We welcomed Sudeep Sidhu from Neo Financial and talked about optimizing release strategy and how they evolved from pushing ad-hoc feature releases to having a stable, bi-weekly release train.

Sudeep is the Lead Mobile Developer at Neo Financial, a Canadian financial technology company that reimagines the way people spend, save, and earn rewards — and how they help users make the most out of their time and money using today’s technologies.

With Russell Stephens, Engineering Manager at Bitrise, we talked to Sudeep about how the mobile team behind Canada’s main challenger bank approaches release strategy. Sudeep also shares how the team evolved from ad-hoc releases whenever they had a new feature to the stable bi-weekly release train that they have today.

Tune in to learn about how to

In Mobile DevOps is a thing! we showcase developers and their processes and learn about the ways in which mobile development processes differ and overlap, through the lens of Mobile DevOps. The aim? Learning how to be more productive and build better apps, whatever technology you might be using. For this, however, we need your help too — if you have any questions or topics in mind that you would love to hear about in our upcoming podcasts, let us know on Twitter, or through email.

In this episode, we welcomed Antoine van der Lee as our special guest. This time, our focus was on app quality: how to follow up with user feedback, make sure the app constantly evolves, and other tips and tricks to create a top-notch user experience.

Antoine is an iOS Developer at WeTransfer and the author of SwiftLee, a weekly blog about Xcode and Swift development. WeTransfer solves a problem many of us face: it enables users to transfer large-sized files, such as photos, videos, PDFs, and more — from the web or right from your phone.

With Russell Stephens, Engineering Manager at Bitrise, we talked to Antoine about all the work that goes into building highly-rated, innovative mobile apps — their main app, WeTransfer and their more recent app, WeTransfer Collect, are continuously rated above 4.5 stars in the app stores.

Tune in to learn about

In Mobile DevOps is a thing! we showcase developers and their processes and learn about the ways in which mobile development processes differ and overlap, through the lens of Mobile DevOps. The aim? Learning how to be more productive and build better apps, whatever technology you might be using. For this, however, we need your help too — if you have any questions or topics in mind that you would love to hear about in our upcoming podcasts, let us know on Twitter, or through email.

In this episode of Mobile DevOps is a thing! we’re focusing on the challenges of building mobile apps in the finance and banking industry with Adam Law from NatWest Group.

Adam is the Principal Engineer for the Bankline Mobile Team, within Commercial Banking at NatWest Group, one of the UK’s (and the world’s) largest banking groups. With his team, he’s working on building Bankline Mobile, a secure, customer-facing mobile app that complements their Bankline service.

With Russell Stephens, Engineering Manager at Bitrise, we talked to Adam about the behind-the-scenes aspects of creating a top-quality banking app — from optimizing release strategies to how they keep compliant with constantly changing security requirements. We also chatted about the emergence of fintech apps and discussed what traditional banks can learn from them when it comes to mobile development and vice versa.

Key talking points:

In this podcast episode, we talked to Applitools’ Angie Jones about all things related to test automation: tools, best practices, how to reach a higher level of DevTestOps, what role AI will play in software testing, and a lot more.

Angie Jones works as Head of Developer Relations at Applitools and is the founder and Executive Director of Test Automation University. She’s previously worked as a Senior Software Developer at Twitter and regularly gives talks about Javascript, software development, and testing best practices. To learn more about her work and upcoming projects, you can follow Angie on her Twitter profile or check out her courses at Test Automation University.

We discussed the must-have practices engineering teams should implement into their processes, along with the different challenges that can arise in software testing and the tips & tricks to solve them. We also looked at Angie’s maturity framework that helps teams measure how advanced they are and enables them to reach a high level of maturity in DevTestOps.

Some of the most interesting questions we covered in this episode:

In this podcast episode, we talked to Google Developer Expert Peter-John Welcome about his experience in Android DevOps, the roadmap to mobile success and the steps developers need to take to get there.

PJ is a Google Developer Expert for Firebase from Johannesburg, South Africa. He’s a vocal advocate for Mobile DevOps with over 10 years of experience in mobile development. PJ regularly blogs and gives talks at meetups and conferences about topics such as creating and optimizing CI/CD pipelines and other best practices. You can follow him on Twitter at pjapplez or check out his projects on Medium.

We focused on the challenges related to Android DevOps and how they can be solved by using the right tools and technologies. Throughout his years of consultancy experience, PJ has come up with a so-called “roadmap to mobile success”, with the necessary components for creating a successful CI pipeline: including branching release strategies, code reviews, app architecture, code coverage, and static code analysis. We discussed how these components fit into automation and the CI/CD process and what steps developers can take to reach success on mobile.

About this podcast

In Mobile DevOps is a thing! we showcase developers and their processes and learn about the ways in which mobile development processes differ and overlap, through the lens of Mobile DevOps. The aim? Learning how to be more productive and build better apps, whatever technology you might be using. For this, however, we need your help as well — if you have any questions or topics in mind that you would love to hear about in our upcoming podcasts, let us know on Twitter, or through email.

