scholarly journals Investigating Agile Adoption in Saudi Arabian Mobile Application Development

Author(s):  
Fahad S. Altuwaijri ◽  
Maria Angela Ferrario

Abstract Mobile app development has been considered as one of the fastest growing segments of the software industry both worldwide and in Saudi Arabia. Due to their pervasiveness, mobile applications call for consideration of complex and rapidly changing requirements given the diversity of their environments. Therefore, agile is considered the most suitable methodology for developing mobile apps. However, little research has investigated agile adoption in mobile app development in the real context. Therefore, the purpose of this PhD is to investigate the factors that have a significant impact on agile adoption in mobile app development by small and medium-size software organisations in Saudi Arabia. The expected key contribution of this research will be a deep insight into agile adoption in mobile app development, and the design and development of tools and techniques that may support agile adoption within Saudi context.

Author(s):  
Mamta Pandey ◽  
Ratnesh Litoriya ◽  
Prateek Pandey

Software industry is turning toward endorsing application (app, in short) development due to the ubiquitous use and interest in this computing pattern. Increasing trend and popularity of mobile apps reveal several issues for the developers to address. Absence of a scientific developmental approach adds further issues to the apps development. There are millions of daily downloads, use and views on mobile apps, which give rise to an interesting phenomenon of apps acceptance by the user community. It is significant to note that users tend to reject or dislike apps that present challenges, owing to the issues in the apps, to them. Therefore, it is imperative to know the different issues that affect mobile ratings. In this paper, we have identified 14 issues by reviewing the relevant literature and collected the data from numerous mobile app stores to find the influence of the identified issues on mobile app ratings. Further, an interpretive structure modeling (ISM) approach is used to categorize the identified issues into four groups — dependent, driving, linkage and autonomous — for better understanding and further analysis. There are two objectives of this research paper: (1) to identify issues in apps which affect ratings and (2) to find out mutual relationship between dominating issues in mobile apps.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole E Werner ◽  
Janetta C Brown ◽  
Priya Loganathar ◽  
Richard J Holden

BACKGROUND The over 11 million care partners in the US who provide care to people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) cite persistent and pervasive unmet needs related to all aspects of their caregiving role. The proliferation of mobile applications (apps) for care partners has potential to meet the care partners’ needs, but the quality of apps is unknown. OBJECTIVE The present study aimed to 1) evaluate the quality of publicly available apps for care partners of people living with ADRD and 2) identify design features of low- and high-quality apps to guide future research and app development. METHODS We searched the US Apple and Google Play app stores with the criteria that the app needed to be 1) available in US Google play or Apple app stores, 2) directly accessible to users “out of the box”, 3) primarily intended for use by an informal (family, friend) caregiver or caregivers of a person with dementia. The included apps were then evaluated using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS), which includes descriptive app classification and rating using 23 items across five dimensions: engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information, and subjective quality. Next, we computed descriptive statistics for each rating. To identify recommendations for future research and app development, we categorized rater comments on the score driving factors for each item and what the app could have done to improve the score for that item. RESULTS We evaluated 17 apps (41% iOS only, 12% Android only, 47% both iOS and Android). We found that on average, the apps are of minimally acceptable quality. Although we identified apps above and below minimally acceptable quality, many apps had broken features and were rated as below acceptable for engagement and information. CONCLUSIONS Minimally acceptable quality is likely insufficient to meet care partner needs. Future research should establish minimum quality standards across dimensions for mobile apps for care partners. The design features of high-quality apps we identified in this research can provide the foundation for benchmarking those standards.


Author(s):  
Aileen Cater-Steel ◽  
Terry Rout

The contribution of small enterprises to the software industry is marked, but the level of understanding of the ways in which they can survive, grow, and improve is limited. In particular, there has been a lack of information on the long-term outcomes of process improvement initiatives in small firms. Building on the basis of a study of assessment-based improvement in 23 small and medium size organizations, we have undertaken a follow-up meeting with each company approximately five years following the original assessment. The results show that changes made in an organisation, driven by a framework of model-based improvement, can have long-term impacts even in small organisations; it appears, however, that there is no necessary link between success in implementing improvement and survival of the organisation. The results provide insight into the extent to which improvement actions can reinforce overall success for the small business.


