Among the set of processes that are necessary for a company to manage applications in terms of maintenance and updates, two main activities stand out:
1. Application Development
This activity identifies the design and development phases of corporate Information Communication Technology solutions. It specifically involves the continuous search for solutions to the needs of the Client with significant focus on the continuous evolution of the software.
Benefits
This approach allows quick, easy adaptation to market changes that need to be included in solutions, in order to keep the focus firmly on the Client’s objectives and on the results identified for each phase of the software product’s life cycle. Since they are often Custom-type solutions, each Client request is collected in a carefully drafted requirements document, partly thanks to direct consultancy between the Client and the developer, a support activity that allows the joint definition of priorities and, in many cases, produces the added value of the recommendation of supplemental solutions, which completes the needs expressed by the Client during the initial request phase.
Workflow
Once all the requirements have been defined, a functional specification document is drawn up that the Client can verify, approve and supplement. After a feasibility check on every request and after receiving feedback, the project can then be planned by defining an analysis phase and a release plan that support all the design steps, up to release in a test environment. Throughout the development phase, Quality Assurance is performed to certify the quality of the product generated and allows the phases of the project plan to proceed. When the software is ready, an initial internal test is carried out, which is then documented (also in video format) and released to the Client. The latter will be able to redo all the tests already performed independently or with the support of the development team, defining cases and critical issues, or any problems, or, should there be none, authorizing release into the production environment.
Guarantees obtainable on developed software
All software put into production benefits from a guarantee that comprises a minimum period of one month of effective use in the production environment, to be sure that the product supplied complies with the required specifications.
2. Application Maintenance
This refers to the management of the solutions developed by integrating the maintenance and innovation of the solution itself. In this case, there is the maintenance of software or all those present that operate in an application.
Benefits
It is possible to work in a kind of high-level assistance, emulating various instances of the software in test environments, and also integrating a new Quality Assurance activity that verifies all the software and creates a test phase on the change request to re-certify that everything responds to the needs communicated or is a solution to the problems encountered. The assistance is completed by IT support on the entire infrastructure involving different and varied skills, to be able to respond to any type of request, on all fronts, in a professional and attentive manner.
Workflow
Depending on the compiled software solution, there may be multiple data flows in continuous movement and of varying sizes. Continuous monitoring makes it possible to verify that these data flows are always in motion and correct, to avoid creating discrepancies or misaligned information that would create criticalities or interruptions in the processes downstream of the software, negatively affecting the features of the application. Data flows can generate errors, sometimes even due to simpler causes, such as network problems during data entry into a database or perhaps an interrupted internal procedure that can generate corrupted data. Thanks to monitoring, the resolution phase of any problem generated becomes faster and easier and, depending on the application, necessary changes of a certain significance can be identified.
Application Phases
- The phases involved in Application Maintenance can be listed as follows:
- Continuous system monitoring
- Resolution of any problems that may occur during normal operation
- Support in the use of applications and any integrations
- Executive Extra Batch for verification
