Does iOS 10 enable businesses to fully embrace a mobile workforce? What follows are a few insights to help your organization decide whether Apple’s latest mobile OS makes sense in your office.

Apple’s Corporate Partners Help Enable Enterprise Mobility

Despite Android’s larger market share, Apple enjoys a more robust corporate partner community with its mobile operating system. iOS 10 led to an expansion of these partnerships. Enterprise customers are able to easily find many quality business apps for deployment to their employees’ iPhones and iPads.

Designed to match interested enterprises with software from business application providers, Apple’s Mobility Partner Program (MPP) lets organizations outfit their inventory of iOS devices with the necessary apps to run their business. This includes mobile software from companies like IBM, Docusign, MobileIron and more.

Ultimately, organizations are able to get their staff operational and productive as quickly as possible, without spending hours perusing the iOS App Store.

iOS 10 Facilitates Enterprise MDM

Apple also recently entered a partnership with Cisco that facilitates iOS MDM (Mobile Device Management) at businesses. Developers writing iOS-compatible business apps as well as network administrators responsible for device management benefit from a more efficient environment.

Even without using the Cisco management tool, network administrators are able to perform version updates on both Mac OS and iOS devices using one MDM application. iOS 10 also expands on iOS 9.3’s security features – including “supervisor” mode – helping  keep corporate data and applications safe across the entire mobile device inventory.

Other iOS 10 enhancements include improved device interconnectivity with the Universal Clipboard, allowing employees to easily share work on each other’s devices. Support for VPN IKEv2 EAP-only mode offers secure VPN access. This wide range of new security features and additional functionality make iOS 10 worthy of consideration for any organization looking to embrace enterprise mobility.

When your organization is searching for help with an application idea or possibly some co-sourced technology talent, look no further than the professionals at SDE. An experienced and innovative software development company, we can help your company’s project be a success. Connect with us as soon as possible.

With a successful software project in mind, here are a few ideas on selecting the correct programming language to build your application. Good luck in your efforts!

Follow Industry Best Practices

When it comes to building a piece of software, there’s little reason to reinvent the wheel, so following the industry’s best practices makes the most sense. Choosing from widely used languages means finding development talent becomes an easier process. This is also a relevant point when considering the maintenance of your application – enhancements and bug fixes – over the long haul. Thinking long term must be part of your decision-making process.

Knowing the platform for your application helps narrow down your choice in programming languages. If you are building an iOS app, Objective-C or Swift are your most logical choices. Front-end development for a web application usually means JavaScript.

For some projects, more than one language is a likely requirement – front-end, back-end and database. Cross-platform targeting is another language feature worth considering.

If the application uses a non-web GUI, choose a language and IDE known for easy-to-use interface design tools. Fast prototyping of visual interfaces helps when building demos for business stakeholders, especially in an Agile project. This same rule applies for web applications.

Get Buy-In From All Project Stakeholders

It is important all stakeholders agree on the language choice for a project. Compatibility with other internal systems as well as the skill set of the in-house development talent also factor into a final decision. HR personnel also need to offer input on the ease of finding new programming talent experienced in the chosen language.

Working With an Experienced Development Co-sourcing Team is Smart

Ultimately, consulting with an experienced co-sourcing development firm is a wise strategy when determining the right programming language for your application. They fully understand the best choices for each platform, and typically employ development talent well versed in the chosen language. A strategy for future maintenance after the project is completed is another specialty of the best co-sourcing firms.

When looking at the right development team for your software project, be sure to consider the talented staff at SDE, Inc. USA. As a co-sourcing firm experienced in Agile and the latest in software engineering technologies, we are able to successfully complete the work at a competitive rate. Schedule a consultation with us at your earliest convenience.

If you are considering the use of a co-sourcing shop on your next software project, let’s take a closer look at Scrum to see if it makes sense as your Agile methodology of choice.

The Nomenclature of Scrum

In Scrum terminology, the person known as a Scrum Master serves a somewhat similar role as the traditional project manager. Instead of the management of each programmer’s task list, however, they operate more as a facilitator; conducting daily meetings and serving as a conduit between the development team and the prime business stakeholder, called the Product Owner. This latter role determines the project’s requirements, their priority, and whether or not each requirement is successfully completed.

The Self-Management of Developers

This Scrum project team structure puts the onus on the development team to manage their workload in addition to any programming tasks. Daily meetings with the Scrum Master confirm sufficient progress is being made, while ensuring any issues or problems are communicated with the Product Owner.

The Scrum Master and Product Owner being on a different continent doesn’t hamper the overall efficiency of the project, provided communication flows openly among all members of the team.

Detailed Planning Is Vital

As with any software development methodology, careful planning when using Scrum helps lead to success. A time interval in an Agile and Scrum project is known as “sprint,” with its project plan being called a Sprint Backlog.

The Product Owner and Scrum Master must work with the development team when planning each sprint to make sure all goals are realistic and achievable – this needs to happen before the current sprint is completed, when possible. The Scrum Master helps ensure no changes are made to the Sprint Backlog while the sprint is in progress.

Communication and Time Management

In addition to daily video or phone conferences with the Scrum Master, the development team benefits from interacting with each other throughout the day. Text messaging helps facilitate the collaboration necessary for a successful project.

Additionally, it is important for each developer to manage their personal time wisely – keeping a consistent effort level is vital in Agile. Trying to complete too much as the end of the sprint approaches usually leads to poor work.

If your organization is interested in leveraging Scrum on your next co-sourced project, talk to the software solutions experts at SDE. Our offshore development team is known for its quality and efficiency. Schedule a meeting with us as soon as possible!