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Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Date post: 11-May-2015
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As more students bring multiple smart devices to campus, the need to keep up with their needs and expectations for using these devices is more important than ever. OU has gone through multiple iterations of their App to address these new exceptions including a price increase on software and licensing and support. Those Universities with budget and staff constraints, but want to meet student expectations will benefit from this discussion. Topics will focus on strategies, lessons learned and what the future holds with Mobile.
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Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget Lori Tirpak, Oakland University, Director of Enterprise Systems Aaron Grant, Oakland University, Senior Applications Architect
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Page 1: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Lori Tirpak, Oakland University, Director of Enterprise Systems

Aaron Grant, Oakland University, Senior Applications Architect

Page 2: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

The Oakland EnvironmentSoftware, Staff and SupportGained Advantages and Strengths

The Presidential MandateOakland’s First App

HistoryWhat we learned

Apereo uMobileWhat’s Next?

Summary of Presentation

Page 3: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Survey

What mobile solutions do you have at your institution?

Page 4: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Oakland University

Located in Rochester, Michigan and has 20,000+ students.We have been focused on mobile app and development efforts

since 2010.

Page 5: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Environment

Page 6: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Portal/Mobile Team

2 Full Time Staff4 Student Java DevelopersContract with Unicon for Supporting Open Source

software

Page 7: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Key to Team Success

• Student Java Developers• Unicon Support

Page 8: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Oakland Strengths

• Heavy Adopters of Open Source

• Flexible Development Staff

• Student Developer Program

• Good Knowledge Base in Java and Web

• Good Support from Unicon

• Leadership Backing for Mobile Development

Page 9: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Oakland Weakness

• Minimal iOS / Objective C Knowledge Base

• Minimal Mobile Skill Sets in General

• Small Full-time Staff

Page 10: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Survey

Why does your institution want a mobile solution?

Page 11: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

President Mandate (2010 – 2011)

“I need an App in the Apple App Store ASAP!”

Page 12: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Go! Go! Go! Go!!!

Page 13: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Oakland’s First App (2011)

Strengths: • Created mobile

app quickly for iOS

• One stop shop for public information

• Minimal cost initially

Page 14: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Too Good to Be True…

Weaknesses:

• No long term support of app in organization

• Licensing and terms of services ignored

• Never tested for Android

• Build once deploy anywhere, too good to be true, same issues occur that plague web development on various browsers

• HTML app, not truly native, so performance and richness of services suffer on devices

Page 15: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

UTS to Save the App!

Page 16: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

What We Learned!

• We need long term support from someone, we can’t do this alone in isolation• Student reviews were coming in demanding richer,

personalized content (i.e. class schedule, grades, access to Moodle, not to have to login multiple times)• Android growing in popularity• We need a mobile expert but can’t get the full time staff

position• It would be wise to align ourselves with an emerging

solution

Page 17: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

The Mobile Menu

After the first app, we needed to re-evaluate the options we had and what we really wanted to do:• Mobile web • Larger reach to all devices• Easiest to develop and deploy• Design Choices

• jQuery Mobile (multiple views for multiple devices)• Responsive Design (one adaptive view for all devices)

Page 18: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Native Apps

• Native App• Runs quickly and has fluid interaction• Costs more and demands more time from

developers• Need to schedule releases• Working with Native SDKs

• Build Once, Deploy Anywhere App• HTML5/JS application with Native App

Wrapper• Examples:

• Appcelerator - Titanium Studio• PhoneGap

Page 19: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Survey

What mobile solutions would best fit your institution?

Page 20: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Re-evaluation

Banner Mobile Connectiono Requires application server for web service callso Technologies used Rho Mobile, Groovy, Ruby, Grailso Open Source is used, but released by Elluciano Support not available at the timeo The Commons

Apereo uMobileo Uses uPortal as its application servero The original version of uMobile used Appceleratoro Open Sourceo Support available with Unicon

Page 21: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Apereo uMobile

What is uMobile?

uMobile is a new open source initiative from the Apereo foundation (formerly Jasig) to bring campus applications, content, and data to mobile devices. The project provides a native app for iPhone and Android devices, as well as browser-based content for other smartphones.

http://www.jasig.org/umobile

Page 22: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Why Apereo uMobile

Why we selected to use Apereo uMobile?

• It was open source and the licensing was friendly

• The Apereo community is friendly and knowledgeable

• We could contribute our code to Apereo, no legacy to support!

