The App Trail How ideas move out of the drawing board onto the app store

The App TrailHow ideas move out of the drawing board onto theapp store

2 | BUILDING A PRODUCT ON THE APP ENGINE

ContentsPrologue03

Team Challenge04

07 Algorithmic Living

15 App Trail

Conclusion27 The Resume28


The Client Log

A Typical day at the firm

Production management is what happens on regular days. Running a business that offers

development services, means you ship out products you make to someone else, who then

owns and sells it to others. While it is hard to give up ownership, there are perks to being

the most important cog in the wheel. A stream of interesting ideas will find their way to

you. You will get to build some pretty awesome products or services that bring value to

millions out there.

The usual day at the firm (for those who haven’t guessed, we are a development services

provider) begins with checks to see if production is on schedule. Resolving impediments or

addressing requests for additional resources take up most of the work day.

Walk-in Days

But some days are refreshingly different. Days when prospective clients walk-in or reach

out with interesting new ideas. If it is an idea that seems promising, you will want it to be

built as much as the guy sitting across you. But, ideas need resources to materialise and

patrons to survive. Both you and the prospective client will now embark on a shared quest

to draw the perfect blueprint for the project. The customer has a rough blueprint and an

initial set of specifications laid out for you. The specifications centre on themes like the

choice of IT model, the business objectives, the product features and functionality. You

offer a few suggestions based on your vast experience with product development. The

client seems intrigued by some of the ideas put forth. He requests a detailed report that

sets out the development process, the methodologies and infrastructure in detail.

It’s time to call for a team meeting…..


1TEAM CHALLENGE

When a new idea finds its way to the firm, it calls for a team meet. We bring in the experts

to solve the business and technology riddles presented by the client. What follows are

lively discussions among team members, with ideas that garner most support making it to

the whiteboard.

Leaning towards LEAN

The list on the board was impressive…

The ideas on there could all be grouped under the lean paradigm. Once the principles were

agreed upon, the team settles down to chalking out a detailed strategy. The possible

impediments and enablers are identified. Any learnings from previous projects are

discussed. One final task remains. The contours of the project report are left to be finalized.

Google AppEngine

Lean SoftwareDevelopment

Agile Practices

Dev Opps


It is decided that the report will focus on the lean theme. The first part of the report will

introduce the lean-agile paradigm. It will also convey the benefits that lean development

practices will bring to the project. The second part of the report will outline the various

stages of product development. The report also tries to highlight the complementarities

between Google App Engine and the Lean paradigm where applicable.

Our pre-sales team is then assigned the task of coming up with a report along the decided

lines.


The Report

The report is ready and is reviewed

one final time. It does an excellent

job of conveying the thought and

process which the firm uses to

create successful products.

It is now time for you to take a

look….


2ALGORITHMIC LIVING

We live in a bold world. Our world is constantly innovating smarter ways of doing things.

Would software be left behind? Of course, not! Software is ubiquitous in modern life. If you

pause to think, algorithms are the most important adjuncts to modern way of life. ‘Code’

helps you decode many things in life….for example:

Code, the Language that runs modern life

Tinder: Helps you find your next date

Google Search: Finds answers to your queries

Google Maps: Helps you get to your destination

Amazon: Is your favourite shopping assistant


All of this and more is run by languages which we can only write but not speak. The process

of writing algorithms/code is called development. The early models of software

development were borrowed from those used in hardware industries. This crude adaptation

of models from hardware industry worked well for large projects. For instance, the

structured process of the waterfall model suits projects where requirements and scope are

fixed, and technology is well understood. Conversely, it does not suit dynamic contexts,

which favour a more evolutionary style of development.

Startups and large enterprises both want to avoid market failure. The lean movement is a

product of this desire to minimise risk and maximise value.

How Lean is Not Traditional

The traditional business model is giving way to the lean start-up. The lean startup

movement has a more exploratory approach to the business of launching a new service or

product. A stark contrast to the old regime, which relied on the perfect plan, long-term

forecasts and stealth working mode to get a product out into the market.

