consideration from the get-go. "One of the most common things that we hear from our customers when we start talking about sync is that it's sort of an afterthought," explained Roger Kehl, senior product manager with Sybase's iAny-where Solutions. The mobile application designed by rookies will have UI and essential functionality, he noted, "but

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