Systems & Solutions

Application Architecture

IBSA has experience in developing Application Architectures both for internal product development and for a range of clients, from financial institutions and government authorities to community organisations. Depending on the nature, timing and level of our engagement, we have provided Application Architecture services ranging from analysis and design of individual components through to enterprise-level architectural reviews and designs.

Many of our Architects have experience as far back as mainframe batch-oriented systems that communicated between components using magnetic tape. Since its commencement in 1999, IBSA has focused on systems where the components interface using direct communications, enterprise service bus architectures or Service Oriented Architectures. In most cases, components from different vendors, of different age and design and sometimes on different infrastructure, need to be integrated to provide the enterprise with the required functional and operational facilities.

Recent projects where IBSA has played a major role in Application Architecture include the design and development of a Wholesale Finance System for motor car dealers, requiring successful integration and communication with Financier internal finance management systems, General Ledger, external auditing providers, car manufacturer ordering systems, car importers financial systems, car dealership management systems and loan origination systems.

Another project involved the design and documentation for a large tenancy (such as office buildings and shopping centres) energy efficiency and green rating system to integrate with existing real estate trust portfolio management systems and to be used as the basis of international comparisons of investment ratings.

The majority of IBSA's projects involve the activities of one or more of our Architects, and therefore all our service offerings are integrated with this section of our practice.

Design & Development

Since commencing in Melbourne in 1999, IBSA has distinguished itself as a leading provider of software design and development services across a diverse range of industry sectors using a variety of development processes and technologies. We are able to provide end-to-end service when required, starting from feasibility workshops and requirements definition, through development of functional and technical specifications, through development, testing, implementation, maintenance and ongoing support. Our flexible processes can be adapted to meet client needs and to enable us to be engaged at any point in the development process.

IBSA has specific experience across a broad range of technologies, including:

Web: Java, .NET, Ruby on Rails, PHP, Python, Scala, Javascript, HTML/CSS
Desktop: Microsoft Win32, .NET, Java, Objective-C
Mobile: iOS, Android
Databases: Oracle, MS SQL, DB2, PostgreSQL, MySQL

Recent clients include the National Australia Bank, Amcor, NEC, IOOF, Industry Super Property Trust, Mercedes Benz, Tennis Australia, VicRoads, DEECD, Victoria University, Veda Advantage and GBC Australia.

IBSA has a pragmatic approach to development and selects the most appropriate methodology to adopt based on the specific nature of the project. We take into account such factors as the previous experience and internal processes of the client, the size, scope, complexity and risk of the project, the number and nature of external parties and interfaces, the level of changes expected and the legislative and probity requirements. Depending on these and other factors, we may select a traditional "waterfall" SDLC, a very lightweight "agile" methodology or more commonly a blended approach that adopts the specific procedures and practices that will ensure that the development project has the best possible chance of delivering on its objectives and provides the best possible value for the client's investment.

Integration / Implementation

Since 1999, IBSA has provided bespoke and customized package implementation of business solutions, which typically consist of mission-critical front of house applications providing customer usability, and providing integration with the strategic, enterprise based applications used to manage the core business of our clients. This is often achieved through the implementation and customisation of both commercial and open source applications. This has resulted in IBSA establishing an evaluation matrix, enabling us to assess and implement the best-fit open source applications to meet the needs and specifications of our clients. IBSA has implemented and integrated both commercial and open source applications such as Collaboration, Knowledge Management, CMS, CRM and POS systems.

IBSA's credentials and capability in relation to application implementation and integration consist of:

Architecture design and planning
Implementation
Research Services and systems evaluation
Configuration and Customisation
Systems Integration
Software Development and Testing

IBSA adopts a range of integration technologies, which we implement dependent upon the standards and methodologies embraced and implemented by our clients. Some of the methodologies we have used and are experienced in are: SOA systems, SOAP, RESTful web services, Mule and Pentaho BI.

We have successfully integrated new systems into enterprise resource systems such as SAP ensuring a successful and rewarding customer experience, whilst preserving the integrity and source data of the key Line Of Business applications.

Data Migration & Conversion

With the increasing utilisation of ICT systems within the private and public sectors, it is now not usually the case that we are able to operate in a "green fields" environment. Since starting in 1999, the vast majority of the projects that IBSA has been involved in have required some degree of data migration or conversion, whether because we are implementing an upgrade or replacement to an existing system, are interfacing to one or more existing systems or are providing some type of integration or consolidation of disparate system components to enable them to work together seamlessly and to provide useful business and operational information at a strategic level.

