Hello Team,

We are nearing the end of the pre-beta phase, as such there are some experiences, concerns and other things i’d like to share with you from my perspective on the project so far.

I’ll start with what we have already, We have a very fleshed out server-side API and database that caters to all of the app’s needs, we can utilise this same API to easily make desktop browser/app versions of the app as well as native implementations in the future, which brings me to my next point… the app itself.

Currently the app is written in a non native technology, this is so we can fully implement all of the features, run tests to debug code as well as respond to user feedback right through the beta and then port the logic to native technology to get a very efficient, perfectly functioning initial version of Pixovent.

We have written an in-house patching technology that will allow us to make changes and features seamlessly into the client’s download app, skipping the App Store submit/review/approve process (which in my previous experience takes anywhere from 3-14 days to happen).

That said, we will have to prepare a version to release to the App Store on or before the deadline that will be functional enough (with the basic, previously discussed ‘ugly’ design) to pass their tests, but also include the patch tech so that when it has been approved we can immediately update the patch on the server to affect the client to get our new changes, this will give us however long the review process will take to de-uglify and scrutinise what we have.

From that point, i’d like to introduce internal nightly builds for testing so we can push out 2 patches a week until we have implemented everything that this cool app needs to be even cooler. Simultaneously we will create browser based administration and analytic panels for us to monitor/administrate the site in a more user friendly fashion.

I have slight concerns about the size and availability of the team for this project, what we considered initially to be a simple app quickly evolved into the potential of a fully fledged social media app, I would like to have us (the team) generate a report on reasonings as to why this has happened and what we can do to alleviate some of the tasks from myself and Alex, there are so many hours in a day, so many days in a week that we can work and as much as we love to code, it is not a speedy process working with experimental technologies that are constantly evolving, for example during the 5 months of development there have been two iOS firmware updates, both with their own host of issues and breakages in some of our lower level systems… and that’s just the OS of the device, to develop prototyping, debugging and patching into a device requires an almost endless list of libraries, plugins and APIs that can be hard to work with at the best of times.

We do have other members on the team who are capable of helping with the tasks, but the catch 22 is because myself and Alex have written both sides of the system from the ground up, we are technically the only ‘professionals’ of said code and the time/learning required to use the system is something we do not have the ability to provide to others as the initial project development cycle was planned to be achieved in such a short time that even taking time out of the editor to write a report, email even todo list on somedays just makes me so anxious about not being able to provide the quality I want to provide that i can not even warrant doing it.

I will be spending another weekend on the job, because I can not relax due to the workload ahead of me before the initial submission so by my books we have 5 (6?) days until submission, ideally i’d like to submit before that but i’m a perfectionist with an imperfect project right now so it’s very difficult to reach a milestone i’m happy with and will likely have to compromise the quality of the project on submission (though patches solve that problem, if we can use the submission waiting time wisely).

I don’t have any action points for you guys today unfortunately as I am swamped in some crazy native iOS code for the patching at the moment so take some initiative eh