1. Corporate Interface Architecture George Palios

2. Contents Outlines the activities undertaken to enhance the quality of service of the Corporate interfacing after it was recognised that the number of interfaces was growing rapidly and the existing interfaces faced rewriting every time the hosting server/package was replaced. It was also recognised that there was a need for clear and precise documentation for Incident Management and also or training purposes and as a communication tool for Project Meetings. My role was to perform an analysis of the current structures and design and Project Manage a new Interfacing Architecture template with all the necessary supporting documentation and version control areas under the ITIL framework. The Project was managed in conjunction with the Corporate Interface Server hardware Project which I also Project Managed simultaneously.

3. 1.Review existing Software Architecture 2.Provide and recommend options 3.Provide Financial costing 4. Design new Software Architecture 5.Migrate all Software to this environment 6.Introduce Change Management Procedures 7.Document all processes for Incident Management Aims of Project

4. Existing Technical Environment There was no documentation, but the existing software interfaces were located separately on each server above (lines indicate data transfers)

5. Option 1 Was to purchase new hardware (see separate Project) together with a phased migration of interface Software - strongly recommended. Option 2 Leave the software as is and invest in more staff to rewrite software and manage interruptions. Option 1 was agreed as change was inevitable and a plan was implemented. Provide and recommend options

6. The proposal identified that the financial costing relating to the hardware would be identified in the hardware project (see Corporate Interface Server Project) The costing for the software migration and rewriting was not Costed. It was agreed that the work would be done incrementally and automatically as each system needed replacing, thus the cost would come from replacement system budgets. Financial Costing

7. New Software Architecture

8. A simple plan was devised to migrate the software on an incremental basis around all the normal development work scheduled to be undertaken. If time permitted, software migration was a background exercise with the key interfaces being prioritized. The new software was developed with modular standards which increased speed of development and also incident fault analysis. Migrate Software

9. A Change Management Policy was introduced. All changes are to be tested thoroughly on the Test servers and signed off before requesting Live deployment. All changes to be made to the technical environment and software environment, would have to be requested and appropriately authorized. Version control introduced. Circulation lists created for advance notification of changes. Change Management

10. Document Processes Documentation web-enabled each object hyperlinked to next level down and final links were direct to data transfer areas and software code.