Mobile DevOps is a thing!

Sudeep is the Lead Mobile Developer at Neo Financial, a Canadian financial technology company that reimagines the way people spend, save, and earn rewards — and how they help users make the most out of their time and money using today’s technologies.

With Russell Stephens, Engineering Manager at Bitrise, we talked to Sudeep about how the mobile team behind Canada’s main challenger bank approaches release strategy. Sudeep also shares how the team evolved from ad-hoc releases whenever they had a new feature to the stable bi-weekly release train that they have today.

Tune in to learn about how to

• streamline the release process using today’s tools and technologies
• increase efficiency as a startup that is operating with limited time and resources
• remain agile in the heavily regulated environment of finance and banking
• hire the best engineers you can trust to make decisions for the team
• make sure your fintech app is ready for the future

In Mobile DevOps is a thing! we showcase developers and their processes and learn about the ways in which mobile development processes differ and overlap, through the lens of Mobile DevOps. The aim? Learning how to be more productive and build better apps, whatever technology you might be using. For this, however, we need your help too — if you have any questions or topics in mind that you would love to hear about in our upcoming podcasts, let us know on Twitter, or through email.

In Mobile DevOps is a thing! we showcase developers and their processes and learn about the ways in which mobile development processes differ and overlap, through the lens of Mobile DevOps. The aim? Learning how to be more productive and build better apps, whatever technology you might be using. For this, however, we need your help too — if you have any questions or topics in mind that you would love to hear about in our upcoming podcasts, let us know on Twitter, or through email.

Adam is the Principal Engineer for the Bankline Mobile Team, within Commercial Banking at NatWest Group, one of the UK’s (and the world’s) largest banking groups. With his team, he’s working on building Bankline Mobile, a secure, customer-facing mobile app that complements their Bankline service.

With Russell Stephens, Engineering Manager at Bitrise, we talked to Adam about the behind-the-scenes aspects of creating a top-quality banking app — from optimizing release strategies to how they keep compliant with constantly changing security requirements. We also chatted about the emergence of fintech apps and discussed what traditional banks can learn from them when it comes to mobile development and vice versa.

Key talking points:

• Security: what technologies need to be implemented to make sure a finance or banking app is always secure?
• Do these strict regulations affect the time of planning and /getting approval for new features and releasing them?
• Release strategy: is there such a thing as the optimal frequency of releases?
• Innovation and upcoming technologies: what do you think will add the most value to mobile finance and banking and why?

• Udemy’s Mobile Development Courses: https://www.udemy.com/courses/development/mobile-apps/
• Ray Wenderlich: https://www.raywenderlich.com/

Angie Jones works as Head of Developer Relations at Applitools and is the founder and Executive Director of Test Automation University. She’s previously worked as a Senior Software Developer at Twitter and regularly gives talks about Javascript, software development, and testing best practices. To learn more about her work and upcoming projects, you can follow Angie on her Twitter profile or check out her courses at Test Automation University.

We discussed the must-have practices engineering teams should implement into their processes, along with the different challenges that can arise in software testing and the tips & tricks to solve them. We also looked at Angie’s maturity framework that helps teams measure how advanced they are and enables them to reach a high level of maturity in DevTestOps.

Some of the most interesting questions we covered in this episode:

• What role will AI play in software testing and how will it impact the day-to-day work of developers?
• Which should definitely be automated and which ones are still better done manually?
• What is your opinion about the future of codeless testing tools and their effects on the test engineers' role?
• How to scale and look after an ever-growing test suite?
• How to choose between native and cross-platform mobile test automation frameworks?

• Angie’s website: https://angiejones.tech/
• Test Automation University: https://testautomationu.applitools.com/ 
• The Future Tester, by Jason Arbon: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-tester-jason-arbon/

PJ is a Google Developer Expert for Firebase from Johannesburg, South Africa. He’s a vocal advocate for Mobile DevOps with over 10 years of experience in mobile development. PJ regularly blogs and gives talks at meetups and conferences about topics such as creating and optimizing CI/CD pipelines and other best practices. You can follow him on Twitter at pjapplez or check out his projects on Medium.