What ‘Lean’ People Know

The lean startup assumes that

• The business model is not perfect

• The right product-market fit will only reveal itself through trial-and-error methods

• Product success/failure can only be guessed at through real consumer feedback.

Lean methodology thrives on creating variation and learning from it. Different hypotheses

are tested, revised and discarded. A continuous customer feedback loop is established both

pre- and post- product launch. This strategy ensures that too much money isn’t poured into

ideas that would end up failing.


The Winning Philosophy

It’s a sound philosophy. If you are competing in a game, it would be prudent to discover

your weaknesses early on and work on improving them. The alternative would be to find

out on field and suffer a crushing defeat with no hope of changing the verdict. If lean

methods are widely adopted, they will reduce the incidence of start-up failure, which at the

moment stands quite high.

The B Team

Alternative development methodologies like the Lean-Agile model and devOps movement

are the B team. They have tried to address the limitations of the A team, a.k.a the waterfall

model.

The newer lower risk models follow incremental, iterative processes that rely on continuous

delivery and integration. The change in methodologies has been helped along by the

emergence of cloud computing.

Given their popularity and apparent value, it is pertinent to introduce these concepts and

understand the synergies between these methods and the cloud computing paradigm in

general.

Lean-agile methodology

“ Think big, act small, fail fast; learn rapidly.

”


A new development hire in a large firm is usually given a lengthy manual of project

documentation on his first week on the job. He may frown at the bulky manual, but once

he pores over its contents, he is ready to join the team. The beauty of the traditional

waterfall model lies in its simplicity and robust documentation. New members can easily

replace old ones in such processes. This is absent in lean methods which often don’t

support extensive documentation. Despite this disadvantage, lean methods are rapidly

gaining in popularity in the IT industry. The answer to this seeming contradiction lies in the

‘business value’ lean principles bring to firms, which also explains their popularity.

The Right Focus

Lean methodology owes its success to its laser-sharp focus on the right elements needed

to ensure product success.

1. Build the right thing

Discover and deliver value to real costumers

3. Build the thing right

Build quality and integri-ty into the product with automated testing and

integration

4.Learn through feedback

The product design must be perfected through

frequent feedback right from the earliest stages

of production.

2. Build it fast

Reduce lead time. The time between customer

order to solution delivery is reduced drastically.


LEAN principles

The lean-agile methodology has evolved it’s development practices based on a set of

foundational principles. A cursory glance will help understand the specifics of the lean

software development that would be introduced next.

1. Eliminate waste

2. Amplify learning

3. Decide as late as possible

4. Deliver as fast as possible

5. Empower the team

6. Build integrity in

7. See the whole

A New Manifesto for Software Development

Lean software development combines lean methodology with agile practices. The principles

behind this method stem from lean manufacturing principles.

In the waterfall model, the software moves through set stages of design, development,

testing and deployment. Testing and integration were usually left to the end of the devel-

opment chain. The process meant that defects went undetected for a long time.

To counter the negatives of sequential processes, lean- agile software development practic-

es focus on fast feedback cycles:

1. Test-driven developmentAccumulation of defects is prevented by running tests as soon as the code is written.

Automated testing is a part of this methodology and is used to build integrity into the

product.


2. Continuous integrationThe code is integrated into the code base frequently and in small increments. Simultaneous

testing is done to check if the newly added code is running smoothly without introducing

errors.

3. Iterative developmentThe software development cycle is kept short, with a working application being readied in

short iterations of 2-4 weeks. The iteration is followed by review.

4. Cross-functional teamsIf one goes by Lean-Agile believers, cross-functional teams are the best teams when it

comes to software development. What is a cross functional team?

Lean IT model (cloud computing)

Cloud computing IT model has replaced traditional model of IT provisioning. The cloud

rents computing muscle along with range of management services. These have lowered the

price and complexity inherent in software development greatly.

