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New Post 4/28/2015 3:09 AM
User is offline BusSys2015
2 posts
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New BSA - New role in my company - how to save development time? 

Hi,

I have started as a BSA - my ideal job! I am delighted to have found this website, as I am in at the deep end:

I am currently writing specs for sales, stock, accounting applications rebuilds.

The developers are spending most of their time on code discovery, as opposed to developing the new applications.

What are the best ways to step in here and produce documentation that will save the developers' time?

What do the developers need to know and how best to document it/ what type of document can they work from?

Any responses much appreciated.

 

 

 
New Post 4/28/2015 12:46 PM
User is offline NitWitNick
259 posts
5th Level Poster


Re: New BSA - New role in my company - how to save development time? 
"accounting applications rebuilds"

Brand new or maintenance ?

---

"The developers are spending most of their time on code discovery"

Many programs are written by other programmers and many times the code is not documented ... and a big portion of a programmer's time can be devoted to code discovery ... "What The Heck Did They Do Here" , "Where Is The Routine That Calculates Late Fees" ...  Stuff could be in external routines written in other languages, etc.

---

"What are the best ways to step in here and produce documentation that will save the developers' time?"

In another thread I mentioned that when we hire contractors to develop something, we didn't just let them come in and do a lot of "code Discovery" ... we had created detailed work packages for them to get started right away ... after a project orientation.

 The Detailed Work Package Included:

What applications we needed developed or maintained.

Program names to modified and locations (libraries).

Table names and locations (libraries).

Subroutines used and internal / external.

Test Libraries.

ETC.

---

"I have started as a BSA " - "What do the developers need to know and how best to document it/ what type of document can they work from?"

If you are new at the company ... have a meeting with them, introduce yourself and find out what they want from you ... just don't step in and make them mad.

 
New Post 4/29/2015 6:56 AM
User is offline BusSys2015
2 posts
No Ranking


Re: New BSA - New role in my company - how to save development time? 
Modified By Modern Analyst  on 4/29/2015 10:18:17 AM)

Thanks very much for your reply.

Brand new or maintenance ?

--They are maintenance - rebuilds.

Subroutines used and internal / external.

-- Could you explain this pls? How would they be documented?

 

[/QUOTE]
 
New Post 4/29/2015 1:03 PM
User is offline NitWitNick
259 posts
5th Level Poster


Re: New BSA - New role in my company - how to save development time? 

"Subroutines used and internal / external"

When an application is developed, many times a routine is put in that program to do something (internal) ... lets say "Calculate Sales Tax".

Later on, someone needs another program to do something and it requires a Sales Tax calculation too ... so another programmer creates a Sales Tax routine in that program ... now when you do maintenance on a system, you have to find each program that has that Sales Tax routine in it ... that takes time as "Code Discovery" ... or you can find them for the programmers and list the programs that have to be updated ... doing the basic "Code Discovery" for them.

-----

Many places that use common routines create an External program (separate from the other programs) that contain common routines. The main programs Call those routines when they need to be used ... So, the Sales Tax Calculation is in one place for multiple programs to use ... making that Code Discovery and maintenance much faster.

-----

Organized places also have documentation on these External Subroutines so a BA or Programmer can look them up by function and get the program name.

You might check your documentation to see if there is documentation / Flowcharts on System Programs, Databases, Subroutines ... etc. to help with identifying stuff. If it isn't there, you might start to develop something and have the programmers update that documentation when new programs, routines, databases, tables, etc. are created ... Now when you write something, you can say Program XXX needs to be modified or database table ZZZ needs a new field ... along with your "AS-IS" / "TO-BE" documentation.

 
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