Document Analysis for App Support

Document analysis is an elicitation technique used to gather requirements. It is also the study of the existing document and the information relevant to the current application support process so that one could have better understanding of the process. Business analysts can gather requirements from stakeholders using questionnaires, interviews, or facilitating sessions. The objective of Document Analysis is to gather details of the key functions such as business rules, business entities, and business attributes that needs to be updated. Document Analysis includes various strategies such as analyzing the business plans, keeping records of contract details, training guidelines for the process, customers review, suggestion logs and the existing system specifications. Identifying and implementing the strategies will result in improving requirement gathering for the process and the documentation format.

Documents for App Support Process can be analyzed on the basis of various aspects:

Statement of Work(SOW):

Statement of Work (SOW) is the work agreement between the client and the service provider. This includes Expected services from the vendor, quality of the service provided, and conditions for the availability of the services, RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) for the service provided, escalation procedures and cost for the service provided. It covers the work requirement for the process, addresses the performance and design requirements. 

Some of the commonly addressed key areas for SOW are:

• Purpose of the SOW: It defines the liabilities, responsibilities and work agreements between client and the service providers. This document can include functional requirements or non-functional requirements. 
• Scope of work: It is a process which includes how the work will be divided and who is responsible for completing the work. 
• Scope of work can be categorized into two types:
• In Scope: This section describes about the activities which will be performed in this scope. For e.g. If we consider an application support process, we would prefer Query management, User management etc. 
• Out of Scope: This section describes about the activities which will not be considered in this scope. 
• Timelines: This specifies the allowable time for projects, such as start and finish time, number of hours that can be billed per week or month, where work is to be performed and anything else that relates to scheduling.
• SLA: Service Level-Agreement (SLA) describes the level of the services expected by the client from the vendor for the process. This determines the response time that needs to be given to a particular request. The severity levels with a defined response time is mentioned in the scope of work. For e.g. There can be different levels such as High, Medium and Low which would have a response time as 5hour, 1 day and 2 days respectively.
• Payment Schedule: Payment Schedule of SOW includes the bills to be invoiced and payment to be scheduled for the work done by the supplier.

Pros of Document Analysis:

• Document Analysis plays a vital role in understanding gathered data in order to efficiently plan next course of action. 
• Obtaining and analyzing documents is often far more cost efficient and time efficient than conducting the research or experiments for the process.
• Document Analysis can help an individual understand the processes and sub-process in an application support project without attending formal training on the same. Thus, reduces dependability on human intervention.
• Document Analysis is a beneficial method for research as it can provide supplementary research data. Documents helps in contextualizing one’s research within the process. Documents contains data that are no longer can be observed, providing the details that Business Analyst have forgotten, and can easily track the changes and development done in the process.
• Documents analysis presents the Business Analyst as a knowledgeable person as he/she gains extensive knowledge from the respective documents in a short span of time.

Conclusion:

Document analysis is very critical in Application support as it is part of each and every Process that is implemented and is in process of implementation.

About Author:

Nancy Jain

 is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at: 

nancy.jain@spluspl.com

Blockchain

What is the future of technology? We are hearing buzzwords all around with Vladmir Putin saying “The nation with the best and the most advanced Artificial Intelligence technology, they would be the one who would have control over the world”, but today I will not talk about Artificial Intelligence , as we have heard quite enough about it lately with Elon Musk and Zuckerberg fighting over that whether AI would be a boon or a curse for us . But today I’m going to talk about a technology which is currently making waves and will change how the industry would work in coming years for sure. "Blockchain", the technology behind the cryptography currency Bitcoin. 

Many people know it as the technology behind Bitcoin , the cryptography currency, but Blockchain’s potential uses extend far beyond digital currencies.

Currently, for transfering funds ,what happens is people simply depend on a middleman such as a bank , which ensures the transaction between two party is being done successfully. But what blockchain allows is it enables consumers and suppliers to connect directly and perform transaction, removing the middleman , in this case the bank. 

So the question here is now , what the heck is Blockchain?

Blockchain is fundamentally a ledger, a record keeping book. A ledger meaning it keeps the track of transactions taking place , Now what ledger are , they essentially are private, we don’t tend to share that information of transaction with anyone , but what Blockchain says here is that the ledgers would be public and will be accessible and are going to be shared across all people of interest and that’s the foundational aspect of Blockchain , that in the end it’s basically a record keeping system which keeps a track on any transaction taking place between two parties and also keeping the record public .

The next question that arises in mind would be “What about security”? Is it safe? What if hackers try to hack that particular chain of transaction and retrieve data from it? What then?

The answer to this question is pretty convincing as well as one of the main reasons for the breakthrough of the blockchain , What happens is when a transaction goes through , cryptography secures the data and the new transaction are always linked to the previous one’s in the chain making it almost impossible to alter older records without having to change the subsequent one’s. The linking I’m talking about is done by storing “hash”. Each block is identified by a cryptographic hash of that data. The same hash will always result in that data, but it is impossible to re-create data from hash value . Previous block will have the hash of its previous block embedded in it, and so if a new block is added to the chain , the new block would have a field which will store the hash of its previous block and so on. This is the reason its hard to tamper with. Diagram below is showing how hash are stored.

