THE POINTABOUT

SRS PROCESS:
FROM IDEA TO APP-READY
IN THREE WEEKS OR LESS
 The Process Funnel

PointAbout uses the Process Funnel on the

right as a guide to help clients map out their
Business Ad Sales Education Branding New
Customers New Sales
Market Increases Customer
Research Productivity Satisfaction

mobile strategy. Requirements

The funnel emphasizes that building mobile Stakeholders Advertisers Competition Target Users

products is a holistic process with a series Audience

of inter-connected decisions. All aspects of
the Process Funnel should be considered to Platform iPhone iPad Android RIM Windows Web
ensure successful development of mobile
websites and/or applications.
Features
Push Social
Notification Analytics Advertising Commerce Media
We consult with clients to develop a System
Requirements Specification (SRS) document
that lays out a development plan for mobile
products based on each individual client’s Storyboard Wireframes Pixel
Perfect
Style
Guide

expectations, targeted platforms, and

preexisting data architecture.
APIs
Data Definition
The SRS document provided by PointAbout
at the end of the consulting period can be
Acceptance Acceptance
used for in-house development, distributed Criteria
to multiple vendors in the form of a Request Criteria
for Proposal (RFP), or serve as the basis for
PointAbout’s development team. Support Support Plan
Business Requirements
Ad Sales Education Branding New Market Increases Customer
Customers New Sales Research Productivity Satisfaction
Business Requirements

Audience

Platform

Features

Storyboard
The business requirements discussion starts at an overall mobile strategy level and becomes more granular as
Data
we move through the process funnel. In this first step, we discern the most important components of a
Definition
client’s application and help decide which considerations on which to focus as the app progresses through
Acceptance
Criteria research, design, and development.
Support

Ad Sales Branding New Sales Increases Productivity

How can you maximize What kind of feedback How can app sales help Will your app allow users
user downloads and channels do you want to bolster the bottom line? to increase productivity
ad revenue? What are open? What social media How can you increase in some form or fashion?
your revenue goals/ outlets do you want to user uptake of your app Are you looking to
requirements for this tap and how? to drive new sales, in-app include voice-to-text
project (ROI)? sales, and/or advertising functionality? Do you
sales? Should you charge want to move toward
Education New Customers for your app at all, and if automation of processes
Apps only reach new so, how much should you that have been done
Smartphones put all the
customers and keep charge? manually to this point?
knowledge in the world
Would you like to
at a user’s fingertips. them coming back if they
Market Research distribute and display
Will your app educate truly stand out from the
reports via an application
users about their nearby competition. This means How can you use
or mobile website rather
surroundings? Your having the foresight and analytics to optimize User
than over email?
current or upcoming patience to create a best- Experience? How can you
products or events? How in-breed app as well as implement analytics and
do you want to relay that the fortitude to see it which vendor should you Customer Satisfaction
information? Strictly via through. What utilities use? What can you expect Apps open up yet another
text, or do you want to will make your app a to find out from your line of communication
include audio and video? must-have? What apps analytics vendor and how between your customers
that aren’t necessarily much will it cost? How and you. Who will
“competition” contain can you use analytics to manage and respond to
elements you’d like to see optimize User Experience? the feedback you receive
Page 3 in your apps? from your app?
Audience
Stakeholders Advertisers Competition Target Users
Business Requirements

Audience

Platform

Features

Your intended target market defines who the app should be designed to reach. Defining the audience influ-
Storyboard
ences decisions in the Platform, Features, and Storyboard sections.
Data
Definition

Acceptance
Criteria Stakeholders
Support
Before an app can be
released in the wild,
it needs to meet the
approval of a range
of stakeholders,
including operational
and economic. What
are the requirements
of your stakeholders?
What is the extent of
their involvement in the
project’s development? Do
not wait until the project
is completed and you are
ready to seek approval
to find out stakeholders’
expectations.
Advertisers
Which advertising
vendors should you
consider, which do you
already use, and what
kind of advertising would
you prefer to include in
your app? Banner ads
can be effective, as they
are often geared toward
mass-market campaigns
that want to deliver across
all mobile platforms.
Interstitial advertisements
appear between screens
within an application.
This form of advertising is
often more intrusive to the
user, as it interrupts their
navigation through an
app. If your app will reach
enough users, branded
sponsorships are another
advertising option.
Competition Target Users
What can you do that What is the demographic
your competitors aren’t profile of your intended
already doing? What target audience? How
should you do that they’re can you best reach your
already doing? Consider target audience through
which successes of your mobile? Also consider
competition you want the demographic profile
to emulate, and what of platform users and
innovative new features address how those users
and aspects you will bring typically utilize mobile.
to the table. What will
set your app or mobile
website apart from the
hundreds of thousands
that already exist?

