As the workforce becomes wireless so does the ... - Connect-World

Wireless application performancewhich should, somehow, be relevant to ‘inperson’ performance. There are companiesthat have successfully done this. If youproperly implement performance bestpractices, you can achieve this.It’s not a simple matter of mimickingyour website on a mobile device. Youhave to rethink the experience from thevery beginning, understanding how yourcustomer wants to approach your site andmaking sure it performs at every level ofthe end-user experience.Decisions about writing your applicationfor generic web vs. native applications arevery important to performance. Androidvs. iPhone vs. iPad; users on these devicesnot only require different visual workflowapproaches, but also different performanceapproaches. How quickly a screen rendersand provides useful information arecritical decisions because every secondthat a user waits increases the likelihoodof application-abandonment, which thenincreases the possibility of customer churn.You need to design, code and test yourapplication in a way that considersperformance across device, browser,location and backend datacenter. End-toendperformance visibility when developingand deploying applications is critical.Let me give another example: A couple ofmonths ago I had the pleasure of meetingwith a CIO of an enterprise with a mobilepresence and store. The evening beforemy visit, I sat with my Android attemptingto purchase an item on his slow website.I finally gave up and decided to try acompetitive website.Finding this to be a much fasterexperience, I ultimately bought from thecompetitor. The next day at the meetingI confessed this transgression. The CIOfirst gave me a dirty look and then lookedacross the table at his technical staffand demanded an explanation on theperformance of their web-store.Their answer was: “We know. It’s onthe list.” As the meeting progressed, itbecame obvious that all issues relatedto performance were ‘on the list’. Bythe end of the meeting these issuessuddenly had ‘business priority’ and wereto be addressed very quickly. Being aprogrammer I felt bad for the technicalstaff but I did feel better that now theyhad upper management’s attention toaddress performance issues that had beenconsidered low-priority.I’ve talked to quite a few CIOs, andquite frankly, I have been amazed howuninformed many of them are about theperformance of their web-presence overwireless. In instances where they wereaware of performance issues and strugglingfor solutions, I found that most of theirproblems were due to lack of applyingbasic performance best practices whilebuilding their applications.Sometimes it was due to lower-skilleddevelopers or lack of proper performancetesting before deployment. Sometimesit’s just a lack of realization that manyapplications are put together from services‘in the cloud’ and congregated within theend device. These composite applicationsare quickly becoming the norm and notthe exception and understanding how somany piece-parts affect performance is veryimportant.When building enterprise applicationsfor wireless deployment, consider thefollowing:Location performance: Are your userslikely to be in motion while using yourapplication, crossing provider boundariesand moving away from the location of yourcontent? Monitor from different regionsand make sure you can compensate forslower areas by optimizing your applicationor utilizing content delivery networks.Cloud content: Understanding whereall your content is coming from is veryimportant. Third-party providers oftenrely on the cloud to provide contentwhich may not always provide predictableperformance. Your user will only knowthat your app is slow, not some otherprovider, so make sure you test andmonitor these providers and insist onservice level agreements.Wireless device performance differences:With so many devices, operating systemsand browsers available, understandingwhat your customers are using is the firstconsideration. Optimize for the mostpopular devices but also make sure that youare not losing customers who may be onniche devices.The application itself: Implement bestpracticesbefore you begin the codingeffort. Make sure that testing is done ateach iteration in the development of theapp. Build the application modularly sothat piece-parts can be disseminated anddeployed in a way for optimal performance.The back-end services such as databases,web-servers, and load-balancers all needtesting and monitoring. Techniques thatimprove performance often seem morelike art than science, but with continuouseducation on the topic you’ll come to findthat it’s just another engineering exercise.There are many books and websitesdevoted to performance. You need tounderstand all the technical techniques andoptions available to design your wirelessweb presence to perform and scale. It takestime and discipline but in the end it’s goingto pay off with happy customers.Finally, YOU! Have a ‘passion forperformance’. It’s not easy; there are manymoving parts to an enterprise wirelessapplication, but the attention you payto the details will pay off. It’s true that“Time is Money” both in application andhuman performance. Make sure yourbosses understand the business value ofperformance tuning and monitoring.Imagine it’s a Friday afternoon and I’mready to buy that new guitar I’ve beensaving for.I can either:Get in my car, fight my way throughconstruction to the mall, park a quartermileaway, confront a navigation nightmaremaking my way to the store, wait foreverfor someone to help me while theycomplain about my choice of songs topractice on (What, you don’t like “Thick asa Brick?”).or:Turn on my smart device, find a welldesigned,fast-performing mobile store,virtually play the instrument, research andblog about my preferences, select what Iwant and have it delivered the next day.If you build that app, let me know. I’ll befirst in the queue at your store. That is, ifit’s a finely-tuned, performing website! •30 • North America 2010