January 2008

Foreword

Dear Architect,

Every day I find the pervasiveness ofmobile phones and devices just amazing, especially when I look at the projectedgrowth rate for the next few years. With this growth and the rapid advances inmobile technology, I realize that there is a very good chance that my childrenwill grow up never knowing what landline, rotary or pulse dialing really means!With any technology, software plays an important role in complementing this phenomenalgrowth of hardware, and this is the focus of this issue of The ArchitectureJournal.

To lead off this issue, Atanu Banerjeecovers many considerations and aspects of applications on mobile devices today.Following this, Kulathumani Hariharan, an architect at Tata Consultancy Services,shares best practices, tips, and recommendations that may be pertinent if youare considering taking a line-of-business application to the mobile platform. Weare then joined by Christoph Schittko, Darryl Hogan, and Jon Box as theyintroduce us to a scenario of a connected consumer experience in automotivedevices. We explore what the future of software in the automobile may look likeand some of the architectural perspectives that support this. Closely relatedto this article, we are very pleased to have our first external architectprofile in The Architecture Journal. Faisal Waris is an architecturalconsultant, working at Ford Motor Company. We ask him about some of histhoughts on architecture, especially as they relate to mobile development.

Following Faisal, Rodney Guzman ofInterKnowlogy shares some of his thoughts on mobile data architecture. Rodneyexplores some of the data challenges with occasionally connected applicationsand offers some ideas and concepts to help address data conflict resolution.Taking a deeper dive into mobile development, we are then joined by MunjalBudhabhatti from ThoughtWorks, who covers the importance of test-drivendevelopment and continuous integration, common engineering practices for many organizations,and discusses how these can be implemented for mobile applications.

We wrap up this issue with a trip toHungary with András Velvárt and Peter Smulovics to look at how Monicomp, anorganization that installs, maintains, and repairs point-of-service systems isusing an ultra-mobile PC application for their support technicians on the road.

That brings this issue to close. I hopethat some of the articles and authors help inspire mobile applicationdevelopment in your organization. We’ll be returning in the new year withJournal 15 on the “Role of an Architect,” where we’ll be taking a closer lookat the people in our profession, and putting the work that we do under themicroscope!

Simon Guest

Articles in This Issue

Architectural Considerationsfor a World of Devices

by Atanu Banerjee

Explore the architectural aspects andconsiderations in designing applications for mobile devices.

BestPractices: Extending Enterprise Applications to Mobile Devices

by Kulathumani Hariharan

Discover best practices and recommendationsfor extending enterprise applications to a mobile platform.

ConnectedConsumer Experience in Automobiles

by Christoph Schittko, Darryl Hogan, andJon Box

How can the automobile be extended tosupport more advanced software capabilities?

Explore a scenario and architecturalconsiderations for creating connected consumer experiences.

ArchitectureJournal Profile: Faisal Waris

In our first external architect profile, wechat with Faisal Waris about his role, thoughts on mobile devices, and generalarchitectural trends.

MobileData Architecture

by Rodney Guzman

What are the data challenges associatedwith occasionally connected mobile applications, and how can you overcome them?

Test-DrivenDevelopment and Continuous Integration for Mobile Applications

by Munjal Budhabhatti

Learn how test-driven development andcontinuous integration can help increase the reliability of applications, andhow both approaches work for mobile applications.

CaseStudy: Support Technicians on the Road

by András Velvárt and Peter Smulovics

Investigate a case study of how supporttechnicians on the road in Hungary benefit from a state-of-the-art mobileapplication.

Download this issue here

This article was published in the Architecture Journal, a printand online publication produced by Microsoft. For more articles from thispublication, please visit the Architecture Journal Web site.