Smartphones are indeed revolutionary. It was just a decade ago that the internet was just accessible using the computer, but now, we can mobile devices have become the preferred device to access the internet.
As everyone has access to Smartphones, mobile devices have become the preferred choice of businesses to connect and interact with their users. This gave birth to the increased demand for mobile app development.
Every business or company wanted to get an app developed to get an upper-hand on the mobile presence. Mobile app development companies promised all the other businesses that they will design and develop the perfect app that they want.
Now, this is where the problem started. The mobile app development companies were developing the perfect app based on what the business thought their users needed and various key elements like the cost of development, quality of code, security, and maintenance were neglected.
This is where DevOps comes into play.
DevOps is not a software or a tool, but it is a methodology that is a union of people, process, and product. It takes the end-user and the operational team into consideration and works towards increasing customer satisfaction. It can be said that it is an extension of the Agile approach.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is a process that works as a bridge that combines mobile app development and IT operations. It works towards providing continuous delivery with quality and aims towards compressing the development cycle.
App Development + IT Operations = DevOps
In simple terms, it ensures that the developers and the operational team are on the same page.
When we talk about websites, end-users do not download the website, and therefore websites can have as many updates as they want. Some websites get updated every day too, and this will never hinder the user experience. However, in mobile apps, if an update is pushed every day, this will have a negative impact on the end-users. Therefore the development and operational team must be on the same page to push timely updates.
The traditional methodologies for mobile app development resulted in higher costs, excessive deployment time, and average customer satisfaction. DevOps helped the businesses and mobile app development companies overcome these challenges and develop faster and quality apps.
Thanks to these benefits, the global forecast by Markets and Markets predicted that the DevOps market size will grow from USD 3.4 billion in 2018 to USD 10.31 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 24.7%.
Difference between Agile and DevOps
Agile is the traditional approach that many used and still use to develop mobile apps.
Agile Practices involve discovering requirements and developing the solution with collaborative efforts of cross-functional teams. This method emphasizes on iterating development. However, the only drawback of this methodology is that there is no or less coordination between the development team and the IT team.
This is where the Devops method comes to save the day.
Many people still get confused between Agile (Traditional Methodology) and Devops processes and therefore let’s have a quick look at the difference between Agile and DevOps.
| Criteria | Agile | DevOps |
|---|---|---|
| What is it? | Agile refers to a process that focuses on development, customer feedback, and small or rapid releases. | DevOps is considered a methodology that brings the development and operation team together. |
| Purpose | Used to manage complex projects. | Used to manage end-to-end mobile development projects. |
| Task | Focuses on constant changes. | Focuses on constant testing and delivery. |
| Focus area | Key area focus is on timeliness. | Key area of focus is on time and quality. |
| Feedback | Uses feedback from customers. | Self monitors the app and uses its own feedback. |
| Donation | Does not use automation. | Automation is used to free the team so that they can work on more important things. |
The 6C’s of DevOps Methodology
DevOps is about continuous development, deployment, and communication. There are six essential elements of the DevOps process that work together to help you develop quality apps. The 6C’s of DevOps are as follows.
1. Continuous Planning
Continuous planning refers to bringing the whole team on the same platform. This includes mobile app developers, mobile game developers, project manager, business analyst, testing team, and the operational team. In planning, the team will determine the application/game scope and identify the end result.
2. Continuous Integration
It is related to the developers team. It focuses on error-free builds using the best practices. The codes written by the development team should be understandable by the operational team.
3. Continuous Testing
Testing is an essential part of the mobile app/game development. This process ensures that there are no errors or bugs in the app, and therefore the users will get the best version of the app. This also introduces automation in DevOps, as this process can be automated using various software.
4. Continuous Monitoring
Monitoring is the process that helps in identifying issues, errors, and bugs in the application. Continuous monitoring ensures that all the errors or bugs are found in the development process only, and therefore the users get to use the perfect app only.
5. Continuous Delivery
As the development team and the operational team are in sync, the development team can continuously deliver the software/updates in small fragments to the operational team in the DevOps process. This ensures that the app/update can be released as soon as it is ready.
6. Continuous Deployment
The codes that are passed by the development team are run through various automations to monitor if there are any bugs in the codes or not. When the codes successfully pass the testing phase, now is the time to deploy them in the production environment.
