Cross-Platform Mobile App Development in Industry: A Multiple Case-Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47839/ijc.20.1.2091Keywords:
cross-platform development, mobile development, mobile apps, cross-platform in industryAbstract
Cross-platform frameworks for mobile application development are pervasive and allow developers to build applications that can operate on a spectrum of mobile platforms. With the high availability of such frameworks, it is imperative to give better understanding about the perception of industry and the challenges they face in this field. Although there are several studies in this field of research, only few research works investigate cross-platform mobile development in the industrial contexts in-depth. We conducted a qualitative research using multiple case-study approach. Interviews and focus groups methods were applied to gather information from four different software development companies in Palestine. This study aims at understanding industrial teams approach to mobile cross-platform development. In particular, it seeks to identify the challenges they face in the areas of code maintenance and software testing. Our findings cover the important aspects in industrial contexts, including the development process, as well as, how and why the cross-platform development approach is chosen. From the practitioners’ perspectives, we argue that the developers’ experience is the most influential factor in the development process. Further, our study investigates the different cross-platform technologies in the industry, and the dominant one from the practitioners’ perspectives, where they agreed that the React-Native is the promising and dominant technology. From the challenges perspective, we found that the APIs provided by the vendors are not easy to operate by developers and considered to be a major challenge. Finally, this research investigates how testing and maintenance methodologies are applied along with their challenges.
References
M. Nagappan, E. Shihab, “Future trends in software engineering research for mobile apps,” Proceedings of the IEEE 23rd International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering, 2016, pp. 21–32. https://doi.org/10.1109/SANER.2016.88.
R. Nunkesser, “Beyond Web/Native/Hybrid: A new taxonomy for mobile app development,” Proceedings of the IEEE IEEE/ACM 5th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft), 2018, pp. 214-218. https://doi.org/10.1145/3197231.3197260.
A. Charland, B. Leroux, “Mobile application development: Web vs. Native,” Queue, vol. 9, issue 4, article no. 20, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1145/1966989.1968203.
L. Delia, N. Galdamez, P. Thomas, L. Corbalan, P. Pesado, “Multi-platform mobile application development analysis,” Proceedings of the IEEE IEEE 9th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS), 2015, pp. 181–186. https://doi.org/10.1109/RCIS.2015.7128878.
G. Vitols, I. Smits, A. Zacepin, “Issues of hybrid mobile application development with PhoneGap: A case study of insurance mobile application,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Baltic Conference, 2014, pp. 215–220.
M. Latif, Y. Lakhrissi, E. Nfaoui, N. Es-Sabi, “Review of mobile cross platform and research orientations,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Wireless Technologies, Embedded and Intelligent Systems (WITS), 2017, pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1109/WITS.2017.7934674.
T. Zohud, S. Zein, “A systematic mapping study of cross-platform mobile apps,” Journal of Computer Science, vol. 15, issue 4, pp. 519-536, 2019. https://doi.org/10.3844/jcssp.2019.519.536.
A. Biørn-Hansen, G. Ghinea, “Bridging the gap: Investigating device-feature exposure in cross-platform development,” Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2018, pp. 5717–5724. https://doi.org/10.24251/HICSS.2018.716.
M. Ciman, O. Gaggi, “An empirical analysis of energy consumption of cross-platform frameworks for mobile development,” Pervasive and Mobile Computing, vol. 39, pp. 214-230, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmcj.2016.10.004.
M. Willocx, J. Vossaert, V. Naessens, “Comparing performance parameters of mobile app development strategies,” Proceedings of the International Workshop on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems – MOBILESoft’16, 2016, pp. 38–47. https://doi.org/10.1145/2897073.2897092.
T. Vilcek, T. Jakopec, “Comparative analysis of tools for development of native and hybrid mobile applications,” Proceedings of the IEEE 40th International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO), 2017, pp. 1516-1521. https://doi.org/10.23919/MIPRO.2017.7973662.
