What are the best app development companies in India?

Application Development includes research, new development, modifications, reuse, re- engineering, maintenance or any other activity that results in the finished application. As market changes, the way we do our business and spending on IT activities of our business also changes. This dynamic change not only creates pressure but also open the doors to new opportunities. Therefore today, IT giants must stay on the cutting edge of providing complex solutions with less time-to-market in an affordable manner to its customers.

iFour Technolab Pvt Ltd helps organizations to effectively manage their applications through customized solutions. We provide value to our clients by leveraging our techniques and practices to satisfy our customers’ requirements.
Some of our value adding features in our services is:

• Domain Knowledge: Our deep industry knowledge and technical expertise to deliver effective results. We provide services to reduce costs and increase productivity.
• Customized Application: Customized solutions to support individual business needs. We develop applications that are scalable, secure and easily maintainable.
• Application Maintenance Support: We ensure that our applications are working effectively and efficiently supporting all business requirements. We offer continuous maintenance and support services to ensure long term value adding to our customers.

iFour Technolab Pvt. Ltd. provides application development services in India for various platforms like web, desktop and mobile that includes iOS, Android and Windows mobile. We understand the importance of technology and platform selection and conduct a special walkthrough with customer to discuss and select the right technology platform that suits your requirement and IT infrastructure. We use cutting edge technology for application development and ensure that it is in sync with your IT infrastructure.  Throughout the project lifecycle our focus is on the organization and providing measurable results.

What are the best software companies in India?

As IT industry is emerging at pick level these days, it becomes very essential thing to choose the right company for our requirements. Best Software Company is the one which understands the customer requirements and provides best software solutions in limited budget.  I have been a part of iFour Technolab Pvt. Ltd. custom software development company since a long, I assure that this is a company which has the perfect portfolio in each specialization.

Company is providing all kinds of solutions in each platform. Having numerous skilled workforce company has deepen the roots in IT industry.  The company not only provides best software solution but also maintains a great relationship with the customer at longer period.

Here is a list of services provided by iFour Technolab Pvt. Ltd.

• Web application development
• Software development
• Software and application maintenance
• Website design and development
• Mobile application

Company uses all kinds of technologies like Microsoft .Net, android and iPhone, PHP and open source, windows media development, SharePoint development, etc. In addition to that company is at the prime location in Ahmedabad which gives huge exposure in terms of market networking.

Handling Security Issues in SDLC

ASP.NET software companies in India must take special care while developing internal web applications that are accessed from outside with the help of world wide web. Moreover the increase in personally-owned mobile devices (e.g., watch gear, smartphones, tablets, and laptops) as well as the vast variety of vulnerable mobile apps results into a higher risk of revealing highly confidential and business-related information in the workplace. This is possible when such information is stored on personally-owned devices. Cyber-attacks often exploit such vulnerabilities inherent in applications and operating systems. Hence The software code must be developed following a secure coding guidelines and frequent updates and patches to software are necessary.

Security is unquestionably mandatory and no-one can overlook that. It may take longer and including security into SDLC may result into a more complicated practice.  Nevertheless, the alternatives are not that satisfactory as there are always hackers only too eager to disrupt into systems.

The consequences of not including security within the SDLC process can be catastrophic and could cause distressing concerns for companies' status and earnings. By safeguarding SDLC, unnecessary & un-planned costs can be evaded and security matters can be tackled as there is no need to wait for threats to emerge and then having to spend money in fitting current or probable matters that could have been dodged.

Software companies in India  use secure-SDLC that focuses on enforcing security into the Software Development Life Cycle. Every phase of SDLC will emphasize the enforcement of security – over and above the present set of events. Incorporating S-SDLC into an organization’s structure has many benefits that guarantees a secure product.

The focus of asp .net software companies in India, with respect to security domain, is on phases of SDLC such as design, implementation, delivery, operation, maintenance, and retirement. Information security and privacy experts must be involved in all phases of SDLC so that the overall effectiveness of security controls with respect to privacy concerns are taken care of.

The subsequent list recognizes key security guidelines at each stage in the development life cycle for asp .net software companies in India:

• System feasibility: Pinpoint security requirements, including governing requirements, in-house policies and standards that must be looked at.
• Software plans and requirements: Recognize the vulnerabilities, threats, and risks to software. Outline the desired level of protection. Conduct a cost-benefit analysis.
• Product design: Propose for the security criteria in product design (e.g., access controls or encryption).
• Detailed design: Determine business requirements and legal obligations within the design of security controls in a product or system.
• Coding: Develop the security-related software code, comments and citations.
• Integration product: Investigate security measures and make alterations.
• Implementation: Implement any additional safety dealings prior to go-live.
• Operations and maintenance: Observe the software and system for variations in security controls. Assess current controls against newly-discovered threats and vulnerabilities. Implement proper updates and patches, when essential. Certify the complete effectiveness of application and system security.
• Product retirement: Safeguard information that was used and warehoused (i.e., archived), relocated to another database or system, or sterilized (i.e., erased) from the system.

