Tecnobank - Stabilization and evolution of an app under development
Project carried out between 2019 and 2020 for the technical stabilization and evolution of an iOS and Android app previously developed by another vendor. The prototypes and builds remained restricted to the internal development and homologation environment and were not published or made available to the public.
The initial scope
The company works with technology and data for the vehicle financing market. The request was objective: to evolve the app then under development by adding billing lookup and to adjust the design as part of the planned evolution of the project.
The iOS project, in Swift, and the Android project, in Kotlin, had been started by another vendor. The work of X-Apps consisted of continuing the development from the existing base.
The initial assessment of the base
Before the functional evolution, it was necessary to carry out a stage of technical stabilization and adjustment of the development environment.
Receiving and organizing the source code required initial adjustments so that the projects could be opened and executed correctly.
On iOS, compilation inconsistencies were identified that needed to be addressed before the new implementations.
The configuration used CocoaPods and Carthage simultaneously, with some frameworks overlapping, which led to a review of the dependency strategy.
It was also necessary to reconcile the versions of the environment, the language and the libraries used by the project.
On Android, the Kotlin base went through an initial stage of technical reading and adjustments to continue the development.
In continuation projects, validating code, dependencies and the build environment is part of the initial stage. This stabilization created the conditions to move forward safely with the planned evolutions.
Stabilize the base in order to evolve
The sequence of work was defined from the technical dependencies identified in the initial assessment.
Android first. As the platform offered the most direct path to a working build, it was prioritized. The adjustments required for compilation were made in the first days, establishing a base for the following evolutions.
Then iOS. The stage focused on reviewing the dependency tree, updating the packages and consolidating management in CocoaPods, in addition to removing Carthage to eliminate overlaps. With the configuration organized, compilation was restored and the project could be made compatible with the versions required by the libraries.
Behavior and interface adjustments. With the builds stabilized, the team moved on to occurrences identified in usage tests. Among them, the triggering of the rows in the contracts table was addressed, with an update of the tabs component and inclusion of the required cell resource, as well as the behavior of the floating button on the home screen.
The contracted feature
With the base stabilized, billing lookup was incorporated into the financial institution profile, accessible through the floating button on the home screen.
The screen lists the most recent charges with reference month, due date, payment date, slip amount and status. The feature was implemented on Android and made available in an internal build for homologation during the development cycle.
In parallel, the design track moved forward. The prototypes covered the app as a whole, and not only the new screen: login, home menu, registration lookup, certificate validation, invoice and billing, contract registration and the agent and citizen entry points. These materials were used exclusively in internal prototyping and validation cycles with Tecnobank, without publication or availability to the public.
The contract registration flow reflected particularities of the domain, such as the variation of the set of fields according to the state. The prototyping survey covered seven federative units, each with its own configuration.
The prototypes went through successive rounds of internal validation with Tecnobank, with adjustments to navigation and connections between screens in each cycle.
The technical analysis and the recommendations
During the stabilization, points were also identified that could benefit from a broader structural assessment, beyond the contracted functional scope.
As a technical recommendation, X-Apps proposed a structured analysis of the software to map architecture, dependencies, maintenance and evolution opportunities before new functional increments. As an alternative for future planning, it also presented an estimate for an eventual rewrite of the app, comparing two cross-platform technologies.
This type of diagnosis supports decisions about the continuity of the product based on technical information, considering scope, effort and evolution strategy.
Stack and practices
- iOS in Swift and Android in Kotlin, with development continued from projects started by a previous vendor.
- CocoaPods for dependency management on iOS, with consolidation of the configuration and removal of Carthage to reduce overlaps.
- Manual adjustment of the tabs interface component, with inclusion of the cell resource required for the expected behavior.
- Adobe XD for low and high fidelity prototypes, with a preview link for internal validation by the client.
- Builds made available in an internal environment for homologation as the work progressed.
- Testing of the client endpoints with a request collection, to validate the behavior of the integration between the app and the services.
- Prototype validation meetings with the business area of Tecnobank.
The prototypes and builds mentioned in this case were exclusively part of the internal cycle of the project carried out between 2019 and 2020 and were not published or made available to the public.
Continuing an already existing app?
Projects that start from a previously developed base usually begin with a stage of understanding the code, the environment and the dependencies. From that diagnosis, it is possible to stabilize the base, plan the evolutions and guide the following technical decisions.