M. Ali, M. E. Joorabchi, A. Mesbah, “Same app, different app stores: A comparative study,” Proceedings of the IEEE IEEE/ACM 4th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft), 2017, pp. 79–90. https://doi.org/10.1109/MOBILESoft.2017.3.
B. Dunka, E. Emmanuel, D. Oyerinde, “Hybrid mobile application based on ionic framework technologies,” International Journal of Recent Advances in Multidisciplinary Research, vol. 4, pp. 3121-3130, 2017.
Y. Tung, D. Bui, K. G. Shin, “Cross-platform support for rapid development of mobile acoustic sensing applications,” Proceedings of the 16th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services – MobiSys’18, 2018, pp. 455–467. https://doi.org/10.1145/3210240.3210312.
S. Zein, N. Salleh, J. Grundy, “Mobile application testing in industrial contexts: An exploratory multiple case-study,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques (SOMET’2015), 2015, pp. 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22689-7_3.
A. Zarour, S. Zein, “Software development estimation techniques in industrial contexts: An exploratory multiple case-study,” International Journal of Technology in Education and Science (IJTES), vol. 3, issue 2, pp. 72-84, 2019.
A. Asfour, S. Zain, N. Salleh, J. Grundy, “Exploring agile mobile app development in industrial contexts: A qualitative study,” International Journal of Technology in Education and Science (IJTES), vol. 3, issue 1, pp. 29-46, 2019.
A. Ahmad, K. Li, C. Feng, S. Asim, A. Yousif, S. Ge, “An empirical study of investigating mobile applications development challenges,” IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 17711-17728, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2818724.
R. Jackson, D. Drummond, S. Camara, “What is qualitative research?,” Qualitative Research Reports in Communication,” vol. 8, issue 1, pp. 21-28, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1080/17459430701617879.
P. Baxter, S. Jack, “Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and implementation for novice researchers,” The Qualitative Report, vol. 13, issue 4, pp. 544-559, 2008. [Online]. Available at: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR13-4/baxter.pdf.
R. K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Los Angeles: Sage, 2009, 219 p.
J. Gustafsson, “Single case studies vs. multiple case studies: A comparative study,” 2017, [Online]. Available at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1064378/FULLTEXT01.pdf.
C. Wagner, B. Kawulich, M. Garner, Collecting Data through Observation, in Doing Social Research: A Global Context, Berkshire: McGraw Hill, 2012, 20 p.
L. Cohen, L. Manion, K. Morrison, Research Methods in Education, 5th Edition, London: Routledge Falmer, 2000, 462 p.
D.L. Morgan, R.A. Kreuger, The Focus Group Kit (6 vols.). Thousand Oaks, Sage, 1998, 692 p.
C. R. Raj, S. B. Tolety, “A study on approaches to build cross-platform mobile applications and criteria to select appropriate approach,” Proceedings of the IEEE Annual IEEE India, 2012, pp. 625–629.
C. Nakazawa, React Native Open Source, 2019, [Online]. Available at: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/blog/2019/03/01/react-native-open-source-update.
I. Malavolta, S. Ruberto, T. Soru, V. Terragni, “End users perception of hybrid mobile apps in the Google play store,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Mobile Services, 2015, pp. 25-32. https://doi.org/10.1109/MobServ.2015.14.
A. Biørn-Hansen, T. Gronli, G. Ghinea, S. Alouneh, “An empirical study of cross-platform mobile development in industry,” Hindawi Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, vol. 2019, Article ID 5743892, 12 pages, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5743892.
M. Martinez, S. Lecomte, “Towards the quality improvement of cross-platform mobile applications,” Proceedings of the IEEE IEEE/ACM 4th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft), 2017, pp. 184–188. https://doi.org/10.1109/MOBILESoft.2017.30.
P. Runeson, M. Höst, “Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering,” Empirical Software Engineering, vol. 14, issue 2, pp. 131-164, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-008-9102-8.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
International Journal of Computing is an open access journal. Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:• Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
• Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
• Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