How the ‘Cloud’ is Lean

A. PaaS: Cuts down the development costs. Ensures critical developer time is not lost in

routine maintenan

A team with members who have all the necessary functional and domain skills to

successfully develop and deploy a software product. Such teams include developers,

testers, project managers, systems administrators, release managers, and business

domain experts among others.


B. IaaS: Pay-as-you-use model. Ensures you pay only for what you use at each stage in the

product lifecycle.

C. Infinite scalability: The cloud offers infinite scalability at competitive prices. In traditional

models, provisioning for demands spikes meant that servers were kept idle for most of the

year.

Cloud and Lean: The Recipe for Product Success

Cloud computing provides easy and automated provisioning of environments. The cloud is

not just computing infrastructure (VMs and Network Resources). Cloud offers a range of

partial to fully managed services like storage, analytics, PaaS and management services atop

this infrastructure. Cloud is also pushing for newer architectures like microservices architec-

ture which will underlie the next generation of cloud applications. The cloud framework is

entirely congruent with the lean methodology principles. Let’s understand why…

A. Eliminating waste through A/B testingGoogle App Engine allows testing of multiple versions of the application. A/B testing and

tracking cookies can help gauge consumer response to different versions of the application.

This can help trim unnecessary features.

B. Build Integrity In through TestingGoogle App Engine allows unit testing and integration testing of the code while it is in

development. Identifying mistakes early saves time and money. Also, it allows quality to be

built into the application early on.

C. Deliver as fast as possible through PaaSGoogle App Engine is fully managed and hence applications can be developed and

deployed in a short time. Reducing lead time is a stated goal of the lean model.


The Future: Lean as the Norm

Lean start-up methods aren’t just for young tech ventures. Large companies, such as GE

and Intuit, have begun to implement them too.

Lean-agile methodologies will become the de facto software development methods in

the next decade. Early adoption of these practices will increase product competitiveness

and help businesses stay ahead of the pack.


3The App trail is something everyone embarking on product development must be familiar

with. If you are an enterprise CIO overseeing numerous in-house development teams you

will be familiar with most of what we are about to tell you. Alternatively, if you are a startup

entrepreneur with limited product development expertise you are in the best chapter of

your life, so to speak. Why you ask?

Connecting the Dots: New Needs Breed New Methods

We have already introduced you to changes sweeping through the world of software

development – the agile-lean methodologies, devOps and Cloud computing. These chang-

es reflect the changes in IT environment as a whole. Cloud computing has democratized

cutting-edge technologies that allow applications to be launched quickly and cheaply. This

has sparked off an app race. The market is witnessing new and interesting use cases that

debut new services or service old problems in new ways. Most of these new products are

launched by startups headed by first generation entrepreneurs. The traditional heavy

methodologies cannot serve this new clientele. So what software development model

matches startup needs?

APP TRAILHow ideas move out of thedrawing board onto the app store


Agile-Lean Model: Development that sparks Discoveries

The startup clientele is a mixed package, a combination of creative abundance on one side

and resource crunch on the other. Also, a startup idea is usually hazy atleast on some of

the details. Understandably so, given that founders are not always experts in the particular

domain or market. In such cases, the optimum product-market fit is not clear at the outset

and is usually achieved after a few iterations. The development process has to aid this

discovery. Agile-lean, devOps and cloud computing paradigms are best suited to such

dynamic development contexts.

Where it begins

It begins with the quest to build the ‘Right Product’

The Premise

One that delights customers

One that goes Viral

One that is sticky

One that finds early market adoption

People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.-Steve Jobs

”“


Before you give wings to your startup dreams, test your idea. Product validation through

market analysis and concept testing is crucial. This is because even the most brilliant ideas

are not immune to the vagaries of the market.

Solving the Outsourcing Dilemma: End-to-End Product Development

Does it mean cost concerns weigh higher than quality for most enterprises and startups?

