A Simplified Guide to Hire Xamarin Developers in 2022

Xamarin is not new to the software development sphere. From providing multiplatform support and flawless user interfaces to prioritizing code reusability and convenient prototyping, this cross platform development framework has come a long way. Currently, more than 15,000 companies from diverse sectors across the globe are using this framework to go mobile and expand their user base. But how are they doing so? The answer is by hiring experienced Xamarin developers.

You can hire Xamarin developers to accelerate your app development process. Just make sure that you are aware of the factors to be considered to make the most out of it. This blog helps you in understanding those factors and making the best pick. You will get detailed insights into the process of hiring professional developers, the skills and technical expertise you need to analyze while doing so, and much more.   

But first, let us take a look at the new advancements in Xamarin and how it can help you achieve your cross platform development objectives.  

What’s New in Xamarin? Why Should You Consider it for Your Cross-platform Development?  

Xamarin is now included in Visual Studio 2022 with dedicated support for Android 12, Xamarin.Forms service releases for Android and iOS, and Apple’s latest Xcode 13 releases of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS. It also offers support for the latest mobile versions. Over the past few months, this framework has delivered different service releases for Xamarin.Forms and .NET binding for beta and stable releases from Apple and Google. These SDKs are now available in the servicing releases of Visual Studio 2019 and the recent stable release of Visual Studio 2022.

The new Xamarin.Forms service release brings 145 fixes along with robust support for iOS 15 and Android 12. The introduction of .NET MAUI and support for iOS, macOS, and Android in .NET 6 suggests that from the last current release of Xamarin, you will get two years of supported service releases. With this, you can expect assistance through November 2023 and have enough room to shift your projects to .NET 6. 

These new advancements and additions in Xamarin are about to change the entire software development landscape. Currently, 11% of developers worldwide are using Xamarin for cross-platform app development because it facilitates native app capabilities and improves rapid testing capacity across multiple platforms. You also acquire platform-specific abilities as well as modern integrated development environment support for your mobile app development with Xamarin.  

What does a Xamarin Developer Do?

Xamarin developers code in C# and compile it into particular native app packages like .ipa for iOS and .apk for Android. They focus on building cross platform applications via Visual Studio. 

Their primary goal is to design, develop, test, and maintain applications using Xamarin for multiple platforms and enhance the look, feel, and performance. They are exhaustively involved in creating UIs and writing code for iOS, Android, and Windows from a sole codebase.

Here’re some basic roles and responsibilities of a Xamarin mobile app developer to give you a better idea. 

• Deliver highly scalable, fully functional mobile apps built with industry-acclaimed quality standards.
• Analyze, design, execute, and integrate pragmatic requirements in the new/existing apps.
• Develop apps using C# for multiple mobile platforms. Design and implement high performant, scalable APIs.
• Produce clear specifications and write clear, concise, and readable code. 
• Collaborate with UI/UX designers, business analysts, and other team members to respond, clarify, or define specific app behavior and fulfill all the necessary objectives.
• Orchestrate manual and automated tests across the mobile app development process to analyze overall performance in real, controlled situations. 
• Render project progress through detailed reports and analytics with complete transparency. 
• Take top security measures to protect business-critical data and information.  
• Identify potential risks, errors, and app vulnerabilities before publishing the app on respective platforms. Recommend and execute the best practices to fix them.   
• Troubleshoot, debug, and upgrade live apps and offer comprehensive support to enhance the performance.   

Why Hire Xamarin Developers For Your Project

The above roles and responsibilities clearly define what a Xamarin developer can bring to your table. If you’re still skeptical about choosing them for your project then you will be limiting your software development capabilities. With Xamarin cross platform app development, you will be able to cater to the requirements of a broader user base. 

However, this is only possible when you hire dedicated Xamarin developers qualified enough to develop apps for multiple operating systems. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits offered by these developers that can help your project thrive. 

