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Estimation techniques, Advisory and Consultation

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Estimation of a migration project is the single biggest factor in determining the success of the project.

In a scenario where the estimation do go wrong, project overruns, delaying product launch, escalating cost and time implications. Hence true demonstration of the expertise would be in terms of analysis, understanding and estimating of the project. This would be the phase where a company’s expertise, processes, skills and tools play a crucial role and help define the outcome.

Considering this importance, S7 Software has invested a lot of time and money in researching and developing a suite of tools, estimation procedures and techniques to arrive at a more precise estimation than the one prevalent in the industry.

Estimation Techniques
Below are the estimation techniques (in the process of copyrighting and patenting) that we have designed in-house:

» Migration Point Analysis & Estimation (MPA) – This technique needs complete source code, working binary and the configuration, language, database etc for both source and destination platforms.

» Migration Use Case Analysis & Estimation (MUC) – This technique needs a working binary and all the configuration, language, database etc for both source and destination.

» Migration Data Point Analysis & Estimation (MDP) – This technique needs just the configuration, language, database, lines of code (LoC) etc for both source and destination. We also require the information about the third party applications, libraries, dlls and any other dependencies.

Migration Point Analysis & Estimation (MPA):
MPA is a detailed migration analysis executed to the minutest detail possible to get an accurate estimation very close to 100%. It is very similar to Function Point Analysis and estimation, but customized to migration projects. We use in-house suite of tools to analyze the application (code, binary etc) to aid us get a precise estimation. This information not only helps us to estimate better but aids us while designing the migration plan.

Migration Use Case Analysis & Estimation (MUC)
MUC helps us estimate using only the binary or executable of an application without access to the source code. We use this to create use case scenario for all possible combinations and use the data to arrive at a detailed data points which is used for the estimation. We employ in-house tools to analyze the binary for information on dependencies and the APIs used. This is very close to the MPA but not as accurate.

Migration Data Point Analysis & Estimation (MDP)
MDP is employed in scenarios where the source code or the binaries are not available for estimation. Using just the data points regards language, architecture, database, lines of code, third party dependency, brief description of what the application does, GUI, operating system, platform, etc for both source and destination in the intended migration, we arrive at a relatively accurate effort estimate.

Customers can test this process by providing data on this page, we use the provided data against the data from our database (populated from many migration projects, both internal and external), based on an internal calculation the tool estimates the effort required.

Migration Analysis Tools
Below is a list of tools which helps us to estimate, design and implement a migration plan.

Source Code Analyzer: is a static analyzer which parses and analyzes all the lines of code to collect all relevant information that is needed in the estimation stage.

Binary Parser: is a binary analyzer which runs through the executable and gathers information about the dependencies.

In addition to these we have other tools which help us in the process of analysis and actual migration, Linux-it and PortKey.

Migration Advisory and Consultation

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S7 Software Solutions as an expert in the software porting and migration domain offers its customers Migration Lifecycle Consultancy, from assessment to deployment and support we offer a complete package of services.

The following paragraphs give a brief outline of the migration lifecycle that S7 Software recommends and follows.

Prior to migration, an evaluation of the application to be migrated is done in terms of cost, time and performance.

Below mentioned is the four-step analysis that we do to evaluate migration-
(a) Migration Assessment
We analyze the application that is to be migrated and prepare an assessment plan including the business assessment, feasibility report giving alternatives of the target platform, if any.

(b) Component Integration
We analyze the current/legacy application and the system it is running under, looking at the composition of the ecosystem and determine the effect of the migrated application on that ecosystem. We also determine how each component and tools work within the new ecosystem and suggest alternatives if required.

(c) Lifecycle management
Once the assessment, target selection and component integration is frozen; we look into the implications (legal and security) that might arise if the target platform uses open source.

(d) Support analysis
S7 Software analysis support requirements of the migrated application to make sure that the migrated application is well adapted to the production environment.

Through our Migration Consultancy we offer our customers the following advantages

» Choice - of software and tools that can be considered (open source or proprietary) which offers excellent ROI.
» Flexibility - of vendor tie-ups which offers access to large number of freeware packages that can be integrated.
» Value - in terms of deployment of industry standard architectures, platforms and create scalable IT infrastructure.
» Cost - significant savings through use Open source solutions which are supported by larger development community.
» Security - offer security and additional protection for individual applications against hacking, intrusion and detections.

Partnerships
We have partnered with some of the industry leaders like - HP, SUN, Microsoft, ArtinSoft, Trolltech, Novell and Redhat, which helps us to support and continuously integrate their latest technological advancements into clients migrated applications.

Best Practices of Migration

Below are some of the best practices we use to make sure that the migrated project is a success:
» Assessment/Analysis: of clients existing application along with infrastructure.
» Benchmarks: create financial and I/O based benchmarks, etc which can be easily repeated in the new environment.
» Integration: perfectly into the new system and framework for the existing target IT infrastructure.
» Testing: create a comprehensive test, including regression testing, standardization testing, and security updates testing. All testing issues will be completely documented.
» Deployment and Training: to key people who do further maintenance, usage, of the network, storage and, database, servers.
» Support and Documentation: complete end user documentation.