BLOG
Author : Rajat Singhal
Date: 09 January 2024
I am currently building a brand-new OTT application that is hosted inside an ecosystem that has not been released to the public yet and one that changes quite often.
This article presents some of my experiences and the approaches that I developed during the building of this app.
To make it easy to refer to the app and the ecosystem, I will give them fictitious names – Neo (Greek for ‘new’) for the app and Noris (Greek for ‘early’) for the ecosystem – attempting to reflect the state that they are in.
Projects are often classified based on the stage that they are in, such as
And so on…
The way one develops and delivers good robust working software in each of the above types of projects can vary drastically.
For example,
Where do we fit?
Developing Neo using the preview versions of Noris and the underlying new Linux operating system presents a scenario where the underlying ecosystem itself is nascent and changing rapidly. This can be quite an experience and a challenge of a different level for most software developers.
Below are some guidelines, tips & strategies that I have personally started using and sharing with my team on such projects.
How to be Agile in such projects
Agile is a very popular methodology used for most software projects largely because it is very lightweight due to its self-organizing approach, flexible and adaptive to rapidly changing requirements, and self-improving due to its iterative and introspective operation style.
All the above are not only important in Neo but extremely crucial as each aspect is a more acute concern in such a rapidly changing environment. Below are a few ways I have customized the Agile process for my team and got more juice.
Use Test Driven Development (TDD) or FDD?
Nothing wrong with TDD, but a ‘Forum Driven Development’ (FDD) might also be useful here.
FDD is my funny way of saying: Check the Noris community forum first thing each morning before continuing development tasks. And one should even check it multiple times a day.
We are dealing with a completely new SDK that sits on top of a completely new operating system. There are hundreds of developers facing the same problem statements and ‘how-to-solve’ situations. And there is no ‘Stack Overflow’ knowledge base yet! So, what can we do?
Become Linux Friendly
Just looking at the sheer number of Noris forum questions on topics like simulator, emulator, terminal, shell and similar keywords tells me that this is primarily a Unix/Linux world.
Also, Noris has rolled out support for only Ubuntu and MacOS, both of which are Unix-based operating systems.
Lastly, the underlying OS is their own Linux based OS. So for that extra edge, better brush up on the *nix stuff.
Below are two very good free eBooks out there that should help:
One final note I tell all our Windows ‘fanbois’: Forget any hopes of getting a Windows dev environment anytime soon. Any query to Noris will be met with a quick response: Be Ubuntu; be MacOS; Hell! At least be dual-booted w/ Ubuntu, else be dead! I even boldly attempted to go where no Noris developer has gone before. [Where_no_man_has_gone_before]. I mean I even tried to get it working on WSL2, and only got close but no cigar.
So, become friends with Linux!
About React Native
Just a couple of thoughts here for now:
Perspectives are different ways of looking at the same things. Below is a growing list of perspectives I keep on Noris projects. These are a must for anybody in similar situations.
Developing apps in a rapidly changing ecosystem is tricky and how you look at each situation and find the resolution in a time-bound manner is critical. The above perspectives helped me come up with innovative solutions like the ones mentioned in the earlier sections.
Hope they do the same for you!
Rajat Singhal, Head of Engineering
Rajat is an experienced technologist with close to 3 decades in the IT industry. During his long career, he has made some significant achievements, for instance, managing the software product development for a $100+ mil annual revenue-generating financial product, building & selling healthcare software to a Fortune 500 company, and building an e-commerce platform from scratch for a $30 million annual revenue automobile spare parts dealership. In the past, he has also spent over 11 years at global icons like Corel, Cisco, and Thomson Reuters in the US/Canada.
In his spare time, Rajat likes to listen to music, strum the guitar, and binge-watch crime shows.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Stay up to date on latest trend in video tech
Related Posts
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © LOGITUIT 2024
To provide the best experiences, logituit.com use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
