Mobile Application Development Approaches: A Systematic Mapping Study

The rapid growth in demand for mobile devices has aroused the interest of the software industry on how to address the development of mobile applications for these devices. The right choice of a methodology to guide the various activities to be made throughout the project can ensure its success. In order to know what the current proposals for the development of mobile applications are, a systematic mapping study which covered studies between 2007 and 2015 has been conducted. From this mapping, several studies have been selected; their contributions have been analyzed from different edges: goals, strengths, weaknesses, results, recommended tools, among others. The study showed that, although there are several proposed methodologies, most do not fit the life cycle of mobile application development; thus, adaptations and mergers of existing methodologies have to be made.