Thus asp .net software companies in India can identify, reduce, mitigate and eliminate various security threats and adverse impacts that could be present in each stage of SDLC. It ultimately results into reduction in overall cost, efforts and time of delivering the final product or service in IT industry.

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Mobile OS Architecture Trends

The design of Mobile OS has experienced a three-phase evolution in the past decade: from the PC-based operating system to an embedded operating system to the current smart phone-oriented operating system. The Mobile OS architecture has gone from simple to complex to something in-between, while this entire evolution process. This evolution process is driven naturally by the technology advancements in the internet, as well as in software and hardware because of the advancement in the custom software development companies.

The technological advancements by web development companies have resulted in a variety of different competing mobile operating system solutions on the market driven by different actors. Few of these actors include Bada by Samsung, iOS of Apple, Android by Google, RIM’s BlackBerry OS, Symbian of Nokia, Windows Phone by Microsoft, webOS by HP and few embedded Linux distributions such as MeeGo and Maemo to mention few of them.

Some of the most popular mobile operating systems are described below:

Android OS

As of 2011, Android has the largest installed base of any mobile OS and its devices also sell more than Windows, iOS and Mac OS devices combined as of 2013 (Mahapatra, 2013). As of July 2013 the Google Play store has had over 1 million Android apps published, and over 50 billion apps downloaded (PHONEARENA, 2014). One of the developer survey conducted between April and May 2013 found that 71% of mobile developers develop for Android (DEVECO, 2013).

The layers of Android platform are as follows :

• Linux Kernel: Android relies on Linux for core system services such as process management, security, memory management, and many more.

• Android Runtime: it provides a set of core libraries which supports most of the functionality in the core Java libraries. Android Virtual Machine known as Dalvik VM relies on the Linux kernel for some underlying functionality.

• Libraries: Android includes a set of C/C++ libraries which are exposed to developers through the Android application framework including surface manager, media libraries, system C libraries, 3D libraries etc.

• Application Framework: it provides an access layer to the framework APIs used by the core applications and allows components to be used by the developers

iOS

• iOS(previously iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. and  is exclusively distributed for Apple hardware. iOS is the operating system that powers iPod Touch, iPad, Apple TV and iPhone. It promoted a new style of user interaction for limited input devices, small screen, specifically, direct manipulation. On-screen interface elements, and to perform interface operations are controlled by touch-based gestures like tap and hold, tap, swipe, and pinch. iOS is derived from Mac OS X.

iOS is made up of following  abstraction layers:

• Core OS: The kernel of the operating system including basic low-level features: system support—DNS, threads, math, sockets, memory—general security services— private/public keys, certificates, encryption— Bluetooth, sound and image processing, and external hardware management.

• Core Services: Fundamental system-services, which are subdivided in different frameworks and based on C and Objective C. IT include basic application services including SQLite, calendar events, XML support, accounts, location data management, contacts, networking,  and store purchasing. 

• Media Layer: Considers the high-level frameworks that are responsible for using graphics both 2d and 3d, video- and audio technologies.

• Cocoa Touch: The UIKIT, which is an Objective- C based framework and provides a number of functionalities that are necessary for the development of an iOS Application like the User Interface Management. Also APIs for building applications— multitasking, notifications, interface views, access to device data and touch input are included. 

Windows Phone

Windows Phone is a proprietary smart phone operating system developed by Microsoft. It is the successor to Windows Mobile, though it is incompatible with the earlier platform. Windows Phone was launched in 2010 under the name Windows Phone 7. Large number of hardware manufacturers including HTC, Samsung, LG, and Nokia are developing Windows Phone devices. Both Nokia and Microsoft announced in February 2011 that Windows Phone 7 would be the primary OS for all future Nokia smart phones. Windows Phone 7 received a major upgrade (7.5 Mango) in February 2011, adding features that had been missing in the original release. The Second generation Windows Phone 8 was released in October 2012 (NCSU, 2014).

Windows Phone 7’s architecture required a hardware layer that meets Microsoft’s minimum system requirements: a multi-touch capacitive display, 256MB RAM, a DirectX 9-capable GPU, an accelerometer, 8GB of flash memory, a compass, a 5-megapixel camera, proximity and light sensors, an A-GPS, an ARM7 CPU and six physical buttons: back, start, and search; camera, volume, and power/sleep(Windows, 2011). Windows Phone kernel handles low-level device driver access as well as basic storage, security and networking.Three libraries: a UI model for user-interface management, an App Model for application management, and a Cloud Integration module for web search via push notifications, location services ,Bing, and so on sit above the kernel (NCSU, 2014). The application-facing APIs include XNA, Silverlight, HTML/JavaScript and the Common Language Runtime (CLR) that supports C# or VB .Net applications. Kernel itself is a proprietary Windows OS design for embedded devices that combines Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3 and Windows Embedded Compact 77. Windows Phone 8 replaced the Windows CE kernel with one based on Windows NT and this is meant in part to mimic the Windows 8 desktop OS, which allows for easier porting of applications between the two operating systems, usually carried out in many application development companies.

