The Jonah Group

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• Architecture Review

Architecture Review

Is this you?

• Incremental updates to your application have degraded its quality over the years, and it has now reached the breaking point
• You know your application needs to change, but you're not sure which direction to take
• You're finding it difficult to understand how modern web technologies can help your offerings
• Your staff disagree on the right direction for your web application
• You want to ensure that your new architecture will prepare you for the future
• You want to maintain the level of service you currently provide to your clients

We'll help you re-engineer your web application!

Software is often updated without regard for the effect of the updates on the architecture. Tight deadlines for new functionality often play a role in damaging the overall cohesiveness of the design. A year after the last deployment, hindsight illuminates what now seem like glaring deficiencies in the original architecture. The time has come for some changes!

What is it?

Our standard architecture review service is:

• 3 days of investigation
• 3 days for the preparation of a tailor-made report
• 1 day to present a summary of our findings

This schedule can be tailored to your needs, as appropriate.

Jonah has experience with design reviews for complex systems. We know that three things are paramount when re-architecting an existing system:

A Drill-down Approach

Rather than try to achieve a shallow understanding of your entire application, we drill-down into the details of 2 or 3 representative transactions. Examination of the "vertical slices" within your architecture allows us to map the current components to their new locations within the proposed architecture within the context of a complete, understandable business transaction.

Typically, your developers will be more adept at extrapolating this to the remaining transactions than they would be at applying an abstract blueprint without any real context.

A Strong Software Methodology

A good architect can produce a wonderful design:

• upon which no single function is ever 100% realized before exhausting the budget
• whose realization is incongruous with the abilities of his/her team
• that has nothing to do with the requirements

We will illuminate how attention to process can save your architecture from almost certain doom.

A Realistic Migration Strategy

You're not going to blow away your current software assets just to implement a "cool" new bleeding-edge technology. Your reasons for migration must be well-defined, and the steps you take must respect the constraints and realities of your environment. Your users won't tolerate outages in service, nor will they be sympathetic to a reduced level of service spawned by your attempted "upgrades". We give you strategies to cope with migration, including:

• Hybrid deployment, allowing the coexistence of old and new transactions within the application
• A robust debugging framework, allowing you to more easily diagnose problems in the field
• Strategies for easing the adoption process by your existing clients

Deliverables

A Customized Report

You'll get a report on the "state of the union" of your application, including both what you've done correctly and what needs improvement. Depending on your needs, the report may include "before" and "after" discussions on:

• authentication
• security
• session management
• the component model
• the presentation, logic, and persistence layers
• debugging
• error handling

A Methodology/Architecture Presentation

You'll also receive informal training on the importance of a solid software methodology in an evolving architecture. Here, you'll learn about the role of methodology in producing a solid architecture. The presentation will be followed by an extended question and answer session involving your entire development staff.

Key benefits

• Experience. We've been there before. Having designed systems that have survived a number of years, we're no strangers to design reviews and re-engineering. Having performed this service for a number of different clients, we understand the real-world problems you face.
• A Roadmap. We will give you more than just an architectural blueprint - we'll show you how to get there from here... without losing your clients.
• A Solution In Context. Our drill-down approach applies the blueprint at a deep level to 1 or 2 transactions in your existing system. This makes the blueprint much more meaningful than it would otherwise be if dealt with solely at an abstract level.

Why Jonah?

• This service is only performed by the most senior of our staff members - those with aptitude, experience, and solid communciation skills.
• We are committed to be your partner throughout this difficult transition period.

Let us help you step into the future in a safe, methodical way.