Under the IS infrastructure assessment, the organization looks at the external factors that could impact both the interim maintenance plan and any long-term migration strategy. An application area may have certain methodologies, standards, measurement techniques or other procedures and practices in place. This may be an advantage or a disadvantage. If a methodology is in use and differs from the standard, a transition plan must be created for the application support team.
Other factors, such as the average length of time in a given application area, could signal resistance to certain Positioning techniques such as restructuring. This assessment identifies current standards and practices and then maps these to a desired set of practices, standards, tools and methodology.
Results are delivered using metric ratings for each application area. Metric definitions may be found in the Comsys-TIM metrics guide in Appendix B. Transition activities, including education, resource reallocation planning and the infusion of methodology, must be identified and included in the interim plan and migration strategy based on this assessment.
The entrance criteria for the infrastructure assessment task are listed below.
· Completion of objective setting/proposal development to determine level of analysis required
· Commitment and involvement from senior IS management to assess current infrastructure
· Availability and cooperation of application project management to perform infrastructure assessment
The personnel and skill requirements necessary to meet the IS infrastructure assessment task are identified below.
· Redevelopment Expert
- Ability to assess application area in respect to stated corporate standards
· Application Area Manager
- Ability to be interviewed and authorize interviews to assess application areas
· Testing/Validation Expert
- Knowledge of organization and application area testing procedures
· Metric Analyst
- Ability to assess & record task driven metrics
The system components and related inputs required to initiate and complete the IS infrastructure assessment task are listed below.
· Blank copy of IS infrastructure assessment Form 007 for each separate application group assessed
Note: If multiple systems are being assessed, and they have separate support teams, use multiple forms.
· If available, user backlog requirements metrics as recorded on function assessment Form 005
· Procedural documentation, methods, etc.
· Any documents summarizing tool availability/access
· Information on testing procedures and tools
· Information on development, redevelopment and/or maintenance tools
· Copy of all in-house methodologies and other standards
· Results from other external surveys such as the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) software maturity survey
Technologies supporting the IS infrastructure assessment task include spreadsheet, project management and word processing tools. These tools are used to represent information as required by this task.
Spreadsheet
This tool is used to record metric results for this task.
Word processor
This is required to record analysis results.
The IS infrastructure assessment task is comprised of the following task steps:
