International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 116 – No. 19, April 2015 1 Suitability of existing Software development Life Cycle (SDLC) in context of Mobile Application Development Life Cycle (MADLC) Anureet Kaur Ph.D. Research Scholar Punjab Technical University, Kapurthala, Punjab Kulwant Kaur, Ph.D Dean &Asst.Professor School of IT, Apeejay Institute of Management Technical Campus Jalandhar, Punjab ABSTRACT Mobile technology has seen a steep rise in its demand and usage, which has further increased the need for specialized software for mobile devices. For developing mobile applications, existing software development process models are incorporated. But looking at the remarkable growth of mobile devices, the complexity involved in development of mobile applications needs a dedicated life cycle process model, instead of using traditional life cycle process models. Although many existing life cycle models are adapted for mobile apps development but there are certain constraints that needs to be addressed specifically, such as Performance Factor, Power Factor, Band Factor, Connectivity Factor, Context Factor, Graphic Interface Factor, Input Interface Factor, etc. It is a stimulating task to develop mobile application due to these technical constraints. In this paper, a comparative analysis of traditional software life cycle models that are widely used in software development and also discussed the strengths and weakness of using these models for mobile application development. It also emphasize on need for dedicated mobile application development life cycle process in order to provide high quality mobile apps and minimize mobile app development problems and errors that are faced at later stage. Keywords Software Engineering, Mobile Applications, Application Development, Software Development Life Cycle 1. INTRODUCTION In recent years, due to portability and ease of use, maximum population has shifted to mobile devices. This remarkable growth of mobile devices has taken over desktop computers and is becoming a very important part of our life. The applications developed for mobile devices are becoming more and more advanced and complex, adjusting to the constantly improving computational power of hardware. International Data Corporation (IDC) hosted a web conference “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Mobile Enterprise Applications and Solutions 2015 Predictions” on Dec 18, 2014 .According to IDC by 2017, 87% of the worldwide smart connected device market will be tablets and smartphones, with PCs (both desktop and laptop) making up only 13% of the market. IDC also estimates that tablet sales will surpass PCs on an annual basis by 2015. [1, 2] According to mobile analytics firm Flurry, mobile app usage grew faster year-over-year. Messaging and social apps showed great increase in year 2013 and 2014 but 2015 proves as lucrative for ecommerce startups. Figure1 shows the growth of usage in mobile apps from 2013 to 2014. [3] The trend for mobile application development has spread so vastly that today everyone is using applications for everything from health to sports, from education to games; every imaginable domain in layman’s life is making use of mobile apps. Smart devices have reached everyone’s hands; yesterday it seemed like a luxury, today it is a necessity. The mobile internet usage has brought forward the trend of connectivity on-the-go. The applications are becoming more useful because the user gets to use them anywhere and everywhere [4]. Figure 1: Growth of Mobile usage year over year [3] The objective of this paper is to answer fundamental questions about mobile app development for new and experienced application developers alike. 2. LITERATURE OF THE CURRENT SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS MODELS A Software development lifecycle is abstract representation of various processes used in the development of any software. There exist different lifecycle models. Some of them areWaterfall model, spiral model, agile model and prototyping model. Although there is not much difference between developing applications for desktops, Web or for mobile devices, the basic steps are always the same: requirements gathering, designing, implementing, testing, and delivery; but the details are different. So it is not possible to simply transfer the models of traditional software development to mobile application development without making significant amendments. A summarized comparison tableof various process models used in software engineering is shown in Table 1