It’s never that simple. True, outsourcing is a significant cost and time saver. But, attracting

the best IT talent with all the different skill sets required for end-to-end product develop-

ment is not easy or necessary. In a world where technology and skills become obsolete

quickly, it is not prudent to spend time building teams whose skills may not serve you for

long. It is easier to hire a firm providing end-to-end product development services. This is

why OPD will continue to shine.

Why end-to-end product development?

An integrated design and development model where the development partner is brought

onboard early on helps in clear understanding of the business objectives as well as user

goals. This solves the quality issues and communication headaches inherent in outsourcing

model.


‘New’ Engagement models: Emphasize Collaboration and Co-Creation

• Engaging with clients and users to identify needs

• Defining product specifications

• Building mockups and prototypes to test user experience

‘New’ Software development methodologies

Dedicated cross-functional teams to work on a client’s product through its entire lifecycle

• Each team = Requisite ‘Technical skills’ + ‘Management skills’ for product development

Now to the stages…

Super Teams: ‘Empowered’ + ‘Agile-Lean’

COUNTDOWN TO LIVE APP

Now let’s look at the stages expected in a general app building exercise. We

are outlining a scenario where the development partner is brought onboard

for end-to-end product development. It may well be the case, that the client

has in-house capabilities for taking up some of these stages independently.

In which case, the client may only require limited application development

and deployment services. But bringing the development team into the loop

early can result in time and cost savings, as we already pointed out earlier.


Stage 1: Discovery Workshops

This stage usually brings the client team and the vendor together for intense brainstorming

sessions. All the requirements are identified. Once the feature set is identified, a product

roadmap is built. The roadmap unifies the features and release schedules onto a single

timeline. This visual product roadmap is communicated to all key stakeholders. Developers

and testers must be made a part of planning, because their input will help identify technical

limitations and opportunities.

Deliverables:• Requirement Book – Functional and non-functional requirements

• User stories

• Clarification of concept

• Project Guidelines

• API Specification

• Visual Product Roadmap

Brainstorming sessions throw up a lot of good ideas. The first release is

usually a minimum viable product (MVP) which heroes the core value of the

product. But capturing ideas in a roadmap would be a brilliant move. This

will guide future product enhancements.

More realistic Project estimates. Agile methods push for an early release of

the MVP. This helps in generating real user feedback and ensures that

money and time are spent on developing right set of features in future

releases.


A user story is a tool used to capture a description of a software feature from an

end-user perspective. The user story describes the type of user, what they want

and why. A user story helps to create a simplified description of a requirement. The

development team's job is to take care of how to develop the code that will satisfy

the requirements of the user story.

Stage 2: Wireframing 101: Wireframes/Mockups/Prototypes

A great User Experience (UX) is the sin qua non for present day apps. A wireframe conveys

the key features, their structure and the basic UI of the final product. It tries to create a

clear visual memory of the product design in the minds of key stakeholders.

Why mock ups:

Here’s your answer:

When done right, wire-framing can act as an aid to communication. If the

product has a rapid release schedule, it will help development teams visual-

ize the tasks ahead.

Due to their non-interactive nature wireframes are not used in testing. But

they can still provide initial feedback on UI design and help correct obvious

errors saving time.

A wireframe is worth a 1000 spreadsheets

You can fix it now on the drafting board with an eraser or you can fix it later on the

construction site with a sledge hammer.


Mockups are different from wireframes. They are static visual representations of the final

product design. They are emerging as the alternative to good old requirement books.

Mockups are used to generate early stakeholder buy-in, as well as to review the visual

design. Balsamiq is a software tool that is great for creating semi-functional mockups that

can be used in demos and usability tests.

Prototypes are a progression over wireframes and mockups. They are interactive and hence

costlier. Prototypes are semi-functional and are used in user testing. Translating ideas into

rapid prototypes using HTML/CSS and Angular.js will help clients visualize the final prod-

uct. User testing of prototypes will also flag design and experience issues.

