Inventory and Manufacturing ModulesApplication Modernization - Case StudyMay 29, 2014

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Client Profile

World's leading education company

From pre-school to high school, early learning to professional certification

Curriculum materials, multimedia learning tools, electronic learning programmes and testing programmes, test development, processing and scoring services 

Operates in more than 70 countries

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Business Objectives

Challenges:• Existing applications were accessed using thick clients that were built using client-server architecture • Business was facing operational challenges with the current technology platform• The technologies used in existing application (PowerBuilder, Presenter, Filemaker) were getting outdated • Some of the third party controls used in existing technology were deprecated and source code / support was not available for

those components• Lack of technical documentation for old platform and components used in the applications• Applications were distributed under multiple source codes• Different business units were using there own version of software to perform similar business functions• There were several performance issues due to network latency in client server architecture

Key Asks:• Standardize technology stack with a full fledged integrated platform• Retain existing functionality and address perceived issues• Increase the availability and resiliency and reduce development and operational costs• Reduce ongoing development and operational costs • Reduce hardware and software license costs• Reduce downtime support requests • Improve reliability, availability and scale of customer-facing portal• Increase agility, productivity and reusability• Embrace open source with abundant skill-set availability• Enhanced user experience and system performance• Integrated ERP solution for Publishing Business to support the end to end product lifecycle• Bring the applications to a common standard technology stack, to minimize cost of future enhancements

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Our scope

• Reverse engineering of existing application to extract business logic and to understand application flow• Architectural pattern changes in all tiers, application, middleware and database• Minimal code changes in database to utilize the existing business logic• Support for Inversion of Control: code refactoring

Solution robustness

• Reduced dependency on the back-end (introduction of EJBs and middleware)• Increased performance through selective code refactoring• Fault tolerant application server architecture (load balancing)

High availability

• Addition of monitoring tools to the deployment and manageability• Improved business data reporting

Operational enhancements

• We had to change the architecture to support the business case• Minimal code changes to support those architecture changes• Along with documented operational enhancements

Summary

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Understand

• Application Debugging

• Reverse Engineering

• Focus Groups• 1:1 User

Survey• Brain

Storming• Heuristic

Evaluations

• DRD• New Features• Use Cases• Basic Sitemap

Analyze

• Technology Evaluation

• Wireframes Creation

• Information Architecture Planning

• Creative Composition

• FRS• Proposed

Sitemap• ERD for

existing database

Design

• Page Layout• Logo, Icon,

Banner design etc.

• Web Design Layout

• Develop Prototype

• Design Mock-up

• LLD and HLD with flow diagrams

Develop

• Implement the application frontend in new technology

• Incorporating Standards Compatibility

• Browser & Platform Compatibility

• Application Code

• Functional Test Results

• Performance Report

Integrate & Deploy

• Technology Integration

• Internal Application Integration

• Data and user migration from Old Portal

• Application access

• User Manual• Technical

Handbook

Project Management, Requirement Change & Control, Configuration Management, Reviews, Support & Maintenance

Deliverables

Migration Process

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Architectural changes

• Implementation of enterprise level application using J2EE, Struts and EJBs• Introduction of middleware technology and database connection pooling• Introduction of load balancing and failover strategy at web and application server level • Hosting static content on web server

Application changes

• Introduction of customizable and easy to predict navigation controls• Introduction of highly interactive functions using JQuery and AJAX• Standardization of UI using CSS

Portal changes

• Introduction of data caching for major database tables• Introduction of caching at session and server context

Caching changes

• Comprehensive monitoring of database, application and web servers• Generate logging at Portal and middleware layers• Improved backup and disaster recovery plan

Monitoring changes

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Technology Stack

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Application availability• Access on both intranet and internet• Around the clock availability, supported

through load balancing

Enhanced user experience• Predictive and easy navigation• Consistent look and feel across

various modules

Improved business functions• Extensive product search• Improved approval workflows• Enhanced reporting capabilities

Salient Features

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Business Benefits

Improved user experience High availability Faster response

Internal branding Improved Security Integrated Solution

Low maintenance cost Increased scalability Ease of

enhancements

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Lessons learned

Lockdown the scope and avoid functionality scope

creek

Be prepared to re-factor code as there is no one-to-one pattern translations for

all the patterns

Lockdown the target platform components and avoid

introducing new components

Define usage patterns of new frameworks, components for

faster on-ramp and code quality

Define the criteria and the scope of different caching levels usage for optimal

performance

Allocate large amount of time for performance tests as

tuning of new platform is an iterative process

Minimize business UAT test time as very less functionality

change involved and compliment with automated

regression testing

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Thank You