2013 ◽  
Vol 411-414 ◽  
pp. 420-424
Author(s):  
Qian Xing

With the popular of smart phone, mobile APPs have been developed largely. This paper, firstly introduces business model and market mechanism, then in terms of development technology, portal model, device set, platform integration, analyses mobile OS as well as influence on mobile APPs, at last gives a trend of mobile APP development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1276-1283
Author(s):  
N. Illias ◽  
N. H. Abdul Hamid ◽  
Z. A. Shaffiei

Managing the complaint is tough to handle, efficient response to the complaints from the customer can be an indicator to measure an organization’s performance. We’ve chosen Politeknik Nilai as one of the institutions that are facing daily complaints from the students and parents. Currently, they are using the manual form to lodge a complaint and receive the feedback via email. In this study, we developed an android based mobile application to manage the students’ complaint. With mobile apps, the management can prevent the loss of complaint forms and keep track of the records. This system will send feedback and notification directly via students’ mobile phone. This study referred to the ten principles for effective complaint handling by Ombudsman. We only referred to eight principles to construct the PNSCares. The methodology used to develop mobile apps is using the Mobile Application Development Life Cycle (MADLC). System Usability Scale (SUS) is used to measure the effectiveness of the mobile apps. The feedbacks from ten respondents on the PNSCares prototype are good with 72 scores in SUS for perceived usefulness and ease of use factor. Based on the result, the prototype is effective and easy to use.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-224
Author(s):  
Roslyn Layton

Abstract Net neutrality or “Open Internet” rulemaking has been ongoing for more than a decade. Some 50 nations have adopted formal rules including the US (then repealed), the European Union, India, and many countries in Latin America. Among other arguments, it is asserted that net neutrality rules are necessary for application innovation. While the focus for policymakers has largely been to make rules, there is less attention on how to measure the impact of such rules and how well they achieve their innovation goals. The article summaries a specific research investigation to what degree the introduction of rules in a given country stimulates innovation in that country’s mobile app ecosystem. The focus in on mobile networks because it allowed the most consistent data across countries. The study covered 53 countries, their net neutrality policies (or lack thereof), and the results to the respective mobile application ecosystems of the countries adopting rules between the period of 2010–2016. This investigation tests the proposition that countries which adopt net neutrality rules should experience an increase in mobile app development innovation within their national economy. To test this, a statistical methodology was developed based upon measuring the number of locally developed mobile apps in the country for relevant periods before and after rules are imposed and the corresponding app downloads, usage, and revenue. Measurement was conducted with two independent toolsets and adjusted for the sophistication and penetration of advanced mobile networks in the country. To make more meaningful comparisons and avoid inevitable heterogeneity across the countries, the investigation focuses on two similar countries with different rules, Denmark with soft rules (self-regulation) and Netherlands with hard rules (legislation). The study reviewed the leading theories of innovation as well as the foundational papers in net neutrality to explain the observed discrepancies. The research finds significant statistical support for “soft” net neutrality measures adopted on a voluntary basis. Hard rules adopted through legislation and regulation were not associated with greater mobile app development for the given country. Denmark increased in local mobile app development while Netherlands decreased. Additionally, the explosion of mobile apps from countries with no net neutrality rules and the general dearth of mobile apps from countries which have had hard rules for years runs counter to expected results. This suggests that policymakers revisit their assumptions and expectations for net neutrality policy.


