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Do programmers or computer engineers design Flexispy?


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Does the Flexispy design team consist of programmers, computer engineers, or both? Are there any other fields involved in the development, such as electrical engineers or telecommunication experts?

What does it take to develop Flexispy or similar software. I'm guessing it involves programmers that have an understanding of mobile device languages and operating systems for such devices, but I'm not sure.

How many people are involved in the research and development of Flexispy, and where does this development take place?

I'm very curious to how all of this works. If possible, an elaborate explanation would be preferred.

Thanks.

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Does the Flexispy design team consist of programmers, computer engineers, or both? Are there any other fields involved in the development, such as electrical engineers or telecommunication experts?

What does it take to develop Flexispy or similar software. I'm guessing it involves programmers that have an understanding of mobile device languages and operating systems for such devices, but I'm not sure.

How many people are involved in the research and development of Flexispy, and where does this development take place?

I'm very curious to how all of this works. If possible, an elaborate explanation would be preferred.

Thanks.

Hi Billybob,

Thanks for this question. The unsung heroes of FlexiSPY don’t ever get a chance to get public recognition, so let me answer your question in a way that recognizes the great work they do, and hopefully also satisfies your curiosity.

Organization

FlexiSPY technical arm is under the CTO and his team consists of around seventy people organized in the following groups

Research, Development, Test, Support, IT Operations

Research

The engine of our company’s innovation is our Research group – a bunch of creative technical thinkers who absorb what is happening in all areas of mobile technology. They spend most of their time doing research - poking, probing, and reverse engineering all sorts of technology from mobile operating systems, device firmware, GSM hardware and anything else that takes their fancy.

They uncover things like undocumented APIS, backdoors, design new algorithms for maximum power savings, or see how systems behave when pushed to the edge of performance. These guys provide the seed for new Product Visions.

Product Planning

Ideas for products, features and improvements come from everywhere, but especially support. Unlike other companies, Support is represented at the highest level of the company, and is a tremendous source of inspiration or moderation, depending on what ideas are being discussed. All employees can contribute ideas, and the Corporate Architect sets about consolidating the brainstorm sessions - creating designs and plans that can be taken to development

Development

The Development Team is responsible for implementing ideas that we feel will delight customers or delight ourselves! They have to make the Vision reality.

Unlike other companies, FlexiSPY products cover a vast array of technologies. With so many mobile device platforms, and so many hurdles to overcome ( opportunistic antivirus companies, device signing tests, uncooperative payment gateways, rampant credit fraud that we have to absorb the cost of), we have to have technical and problem solving capabilities in almost every application development technology of the last 10 years.

This includes protocol designers, ARM assembler, security specialists, a dedicated team of native language application developers for smartphone platform (J2EE, Symbian C++, Windows C++, C#, Blackberry, UIQ, Android, iPhone), J2EE server team, SIM Toolkit, Technical Architects, Web Designers, and Requirements Analysts .

Test

Then we have our Test teams.

These guys have to make sure that what we sell is good enough to meet our customers’ expectations.

The Test Engineers design and build our bespoke test tools,designing automated tests, carry out functional testing, load testing, usability testing – not to forget the diligent work of our Execution Testers who run the scripts and try to throw spanners into the works to see what happens.

When you consider all permutations of devices, countries, networks, firmware, and services that come together to make a product release, add the demanding nature of our customers, and the hostile, fragmented and resource limited environments that our products operate in, only then is it clear how difficult working for FlexiSPY Test is.

In fact, second to customer support, Test is the most important facet of our organization.

The Test Team makes sure the Vision never fades.

IT Operations

Without a healthy body, nothing can be achieved –and that’s what the IT operations do.

FlexiSPY IT support staff keep our internal systems up and running. Networks, VPNs, Routers, Email, Sharepoint, Backups, SVN, Asterisk, Provisioning new staff, installing DLP systems, and so much more, the Operations team keep the life blood of the company flowing smoothly.

Our DNA

They say that the personality of a company is a direct reflection of its leaders, so let me give you an idea of what our philosophy is and where it comes from.

As FlexiSPY's Chief Architect, it is not immodest to acknowledge that I must contribute somewhat to the companies ‘personality’.

My core approach to software product development was forged in over a decade working for what used to be the world’s biggest computer company, and is still, the biggest software developer.

In the early mists of the late 80s, in that company, products were designed for exquisite quality - all the way down to details such the manuals, fan noise, environmental disposability, and compatibility and labels to name a few completely unrelated items. If something could conceivably cause a customer problem, QA had the absolute veto to ‘STOP SHIP’. That’s how seriously they took things, and also why many times products were delayed for less than good reasons.

As it turned out, this idealistic approach (and the three year development and extra cost this philosophy entailed) did not product results that were valued by the marketplace –and the company paid a massive price, losing wholesale market share to those more nimble companies that offered products that were ‘good enough’. This caused much soul searching about what quality actually means to a Customer and many companies resigned to design to be simply ‘just good enough and no more’.

In 2010, our belief is that the pendulum has swung way too much in favor of ‘good enough’ - because ‘good enough’ is a subjective term. This philosophy has spawned products that are destroying the Customers belief in the software industry. There is a middle ground, but it is closer to the idealistic days of yesteryear, than today’s practice of releasing alpha versions and hiding behind an email address.

We believe that it is in our best financial, intellectual and moral interest to create products that meet the true needs of customer –especially in this industry, where reliability and privacy is everything.

However, meeting customer needs only makes sense to us if we have fun doing it, because in the final analysis we love doing things simply for the kudos and challenge.

The best example of this is our Maemo product – it was not done for any ROI – we did it just because it was fun and we could, and that is perhaps is the best description of our DNA.

PS: At time of writing, there is still no one who has achieved a spyphone product for maemo. Other examples include our innovative PC based call recording system that uses a laptop and WM mobile to automate call recordings. Will it sell enough to cover its costs – unlikely, was it fun to do – for sure!

Regards,

The Architect

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