Deliverables:• Wireframes/Mockups/Prototype

Stage 3: Decoding Design, Specifying Tests

Once the final wireframes are ready, stakeholders review if the design meets the core

functional requirements. Sometimes, a few alternatives of the selected UI design with slight

modifications are generated. These are tested later to arrive on the final design. This

process is crucial, as too many design iterations post release may harm the product.

Writing test plans and specifications is intrinsic in agile methodologies which have develop-

ers and testers working in tandem throughout the development process. Defining tests

helps clearly communicate the stakeholder expectations to developers. In an agile software

development framework, acceptance tests are often akin to detailed requirement specifica-

tions.

Deliverables:• UI designs

• Framing of acceptance tests


Stage 4: Development and Testing

Now the actual fun begins. The code goes into production. User stories are converted to

code. Once the short pieces of code are developed they are subject to unit testing. The

pieces of code are then integrated and the entire thematic module is tested together. Here,

different versions of the code, with slight modifications can be tested together. A/B testing

is useful in getting the optimal product market fit.

Deliverables:• Application code

• Unit testing

• A/B testing

Stage 5: User Acceptance Testing (UAT) & Quality Checks

Once you are ready with a functional application, its crunch time. Before it is launched to

the world a final test of the app by real end users is recommended. An alpha or beta release

which is tested by a select group of end users can help identify issues that have been

overlooked or were undiscovered. UATs need to be diverse by default – the app needs to

be tested on different devices by diverse sets of users to throw up some real insights.

Google App Engine has in-built ability to support A/B testing. Multiple

versions of application can be run in parallel and user response is gauged

through cookies. Different versions usually involve subtle modifications to

the UI.


The Pivot to Market Success

User Acceptance tests help in determining if the application has achieved Product market

Fit (PMF). The product features are tweaked until it reaches the PMF. This practice of

iterating the product until it achieves PMF is called Pivot.

Integration with third party applications like Intercom, Mouseflow help in gaining insights

on which product features or functional flows are finding traction and those that are not.

Build or Buy?

Custom Solutions are not popular anymore, most enterprises are licensing third-party

off-the-shelf solutions to meet their business needs or for enhancing their product experi-

ence.

‘Jazz Up’ Customer Experience

Integrations help small startups leverage the power of IT to meet complex business goals

and to enhance customer experiences. Integration of Google cloud platform services with

third party solutions is easy and rewarding. For example, consider Intercom the customer

success solution. Intercom exposes a rich REST API for interacting with its services; this

can be integrated with a Google App Engine hosted application.

Google App Engine allows easy integration with third party solutions


How you can use the Intercom REST API:

1. To pull data from it and use it for analytic purposes

2. To push data to it, Data that can enrich the service for customers

To generate sophisticated business or market intelligence on your product, all you need to

do is write a few extra lines of code. This code will extract data from Intercom and load it to

Google’s Big Query service. Big Query then uses its analytics might to start generating

actionable insights from the data.

Must-have 3rd party integrations

• Payment gateway integration (paypal, braintree, stripe)

• User Guides (inline manual, walkme)

• email communication (send grid, mandrilll)

• sms and call integration (twilio)

• Customer adoption and communication (Intercom)

Deliverables:• A Alpha/Beta Version of App

• User Feedback

• Integration testing with 3rd party solutions

• Performance testing


Google App Engine offers infinite scalability at industry leading prices

Stage 6: Deployment and Support

Post deployment performance is crucial to a products market success. Only a lucky few

products go viral, and you don’t want your servers to crash if you happen to be the lucky

one. Imagine going down the annals of app history as a one-day wonder. So, redundancy

and scalability have to built into the design. Product performance relies on proper provi-

sioning and good server architecture. Network performance tests and traffic handling tests

are conducted on the app before it goes live. Network issues both during testing and after

launch must be resolved promptly through a robust ticketing system.

