CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iphone
TheGambler
TheGambler

Reputation: 3709

Software development methodology when doing Iphone development

What kind of practices do you do when developing iPhone apps? For instance, do you write up a technical design document of any sort. Do you write down the design of your app at all? Do you implement a certain methodology agile/scrum/waterfall etc...? I'm just curious when working on projects like an iPhone app, what kind of best practices do people use or do people just go at it?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1883

Answers (4)

Brad Larson
Brad Larson

Reputation: 170309

I prefer to start with small proof-of-principle projects to test out different capabilities of the device that I need for my final product. This is especially important on a mobile device like the iPhone, because hardware limits on memory, processing power, graphics, or display size can render some ideas impractical. It's best to know that your application won't work as you imagined after only a couple of days of playing around, rather than after a month of development.

John Geleynse and others at Apple advocate starting your design with a single sentence that describes your product and its intended audience, and building everything around that mission statement. I've found that this works extremely well for determining what features to incorporate or leave out of a product, particularly on the iPhone. Having a simple core product description at the center of your design is also extremely helpful when you need to explain this product to others in your later marketing efforts.

Aside from that, I've found that iterative development incorporating lots of testing and user feedback has worked for me on every platform I've developed for.

Upvotes: 2

Ben Gotow
Ben Gotow

Reputation: 14884

I've worked on a few iPhone apps, and I've found this workflow works pretty well:

  1. Figure out what the app is going to do. Create a one sentence description of the app that embodies what you're trying to do. If you can't explain the core functionality in one sentence, people won't get it!

  2. Create interface mockups for each screen of the app on paper, and then in Adobe Fireworks. Fireworks' native file format is PNG, so it's easy to create images for use in the actual app later.

  3. Figure out how you're going to architect your app using Model-View-Controller and the other iPhone app design patterns (delegates, dataSources, etc...). Don't try to do something other than MVC. The whole SDK is built around MVC!

  4. Start coding! I usually start with the bare functionality first. For a drawing app, I implement the drawing controller and the important drawing views (color picker, etc..) first. I back things up to an offsite SVN repository as I go using Versions (I haven't had much luck with the repository support in Xcode)

  5. Distribute a beta version of the app to a group of AdHoc testers. This helps a lot. Getting the app in the hands of a few extra people really helps isolate usability issues and bugs that are hard for a single developer to find.

  6. Repeat until satisfied and Apple approves :-)

Upvotes: 5

Joel Marcey
Joel Marcey

Reputation: 1798

As one who is about to dabble in his first iPhone app, I don't think there is any one methodology that rules over any other. You can apply any of the techniques you mention to an iPhone app, just like any other development effort.

A key thing about iPhone apps, or any Apple related development effort, is that Apple sort of forces you to follow certain design guidelines. That is good in some ways (less to concern yourself with) and bad in others (restrictive).

Also, Objective-C and Cocoa Touch can also lend itself to certain ways of programming.

Now, specifically for me, as a sole developer, I will probably:

  1. Jot down high level features of what I want to be included in the first version
  2. Do an interface mockup (either on paper or with a software tool)
  3. Jot down some key objects and functions (psuedo-code)
  4. Set up a source control mechanism (I think this is key)
  5. Start going at it
  6. Possible repeat of any or all of 1-3 :-)

Upvotes: 2

Daniel A. White
Daniel A. White

Reputation: 190907

I haven't done much with iPhone development, but its irrelevant. I wouldn't consider it any different from any other developmental process.

The process is different for each case, some have at it and others follow their development methodologies.

Upvotes: 2

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