Mobile application monitoring rules the day
How to overcome mobile challenges: poor visibility, reliance on third-party services, and especially - vocal social users with opinions!
Chances are, your enterprise is funneling more budget into mobile application development and support. But have you begun investing more mindshare in mobile apps, as well? The bulk of operations will shift to supporting mobile apps over all others, and you must reframe your thinking so you’re ready for the brave new world of mobile.
Mobile applications roll up all of the Ops team’s arch enemies: limited visibility, reliance on third-party services, rapid user adoption, and socially active users whose opinions reverberate through the web. Ops teams must make mobile monitoring the rule and desktop apps the exception. Here’s how.
Step 1: Anticipate your blind spots
Mobile users are anywhere and everywhere, with devices running various operating systems. The dev cycle is runs in overdrive. You rely on third parties for things like geo-location services. Content distribution networks and wireless service providers will likely influence how users experience your app. There are two ways to navigate potential blind spots. These include one, instrument the mobile app with your monitoring vendor’s JavaScript to enable transaction tracing across the whole value delivery chain; and two, monitor apps from various locations so you can pinpoint problems such as wireless service anomalies.
Step 2: Collaborate with the lines of business
Meet regularly with the lines of business—especially marketing peers. Surfacing potential usage spikes will help you prepare to support and monitor them. Develop contingency plans in advance, not the day your users jump from 10,000 to 100,000. Appoint one Ops member as your single point of contact with the CMO and marketing team.
Step 3: Collaborate with the apps team
After reaching out to the lines of business, collaborate closely with the apps team. Ensure their testing matches the monitoring you’ll perform, including performance, load and functionality testing. Spell out the standards you expect the app to meet before you’ll give it the green light. Hold a “release” meeting with Dev to become familiar with the application and its requirements/functionality, performance and security.
Step 4: Find stability
Finally, reach out to the security and quality assurance teams to test for security defects. Understand that users open your app on global networks, including ones that aren’t well-secured. They might install your application alongside poorly vetted apps that present a security threat all the apps on the device. With the volume of sensitive information associated with personal messages, credit card data, address books and location data, security is a top priority.
The current Discover Performance newsletter (from which this post was adapted) offers keen insights and best practices about mobility and its influence on the enterprise landscape. Sign up at the links to the right.
for many leading companies, mobile is integral component of business digitalization strategy, and mobile apps is more critical in optimizing customers' experience, shall it also be a significant part of application life cycle management, monitoring for perfprmance & risk management, to influence every touch point in customer serivice. thanks.
The mobile apps piece is critically important. Airlines use them to communicate with and rebook passengers. Package carriers use them to communicate with truck drivers and high volume shippers. There is no excuse for not having location independent communication. So I think your point of collaborating with the lines of business is important.
In the end, though, it's how persuasively IT reaches out and the resources and effort they put behind mobile app development. They have only so many shots at this.
