Outsourcing Debate – Part 2 follows

Whether its local devs or outsourced environment devs, following issues are same and apply to any app development project. We have had almost same conversations with so many of our clients that at http://phoenixinfomedia.in we decided to make a blog out of it to share our experience once and use it as a reference link to explain App development clients about bugs and bugs resolution process. We would like to share with you certain readymade app development facts we have collected & explained in various different discussions with different clients:-

1. Multiple Device and OS reality – Issues/bugs – In reality Apple’s development software and simulator also has lots of bugs and doesn’t work as expected.  So basically you shouldn’t be  too unhappy with An App developer if an App works fine in simulator but shows tantrums in iPhone, as it is Apple’s fault to not give the App developer a bug free simulator which is a 100% correct simulation of Phone. Even if the App developer had with him at his desk, almost every iPhone ever released, there is only 50% chance that he will see the same annoying bug which a small percentage of your audience is facing on a certain iPhone model. Simply because no smartphone or its OS ( and simulator) on planet is bug free and depending on available RAM, other apps, and phone configuration – apps can mis-behave in say Nov14 batch of iPhone 6 and may not mis-behave in Feb15 batch of iPhone 6. These kind of bugs are the most difficult to iron out.
2. Missing Delivery Date Issues – Whatsapp had 1.6 billion in their pocket but they took not less than 9 months to introduce in-app call features whereas it takes just 2-3 months for us to build a simple Viber/Skype type Voip calling app. Some readymade code libraries available. So what took them so long? Ans: Technical implementation issues. You can’t speed up the bug solving process. There are unknown technical challenges and tech forums like stackoverflow.com are full of those un-resolved threads. For these unforeseen tech problems, an App developer has to read lots of forums, try 10s of suggested workarounds, tinker this , change that, raise Qs and Issues on forums, wait for their answers, submit Qs to Apple support to which they reply to in 5-10 days time. And all this while this App developer has a family to feed and works on a salary. Client usually has accepted a fixed quote for app development and all hence its actually the App development company which gets screwed by all the delays, because it has to pay salary and other ongoing bills. It is in their best interest only to deliver App on time otherwise delays means loss to them. Client’s impatience can only sour relations in these matters.
3. Money Can’t buy Speed of development and bug fixes – Apple had recently forced everyone to submit only 64 bit version of their app from 1 Jun 2015. Now guess what, even a big financial dinosaur like Paypal were not able to convert their adaptive payment SDK to 64 bit before this date. A lot of apps (1000s) use Paypal adaptive SDK and 2 of our clients were also using it. Now their app’s next upgrade got blocked due to no fault of App Development Company, and because of Paypal SDK not being 64 bit. But one of the clients in this case was from Non-IT background and takes out his disappointment at App Developers, failing to appreciate that even big companies with teams of hundreds people and budgets in millions can’t solve their own bugs or tech upgrades intime. Whenever you get an iOS/Android/Gmail App update, it fixes bugs and issues in previous update. Meaning your current update will also have bugs and issues. Do you shout at Google/Apple then?  Can Google/Apple give you a definite date of next update? no they can’t.  Its better to understand these IT related issues, develop patience rather than cribbing and expressing disappointment at App Developer team. Negativity shared doesn’t do any help, only spoils relations and App Developers often quit their job because even though they are the ones who are putting in hours and hours of headache causing time & efforts in coding, clients and PM only shout and crib and make them feel inferior (not good for job) instead of appreciating their hardwork or understanding teething technical issues. Their job is not easy as laying brick on brick and completing a wall in an accurately predicted time.
4. Technologies and SDK – Conclusion – its a wild wild west out there and we suggest that please find out some extra patience at your end while App developers like us resolve the bugs, because that is the only option at the moment. No other developer can do it fast.Many of our past clients have done full round-robin circle of checking out various developers and have come back to us. Simply because there is no way to microwave cook things here in minutes. All technical issues will take their own sweet time to get resolved just like Apple’s tech or warranty support (5-30 days, try them).
5. Did you know that Barclays Bank’s Hugely popular Pingit App was first released with 13 known and many unknown bugs. If they had waited to iron out all small small bugs on 100s of devices out there, it would never have been released simply because it is impossible to have a bug free software like app because the OS and Smartphones it runs on – is also never bug free. It is recommended to release an app with critical bugs fixed and keep fixing less critical ones as part of ongoing support/upgrade process. When thousands of people install it in their phones and run it, you are bound to receive more bug reports than what a small team of 2-5 testers can find and report.

We guess patience is our & your only option with these irritating bugs.

BTW, It might rain in London today! 🙂 Another issue we can only crib about but can’t resolve. Just wait for a better day, as that’s the only option 🙂

• Time to remind again why 2nd App development provider always feels/works better,  first love, first car and first job is always a learning experience and leave you unhappy in 90% of cases but makes you wiser and helps you improve your own understading of these matters and grow more pateince & tolerance. Next time you hear someone cribbing about outsourcing – remember there are always 2 sides of every coin. In almost all cribbing cases it would be their first outsourcing experience and they would have gone for the cheapest quote which in most cases will be a school/college kid from India/ukraine/russia with no reliable ratings and reviews on freelancers, elance kind of portals. We recommend hiring a trusted & recommeded App development agency like http://phoenixinfomedia.in which not only can guide you about App Development process but can provide experienced English speaking Project Coordinators who can correctly translate your concerns/issues and functionality suggestions to devs and geeks in their team. A good agency should provide multi OS apps (iOS, Android, Windows Phone) for different screen sizes using the same backend code, good quality code with minimum bugs and will do their best to deliver on your expectations.