Author Signature - Sanika Taori

Automated Software Testing and related Tools

Software testing is major part of software development life cycle in all the software development companies. There are so many methods for software testing. One method is automated software testing. The objective of automated testing is to simplify testing using minimum scripts. It uses automated software tools to run tests based on predetermined algorithms to compare the developing program’s expected outcome with the actual outcome. If both the outcomes are aligned the program is running properly otherwise there is need for improvement. If two programs are not aligned with each other you have to do changes in the code and test it again until the outcomes align.

Automated testing is best to use when you’re working on a large project, and when there are many system users. Advantages of automated testing, for the custom software development companies, are its relative quickness and effectiveness. You have to set up initial test then it’s an easy process to repeat tests, continuously fill out the same information and everything is done for you automatically.

Many open source automation testing tools are available for almost all types of testing such as functional, Web, UAT, regression, performance etc. There are several criteria’s based on which a custom software development company can select tool for doing automated testing. Those are:-

• Target Testing Team
• Application & Platform support
• Testing Types
• Programming ability
• Application Technology
• Test Data Sources
• Testing Tools Outputs
• Technical Support
• Pricing Policy

Some of the tools that can be used for doing the automated testing are:

1. Silenium

Selenium is the best option for automated testing of Websites today. It is becoming popular and it is the first choice of automation testers as well as custom software development organizations for automating the testing of Web-based applications for both the GUI as well as the functionality. It  can also be used as a unit testing tool for JavaScript. Silenium  is package of various test components.  Selenium has following three modes for executing the test cases and test suites: Record-Playback mode (Selenium IDE)‏, Selenium Remote Control (RC) Mode, Test Runner Mode.

2. Watir

Watir is a set of Ruby libraries for automating web browsers. It  allows to write tests that are easy to read and maintain. It drives browsers the same way people do and also checks results such as whether expected text appears on the page. It is open source.

3. Windmill

Windmill is web application testing tool.  It supports cross-browser test recorder, JavaScript integration and an interactive shell to automate web browsers. It is open source.

4. SoapUI

SoapUI is a tool for automation of web application testing. SoapUI is available as a free open source edition as well as a commercial Pro edition.

5. Tellurium

Tellurium is a web automation tool that allows you to design and write your automated tests using plain English without any scripting or programming experience. It has a full library of “Plain English” commands – plus the ability to create your own – Tellurium’s natural language makes it easy for everyone to read and write advanced automated tests. No programming experience is required.

6. QTP

HP QTP uses Visual Basic Scripting  for automating the applications. Scripting Engine is available as a part of the Windows OS thus it is not installed exclusively.

Thus, for doing automated testing, a custom software development company have to analyse each tool in detail and as per requirement you have to choose best tool which fulfils all the criteria.

            

 Author Signature - Venu Majmudar

Risk Management in Custom Software Development in India

Now a days, many software development companies in India use custom software for their critical business activities like inventory management, customer management, human resource management, financial management etc. Basically custom software development means developing software for particular client as per his specific needs his requirements. All the organizations have different working structure thus they have different needs, for satisfying this type of varying requirements trend of custom software development in India has come. These software are costlier compare to other normal software and risk involved in making it is also higher. As it is made for specific client if it dose not work properly it can not be used anywhere else.

For safety purpose and effective planning custom software development companies should include risk management process while making plan for developing custom software. Risk management  allows to identify your projects strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Risk management is basically an approach in which we explore identify, analyse and mitigate the risks that can affect our project. By planning for an unexpected event you can avoid it when it arises. As custom software are high on cost,  it is very beneficial to identify all their risks related to cost, time, quality ,changing requirements to avoid failure. By identifying, avoiding and dealing with potential risks in advance, you ensure that your employees can respond effectively when challenges emerge and require intervention.

Major problem in custom software development is that the scope is creep. As it is created as per requirements it can be changed during the project development phase and it is difficult to deal with changing requirements. If we have made proper risk management plan it includes all the unplanned situation which can be arise. The risks associated with custom software application development can be minimized by following time-tested and widely accepted software development methodologies like Incremental, Prototyping and Spiral. Prototyping allows the developers to create prototype and test run it to see whether it can deliver the desired result. It is best way to avoid risk related to unsuccessful implementation.

Some of the benefits of risk management are it validates and communicates project progress and risks, Evaluate and quantify project progress against benchmark, ensure project accountability and benchmark, clarify accuracy and relevance of project etc.

Microsec implements custom software development. Allday, a technology company needed one software for their daily activity recording. Allday Time Systems has specialized in the accurate recording of staff working hours since the very earliest days of mechanical clock machines, right up to today's SAAS options for Public Sector, Hospitality and Retail. Their proposed modern software solution - central to long-term strategy - was on the drawing board, and they needed the right type of custom development partner to help them build it out. Microsec provided them solution. Company included all the aspects of related risks and how o mitigate them. It implemented software successfully. The finished platform specified and delivered by Microsec was based on SQL Server 2008, and utilising Windows Forms, VB.NET, C#, TCP/IP, Microsoft Remoting, and HTTP which is as per clients needs.

Thus,all the custom software development companies should include best practice of risk management for successful project development.

Author Signature : Venu Majmudar