1 Build Native UIs

Xamarin developers help you create native UIs via Xamarin’s UI designer. They provide full assistance to use Xamarin’s iOS designer or the UIKit APIs for iOS platforms and Android Views for Android to design high-quality interfaces.

2 Build Custom Mobile Apps

You have the privilege to exploit Xamarin.Forms to their full potential and enable rapid prototyping. This helps in building apps using less platform-specific functionality and makes custom mobile application development much easier.

3 Reduce Overhead Costs

Xamarin app development focuses on using reusable code and a single technological stack. So, you need to hire only a single team of Xamarin professionals. This eliminates the additional expenses of hiring other specialists and minimizes infrastructure costs as well.

4 Receive Hands-on Maintenance

It becomes easy for you to maintain your apps when you have Xamarin developers on board. Especially when you want to solve specific issues or upgrade apps, these developers help you achieve it through your source code, and every change is automatically reflected in the other solutions. 

5 Achieve Native Performance

By choosing Xamarin developers, you can get  a native-like design and performance for every app. You can easily use Xamarin’s in-built C# compiler to interact with the native toolkits and APIs of iOS, Android, and Windows.

6 Practice Comprehensive Testing

You can hire Xamarin developers and monitor cloud-based automatic tests for real mobile devices. You can keep a check on your app’s background performance and UI via the Xamarin Test Recorder and Xamarin Test Cloud.

Top Skills to Prioritize While Hiring Xamarin Developers

You can take full advantage of the above-mentioned benefits only when you choose the right Xamarin developers or a development team. So to help you out, our experts have prepared a list of key skills to onboard potential developers that best suit your project requirements.

1 Technical Know-how

Xamarin mobile application development is all about technical knowledge and its right use. So, it’s necessary for you to choose developers who are well aware of Xamarin technologies like Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.Forms. They should have good command over HTML5, Web Services, JSON, HTTPClient, XML, and Android SDK. 

2 Code Reusability

Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Mac, and Xamarin.Android are the key platforms that developers use to build mobile apps. But for their effective use, they need to be proficient in reusing code. They should have profound knowledge on how to employ sets of code on multiple platforms, once they write code and run on a particular platform.

3 C# and ASP.NET

One of the most important things that you need to consider when choosing Xamarin developers is their expertise in C#. Examine their understanding of data binding, state management, and UI controls. Checking their background in .NET-specific tools like NuGet and techniques like lambda expressions, C# classes, Async/Await, etc., can also act as a key filter to hire qualified developers.

4 Software Design Architecture

A software design pattern is really important for your cross platform development as it breaks programs and exhibits code into modules to make writing, reusing, and updating code faster and better. So, make sure that the Xamarin developers you hire have a good understanding of software architectures and design patterns like MVVM, DI, and IoC.

5 App Testing Environment

You need to hire Xamarin developers who know how Xamarin Profiler and Xamarin Insight works and how they can be used to deliver quality apps. They should be skilled enough to enable and maintain faster app testing with Xamarin Test Cloud, View Renderer, UI Test Profile, and NUnit. 

6 Third-party Platforms, Libraries, and APIs

Another important thing to keep in mind while hiring Xamarin developers is their ability to use declarative syntax via third-party libraries and APIs like Objective-C, Java, Swift, C/C++, etc. They should have good knowledge about external platforms like Google, Google Plus, Flurry, Facebook, Crashlytics, Pinterest, Dropbox, AFNetworking, Pusher, and much more.

7 IDEs and Build Tools

Ensure that your chosen developers can create performant apps from source code. They should have prior experience using IDEs such as Xamarin Studio, Visual Studio, Xcode, and Android Studio. Besides, their competence in some core build tools like SQLite, Composer, Jenkins, Git, SVN, JIRA, NPM, and Postman is also necessary.

8 Adjacent Expertise

You need to opt for developers that can provide your company with end-to-end Xamarin consulting services. These services should include OAuth authorization, social integration, background processing, memory management, encryption-decryption, multi-device sync, app publishing to respective app stores, and so on. 