We focused on the challenges related to Android DevOps and how they can be solved by using the right tools and technologies. Throughout his years of consultancy experience, PJ has come up with a so-called “roadmap to mobile success”, with the necessary components for creating a successful CI pipeline: including branching release strategies, code reviews, app architecture, code coverage, and static code analysis. We discussed how these components fit into automation and the CI/CD process and what steps developers can take to reach success on mobile.

About this podcast

In Mobile DevOps is a thing! we showcase developers and their processes and learn about the ways in which mobile development processes differ and overlap, through the lens of Mobile DevOps. The aim? Learning how to be more productive and build better apps, whatever technology you might be using. For this, however, we need your help as well — if you have any questions or topics in mind that you would love to hear about in our upcoming podcasts, let us know on Twitter, or through email.

Show notes & resources

• Medium: https://medium.com/@pjwelcome
• Twitterhttps://twitter.com/pjapplez
• Github: https://github.com/pjwelcome
• Google Developer Experts: https://developers.google.com/community/experts/directory/profile/profile-peter-john-welcome
• Android Weekly: https://androidweekly.net/
• Swift Weekly: https://swiftweekly.com/
• iOS Dev Weekly: https://iosdevweekly.com/
• fastlane: https://fastlane.tools/

Keegan is the Lead iOS/macOS Developer at Shotflow and along with Pietro Rea, he has co-authored the recently published book, iOS App Distribution & Best Practices. The book is a how-to guide for everyone who wants to deploy apps, whether they are becoming Mobile DevOps practitioners or release managers in their team. You can follow Keegan on Twitter at rushkeegan, or on his Linkedin profile.

This time, we focused on deployment and all things related to app distribution: best practices of shipping apps to the app stores, white labeling, and everything developers need to know to manually configure CI. We talked about the main reasons why iOS app distribution is easy to learn but hard to master, and discussed neglected problems on iOS and the best ways to solve them — from Xcode, through fastlane, to release strategies and reaching maturity in continuous deployment. This episode shows developers the steps they need to take to increase their level of automation and better understand how their tools work under the hood.

In Mobile DevOps is a thing! we showcase developers and their processes and learn about the ways in which mobile development processes differ and overlap, through the lens of Mobile DevOps. The aim? Learning how to be more productive and build better apps, whatever technology you might be using. For this, however, we need your help as well — if you have any questions or topics in mind that you would love to hear about in our upcoming podcasts, let us know on Twitter, or through email.

• OWASP MASVS https://github.com/OWASP/owasp-masvs
• OWASP ASVS https://github.com/OWASP/ASVS
• OWASP SAMM https://owaspsamm.org/model/
• https://github.com/vixentael/security-data-management-for-app-devs-workshop#list-of-defensive-appsec-tools-for-mobile-apps
• https://support.apple.com/guide/security/welcome/web
• https://developer.android.com/topic/security/best-practices
• https://speakerdeck.com/vixentael/maintaining-cryptographic-library-for-12-languages
• https://dev.to/cossacklabs/automated-software-security-testing-for-devs-part-1-gcf
• https://dev.to/cossacklabs/automated-software-security-testing-for-devs-part-2-47nm
• https://dev.to/cossacklabs/automated-software-security-testing-for-devs-part-3-4711
• https://dev.to/cossacklabs/automated-software-security-testing-for-devs-part-4-18eh
  

You can find out more about Russell and his projects here, or check out their Engineering and AI blog. If you're interested in joining Compass, head to their careers page and explore their open positions.

Books and resources referenced in this episode:

• Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship, by Robert C Martin
• Refactoring — Improving the Design of Existing Code, by Martin Fowler, with Kent Beck
• Treehouse: Online courses for people of all skill levels and backgrounds
• How to UI test Push Notifications and universal links in the iOS simulator

Code References:

• https://github.com/UrbanCompass/Mussel
• https://github.com/UrbanCompass/snail

Open Source Tools:

• https://github.com/leejarvis/slop
• https://github.com/CocoaPods/Rome
• https://github.com/tmspzz/Rome
• https://github.com/Carthage/Carthage
• https://cocoapods.org/
• https://github.com/tuist/tuist
• https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/2.3.0/ERB.html

Rasmus is the Product Strategy Director at Pulselive, a Sony company that has been crafting digital experiences to connect teams, leagues, and sports federations to their fans for over a decade. The mobile team’s main motivation is to continuously build the best possible sports apps with the best UI, the best UX, built on the best code. They are doing all these things for an impressive list of clients, including AFL, Premier League, or Liverpool FC.

