Be a Successful Android Developer by Knowing 10 Things About Architecture

Being an Android app developer, you should not be unknown to anything that is related to developing an excellent Android application. And, that includes designing application architecture.

Recently, we discussed 40+ tips to become a successful Android app developer. And, ‘learn to organize & architect your app’ is one of those tips.

This means you definitely need to know everything about application architecture before you start learning the same in order to become a successful Android app developer.

So, let’s get started immediately.

What is Android Application Architecture?

The Android application architecture is a plan that you need to follow consistently in order to develop an Android application that meets the user needs even before the development process starts.

This plan consists of a list of guidelines that the developers consider while developing a robust, scalable, and testable application.

Why should you know about the Architecture?

Every developer should know about the architecture in order to develop the application as per the expectations.

Also, when it comes to delivering the application on time, the application architecture helps the entire team to stay on the same page and deliver the applications on time.

To become a successful Android developer, these are the must-

So, being an expert Android app developer, you need to know all the below things to develop a successful Android app.

Things Every Android App Developer Should Know About Architecture

1. Architecture Designing Needs No Expertise

First of all, you need to understand that learning to design architecture is not a part of your job because you are not a software architect. In large organizations, there are software architects who take care of designing the architecture for each of the projects.

But, being a developer of an application, you need to understand how the complete architecture has been built. Whether you are working in a small organization, a startup or as a freelancer, it is important for you to understand the A-B-C’s of the entire architecture of the application.

And, having the basic knowledge is enough for an Android developer to start understanding the overall architecture pattern and principles. So, you don’t need to have expertise just like the software architects.

2. Architecture is an Add-on to Your Skills

Knowing architecture and having the basic understanding of the architectural patterns and principles is not a part of your job, but an add-on to your skills.

When you work on competitive analysis, you need to find out how the abstractions have been implemented in the competitors’ applications. Based on such analysis, you can plan out the complete architecture of your app and build around the same or even better.

But, your routine work hours does not allow to focus on anything except for coding due to project deadlines or working on multiple projects. So, it is not easy to invest time in learning architecture. But, to build a good application, a developer needs to understand how the architecture of the application needs to be.

This is what you need to understand and make your project manager or boss understand it as well. Learning architecture is not necessary, but surely an important one to help you make a better developer.

3. Architecture is Language Agnostic

Being an Android developer, another thing you should know about the Architecture is that it is a language agnostic.

What is language agnostic?

Language agnostic is referred to the features of a programming language that are independent of any other programming language.

While talking about the architecture, it means that you don’t need to learn a new programming language altogether in order to learn how to create an application architecture.

So, it is easy for you to learn how to do it and even experiment the same without investing your precious hours in learning some new language or tools.

4. Architecture is Platform Agnostic

There are certain developers who feel the architecture design is not utilized anywhere and hence, they say it’s a waste of time. But, here is why it’s not.

Similar to language agnostic, architecture is even platform agnostic. Once, you learn new skills of designing the architectural patterns, you can implement the same across all the platforms.

So, you never feel the guilt of investing your precious development hours in learning architecture design because it is never left untouched.

5. Architecture Designing is Easy

Being a good developer, we can easily learn and grasp the programming principles and guidelines.

Also, designing the architecture requires no special training, certification courses, etc. When you sit down to understand the complete architecture of an Android application, you can easily understand how it is designed because you know coding.

So, to know how to build an architecture of an application is not at all difficult for a smart developer. And, it not even takes a huge amount of your time.

6. The Clarity on the Roles of MVP/MVVM

Why do you use MVP/MVVM?

MVP stands for Model-View-Presenter and MVVP stands for Model-View-ViewModel. Both of these are the approaches that separate the user interface (UI) from the code.

These two Android architectural patterns are mostly used within the development process. But, the point is that the architecture of an app is not limited to just the UI separation. It’s beyond that. And, you should know this being an Android app developer.

7. Good Architecture Improves Flexibility

Most of the times, the developers focus on creating the architecture for the current application development requirements.

What about the future requirements? What if the application maintenance is not under you? Also, what if the application needs certain technology advancements in the future? Is the application architecture ready to accept the changes required?

If the answers to all of these questions are not thought of while designing the application architecture, you’ve developed a failed architecture.

And, this is not the right practice. A good application architecture is something that forecasts the changes the application would require based on the consumer needs and changing technology. You definitely don’t know in advance about the requirements, but you can make it ready enough to accept the changes.

So, the application architecture that you build should be flexible enough to accept the modifications and make the application flexible and future-ready.

8. Architecture Components are at Your Help

Google launched Android Architecture Components and the company even updates the same in order to help the Android developers to design the apps that are robust, scalable, and testable.

What are Android Architecture Components?

Android Architecture Components are a collection of libraries which the Android developers can use to design a good architecture of the application. And, this results in designing amazing applications.

Recently, Google updated the beginners’ courses in the Architecture Components which you can utilize in order to learn and experiment on the application architecture.

So, these are sure to help you in learning architecture.

9. Architecture Requires Dedication and Commitment

Designing an application architecture is not a day’s task. It’s a process that needs research, analysis, and thoughtful discussions. So, obviously, it takes a huge amount of time and efforts to build an architecture of an application.

So, to build a good application, you need to have a good architecture. And, to have a good architecture, you need to be dedicated and committed enough to see how the application is being built using the same.

Also, if you are looking to modify even the minutest of your application architecture, it affects the entire architecture design and hence, the application. So, before you take any decision, you need to test its alignment with the architecture. Otherwise, it will be a great regret later.

So, make sure you don’t choose any quick hacks or cheat sheets in order to develop the application.

10. Architecture Designing is for Everything

Being an Android developer, you need not to worry about where to start designing the architecture because it’s everywhere. Whether you are looking to develop the enterprise mobile applications, on-demand apps, or the embedded systems, you can try and test on creating the application architecture.

It would be a good experiment if you use your architecture skills and knowledge in any of these as every application have different architecture to be built.

So, go for it now.

Become the Jack of Android Application Architecture

Designing an Android application architecture requires a lot of learning, exploring, and experimenting. But, that is all enough for you to become a successful Android developer because wherever you go, you do not lag behind when it comes to working on an application entirely.

So, being an Android developer, you don’t need to become a master at application architecture. It’s enough to be a jack of the same.