Mobile App for a Delivery Marketplace

The company provides general delivery services, acting as an intermediary between:

• individual customers who purchase products and goods online and want it to be delivered by a courier,
• and vendors that sell those products and goods and have to deliver them by means of 3rd-party couriers.

To meet the demands of both parties, the company used a web application built on .NET and hosted in the cloud (Azure).

While developing a strategy for entering the same-day delivery market, the Client realized the limitation of the current web-based solution. It lacked real-time access for couriers who had to receive order details immediately after purchase.

To bring the strategy to life smoothly, the company's IT department suggested developing a new mobile app both for iOS and Android.

Choosing Xamarin as a guarantee of minimal cost and quick delivery

To develop a mobile app both for iOS and Android, the company opted for Xamarin as it could meet 2 major goals:

1. Xamarin guarantees minimal development cost. Based on Belitsoft’s expertise, we know that Xamarin-based cross-platform software development may reach 30% budget saving compared to developing native apps for Android and iOS. Besides, the company has a web app and the entire tech stack based on .NET. As a result, the same developers can work both on the backend and mobile sides, which reduces expenses on development and maintenance.
2. Xamarin ensures the shortest time to market. The product delivery time reduces as developers write code once and use it for both iOS and Android instead of writing code for different platforms separately.

Tech stack

• Xamarin Native. This framework is considered a classic approach in Xamarin development. It supports the development of a native User Interface for each OS with fast performance and great responsiveness.
• Xamarin.Forms. This is the framework used for MVP due to 2X faster delivery compared to Xamarin Native. It allows building a shared User Interface both for iOS, Android, and other platforms.
• MvvmCross. The framework for fast and smooth transitioning from Xamarin.Forms to Xamarin Native, and vice versa.

Support of multiple API integrations

• Integration with SignalR, the open-source library for .NET, for adding real-time functionality to applications. It was used to implement chat functionality and real-time data updates. 
• Integration with SQLite C-language database library and Realm mobile database, for storing and managing data locally, on the users' mobile phones, to prevent data losses in case of losing internet connection.
• Integration with Firebase, Google-backed application development software, that provides user tracking analytics.
• Integration with Google Maps.
• Integration with ZXing, 1D/2D barcode image processing library, for supporting the codes on parcels that couriers scan upon pickup to get delivery details (parcel contents, destination, contact data).

Applying both Scrum and Kanban methodology

The Kanban methodology is based on full transparency of the entire development process, when every stage is entirely defined in advance.

Scrum as a subset of the Agile methodology was selected by the team to break work into small periods (sprints). The aim was to bring value to the business incrementally every 1-2 sprints.

As typical of Scrum project management, the team comprised a project manager, product owner, Scrum master, and other cross-functional team members.

Xamarin development process

Step 1. Carrying out a Proof of Concept

The team created a Proof of Concept (POC) to prove its technical feasibility, including validation of using Xamarin and selecting between Xamarin.Forms and Xamarin Native for building an MVP.

Step 2. Building a Minimum Viable Product

The primary goal was to develop a stable and scalable Minimum Viable Product (MVP) version of the app.

A team of full-stack developers built an MVP working on frontend, and backend simultaneously.

The MVP was written on Xamarin.Forms to speed up the MVP development process twice compared to writing an app from scratch on Xamarin Native.

Such a quick solution allowed the company to meet their primary goal - to launch a new service with minimal resources and in the shortest possible time.

After a successful launch of an MVP,  the number of customers significantly grew up, generating higher profit. It allowed the company to allocate an additional budget for migrating Xamarin.Forms to Xamarin Native for further app optimization.

Step 3. Migration to Xamarin Native

The goal of the company's top management was to minimize the cost of the app maintenance in the long-term.

The team could achieve the goal by migrating to Xamarin Native. That allowed developers to avoid some critical bugs that were typical of Xamarin.Forms and were hard to investigate and fix. As a result, the team saved time on further updates, fixes, and maintenance.

Both Xamarin Native and Xamarin.Forms support shared business logic. That's why, when migrating to Xamarin Native, such components as platform-independent ViewModels, a base class library, business logic, and a data layer remained the same.

For smooth and quick migration, the team applied a cross-platform MvvmCross framework.

Migration to Xamarin Native from Xamarin.Forms allowed the company to save budget in the long run. Today, the app is under long-term maintenance.

Step 4. Software testing and Quality Assurance

Throughout the entire development process, the team was applying different types of software testing to ensure smooth work of the newly developed mobile app:

• Smoke testing for detecting defects in the app functionality at early stages of the development process;
• Unit testing for checking the performance of separate parts of the app independently;
• End-to-end testing for checking the app's flow from beginning to end, ensuring that all integrated pieces work together as expected;
• Regression testing for ensuring the smooth work of the app after adding every new feature.

Thanks to rapid Xamarin development, the company received a mobile application built with a modern user interface and functionality. Besides, it was launched on the date that the company was shooting for.

After entering the same-day delivery market with a new mobile app, the business has experienced steady growth both of customers and employees.

Customers appreciate a convenient same-day delivery service available through the app.