Using the following case study answer these questions: How could this (conversio
ID: 3841584 • Letter: U
Question
Using the following case study answer these questions:
How could this (conversion) have been better implemented?
Explain the importance of configuration management, change management, and source code control to the implementation, testing, and deployment of this conversion.
Hudsonbanc Billing System Upgrade
Two regional banks with similar geographic territories merged to form HudsonBanc. Both banks had credit card operations and operated billing systems that had been in- ternally developed and upgraded over three decades. The systems performed similar functions, and both operated primarily in batch mode on mainframe computers. Merging the two billing systems was identified as a high-priority cost-saving measure.
HudsonBanc initiated a project to investigate how to merge the two billing systems. upgrading either system was quickly ruled out because the existing technology was considered old and the costs of upgrading the systemere estimated to be too high. HudsonBanc decided that a new component-based, Web-oriented system should be built or purchased. Management preferred the purchase option because it was assumed that a purchased system could be brought online more quickly and cheaply. An RFP (request for proposal) was prepared, many responses were received, and after months of business modeling and re- quirements activities, a vendor was chosen.
Hardware for the new system was installed in early January. Software was installed the following week, and a random sample of 10 percent of the customer ac- counts was copied to the new system. The new system was operated in parallel with the old systems for two months. To save costs involved with complete duplication, the new system computed but didn’t actually print billing statements. Payments were entered into both systems and used to update parallel customer account databases. Duplicate account records were checked manually to en- sure that they were the same.
After the second test billing cycle, the new system was declared ready for operation. All customer accounts were migrated to the new system in mid-April. The old sys- tems were turned off on May 1, and the new system took over operation. Problems occurred almost immediately. The system was unable to handle the greatly increased volume of transactions. Data entry and customer Web ac- cess slowed to a crawl, and payments were soon backed up by several weeks. The system wasn’t handling certain types of transactions correctly (e.g., charge corrections and credits for overpayment). Manual inspection of the recently migrated account records showed errors in approximately 50,000 accounts.
It took almost six weeks to adjust the incorrect accounts and update functions to handle all transaction types correctly. On June 20, the company attempted to print billing statements for the 50,000 corrected customer ac- counts. The system refused to print any information for transactions more than 30 days old. A panicked consulta- tion with the vendor concluded that fixing the 30-day re- striction would require more than a month of work and testing. It was also concluded that manual entry of account adjustments followed by billing within 30 days was the fast- est and least risky way to solve the immediate problem.
Clearing the backlog took two months. During that time, many incorrect bills were mailed. Customer support telephone lines were continually overloaded. Twenty-five people were reassigned from other operational areas, and additional phone lines were added to provide sufficient cus- tomer support capacity. System development personnel were reassigned to IS operations for up to three months to assist in clearing the billing backlog. Federal and state regulatory authorities stepped in to investigate the prob- lems. HudsonBanc agreed to allow customers to spread payments for late bills over three months without interest charges. Setting up the payment arrangements further aggravated the backlog and staffing problems.
Explanation / Answer
Importance of Configuration management (CM)
Configuration management (CM) refers to the process of systematically handling changes to a system in a way that it maintains integrity over time. It is one of the most important aspect in software testing.
In this case study after implementing the new vendor software for web oriented system, proper configuration has not been set up. Due to this inadequate configuration management procedures, the latest hardware and software revisions were uploaded and installed into the merged systems of HudsonBanc with an outdated configuration, rendering the test a complete failure. This is why the system was unable to handle the greatly increased volume of transactions. Data entry and customer Web ac- cess slowed to a crawl, and payments were soon backed up by several weeks.
Configuration management makes it trivial to replicate environments with the exact same software and configurations. This enables you to effectively build a multistage ecosystem, with production, development, and testing servers. So, proper configuartion management process have made the merging system much effective.
Importance of Change management process
The change management process is the sequence of steps or activities that a change management team follow to apply change management to a change in order to drive individual transitions and ensure the project meets its intended outcomes
If change management process has implemented in effective manner in this scenario, the implemented web based technlogy would have been adopted the changes according to he business functionality. Proper change management process integrate the business scenario with technical aspects, It removes obstacles. Both functional and technical consultants have to choos the proper cahnge management process would have been improved the outcomes in this case.
During the development or upgrading a software source code management controls the version of the software and makes revision to the code if anything goes wrong. Source code management in this case has gone wrong This is why the new version of implemented technology, many incorrect bills were mailed to the customers and there is no control over it.
source code management control is essential tool for any project with multiple source files or which has several people working with multiple source files. It protects against developer accidents (deleting/changing code unintentionally).
Testing, deployment and converion all these are technical aspects that have to implemented properly to have project get succeded. Software testing also helps to identify errors, gaps or missing requirements in contrary to the actual requirements. It can be either done manually or using automated tools.
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