Build Great Systems That Last - Series A: Analytical Skills

Methodology is like strategy, it will give us perspective from time to time to keep us on the right path.

There are two distinct methodologies:

1. The older waterfall approach flows sequentially downwards through phases of analysis, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. There is no turning back. The result is linear. The requirement specification needs to be 100% accurate upfront or the resulting system may not be operational as desired. This can be a problem when requirements change before the project is completed.

2. The newer iterative approach assume changes can be made anywhere at anytime. Additional features can be designed, developed and tested in repeated cycles. It is done only when no more addition or change is required. The gain can be exponential because of the learning on each iteration.

Business analysis is about doing the right thing. Doing the wrong thing right is wrong. Just doing the right thing is not good enough, we have to do the right thing.

Processing modelling is about using simple notations to represent a process graphically so it can be visualized, analyzed and improved. In my opinion, a process without business rules is like a body without a soul. Every unique business must have its own unique business rules. Therefore it is essential to describe the process with its business rules along the way.

Follow the users… find out how they would interact with the system to achieve their goals. Systems analysis consists of a set of possible sequences of interactions between systems and users related to a particular goal to identify, clarify, and organize system requirements.

In my opinion, data model can make or break a system.

A well designed data model is fast, good and cheap. Yes, all three.

It should be fast on data manipulation such as create, read, update and deletion; we call that CRUD.

To be good, it should be well thought out to handle the intended use of the system; each entity should have it’s own unique function, well tested from all angles, and robust enough to cope with incorrect input and errors during execution;

In addition, it should be low maintenance and save space.

All in all it should be doing the right things right at a reasonable cost.

An overview of how a great mission-critical system can be developed on Rintagi platform. Our platform can deliver a fully functional system in the same amount of time it takes traditional development to produce a wire-frame. Learn what makes Rintagi great and how you can make it work for you.

Learn the secret to testing and how we can use less resources to produce better results. Testing is very important in a mission-critical system. The nature of software is that we can have 99 things right but if one major thing is wrong, the program breaks. Build mission-critical programs with no major bugs by following our proven testing methodology.

See how deployment is done and evaluate different deployment options by analyzing the pros and cons of each.

Change in the IT industry is happening at a breakneck pace. Organizations that aren't catching up will be left behind. Learn what to do when confronted with a change request from a client.