Show notes & resources

About Keegan

Keegan is the Lead iOS/macOS Developer at Shotflow and along with Pietro Rea, he has co-authored the recently published book, iOS App Distribution & Best Practices. The book is a how-to guide for everyone who wants to deploy apps, whether they are becoming Mobile DevOps practitioners or release managers in their team. You can follow Keegan on Twitter at rushkeegan, or on his Linkedin profile.

This time, we focused on deployment and all things related to app distribution: best practices of shipping apps to the app stores, white labeling, and everything developers need to know to manually configure CI. We talked about the main reasons why iOS app distribution is easy to learn but hard to master, and discussed neglected problems on iOS and the best ways to solve them — from Xcode, through fastlane, to release strategies and reaching maturity in continuous deployment. This episode shows developers the steps they need to take to increase their level of automation and better understand how their tools work under the hood.

In Mobile DevOps is a thing! we showcase developers and their processes and learn about the ways in which mobile development processes differ and overlap, through the lens of Mobile DevOps. The aim? Learning how to be more productive and build better apps, whatever technology you might be using. For this, however, we need your help as well — if you have any questions or topics in mind that you would love to hear about in our upcoming podcasts, let us know on Twitter, or through email.

In this episode, we talked to cybersecurity expert Anastasiia Voitova about all things related to mobile app security: from the first and most important steps teams should take to prevent potential attacks to reaching a high level of DevSecOps maturity. Besides working at Cossack Labs as Head of Customer Solutions, where she builds data security tools that help companies protect sensitive data, Anastasiia also regularly talks about security & cryptography at conferences and is a community leader of WomenWhoCode Kyiv.

In this episode, we talked about all aspects of app security: the benefits of integrating end-to-end security checks, zero-knowledge and zero-trust architectures, and cryptography best practices. We also discussed how mobile teams getting started with app security should approach the implementation of these practices, such as data encryption, authentication, dependency management, secure coding, etc. There are plenty of low-effort, high-reward steps they can take, enabling them to proactively prevent security incidents. We also asked for Anastasiia's opinion on what the future holds when it comes to app security and how she expects these practices to evolve in the coming years.

Show notes:

In this episode, we talked to Russell about his team’s CI journey, from the struggles of hosting an on-premise Jenkins solution to building a cutting-edge case of mobile infrastructure on Bitrise. We explored how their responsibilities have shifted from the team to the platform: whether it’s a beta build or delivering to the app stores, the team now has the entire process of building, testing, code signing, and shipping automated. We also discussed how the switch has impacted their day-to-day job, their team structure, and how it resulted in an increase in agility and productivity.

You can find out more about Russell and his projects here, or check out their Engineering and AI blog. If you're interested in joining Compass, head to their careers page and explore their open positions.

Books and resources referenced in this episode:

Code References:

Open Source Tools:

In this episode, we talked to Rasmus Larsson about new technologies from App Performance Monitoring to building engaging apps for sports fans, and integrating Augmented Reality or App Clips into iOS apps.

Rasmus is the Product Strategy Director at Pulselive, a Sony company that has been crafting digital experiences to connect teams, leagues, and sports federations to their fans for over a decade. The mobile team’s main motivation is to continuously build the best possible sports apps with the best UI, the best UX, built on the best code. They are doing all these things for an impressive list of clients, including AFL, Premier League, or Liverpool FC.

In this episode, we talked about how App Performance Monitoring tools can serve as a safety net by helping mobile teams notice bugs before users can. By diagnosing deep-level performance problems, APMs also help teams detect code change mistakes that can potentially cost thousands of dollars. We also discussed the special expectations sports fans have when it comes to mobile apps, what the best ways are to engage them, and how Augmented Reality can help create more immersive experiences and impact the ways we watch games, interact with our phones, and each other in the future.

You can find out more about Rasmus on his LinkedIn profile or check out more Pulselive projects on their website.

In this episode of Mobile DevOps is a thing!, we talked to Mariano Zorrilla about fintech, building apps in Flutter, and his journey from a small town in Argentina to Silicon Valley.

Mariano is a Tech Lead at Venmo, where he manages a team of mobile and backend server-side engineers. He is a passionate member of the Flutter community: besides recently becoming a Google Developer Expert, he also founded — and gives talks at — the San Francisco Cross-Platform SFXP meetups, where developers share knowledge and experiences in cross-platform development.

In this podcast episode, you’ll hear some of Mariano’s thoughts on the current and future trends in mobile finance and banking. We discussed his experiences of leading a product-focused team, which of his previous jobs helped him become a better manager, and why he believes that soft skills are often more important than hard skills. He also shared the story about the beginning of his career as a developer and how it all started with him being the only person who knew how to code in a small town in the Argentinian countryside — to now working for one of the biggest fintech companies in the U.S.

You can find out more about Mariano on his Twitter or check out his Flutter projects on his Github here.