Deliverables:• Deployment and Support Documentation

• Full integration with third party solutions

• Final Application

The Continuous delivery Paradigm

What we saw was one full cycle of product development. The current paradigm in software

development is geared towards an extended lifecycle for product development. Patches,

upgrades and multiple releases are the new norm. This necessitates that the development

partnership continue post release. Companies stand to gain from such a scenario, as they

• Get expert maintenance support over the life of the product

• Can support continuous releases

• Ensure the product is fine-tuned to changes in market


You have clocked more miles on your product development journey. With this you have

learnt:

How products get built. The methodologies, the stages and best practices involved in

developing products for our times.

But we have so far held back on discussing the philosophy that ties all of this together.

Great products tap on the creative geniuses of many minds, tied together by a guiding

philosophy. Seth Godin nailed the crux of the philosophy that must propel product devel-

opment when he said

“Don’t find customers for your products; find products for your customers

”Designing a product is designing a relationship with your customers. Pick the right team!

For, together you must build a beautiful relationship with your audience.


Conclusion

The Client: Firm X

The Development Partner: Firm B (The Cloud Development Partner)

Inside the Bitmin office, another team meet is in progress.

The project team is being assembled.

• Developer team

• UX team

• Testing team

• Systems Admin team

• Project management team

• Client communication team

The person-in-charge is verifying the checklist to see if everything is covered. He then

hands out task dossiers to team members. A quick brief follows. The team lead creates and

shares the development calendar. And work begins…..

And, yet another app will be born into the world

Bring your Ideas, we’ll build them for you


Our ResumeWhy we are the ‘Pick of the Litter’

W H O W E A R E

Bitmin specialises in product development services that are customisedto a client’s needs. This is born out of our clear understanding of thedifference between custom software and off-the-shelf software types. The ability to go the extra mile in customization hinges on the availability of requisite talent in-house. We have created an additional layer of skills and competencies that will support more sophisticated development needs.

Bitmin prides itself as an end-to-end product development service provider.

W H Y Y O U S H O U L D H I R E U S

S O M E O F O U R S E R V I C E S T H A T H A V E E A R N E D U ST H E R E C O G N I T I O N :

1. We strive to gain a thorough understanding of market requirements as well as product requirements

2. We design flexible architecture that will scale as per the direction the product takes in the future

3. We work with shorter release cycles. This helps new features and updates get to the market faster.

4. We map a migration path when maintenance releases are available

5. We develop an easy framework to manage different customised versions of the product

6. We support marketing needs with effective and efficient documentation


O U R S K I L L S

Bitmin’s expertise spans the entire spectrum of product development cycle.

We offer the following key services:

Perfect Methodology

O U R S T R E N G T H S

1. New product design and development

2. Feature enhancement

3. Product platform migration

4. Software product testing

5. Software product maintenance and support

6. Product release and license management

7. Product packaging for distribution

Bitmin has developed superior products for its customers over the years. And with this wealth of experience, we have also refined our methodology to create a highly efficient product development environment. Our product development and engineering framework extends from conceptualization, architecture, design, development, testing, all the way to deployment and future enhancements to porting and finally, but importantly, offering ongoing support.

Reliability

Bitmin seriously guards the intellectual properties of its clients by providing them full ownership of the outsourced product. To this effect, we sign Non-Disclosure and IPR agreements with our clients to ensure exclusivity of source code and intellectual capital rights to them.


O U R J O U R N E Y S O F A R

We inspire confidence in a space that lacks it.

Our emergence as a reliable OPD services provider is owed to these

practices:

1. We employ talented engineers with international expertise in product development on Google App Engine.

2. Our developers are well supported. We have top notch architects, designers and software testing analysts with product as well as domain expertise, to offer high quality to the development team.

3. In addition to its keen focus on quality, Bitmin also prioritises an Agile development environment

4. We continuously invest in adding useful product development tools to our skill suite.

5. We offer Zero risk guarantee for ISVs looking to outsource their product development. We follow stringent IP protection protocols which are integrated into the working contracts.

BitMin Infosystems Private LimitedJayabheri Silicon County, Hitech City Road Kothaguda, Hyderabad -500084 [email protected] +1 408 520 9294

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The App Trail How ideas move out of the drawing board onto the app store