• We could leverage knowledge of Appcelerator and JavaScript

• We could easily integrate with existing components CAS and uPortal (our SSO and portal solutions)

• Support vendor diversity in our environment

• Consistent usability between mobile web and mobile app presence

Page 23: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Prepare for uMobile

• Upgrade to our portal to uPortal 4.0o Mobile UIs baked in!o Mobile API supporto Upgrade our Portlets’ UIs for Mobile (Class Schedule,

Grades, etc to be mobile friendly)o There is a uMobile application server, if you

currently don’t have uPortal and don’t want a portal server

Page 24: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

uMobile iOS Strengths

• Easy to deploy and configure

• Uses existing uPortal content, so no need to develop separate content specifically for the mobile app

• Open Source community supported, new updates were coming in that we didn’t need to patch

• Students could log in to check e-mail, grades, class information, and use SSO links to other OU services

• Extendable framework allowing for dynamic mobile content

• Students were already use to the portal and could easily find everything since uMobile had the same look and feel.

Page 25: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

uMobile iOS Release (2012)

Prior to this release only 700 downloads occurred over a 5 month period of the old app.

This new release quickly grabbed the attention of our students and only months later we had over 4000 downloads.

Page 26: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Android Titanium App (2012)

+ =

Page 27: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Android Native App (2012)

OU student developers created a native Android solution.

Page 28: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

What Did We Learn?

• We learned that build once deploy anywhere is a good idea. Although it is hard to implement perfectly.• Test often and as early as you can on all mobile devices you want to

deploy to. Find potential roadblocks early in the process (This will save you time and headaches!)

• Students want a different experience in the app than what they get with mobile web. They want an app that responds quickly.

• This sector of IT is moving FAST and we have to learn to adapt quickly and not be afraid to abandon apps.

Page 29: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

What Did We Learn About Ourselves?

• Student developers are a huge asset when properly trained and guided. Mentoring and coaching are key!

• Working with Apereo and a supportive vendor such as Unicon accelerated the process dramatically.

• Appcelerator increased the cost of support contracts in 2014 (Do we have the budget???)

Page 30: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

What’s Next at OU?

The support cost increase for Appcelerator were too high and we had to re-evaluate again…

Oakland University is evaluating the next solution for replacing our “aging” mobile apps.

• PhoneGap• Native iOS and Android• The code will be contributed back to

Apereo for anyone to use.

Page 31: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Apereo Responsive Design in uPortal 4.1

Apereo is rewriting the UI to be completely responsive with Twitter Bootstrap 3.

Page 32: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Native Apps vs Phonegap Apps

Our Research Findings about Native Apps:• Native Apps are Faster, more flexible, and have more

functionality• Easier to stay up to date with new device and OS releases• Easier to debug• Easier to find help online (Stack Overflow, support forums)• Apple’s Objective C has been a learning curve, but our

developers found it easier to use than we anticipated.

Page 33: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

What we learned about PhoneGap

• Better Suited for a Smaller Staff with Limited Resources • Limited Plugins Choices

• Official vs. Third Party (Long Term Support Issue??)• Plugins written in OS Native Languages

• Renders Slower Due to Abstraction and Large Payloads• When writing an HTML5 app evaluate the JS framework

that is best equipped for your solution (Backbone, Angular, etc.)• http://readwrite.com/2014/02/06/angular-backbone-ember-best-javascript-framework-for-you#awesm

=~oxpvZx1L8Lwg7F

• Debugging is a PAIN

Page 34: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

OU Mobile Traffic Is Growing!

From 2013 to 2014:• Android 127% Growth

• iOS (iPhone/iPad) 78% Growth

• Desktop -5% Growth

Mobile is Growing Rapidly

Page 35: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

OU Mobile Market 2014 Share

From OU’s Google Analytics:• iOS 64%

• Android 35%

• Windows .5%

• Blackberry .2%

• Over 11,500 iOS and 3,700 for Android downloads at OU

• Due to these stats we are only targeting iPhones, iPads, and Android devices.

Page 36: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

US Smartphone Sales 2013

• Android 79% up 15%

• iOS 14% down 4%

• Microsoft 3% up 1%

• Blackberry 3% down 2%

Based on new smartphone sales in 2013 (Source: Garner)http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2573415

Page 37: Agile Mobile Strategies on a Shoestring Budget

Get Involved!

Apereo uMobilehttp://www.jasig.org/umobileJoin the mailings: http://www.jasig.org/umobile/mailing-lists Annual Conference coming up June 1st – 4th, 2014 in Miami:http

://www.apereo.org/content/now-open-call-proposals-open-apereo-2014-apereosakaijasig

Educause Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR) Mobile Strategy and Application Development(ECAR-MSAD)http://www.educause.edu/ecar/ecar-working-groups


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