Benefits of Adopting DevOps
Let’s have a quick look at the advantages of developing Devops for your mobile app development project.
1. Development of better applications
The best benefit that an app can produce is user experience. Businesses now place the user experience as their top priority. DevOps enables faster development, faster deployment, faster monitoring, and faster testing, and therefore it helps the company develop the perfect app.
All the bugs and errors can be spotted easily with automated testing, and therefore the users can enjoy a smooth working app.
2. Faster release time
DevOps enables the coordination between the development and operational team, and therefore, as soon as the development team writes the code, it can go through the automated testing and then the operational team can release the same. This bestows the team with the speedy release of the software/updates.
3. Increased innovation
DevOps increased the speed of development and deployment of the application. If there are new features available in the market, then if the team follows the DevOps development process, they will be able to develop and deploy the latest updates quickly.
Likewise, if the development team comes up with new features, they can launch it as soon as it is developed.
4. Risk is Reduced
The DevOps process automates the testing feature. This enables the team to get notified for each and every bug/error that is in the app. Therefore all the changes that are made to the app are tested by the automated process before getting released.
All the bugs are identified, and therefore the risk of releasing an imperfect software/update is reduced.
How to Implement DevOps for Mobile App & Game Development
If the benefits have caught your attention, and you want to adopt DevOps methodology, follow the below mentioned three fundamental steps to implement DevOps.
1. Continuous integration and Continuous Delivery
The team should ensure that they write codes that can be easily integrated. The developers should ensure the traceability of the codes, text files, scripts, and configurations. The codes developed by one team should be easy to understand and trace by other teams.
The processes of all the teams should be in sync. If new updates are pushed, they should be deployed to ensure continuous delivery.
2. Monitoring and Testing
An app is not just simply launched for Android Phones or iOS phones, but the app will be available for all the different types of phones which utilize these operating systems. Different devices will have different screen sizes, processors, capabilities, and functionalities. The app has to be tested and configured to work perfectly on all the devices.
For this, automated testing can be used. However, automated testing works on simulators and emulators, and the results may differ when the team tests them vs when the user uses the app. Various reasons, like the internal memory, network, power, conditions, can have an effect on the app’s working.
Therefore, log and crash reports should be used and continuously monitored to find the cause of lag or bugs, and it should be fixed instantly.
3. Quality Control
All the codes should be continuously monitored to ensure the quality of the app. UI/UX of the app should be specially considered. Feedbacks and user reviews play a crucial role in quality control of the app, and therefore they should be constantly monitored and taken into consideration.
Challenges in Implementing DevOps
The DevOps process for websites and mobile apps is quite similar; however, mobile apps are more complex, and therefore there are a few challenges that you will face. The challenges are:
1. Multi-platform support and mobile app testing
Rigorous testing is needed for mobile apps. It can have a significant impact when a one-star rating is given to your app on app stores. The users nowadays will uninstall the app if they find any error or quality problem in the app, and within seconds, you will get a bad review on the app store. This will impact your app’s overall rating, and you will be dragged down if the rating is not good.
It would help if you did rigorous testing of all the features and performance of your app.
2. The mobile app stores
A mobile app has to be published on the respective mobile app store to enable the users to download your app. This adds one extra process to deployment, and therefore this will impact the speed of deployment.
Moreover, if the developers want to fix some crucial bugs or want to push direct updates, they cannot as it is compulsory to publish the update on the app stores first.
Instant ROI of Implementing DevOps
Here is a list of ROI of implementing DevOps that is instantly visible are as follows.
- It helps in enhancing the customer experience.
- It helps in easy deployment of the software/update.
- It enables the company for faster releases.
- It ensures better collaboration between various teams.
- It helps in faster solution of bugs and errors.
- It helps in improving the quality of the app.
Adopt DevOps Methodology for Faster and Quality Development
DevOps is a new transformational methodology to improve your app & game development process and the results.
DevOps can be easily implemented, and it delivers various benefits. Adopting the DevOps development process will help you in improving your efficiency.
At Capermint Technologies, we follow DevOps development process to ensure that we deliver the perfect app/game to our clients. It helps us in minimizing the risks and in capitalizing new opportunities.
