Pandemic-era app development, or how *not* to launch an app
- By Dominick Profico
- May 13, 2020
With agencies rushing to launch new apps to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, some could find themselves in an unwelcome spotlight due to an app failure. The missteps of the Iowa caucus app development process shows how not to develop and launch an app on a quick timeline.
What went wrong?
The app used to report Iowa caucus results was called an “epic fiasco.” It was riddled with problems -- from difficulties downloading to login issues. Frustrated precinct chairs ultimately abandoned the app and turned to a telephone hotline system -- which was quickly overloaded with calls.
The first mistake the Iowa Democrats made was the truncated timeline. The app was developed in two months with virtually no time to determine whether it would work consistently, much less perform extensive testing for security concerns. On the night of the caucus, this lack of testing proved disastrous. The app perfectly recorded all data input by users -- yet, incomplete reporting of the voting results, caused by a bug in the code, spawned the resulting chaos.
The other problem in the app’s development was the failure to account for real-world conditions: a high volume of users, unreliable internet access and the user experience. Caucus night was the first time the app had seen such a high number of users, resulting in its poor performance in a critical moment. But even if the app could have handled the number of people attempting to download and use it, reliance on the internet proved to be a problem in more-rural areas of the state with limited internet or mobile data connections. Only 25% of Iowa’s 1,700 precinct chairs were able to download the app at all, much less submit their results.
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