| Zen and the Art of Mobile Software Management |
| Written by Richard Kinder – VP Technology, Red Bend |
| Tuesday, 18 August 2009 14:19 |
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In his 1974 book, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” Robert Pirsig argues that embracing both the creative, “in the moment,” and rational views of the world may afford the individual a higher quality of life. Pirsig expressed this concept through the description and exploration of a long distance motorcycle journey across the United States, contrasting the approaches toward motorcycle maintenance of the two central characters in the book. I shall explore the same concept through the medium of mobile software platform development and maintenance. Perhaps I will even succeed in drawing some parallels! Should mobile technologists strive to understand intimately the systems that they work on or instead rely on an intuitive feel for what is right and “in the moment”? Clearly, as Pirsig suggests, we need to embrace both. Without a rigorous framework and approach, a software platform becomes a “bag of bits.” On the other hand, without freedom of creative expression within such a framework, opportunities for innovation and revolution are removed. Traditional mobile software platform development has proceeded along functional lines, with clearly defined frameworks, entities and schedules of work. This gave birth to successful platforms but has arguably reduced the pace of innovation in certain areas given the inertia associated with such success. Meanwhile, the open software movement has come from the other direction of enabling “in the moment” development of new features by individuals and has struggled to shape these features into a cohesive platform. Initiatives such as the LiMo Foundation attempt to blend the best of both approaches. But what is true in all cases is that genuine innovation can and will occur, and a key challenge is to get the results of such innovation into the hands of the public, within certain constraints, as quickly as possible. Software development methodologies, release and testing processes all impact the speed with which innovation can be brought to the public. Now that we are entering a new model of mobile platform development, these should be optimized to ensure that the customer gets the latest, greatest (and hopefully) best software into their hands as soon as possible. Solving the final part of the puzzle involves defining a way for the platform and its applications to be delivered in small chunks of innovation to the customer. The industry has been hard at work at this for a while, and we are now beginning to see the adoption of the Open Mobile Alliance Device Management (OMA DM) and the Software Component Management Object (SCOMO) standards to enable the delivery of small fragments of Zen innovation to customers. Mobile Software Management (MSM) enables this ability to update software components discretely and dynamically that will result in speeding up time to market for new and exciting mobile applications, creating new business opportunities for mobile operators, device manufacturers and software developers and providing the foundation for greater consumer satisfaction with their mobile experience. Combining creativity and rigorous rational views of mobile platform development will lead to a better life for both the owners and users of these software platforms. Red Bend is working hard on software products to deliver these fragments of innovation to mobile devices. We hope that together with the LiMo Foundation, we can enable a better life for users of mobile devices through the application of controlled “in the moment” innovation! |
