2. ABSTRACT
With a rapidly changing and an ever growing IT landscape, there is always a need and room
for improvement for organizations who have adopted IT. Enterprises look for a more
efficient and better way to manage their IT infrastructure. An existing setup needs to go
through a huge transformation to achieve par excellence reputation. These transformation
projects may sometimes take more than a couple of years to reach the desired state. While
working on one of such projects, I came up with an Analysis Questionnaire to help Business
Analysts think in the right direction and understand the concept so clearly, that they are
able to ask the right questions during Requirement Elicitation phase. Unless the right
questions are asked, the information collected cannot be transformed in to knowledge and
in turn, cannot be churned out to produce a Design Strategy. This shall help BA’s to collect
information through one or more of the following Elicitation Techniques: Formal/Structured
Interviews, Shadowing and Workshop sessions.
3. About the AUTHOR
Saurabh Goel has been working in IT industry for 9 years now and has a vast experience in
Banking & Finance domain and Life Sciences & Healthcare domain. He started off as a
developer and gradually moved into Analysis side. He has now worked as a Business Analyst
on numerous projects over the last 5 years including Greenfield & Brownfield projects in
Waterfall, Agile & Reverse Engineering methodologies across the globe.
4. About the DOMAIN
Infrastructure Transformation projects aim at upgrading existing IT infrastructure. These
projects range from a relatively simple upgrade of Operating System platform (say from XP
to Windows 7) to upgrading the entire underlying infrastructure like Data Centre movement
or Outsourcing services to 3rd
party vendors and even laying out a new Network. In such
cases, even before the new strategy is laid out, the existing one should be understood
thoroughly. The existing setup, configurations, networking, security issues and performance
standards should be identified. A new design, then, can be laid out to host the existing
features, include the new ones and retiring the ones that are no longer required. All aspects,
from the lowest level of a user Logging-on to the network (authentication levels) to the
Administrative rights on a particular application must be taken into account.
5. Contents
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................2
About the AUTHOR .................................................................................................................................3
About the DOMAIN.................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................6
QUESTIONNAIRE .....................................................................................................................................7
Questions to Practice Management ...................................................................................................7
Questions to Individual Users.............................................................................................................9
Requirement Elicitation (Initial Phase) ...........................................................................................9
Requirement Clarification (Analysis Phase)..................................................................................11
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................13
6. INTRODUCTION
Infrastructure Transformation projects aim at upgrading existing IT infrastructure. These
projects range from a relatively simple upgrade of Operating System platform (say from XP
to Windows 7) to upgrading the entire underlying infrastructure like Data Centre movement
or even laying out an entirely new Network. In all these cases, even before a new design can
be proposed, a comprehensive understanding of the existing one is vital. This is not limited
to understand what changes are required but also to know what qualifies for retirement and
what readies the organization for the next decade of expansion. The advances in IT
landscape are made at a pace which makes it inevitable for growth hungry businesses to
stay ahead in the game by upgrading themselves.
7. QUESTIONNAIRE
Questions to Practice Management
The second step in the process would be to meet the Leads or Representatives of the
Department(s) or Project(s) that will undergo this transformation. Once you introduce them
to the approach that would be undertaken, you can use the following questionnaire to help
you understand the as-is state of the project from Project’s point-of-view. It is
recommended that you circulate this questionnaire via email (or embed in your meeting
invitation) so that the Leads prepared with relevant information. Although this is quite an
exhaustive list of questions, more can be added depending upon your project needs and
landscape.
What is the number of users to be accommodated in the new infrastructure setup?
What is the current Team Size: at Onshore and at Offshore (as applicable)?
o What is the number of Concurrent Users to be accommodated?
o What is the Month on Month increase in Volume, if available?
What are the existing Disaster Recovery provisions?
o What are the expected Disaster Recovery provisions including percentage of
users to be re-instated immediately in case of a disaster?
What is the current Tolerated Latency?
What should be the Session duration in the new world? This shall clearly state
o Lock-out duration (keeps session alive)
o Time-out duration (application times out, session is alive)
o Log-off duration (session terminated)
o Specific needs for longer durations (say overnight, for batch processing)
Current and expected Availability of the system.
Provisions for Remote Connections:
o To access the solution remotely including offshore team (if applicable)
o Work-from-home exceptions
Details of Persistent/Non-Persistent Sessions (if they exist today) & in the future
state.
8. What are the current provisions for offshore team members (like Printing, RAS
Tokens & Scanners etc.)
Enlist External Devices that should be usable in the new infrastructure
Are there any current Limitations? If yes, please specify.
Licensing details – general information on how licenses are currently managed and if
it’s inclusive of offshore. Apart from this basic information that can be elicited from
respective Leads, the wider piece of the work requires an SME (Subject Matter
Expert) in licensing.
Support mechanism for Existing Infrastructure
o Support Timings
o Support provided by (team contact details)
o Escalations, emergencies and Out of Hours support
9. Questions to Individual Users
Requirement Elicitation (Initial Phase)
Here is the detailed questionnaire that can be used to elicit requirements from individual
users. This can be invariably used during various elicitation techniques like structured
interviews, workshops and shadowing. Although this is quite an exhaustive list of questions,
more can be added depending upon your project needs and landscape.
What is the Rationale of the Application?
What type of Data is used in the application – Customer Data/Account Data/Card
Data?
o This is to determine Security Requirements
o This is to determine Encryption Requirements
o This is to determine Legal Requirements
o This is to determine Non-Disclosure Agreement Terms
o This is to determine Outsourcing Terms and Conditions with 3rd
Party
Vendors (if applicable)
Provide a list of Software currently available/installed on Desktop/Laptop along with
their Versions
o Also specify the Mode of Installation
User Installed by virtue of Administrative Role (either from a Pre-
approved Catalogue or an Internet Download)?