Also as I said there are multiple computers/nodes which run in this network , In order to gain control of the whole system , one would need to gain access to more than half of the computers in the network, then only it will be possible for him to make changes.

Okay after that you’ll probably think , How will this actually work?

Let me explain to you in a very simple language, with a diagram of course 

Have a look at the diagram, it shows the simple flow of how actually Blockchain works-

• l It simply requests a transaction, that request is broadcasted to Peer-to-Peer network consisting of other computers known as nodes.
• l These network of nodes validates the transaction and the user’s status using known algorithm.
• l A verified transaction can involve cryptocurrency, contracts, records or other structured information.
• l Once verified, the transaction is combined with other transactions to create a new block of data for the ledger.
• l The new block is then added to the existing blockchain, in a way that is permanent and unalterable, it cannot be tampered with easily.
• l The transaction is complete.

The concept of Bitcoin is not just record keeping book for transaction between two parties, now the concept has evolved a lot, it’s being used in quite a different ways.

A company named Bitnation, is using blockchain for a different use altogether other then using it in bitcoin , cryptocurrencies. They started a project aiming to decentralize everything. What they are doing is they are providing a digital ID more of an emergency ID card to the victims of the refugee crisis and bitcoin-based credit card which can be used to receive funds from family member and/or friends without involving any bank accounts. This can also be a way of identifying an individual through family relations cryptographically. 

Also many major companies are also trying a way to simplify and also and trying to better understand supply chain, where blockchain can record every step through which your product goes through before you see them at your local store. You can eventually go back and check that the promises they give of Green tea being 100% organic, the price of the product are actually what they should be. It will give a level of transparency like no other.

Blockchain is also being implemented in Music, Fashion industry as well.

So you can just imagine the countless possible scenarios that Blockchain can be tweaked according to our needs. I’m currently researching more on Blockchain as it is quite vaste, will update this blog as soon as I’ve got something new to share.

About Author:

Pranav Harshe

  is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at: 

pranav.harshe@spluspl.com

Importance Of Reports In Application Support

Prior to understanding the significance of reports in Application Support, let us first apprehend the meaning of ‘Reports’ in this context:

“A report is document that contains information in an organized manner regarding the issues handled and the work done in the respective project, over a specific period of time“

As mentioned above, reports can be generated on a periodic basis, by the system administrator or the responsible individual, it can be done weekly, monthly and quarterly or even on ad-hoc requests if the situation demand. It could be in the form of an excel document, word document, PDF file etc. whatever suits the project requirements and the organization’s policies. 

Reports can be extracted from the application that is used for storing the information of the issues and requests raised by the customers. A format is always specified for a particular type of report, it can include different columns, fields containing the needed information, which varies according to the organizations. E.g. A report containing Request ID, Request Type, Request Description, Status etc. A report should be in a well-formatted manner in terms of presentation, easy to comprehend and the completeness of the required information is necessary. 

Keeping a track of information traversing in and out of a project is extremely important. Spending countless hours on wrapping up all the information at the end of the project is a very tedious task which may lead to mistakes and discrepancies. To avoid such problems in a long run, generating reports after a certain time interval, e.g. on weekly basis, helps to maintain the data regarding the work done on a continuous basis, which gives the top level authorities an overview of the on-goings in the project. There can be different levels of depth, at which the information is presented in reports. A report can have a very detailed view of the data or it can just represent the summary of the project giving a bird’s eye view, whichever suits the needs. This will help the top management to stay aligned with the project updates, and take the necessary measures in terms of the resource planning as needed. Reports are not only used for internal compliance purposes but can also be sent to the customer. The reports provided on request basis are called as Ad-hoc reports. These reports, however, do not have a pre-defined format. The fields and columns required here are decided on the details provided in the request by the users. Such reports help the application users to get the required information in a well-defined format which is simple to understand and solves his/her problems or queries. In application support, quarterly reports can include the data regarding amount of efforts, the numbers issues/requests raised, resolved or pending. Such type of segregation of the information gives significant insights into the project. It can include list of users in the application, which can again be segregated into active, inactive, deleted users as per the aspects of the application. Well-arranged information in the form of reports helps the stakeholders understand all the happenings in the project, over a certain period, in a very time efficient and comprehensive manner.

Conclusion:

Reports are a vital part of an Application Support project, as important details regarding the current status of the project are provided. It helps in smooth and easy transfer of information between the various levels of hierarchy of the project team and the organisation, helping every stake holder stay updated with the events and activities happening in the project

About Author:

Shreyas Sagvekar

 is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at: 

shreyas.sagvekar@spluspl.com