Mobile Software System Development

Lecture topics

1.

Walkthroughs of questions of mobile software specifications. Formal specifications, cross-platform and native parts. Important aspects of decisions of platform choosing.

2.

UI design, screen fragmentation. Differences on phone and tablet. Introduction to platform specific and general UI development. Application mocking. Techniques to build better user experience (UX).

3.

Questions of data storage, location of storages, types and methods of backend storage. Most common mobile ORM solutions.

4.

Communication layers. Design of a protocol. Technologies (XML, JSON, REST), and libraries for them. Push messages. Testing of communication layer, and other techniques, like cache.

5.

Social integration to mobile apps. OAuth. Overview of most popular social sites and their integration.

6.

Introduction of backend as a service, pros-cons, usage. Different service providers and their advantages.

7.

Mobile app development as a group. Challenges, version control, build servers, continuous integration, metrics of code, reports.

8.

Wireless communication. Modern devices and integration (BLE, NFC, Zigbee/Z-Wave). Wearables, smart watches, integration.

9.

Methods of testing of mobile software. TDD, BDD.

10.

Testing of UI, automated UI testing.

11.

Analytics and logging, services and libraries. Crash reporting. UI usage analytics, heatmaps, A/B testing.

12.

Steps of going to stores and publication. Development of beta versions.

13.

Payment and monetization methods in mobile software: paid, ad-supported, freemium, in-app purchase, enterprise. Lifecycle of software and methods of updating. 

14.

Written examination

Practice topics

1.

Writing specification from informal specification. Designing screenflows.

2.

Specification of data-layer and communication layer for last practice. Synchronization models.

3.

Using Backend-as-a-Service.

4.

Hands-on examples with version control, build servers and continuous integration.

5.

Methods of testing UI.

6.

Adding analytics and crash reporting to the application.

7.

Using A/B testing in the application. Steps to build and publish the application.