Xamarin Development for Beginners

Xamarin is a free and open-source mobile app development platform for building high-performance apps for Android, Windows, and iOS. As we are aware, there are various such platforms available to mobile app development companies, and selecting the right platform is not easy as you can’t try all the available options. So, it is essential to understand these platforms, before you make a decision. 

This blog is an attempt to help you explore the Xamarin app development framework, its pros, cons, and a lot more; which you can identify as you read further!   

Why Xamarin?

The first question to ask yourself before you start looking for mobile app developers is which platform to go for! For a list of the cross-platform app development platforms, and their market share, you can check these interesting statistics on Statista. However, to answer why you should go for Xamarin, you must evaluate the different platforms rationally. Here are the tips for selecting the right platform for app development. 

Tips on Selecting the Right Platform

Considering the scope of this blog, we will discuss the tips for selecting the right Xamarin development partner. However, it is first essential to ascertain that you have selected the right platform based on your requirements. For this, follow these simple tips.

List Your Requirements

As with any software or app development project, you must first list all your requirements. Clarity is the key to successful requirement analysis and helps communicate the requirements better. Remember, for this stage to deliver effective outcomes, you must have clarity in what you want, and it has to be described in detail, including features, functionality, pre-release requirements, and post-release upgrade or maintenance plans. 

The better your requirements listing, the clearer will be your evaluation of technology for the project. 

Look for Alternatives

There are various mobile app development platforms in the market. Consult the experienced mobile app developers to identify the different options available. The developers are generally in a position to guide you on whether Xamarin is fit for your requirements or whether there is a better alternative. After this step, you should be able to identify whether Xamarin meets your project requirements. 

If an alternative matches your requirements better, you must evaluate that further. Else, if you are firm on going with Xamarin, follow these tips further to identify the best Xamarin developers.

Suggested Reading: Why Hiring a Xamarin Developer Will Help Your Business?

How to Select the Best Xamarin Developers

Initial scanning of Xamarin development companies is expected to be difficult. You can’t go on looking for Xamarin development services on the internet and contacting each of them. 

A list of the top Xamarin developers is ideally required and it is not challenging to find such lists when you have relevant sources to find them. So let’s go to the first step!

Step 1: Browse the right sources such as GoodFirms and Goodtal to get a list of the best Xamarin developers. 

Step 2: Once you have a list of the top Xamarin developers, check their reviews, ratings, testimonials, etc. Shortlist the Xamarin development companies based on these factors. 

Step 3: Get in touch with the shortlisted Xamarin developers to discuss your project requirements. Also, ask them for details of their past Xamarin projects to gauge the complexity of work they have delivered and whether it matches your needs. Generally, at this step, you will be able to identify their expertise and experience with the platform. 

Step 4: Technical expertise is easiest to assess if you just ask them to share the details about the knowledge and skills of their development team. You must look for the following skills.

Step 5: If your development partner is from a different time zone, also clarify the availability of their team for communication at a mutually suitable time. This is crucial, and all communication regarding the availability of the development team should be discussed in advance without making assumptions that they are supposed to be available 24*7!  

Step 6: If you are satisfied after discussing the above, also discuss your budget and timeline with the development partners you have identified after a careful review of experience and expertise. 

Step 7: Once the timeline and budget also fall into mutually agreeable terms, you must clarify all the non-disclosure and privacy terms that are required for the protection of your idea and your project. 

Despite all of the above leading to the selection of a Xamarin app development company, you can’t directly go for development. You must also configure some essentials at your end for successful outcomes and to manage your app development partner better. 

Tips for Managing Your Mobile App Development Partner 

Whether you are working with Xamarin or any other platform, and you are outsourcing it to any development partner, you will have to manage some aspects at your end. Here are some crucial areas you must focus on at your end to be able to derive the best outcomes from the project. 

