Analysis of Your Existing Software System

Analysis of your existing software system is somewhat similar to the analysis of your hardware system. However, there are significant differences.

The one hand, the fundamental objective of your software system is essentially the same: to provide efficient support (‘software platform’) for (1) management and utilization of your corporate knowledge base – including the ‘corporate cockpit’ interface; (2) corporate processes and projects and (3) corporate communications – internal (Intranet) and external. Obviously, it must comply with your overall information management strategy.

‘Efficient’ in this context means (a) performing all necessary functions; (b) doing it fast enough – essentially ‘right away’ and (c) doing it cost-effectively. The latter means better than (1) competition; (2) than any possible replacement on the market and (3) than any outsourcing option (e.g. SaaS – ‘software as a service’).

(2), and (3) relate mostly to individual software items and software subsystems.  In reality, your system must exhibit the right balance between in-house and outsourced components.

To make it happen, your software system must have the right structure, which must be both comprehensive and lean in terms of capacity and performance. The latter means that the excess capacity must be just enough to handle both the growth of your company (and, therefore, your data, information and knowledge processing needs) until the right upgrades and acquisitions are installed and to handle – in the interim – peak information load.

This structure must be based on the optimal software architecture and its components must fit together very well. And this is where your software system becomes very different from your hardware one. While your hardware items are always connected (integrated) physically or wirelessly, integration of your software products is quite a challenge.

Which creates significant obstacles to development a truly comprehensive corporate knowledge base and to efficient software support for corporate projects and processes. Therefore, one of your key objectives in maximizing the performance of your software system is to integrate its components. Which fall into three broad categories – operating systems, applications and middleware – the ‘glue’ that connects operating systems with applications.

This system must be designed by a highly competent software system architect. This professional is usually provided by an experienced systems integrator that develops and deploys comprehensive information and knowledge management solutions (hardware + software + consulting services). I will discuss these solutions in more detail in the next section.

To perform a thorough analysis of your software system, you will need a comprehensive description of this system. Which must be well-structured, accurate and up-to-date. This description will be used by your software system manager who must use the solid methodology and a highly efficient business process of software system management.