Since the distribution of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets constantly increases, many software developers find themselves confronted with the challenge to program applications that should be capable of running on a variety of mobile operating systems and –versions in order to reach the widest possible user base. The decision for a certain technology is therefore often made intuitively.

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a systematic procedure for multicriterial decision making. It has already been successfully applied for a variety of problems, amongst others for the qualitative assessment of software architectures, and is applied in this scenario for the selection of an appropriate technology.

In the context of this project,  several technology decisions such as the choice of an appropriate framework, the choice of design paradigms and the choice of programming languages under the application of the AHP have to be made. The complexity that is potential to available alternatives is high.

These are possible alternatives: the development of a native application for each operating system, the development of a web application that can be encapsulated as an application for each operating system, or the application of frameworks that enable the development on a level that is abstracted by the operating system and that are concerned with aspects which depend on the applied operating system. The AHP is accomplished exemplarily for this technology decision.