Communication

Right from listing the requirements to communicating the same, communication has to be clear, concise, and effective. By concise I don’t mean you should keep it to a minimum. You still have to discuss every minute aspect and include all the details required. However, you will have to ensure that the requirements do not lead to unnecessary confusion. Clarity is the key to effective communication!  

Select the Right People

Now that you have worked very hard to identify the development partner, you must also ensure that there is no deficiency at your end as that could lead to differences with the development partner causing delays, misunderstandings, or conflicts later. Remember, any such delays are costly for you as well; you are putting your time and resources into the project, and the outcome determines your RoI! 

For the role of dealing with the service provider, it is important to keep experienced people with good communication, leadership skills, and the ability to listen. This helps understand the bottlenecks during project development and identify how you can help remove them.

Remember, at times, you do want the mobile app developer to do it your way, but the experienced developer could have better ideas that never came to your mind. So, be ready and willing to listen, and even change your ideas, as and when needed for better work. 

Make Reasonable Timelines 

All of us understand the importance of timelines and deadlines in app development projects. However, we must also be aware enough to define achievable and reasonable deadlines with well-defined timelines and Plan B, in case some stages of the project spill out of the schedule. 

Be open to listening to the development team and answering their queries if any further clarification is required. If they are not comfortable with the timelines, as they feel your expectations are unachievable, be flexible to evaluate rationally and decide on mutually agreeable timelines. In summary, rationality is important on your part, even if your project is in safe hands.

   

Limitations of the Xamarin Mobile App Development Platform

As we are discussing Xamarin in detail, let’s also talk about the limitations of Xamarin. 

Animation and UI Design 

Xamarin can't be used for developing applications with complex animation or advanced UI  functionality. So, we must browse the depth of our requirements in these areas and choose accordingly. This implies that we shouldn't ideally use Xamarin for developing gaming applications.  

Limited Community

Many app development frameworks have existed for years now, and so they have a huge community of experienced developers. However, the Xamarin community is comparatively younger and less experienced. 

You can’t expect to find a lot of Xamarin development companies specializing only in this domain. However, the top Xamarin developers who have worked exclusively with this platform can be expected to deliver the best results.   

Large-Sized Apps

The entire developers’ community worldwide is trying hard to reduce app size for better performance. However, Xamarin apps are larger than their counterparts, thus affecting download time and storage. Many developers thus avoid Xamarin for certain applications that require a high level of performance. And, they have better alternatives! 

Not Easy to Learn

As such for experienced developers, it should not be difficult to learn new frameworks and platforms. However, for developers not experienced with C# or .NET, it is not easy to learn Xamarin. This becomes limiting for many.

As such this limitation only applies if you select multi-domain mobile app developers. However, if you are already selecting experienced Xamarin developers for your project, you need not worry about the learning curve or expertise available.

Alternatives Available

When there are so many alternatives available, some with better learning curves, and others with better performance outcomes, it is natural that many developers avoid Xamarin and select the alternatives that they perceive to be better, even without exploring the potential of Xamarin. This is further limiting the potential of Xamarin, like with any other platform that is under-utilized and not as explored. This increases notions such as Xamarin is not as easy to learn, etc. 

Despite all the above, we must remember that Xamarin has a huge market share! Did you check the statistics in the preceding paras?     

Suggested Reading: A Must-Read Guide to Xamarin

Wrapping Up!

All of us are aware that developers’ communities and businesses going for software or app development rely a lot on knowledge sharing. No one has leveraged the capabilities of any languages, frameworks, or tools to the full. Sharing experiences helps us prevent mistakes and use the market’s best practices to develop a product that can lead the competition. So, before starting your mobile app development, you must gather more and more information about the languages, frameworks, tools, and latest trends in mobile app development.  

I hope you have gathered enough about Xamarin development from the blog above! I have also included some suggested reading links above, that will help you delve deeper into some of the concepts listed above. In the end, I have shared some tips on how to select the best developers to help you reach your goals. I guess that helps!