Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is SaaS

A: Software as a Service (SaaS) is an approach to delivering software over a public network so that any user can access the software from any location at any time.  Software vendors like us manage the application on behalf of our customers from within robust data centres taking care of backups, upgrades, patches, security.  Commercially customers pay to access the service on a consumption basis, removing the capital costs associated with traditional software licence purchase.

Q: How would my business use mobility?

A: It usually all starts with messaging; the ability to send and receive emails whilst on the move. With comprehensive operating systems such as windows mobile, however, you have access to word processing and spreadsheets and proprietary business forms and applications.

Typical scenarios for mobility include:

  • Sales Force Automation - the ability to close sales and take orders on the spot including cross checking stock availability, pricing and discounting
  • Field Force Automation - technician dispatch, job site information, work instruction and checklists, OH&S compliance, time recording, signature capture and payment
  • Decision Support - risk analysis, real time status, scorecarding
  • Workflow - routing and escalation of critical business processes and events
  • Messaging
  • Location Based Services - asset location and identification, tracking, security, safety

Q: What is a strong password?

A: A strong password is a password that is difficult to guess and therefore is more effective in protecting your system.

A strong password normally follows rules such as:
  • Minimum length of 15 characters
  • Mandatory mix of capitalsed, uncapitalised, numeric and special characters
  • Avoiding use of names, company name, and common words
  • Avoiding similarity to the last 5 passwords used

An example strong password would be something like 4^x!0TW251d9J96

A strong password is not strong if it is written down or shared, so keep it secret.

If you struggle to remember passwords try using a phrase rather than a word, for example "Fish&ch!p5"

Q: What is Information Architecture?
A: Information Architecture is the way you categorise and structure your information so that it is able to be found and used by the people that need it.

Your architecture will be made up of a structure or hierarchy and a taxonomy which is the "dictonary" you use to categorise your information.

The easiest way to get started when defining your information architecture is with a card sorting process involving people from various different roles in your organisation.

There are some useful resources below to help you

http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cardsorting/index.html

 

http://sixrevisions.com/usabilityaccessibility/information-architecture-101-techniques-and-best-practices/

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262873.aspx


Q: What is a Process Map?
A: A process map is a diagram that shows how a process is broken down into interactions, activities and work products.

We have a special way of representing this which is a simplification of swim lane diagrams. 

We have mapped processes for some of Australia's most rapidly growing comapnies to then help them apply improvements to the way they work in order to continue to scale.



Q: What is a User Story?
A: User stories are very slim and high-level requirements artifacts.

User stories follow a structured format as below and an appropriate test of brevity is that they are typically written on post-it notes or postcards.

The story is role based, reflects one action that the role wishes to perform, as well as the outcome that will result from that action. For example:

As a Financial Controller

I want to print a Profit and Loss statement

So that I can review it in the board meeting

The back of the card then contains acceptance criteria in the format of conditions an results such as

          When I specify a date range the report only contains amounts posted within that range

         When I specify a currency the report uses the conversion rate for the period to convert amounts into that currency



Q: What are non-functional requirements?
A: Non-functional requirements are those project requirements that do not directly address a client business or application need.  Instead, they may address:
  • A property the end product must possess
  • The standards by which it must be created
  • The supporting structure that makes it possible
  • The environment in which it must exist

An index of non-functional requirement categories is listed here

Accessibility

Alerts

Availability

Backup (& Restore)

Business Continuity

Capacity

Compatibility

Compliance

Concurrency

Configuration

Data Integrity

Diagnostics

Documentation

Entitlements (User Security)

Escalation Paths

Event Handling

Failover

Fallback

Fault Tolerance

Functionality

Housekeeping & Archive

Integration

Interoperability

Journaling

 

Latency

Logging

Monitoring

Media

Networking

Operability

Patch Levels

Performance

Privacy

QOS

Recoverability

Response Time

Scalability

Scheduling

Security

Service Levels

Statistics

Synchronicity

Testability

Throughput

Upgradeability

Usability

Virtualisation

Volumetrics

 



 


 

Contact us today and we will answer you promptly.