Systems ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Khaled Medini ◽  
Stefan Wiesner ◽  
Milad Poursoltan ◽  
David Romero

Today’s fast-growing demands at the global level for mobile applications (apps) cause customers to call for the customization of their apps to fit their individualized needs and business realms. Customization is a challenge for apps-development companies when they want to satisfy their numerous users in a crowded competitive market. Moreover, pursuing customization involves additional challenges when ramping up app development projects in order to meet demands at a larger scale. To address this challenge, we proposed a framework to systematize and support mobile apps’ development consistently with a customer-driven approach and modular design philosophy. From a practical point of view, the proposed framework integrates quality function deployment (QFD), axiomatic design (AD) principles, and practices from the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) framework. The framework supports a systematic process for translating customer needs into design parameters as well as supporting prioritization of ITIL practices for further development. The effectiveness of the framework was explored in practice through a case study about an app supporting relief in the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a survey among potential users. The assessment of the framework indicated an average score ranging between 3.58 and 3.92 in a five-point Likert scale for all of the items used in the survey.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Paolo Modesti

Mobile applications are extremely popular with many higher education institutions offering courses to prepare new developers sought by the software industry. However, teaching and assessing mobile application development poses specific challenges due to the complexity of real-world programming languages and environments. In this work, we present a script-based approach for teaching and assessing Android application development that addresses shortcomings of existing tools that impact negatively on the learning experience. Our evaluation, which covers pedagogical and technical aspects, provides possible evidence that the scripts have been beneficial in helping students to work more efficiently and achieve better results. Additionally, the scripts have been effective in streamlining the grading process and keeping the tutorial material up to date with the evolution of the Android platform.


10.2196/16063 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e16063
Author(s):  
Ting-Wei Chiang ◽  
Si-Yu Chen ◽  
Yuan-Chien Pan ◽  
Yu-Hsuan Lin

Background There are numerous mobile apps for tracking work hours, but only a few of them record work hours automatically instead of relying on manual logging. No apps have been customized for medical staff, whose work schedules are highly complicated as they have both regular hours and on-call duties. Objective The specific aims of this study were to (1) identify the Staff Hours app users’ GPS-defined work hours, (2) examine the overtime work hours from the app-recorded total work hours and the participants’ self-reported scheduled work hours, and (3) compare these app-recorded total work hours among different occupations. Methods We developed an app, Staff Hours, to automatically calculate a user’s work hours via GPS background data. Users can enter their scheduled hours, including regular hours and on-call duties. The app automatically generates overtime reports by comparing the app-recorded total work hours with the user-defined scheduled hours. A total of 183 volunteers (60 females and 123 males; mean age 32.98 years, SD 6.74) were included in this study. Most of the participants (162/183, 88.5%) were medical staff, and their positions were resident physicians (n=89), visiting staff (n=38), medical students (n=10), registered nurses (n=25), and non–health care professionals (non-HCPs; n=21). Results The total work hours (mean 55.69 hours, SD 21.34) of the 183 participants were significantly higher than their scheduled work hours (mean 50.67 hours, SD 21.44; P=.01). Medical staff had significantly longer total work hours (mean 57.01 hours, SD 21.20) than non-HCPs (mean 45.48 hours, SD 20.08; P=.02). Residents (mean 60.38 hours, SD 18.67) had significantly longer work hours than visiting staff (mean 51.42 hours, SD 20.33; P=.03) and non-HCPs (mean 45.48 hours, SD 20.08; P=.004). Conclusions Staff Hours is the first automatic GPS location–based app designed for medical staff to track work hours and calculate overtime. For medical staff, this app could keep complete and accurate records of work hours in real time, reduce bias, and allow for better complying with labor regulations.


2020 ◽  
pp. 576-598
Author(s):  
Sonal Dekhane ◽  
Mai Yin Tsoi ◽  
Cynthia Johnson

The ubiquity of mobile devices, their portability and their unique gesture recognition features make them an apt educational tool, especially in the STEM fields. The traditional pen and paper practice method can be transferred to a digital format and the content can be made available to students anywhere and at any time. In this chapter the authors discuss how mobile application development projects can be used to benefit students in multiple STEM disciplines at the same time by creating a symbiotic, business-like relationship between students enrolled in a software development course and students in other STEM courses (end-users). The authors will discuss the learning needs of students and the details of thoughtful mobile application design incorporating various learning theories. This chapter will also discuss various examples of educational mobile apps created, their usability testing results and their effect on student learning.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document