In addition to the above mentioned, you also need to focus on hiring an individual or team that has great interpersonal skills such as critical thinking, teamwork, change management, effective communication, adaptation to failures, and openness to constructive feedback.

Hire Xamarin Developer in 8 Easy Steps

Now that you know the skills to look for, building your Xamarin application development team would indeed seem a complicated task to accomplish. But not to worry, we got you covered with our step-by-step process that can help you hire Xamarin specialists in a hassle-free way. So, let’s get started.

1 Define Key Business Requirements

The first and most important step while considering Xamarin developers for hire is properly defining your business requirements. You should be clear about your end goals and the key objectives you want to achieve with this hiring. Analyze whether you want developers to manage your project independently or you only aim to extend your in-house capacity. 

2 Choose the Best Hiring Resource

There are various potential hiring resources available across the market that can help you in reaching out to skilled developers. You can seek referrals from your professional circle, contact candidates via freelance marketplaces, or opt for a team augmentation services model. But outsourcing companies can be your best option to explore flexible hiring and pricing.

3 Screen Resumes and Shortlist Developers/Development Teams

After deciding your end goals and a hiring resource, you need to focus on verifying the resumes and shortlisting candidates that perfectly match your expectations. Just make sure that they offer the necessary benefits, satisfy the criteria and understand the list of roles & responsibilities mentioned above. 

4 Examine Work Experience and Project Portfolio

After shortlisting some developers, you need to check out their overall industry experience and project portfolio. Ask them to share their previous work samples and analyze their knowledge about existing or ongoing projects. You need to go through their client list. Find out whether they have some prior experience of working on a similar project as yours, look for user ratings, feedback on their live projects and pick the best team.

5 Discuss Project Requirements

The next step is about discussing your project requirements with your chosen individual or team. This discussion should focus on two-way interaction in person or through a virtual meeting. Share your app idea with the developers and let them understand the methodologies (Agile, Scrum, XP, Lean, Waterfall, etc.) to be followed to develop applications.

6 Finalize Engagement Model

Post-requirement sharing, you will have two engagement models to choose from – onsite and offsite. An onsite model helps you meet a talented team that offers Xamarin app development services at your location. On the contrary, offsite engagement leads your project from a development center irrespective of your location.

7 Select a Payment Model

Now, you need to pick a payment model that suits your project roadmap and overall budget. You can employ a dedicated team on an hourly, weekly, or monthly basis depending upon the size and expected duration of your project. Else, you can go for a Retainer model and hire Xamarin developers part-time or full-time.

8 Onboarding

When you complete all these steps as specified, you will have a team of Xamarin developers that you can count on. The final step is to offer all the essential resources, infrastructure, and knowledge transfer sessions by hosting a smooth, secure onboarding process. 

How can Mobisoft Help?   

Partnering with Mobisoft will help you hire experienced Xamarin developers and start your app development project right away. As a Xamarin app development company, we are driven by the best software architects and product engineers who focus on offering services that help you meet evolving demands. Be it custom development, support or maintenance, UI/UX development, migration and upgradation of your app, our experts cater to your requirements in the best possible way. 

With our decade of experience and technical expertise, we bring the best iOS and Android apps to your table that help you generate a greater ROI. Our product development process is backed by the best industry standards and security measures. We consistently strive to deliver quality software development services with the help of our Xamarin consultants.

Here’re some partner benefits to look forward to:

• Hands-on expertise in building complex Xamarin apps.
• Flexible engagement models and proven methodologies.
• Source code protection and end-to-end confidentiality assurance.
• Hassle-free hiring process that gives access to global talent. 
• Future-ready products and services on-demand. 
• 365-day support and complete assistance for triggering issues. 

The Final Words

Choosing Xamarin for your app development will not only give you a competitive edge but also unlock unique digital experiences. Many companies are using this technology to enjoy faster time-to-market and reduced development costs. You can also hire Xamarin developers and launch projects that will satisfy your stakeholders by all means. Just make sure you align with the right software development company that can assist you in fulfilling your unique business needs.

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