By: Jennifer Foley, Michael Wuerdemann and Johannes Swanepoel

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” is a saying that often accurately describes the relationship between mobile developers and the lines of business that drive their application requirements. The challenge of understanding business needs and translating them into technical requirements can be daunting. This task can lead to screams of joy on some days and shrieks of agony on others. It can also lead to humor when you observe this delicate dynamic between mobile developers and lines of business. In this post we offer some of the best lines we’ve encountered that were relayed to developers from lines of business.

1. It’s easy!

The stories of those who have made millions off of mobile apps has led many to think that “it’s easy!” to get rich quick or create any mobile app. For enterprises, it’s not that easy. Enterprises need to first decide what business goal they would like to achieve with their app. Once they’ve defined their business situation, they need to take into consideration aspects like deployment, integration with enterprise systems, security, user interaction, management of the mobile app and continual support of mobile apps across changing mobile devices. They also need to measure the success or usage of the mobile app.

When you take into account all of these aspects of a successful mobile strategy, you realize that it is not that easy to quickly create a mobile app. Failure to properly evaluate all of the aspects before creating a mobile app can negatively affect brand image or market share and increase the burden of responsibility on IT while driving up IT costs.

2. Who needs security?

Security takes care of itself, right? There’s a firewall!

If only that was enough! If it were, I could leave my house unlocked with doors open and have all of my items still safe and sound when I returned home.

A mobile app provides users another way into an enterprise. This access should be fully vetted by the organization’s security department to minimize all possible risk and make sure that access complies with organizational policies. Failure to do so can risk compromising core systems, financial data and even sensitive internal business data. Security does not have to be a burden, but is most effective when it is included in the mobile app design from day one.

3. Mobile is agile! Who needs requirements?

If you build it, they will come, right? Well … sort of. The most successful mobile application companies have had a deliberate design and purpose for their app. Think about your favorite app. Does it provide value to you or your life? Enterprise mobile apps should be a reflection of the brand while adding value for users. This ultimately means that some requirements are necessary. This could mean simply creating a few goals based on a user-centered design process to drive the development and continuous improvement of the mobile app.

4. It has to be native!

Oh really? It must be native? Your first question back to the line of business that says this should be: What are you looking to achieve?

Once the requirements are fully understood, the approach to creating the mobile app can be decided. The white paper “Native, web or hybrid mobile-app development” (download available here) elaborates on the pros and cons of different approaches to creating an app.

5. Can’t I store all of the data on the mobile device?

Sure! How much room do you have? It’s not that you can’t store some data on the device. The overall idea here is that the mobile app should integrate with the systems of record that already exist in the enterprise. This allows for easier management and control of the data to reduce security risk and stale data.

From an enterprise perspective, if you store data on a person’s phone, how can you protect it, make sure it is accurate or update it? If sensitive data is accessible by the app, then how will you control how it can be shared from the mobile device?

From a user perspective, the amount of storage on a device varies by user. Who can allow for one app to potentially take up all of their storage?

By giving developers and lines of business boxing gloves and a ring to fight it out—I mean, a team room to talk it through in—they can work in harmony to create a useful app to reflect the organization’s brand. Having the right capabilities in place will better allow the organization to meet its larger business goals productively (and with little bloodshed).

Have you come across these lines before? What other common misconceptions have you seen regarding mobile apps? Please share your comments below.

Technorati Tags: Agile, Hybrid mobile applications, Mobile security, Native mobile applications

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