BCS Integrating Off-the-shelf Software Solutions

Course

Online

Price on request

Description

  • Type

    Course

  • Methodology

    Online

  • Start date

    Different dates available

Increasingly, organisations are seeking COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf) solutions to their IT system needs since these can offer more features, faster implementation, greater resilience and industry best practices. However, for these benefits to be realised it is important that the right solution be selected and integrated with pre-existing solutions and the business processes that they support.

Facilities

Location

Start date

Online

Start date

Different dates availableEnrolment now open

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Subjects

  • IT

Course programme

Introduction

  • Advantages and disadvantages of the software package/COTS approach
  • Strategic issues: relationship of the COTS approach to business strategy, IT strategy & business processes
  • Risks of the COTS approach
  • Legal issues & requirements
  • Applicable standards (IEEE)

Roles and responsibilities in successful COTS selection and integration

  • Project roles
  • Architect roles
  • Service Delivery and management roles

Selecting a suitable COTS solution

  • A framework for COTS solution selection
  • Solution requirements and matrices
  • The Invitation To Tender (ITT) / Request For Proposal (RFP)
  • Evaluating a software package
  • Maintenance and support agreements
  • Licensing agreements & supply contracts
  • Managing the long-term relationship with the supplier

The role of requirements and modelling in successful off-the-shelf solution selection and integration

  • The requirements catalogue
  • Identification of relevant business functions and significant events
  • Identification of system functions and their triggers (use cases & use case diagrams)
  • Mapping of system functions to business functions and events
  • Data (class) models in package evaluation
  • Non-functional requirements (performance, usability/user-interface, interfaces with other systems, security & audit, legal issues, archiving, backup and recovery)
  • Technical requirements and conformance
  • Product design requirements
  • Implementation requirements
  • Infrastructure requirements
  • Supplier citizenship requirements
  • Integration protocol issues

Component and system integration issues

  • Tailoring and amending the package solution
  • Data integration issues
  • Component integration strategies
  • Modelling component interfaces
  • Component integration and system integration testing
  • The role of ETL (Exact Transform Load) in COTS solution integration

Deployment and service management issues

  • Business change considerations (changeover strategies, training, documentation, deployment plans)
  • Technical considerations (data conversion/take-on, software release management, configuring the solution & software configuration management)
  • Service management issues (the service transition plan, upgrade arrangements and management, site acceptance testing)

BCS Integrating Off-the-shelf Software Solutions

Price on request