A trio of new reports is highlighting the problems enterprises face when developing mobile apps. According to an Apigee Institute report titled “Lessons from the App Masters: How Some IT Departments Excel at Delivering Quality Apps,” 45 percent of enterprises struggle with mobile development. Bryan Kirschner, director of the Apigee Institute, stated, “We’ve found that those who are succeeding in app deployment have a strikingly different approach to their IT departments. They recognize the strategic value of leveraging external expertise to maximize their agility and adaptability?this fundamental shift is called ‘outside-in IT’ and is a competitive necessity for every IT leader hoping to deliver digital experiences faster and better.” Successful enterprises were also more likely to use cloud computing for mobile development.
An ADTMag article highlighted two similar reports from Gartner and IDC. “Enterprise application development teams use traditional practices to define and develop desktop applications; however, most don’t work with mobile app development, due to device diversity, network connectivity and other mobile-specific considerations,” said Gartner analyst Van Baker. “Instead, [application development] managers should use functional, performance, load and user experience testing, as well as agile development practices.”
IDC analyst Al Hilwa noted, “The central problem in mobile application development is addressing the variety of platforms and devices that employees can bring into the enterprise in a productive and agile manner.” He advised, “Enterprises should begin re-architecting their back-end systems and data assets into API services before embarking on extensive mobile application building.”