In this episode, we talked about how App Performance Monitoring tools can serve as a safety net by helping mobile teams notice bugs before users can. By diagnosing deep-level performance problems, APMs also help teams detect code change mistakes that can potentially cost thousands of dollars. We also discussed the special expectations sports fans have when it comes to mobile apps, what the best ways are to engage them, and how Augmented Reality can help create more immersive experiences and impact the ways we watch games, interact with our phones, and each other in the future.

You can find out more about Rasmus on his LinkedIn profile or check out more Pulselive projects on their website.

You can find out more about Mariano on his Twitter or check out his Flutter projects on his Github here.

Marcos is an iOS developer and open-source contributor from Argentina. As an active member of the Swift community in Buenos Aires, he co-organizes the SwiftBA meetups. Last year, along with Josefina Bustamante and Facundo Menzella, he also organized Swiftable, the very first English-language iOS conference in South America.

In this episode, among many other topics, you’ll hear some hands-on advice on automating mobile CI processes, automatic versioning, release strategies, and smart testing based on code changes. We also talked a bit about his open-source projects and his thoughts on WWDC and the future of the Apple ecosystem.

You can find out more about Marcos on his Twitter page or check out his past and current projects at mar.codes.

Timestamps:

• Swiftable & iOS community in South America 01:50
• Open-source contributions: 07:04
• Managing Swift libraries: 11:54
• Release strategies, testing, & user feedback: 15:55
• Running iPad and iPhone apps on Mac: 24:20
• Collaboration & DevOps: 26:54
• Thoughts on WWDC: 31:06
• Learning recommendations: 38:57

John Sundell is a well-known authority on Swift development. He's the author of the popular swiftbysundell.com website, hosts his own podcast, produces video, and is a regular speaker at conferences around the world. All with the aim of supporting and contributing to the iOS developer community.

John recently added consultancy services to his busy schedule and has been supporting mobile development teams with exciting challenges since. A recurring theme of these engagements is knowledge transfer, in the form of training, code reviews, workshops, and help with adopting automation in different phases of the development process.

During this episode, we'll dive into some of the technical details, John's unique approach to consultancy services, and we'll discover why he's not a fan of telling people what to do. We also learn how he facilitates discussions and stepping out of your comfort zone as ways to help mobile development teams progress and improve.

• Intro: 00:00
• John’s career: 00:00:51
• Consultancy for mobile teams: 00:14:44
• What is Mobile DevOps?: 00:19:25
• DevOps practices in teams: 00:24:58
• Codebase and process improvements: 00:30:30
• Tools used by John: 00:43:39
• Web and script development projects, open-source: 00:46:10
• Test coverage: 00:47:20
• Best practices for great UX: 00:58:28
• Future of DevOps: 01:05:44
• Learning recommendations: 01:08:49

This episode features special guest Joe Birch and focuses on different aspects of remote work, Mobile DevOps, and how to remain productive from home.

Joe is the Android Lead at Buffer, a Google Developer Expert, and the creator of ChordAssist, the accessible smart guitar for the blind, deaf, and mute. His experience in working from home at Buffer — an entirely remote company — and his work in the developer community give him a unique perspective on today’s changing work climate and its challenges.

Timestamps: 

11:30 Remote work
13:19 Tools for async communication
16:18 How collaboration works at Buffer
16:30 Collaboration techniques
19:44 Remote onboarding 
21:20 Learning
24:23 What does Mobile DevOps means for Joe?
26:52 What makes mobile development difficult?
30:10 Specific challenges to Android 
33:40 Do you need a DevOps engineer?
34:30 Mobile DevOps
38:00 The future of Mobile DevOps
40:10 Monitoring
41:00 Online courses
44:30 Advice for newcomers to the mobile world
45:25 Advice for people suddenly working remotely

Follow Vladimir on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vvsevolodovich?lang=en

References:

• The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford
  
• Waltzing With Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects by Tom Demarco
  
• Liquid Software: How to Achieve Trusted Continuous Updates in the DevOps World by Fred Simon, Yoav Landman, and Baruch Sadogursky
  
• Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems by Niall Richard Murphy, Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, and Jennifer Petoff
  

Mobile People Talks podcast (in Russian): https://soundcloud.com/mobilepeopletalks

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bitrise