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Platform
iPhone iPad Android RIM Windows Web
Business Requirements

Audience

Platform

Features

PointAbout helps clients strategize which platforms to target with their mobile apps. We examine all plat-
Storyboard
forms to gauge whether there would be significant benefits to creating apps on them.
Data
Definition

Acceptance
Criteria iPhone / iPod Touch Android Windows Phone Web
Support
PointAbout’s AppMakr Smart phones running on Microsoft has been very Do you want to create a
service has been the Android OS are rapidly silent in the app space, but mobile website, or just
force behind more than gaining market share, and is the ‘lurking giant’ and mobile apps? Mobile
1200 iPhone apps, which Google’s plans for web- is starting to re-prioritize web offers broad, though
have had over 1.2 million based apps on Chrome for apps. The release of inconsistent distribution.
downloads in the App have the potential Windows Phone 7 has There is no standard for
Store. to challenge Apple’s the potential to cause a mobile web like Firefox,
dominance in the app serious shift in the mobile Safari, or IE, so content
iPad market. market. will not be able to render
to best suit each device
The iPad is an extension
Blackberry The platform will unless mobile browser
of the well-known iPhone
bring end users a fresh detecting is integrated in
SDK, building software, Blackberry accounts for
experience while also your project.
but iPad carries its own more smartphone users
providing developers
inherent challenges. than any other device,
with a powerful set of Google is also pushing
Projects for the iPad are offering wide distribution.
tools that allows for rapid the development of web-
extremely design-heavy However, Blackberry App
development of apps. based apps leveraging
and require intricate World contains roughly
HTML5, an approach
detail and extensive pre- 1/10th the number of apps
that will likely gain
development planning. as Apple and the number
traction with the launch
of app downloads from
of Google’s Chrome Web
the App World is far less
than either the App Store Store later this year.
or the Android Market
Place.
Page 5
 Features Push Social
Notification Analytics Advertising Commerce Media
Business Requirements

Audience

Platform

Features

Storyboard
PointAbout has strategic partnerships with a number of mobile solutions providers. We also have reusable code
libraries and access to open source that is specific to the mobile app space.
Data
Definition

Acceptance
Criteria Some primary technology categories that we explore during Step 1 include Push Notifications, Analytics,
Support Advertising, eCommerce, and Social Media/Sharing. Considerable energy will be spent pinning down what you
can and should do to maximize user retention and acquisition through the use of features.

Storyboards

Wireframes Pixel Style

Business Requirements
Perfect Guide
Audience

Platform

Features

Storyboard

Data
Definition
Storyboards are visual designs of the app’s expected look, feel and functionality. Storyboards and wireframes
Acceptance
provide the groundwork for necessary decision-makers to understand exactly what the app will be able to do.
Criteria
Additionally, they allow development teams and data providers to understand expectations for back-end data
Support
processing and front-end display.

Wireframes Pixel-Perfect Images Style Guide

Have you thought through every Images created based on wireframes How should the app look and feel?
nook, cranny, back button, swipe, that developers use as the basis for What message do you want it to
and pinch/zoom of your app? app creation. present? What are your company’s
Developed use cases? color schemes, preferred fonts,
etc.?
Page 6
Data Definition
APIs
Business Requirements

Audience

Platform

Features

What does your data architecture submissions. On mobile apps this is applications? What reporting will
Storyboard
look like? Is it equipped to deliver typically via direct API access to the they be capable of? Will that satisfy
Data
Definition what you need to create these data sources. all of your stakeholders’ needs?
Acceptance
Criteria mobile applications?
Support Are you counting on RSS feeds to Do multiple systems need to be
Are you running legacy systems that deliver data to the app? If so, are updated when something happens
do not interface with web-based those RSS feeds displaying full data on the mobile device?
protocols and API calls? If so, what feeds, or summaries? Do the RSS
data mapping needs to be done to feeds validate? How are the RSS Have you moved to a Service-
extract the data from the system so feeds updated? Oriented Architecture design?
it can be utilized by the app? If not, do you want to do so to
Do your various data sources speak facilitate your mobile initiatives?
Do you already have APIs created to to one another? If a query needs
allow for extraction of data by the to be made that involves multiple How can you achieve your mobile
mobile device? data sources that are typically not objectives without having to
queried together, will there be re-architect large parts of your
Is your data kept up to date problems? internal systems?
automatically? If not, does it require
manual updating? Mobile tends Do you have places to put new data
to uncover data issues, including that is created by mobile users?
instances where data is not Examples include GPS coordinates,
updated often enough, which can user generated content, time-based
go unnoticed on the desktop but in requests for information.
mobile becomes very apparent.
What analytics and tracking
Do you have ways to allow data systems are you currently using?
to be inputted by the mobile user Will you be able to extend those
(i.e. comments, user locations, to gain insight into mobile usage?
blog postings)? On mobile web Are there native SDKs available (if
Page 7 this is typically just http-based form mobile apps) for these analytics
Acceptance Criteria Acceptance
Criteria
Business Requirements

Audience

Platform

Features

Acceptance Criteria is a line-by-line explanation of requirements the app must fulfill before it can be deemed
Storyboard
accepted by you and submitted to Apple’s App Store.
Data
Definition

Acceptance
Criteria Clearly defining all aspects of your acceptance criteria prior to the start of the development process is a key
Support element in the success of your mobile initiatives. Incomplete acceptance criteria can result in costly mistakes and
a strain in the client-developer relationship towards the final stages of a project.

Support

Business Requirements
Support Plan
Audience

Platform

Features

Storyboard

Data
Definition
Our pre-development planning processes and project management systems employed during the development
Acceptance
phase ensure we are able to deliver successful, market-ready applications in a short window of time.
Criteria

Support
Communication during all phases of development is critical to building successful mobile products. We encourage
constant communication throughout the development process and update clients on progress through daily,
weekly, or biweekly updates, email and conference calls. We also use project management tools that enable
clients to stay apprised of developments via RSS.

PointAbout’s work isn’t over when the development phase ends. We remain on board after mobile products are
launched to help clients correct data or display errors and repeatable software-specific crashes. Post-development
support offerings include: App Promotion, Support for the first 30 days, a comprehensive “Month One” report,
and Optional Ongoing Technical Support.
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