Installed by an Administrator via Remote Desktop Connection?
Auto Installation during scheduled maintenance hours, upon approval
of User Request?
o What is the type of Software: Licensed* or Free/In-House Developed?
*Take up Licencing issues separately, later on
If offshore is involved how are licenses managed?
o If multiple Versions of the same software are required :
Justification of the need of having multiple versions like
backward/forward compatibility with other tools/software
Possibility of retiring older versions and have a common latest version
for all
Plans to upgrade the version for the project or for the organization as
a whole
10. o Does the application connect to a Production System**? For example:
RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) based direct connection to back-end
server (Development or Production)
Web application to back-end server (Development or Production)
Terminal Emulator
**This is to determine Segregation of Duties (SOD) between
Development and Support profiles, to clearly demarcate the
applications that must run in a controlled Live environment.
o Does the application require access to a Database or Application Server back-
end system like SQL Serverᵠ or SAPᵠ?
Are these Production or Development back-end server names listed
anywhere in the application (hard-coded)?
ᵠIf Database upgrade or migration is in Scope of the project, a
separate questionnaire would be required as that would be
essentially an independent analysis in comparison to Application
migration.
If user(s) is/are using Multiple Desktops? If yes, then justify.
Do users have External Email/Internet Browsing access?
o If yes, is there a segregation between Onshore & offshore users (if applicable)
o Do any of the applications integrate with the email client (say Lotus or
Outlook/Exchange) to send automated messages? Such applications should
(ideally) be marked as Live/Production instances that must run in a controlled
environment.
Do users have Administrative rights on their machine(s)?
o Does the application require changes to the HOSTS file to ‘point’ the
application to Development &/or Production systems?
Access Level of Users - Active Directory or other Groups that they are currently
members of.
Any devices that are used in the network like Signature Pads or Passbook Printers
(this is excluding standard printers and scanners that are available as a default setup)
o If yes, is there a difference in setup for onshore/offshore users? (if applicable)
11. Access to Code Repository – Team Foundation Sever, Microsoft Visual Source Safe or
their equivalent?
Current Hardware Specification – this step may be skipped if there is a standard
being followed or to be followed for all users
What is the Team Size (for the application)?
What is the Team Spread – Onshore/Offshore (for the application)?
If there are Users at Offshore, what is the mode of Infrastructure Access for them
like Remote Connections, Security Restrictions etc.?
What are the Current provisions available to Offshore Users?
Details of Citrix access – Environments accessible via Citrix especially to
Remote/Offshore users
Are there any additional Credentials in use? (e.g. RAXX ID, generic ID’s or Group ID’s)
Platform Usage –
o Say Windows 7 or Windows XP
o Using a Desktop or Laptop
o Virtual Machine or Blade setup
Desktop/Virtual Machine sharing that is observed? If yes, then
o What is the purpose?
o How is it done?
Gather screenshots of Applications (Including Access levels)
Requirement Clarification (Analysis Phase)
If during the Elicitation phase or Assessment/Analysis phase, an application is found which is
not compatible with the target platform (say not supported on Win 7) or violates the SOD
(segregation of duties) criterion or hits any other snag like conflict with another application,
the following questions (in addition to the above questionnaire) will help you in further
analysis. This can also be used to determine priority of rollouts (say Go-Live dates in case of
multiple releases or a single release in a Phased manner) and a limited rollout due to
organizational constraints (like budget) or for the start of testing phase (primarily UAT):
Prioritize Applications as MoSCoW
12. o Must Haves – cannot perform necessary functions to support business
functionality. Delivery of such applications can be treated as one of the Entry
criteria for UAT phase.
o Should Haves – can start delivering without them but would be needed
eventually, to become fully functional. Delivery of such applications can be
treated as one of the Exit criteria for UAT phase.
o Could Haves – applications that should be provided if technically or otherwise
feasible.
o Would Haves – are nice to have applications or tools which are principally to
help perform certain functions but their absence will not impact the delivery
in any way. These are usually entertained if there are resources available to
do so.
In addition to prioritization, it might be helpful to find out the Frequency of Usage, to
know whether a requested app is sparsely used or extensively used.
An alternate Version or Tool that can replace the contested one
Further details sometime help in determining a solution, like:
o Users and Computer names (in case of a lookup or justification)
o Target Location of the App (if shortcuts are used). This primarily helps for URL
based & Remotely Hosted applications. Otherwise, mode of installation of
such Apps.
o Confirm that the requested App is not embedded in a parent App (part of a
package like MS Word comes with MS Office package, Team Foundation
Server Explorer comes with Visual Studio Ultimate 2010)
o Clearly mark the requested Apps which are Not a Service or Interface, in
which case, they are not to be installed but just to be made available. Also
convey that Pre-requisites for an App will be a part of the new platform but
may not be directly visible.
13. CONCLUSION
The way old marketing strategies no longer fit the business purpose, in the same way old
infrastructure does not fit the purpose of sustaining that business growth. In a digital era
where the consumers are craving for faster and smarter personal computers, an
organization cannot lag behind in upgrading its infrastructure and then be left behind in the
competition. Most of the organizations operate on an infrastructure that was built at their
inception catering to the then-business-needs. With trade liberalization and globalization of
economies, the business needs & consumer base has drastically changed. Original
infrastructure cannot handle the high expectations of tech-savvy consumers and must make
way for a state-of-the-art replacement. A newer hardware directly affects the efficiency of
an organization’s Technical Department eventually climbing up to its Business and finally
shows up results in the form of Customer satisfaction.