IBSA's experience in data migration and conversion has been demonstrated in work for:

Government authorities like VicRoads where IBSA-developed systems provide bulk upload capability as well as conversion of finalised data to feed to legacy operational systems,
Financial institutions like the National Australia Bank where IBSA assisted in the migration of data from diverse systems used by a group of recent acquisitions to a single common platform,
Commercial entities like Bakers Delight where we provided advice and guidance to enable the effective reporting from data maintained by a closed system
Community organisations like Kosher Australia, where a manually-maintained database was migrated to a bespoke module for a web Content Management System.

In these and many other cases including the case studies, IBSA was able to ensure a successful migration and/or conversion, with suitable controls and checks to ensure that the process maintained the integrity of the data and that edge-case exceptions were suitably flagged and reported to allow manual handling. IBSA has a demonstrated track record in successful data migration and conversion projects.

We have provided Data Migration and Conversion services to a significant number of development efforts and the depth and breadth of this experience has exposed our consultants to various industrial and commercial contexts and enabled IBSA to develop a significant body of intellectual property by which we add value to client engagements through reduced delivery times and established best-practice.

IBSA has :

A dedicated area of practice
A body of knowledge that guides the development and implementation of enterprise information management practice through the specification of roles, responsibilities, policies and procedures governing the data lifecycle.
IBSA's Data Migration and Conversion Methodology which defines a proven process for conducting data migration initiatives.
A substantial body of tools (ETL, data cleansing, validation, conversion) and templates to support the process.

IBSA recognises that data migration is typically amongst the highest-risk activities on a systems development, enhancement or integration project plan. Hence, it is critical to not only adopt a structured approach to the migration and conversion of data but to execute this as early as possible during the systems development lifecycle. Our experience in data migration and conversion has also proven that success is contingent on effective engagement with the business owners of data given that they are best-placed to understand how this data supports the organisation's activities, validate target data sets and typically assume roles within the governing structures necessary to maintain data quality.

IBSA's knowledge and expertise in data migration and conversion is, therefore, predicated on extensive technical ability and knowledge in the key areas of migration, conversion, ETL and integration but is supported by the core analytical and managerial expertise required to satisfy the non-technical success criteria described above.

Testing

IBSA's experience in testing has been demonstrated in all manner of projects and roles by our dedicated Software Testing practice. Automated testing forms a keystone of the IBSA development methodology and IBSA has provided separate testing services for the National Australia Bank, Telstra, MotorOne, Mercedes Benz, Victoria University, GE Money and Veda Advantage.

This includes development, implementation and review of detailed test strategies and analysis of testing requirements. The majority of IBSA's projects involve the activities of one or more of our team of testers, and therefore all our service offerings are integrated with this section of our practice. As one of the pioneers of agile development in Australia (soon after commencing operations in 1999), IBSA is a great promoter of automated testing to improve the quality of software systems. Every system developed by IBSA has been developed with a comprehensive test harness allowing repeated and continuous automated testing.

This test-centric approach has important consequences:

code is designed to allow for automated testing and therefore very modular,
automated tests provide a safety net for continuous code improvement and design evolution without fear of regressions,
test cases provide detailed documentation of expected behaviour and the specification of test cases acts as a common communication point between developers and subject matter experts to clarify edge cases and exception conditions.

IBSA acknowledges that quality needs to be built in to the entire development process and cannot be "tested in" at the end and our approach to the delivery of testing services is based on that part of the selected IBSA development methodology that describes the strategy, process, workflows and methodology used to plan, organise, execute and manage testing of the product to ensure it conforms to specification, and is fit for purpose..

All our methodologies demand early development of a Project Testing Plan which is used to define overall test objectives and requirements for the solution and set out a detailed test approach including test stages, cycles and cases.

While the testing process needs to be tailored to take into account the specifics of the project, a number of best-practice activities are usually involved and at all times aware that visibility, traceability and accountability are key to successful outcomes.

For software development projects, IBSA adopts automated testing processes based on JUnit / NUnit (for Java and .NET unit testing) and Selenium for browser UI testing. Test cases are part of each function to be developed, and the development is not "code complete" until test cases are implemented as automated test code. Tests are a combination of white-box testing at the function and unit level and black-box testing at the unit, integration and UI level. Exploratory ad-hoc testing is performed manually by expert testers to identify unexpected or inconsistent behaviour and verify edge-case robustness.

Each release is generally accompanied by a User Acceptance Test Entry Report providing details of tests performed and documents involved.

When engaged to test separate to development, IBSA's approach is to create a Test Strategy Document and one or more Test Plans. This document contains sections titled

Scope and Objectives,
Business issues,
Roles and Responsibilities,
Communication and Status Reporting,
Deliverability,
Industry Standards,
Automation and Tools,
Measurements and Metrics,
Risks and mitigation,
Defect Reporting and Tracking,
Change and Configuration Management, and
Training Plan.