Reverse Engineer & Manage IT Knowledge

www.ConfluentMinds.com 1
ConfluentMinds
Reverse Engineering &
socialization of Knowledge
Executive Summary
Duration: 30 min/30 slides

All Organizations having customized IT Systems or maintaining Clients’ IT Systems
or building Software products,
The Elevator Pitch
Who worry about downtime due to attrition/ role change/ team shuffling,
We provide a reverse engineering & knowledge collaboration platform,
Unlike windows explorer kind of document store,
Moreover all these Logic Trees are auto-created from source code files.
we store System functionality as a tree structure with its nodes depicting
knowledge units as Logic flow diagrams,
which helps visualizing the inter-dependency of knowledge units due to tree
structure and quick understanding of knowledge units due to pictorial
representation.
ConfluentMinds is a reverse engineering &
knowledge management platform available
on-Cloud/on-Premise, which lets
Organizations quickly build, manage &
collaborate their project knowledge in a
systematic & diagrammatic manner.

IT Application KnowledgeDomain Knowledge
ConfluentMinds Solution Framework

ConfluentMinds’ Knowledge cycle

IT Application Knowledge
Deep dive IT Knowledge

Reverse engineering & auto-generate IT Knowledge
Auto-create knowledge for IT Applications
Currently java & pl/sql plug-ins are available for this.

Auto-create DFD from source code
Maintain Knowledge
Mark here
Standard off the shelf tools like “Code visual to Flow” creates Data flow Diagram
corresponding to start & end line of any routine, in many languages.
Mark here

Upload Data flow Diagram
corresponding to all routines
& complete the Logic Tree
Maintain Knowledge

Explore IT Knowledge
Link Logic execution Tree
with corresponding User
Interface event
Group User Interfaces
under a Process cycle
aka Functional Layer
Group Functional
Layers under an IT
System

Definitive search feature leading to
corresponding DFD directly
Search IT Knowledge Base
Search result points to
the corresponding DFD
directly

Integrated Approval Workflow for Knowledge units created by employees
Knowledge Approval
Once the logic tree is auto
generated & all DFDs are
uploaded, send to the
System owner for approval

Bugs & Enhancements
Once a bug is found on any
functionality, Create &
upload Bug related SDLC
documents
Change all the affected
DFDs which got modified
to fix this Bug.
The Logic tree always
remains up to date..

Secured Data access based on role & responsibility
Security
Assign Role
to User
Assign a set of IT Systems
to a Responsibility

Socialize Knowledge - Publish
Click the publish icon to
expose the process tree
under this node to every one

Socialize Knowledge - Subscribe
View snapshot of the
published System or
Process
if interested then
subscribe

Subscribed system appears
under the root
Browse
subscribed
Knowledge
Socialize Knowledge - Subscribe

Knowledge creation cost
Analysis
Consider an oracle pl/sql package with 500
lines of code having 2 main routines calling
16 routines internally.
Upload the pl/sql file. 2 Logic
trees are created, having total 16
nodes corresponding to the
internally called routines.
1 minute
Create 16 Dataflow diagrams
corresponding to above 16 nodes.
• 15 minute per DFD manually,
using Visio, Excel or Power
point
• 7 minute per DFD using
standard plug-ins viz: visustin,
visual code flow generator etc
and fine tuning
• Average 10 minute
• 160 minutes total
Review, Finalize, Approve & Store 20 minute
Time RequiredAction Items

Domain Knowledge management
Deep dive Domain Knowledge

Auto-create knowledge of Business Processes
Domain Knowledge - Auto-generate

Maintain Knowledge
Upload suitable Process diagrams
& brief description at each node
Drill down or up &
navigate
Add / View Process
Documents, notes
& URLs
Process diagrams &
description appears here

Navigation
Drilldown tree structure with
guided Navigation
Allows to focus on a
subset of knowledge
only, in detail
You can’t do this in Windows explorer kind of
environment.
All the directories appear there always & you
need to drill up or down one at a time.
Here you can choose view all or a
sub-set with one click

Knowledge Hub
Search experts’ Knowledge
Hub by name, category or
key word.
Choose interested
one and explore

Knowledge Hub
Give feed back, rate or ask a
question to the expert on
the selected process.

Maintaining Knowledge on
Document Management System
Knowledge stored
as word, ppt or pdf
Documents under
various Directory
Structure.
Add new
Documents
under some
other directory
Add new
Documents
under some
other directory
Not sure if any one document is latest
Latest document doesn’t contain all information
The Problem
Codes & Design docs not in sync
Documents are inherently bulky
Documents sorted alphabetically,
confused which to start & which is next
Bug Fix

The Problem Frequency & Cost analysis
Attrition 10~14%
Once in every 2~3
years for All
Rightsizing as &
when required
Bug fix as &
when appears Once in 4~5 years
Productivity LossKT Cost

26
Comparison with existing Products
Competitors with few similar features:
A.Class Analyzer
B.Visustin
C.TOAD
D.Share Point like Doc management products
Reverse engineering tools showing
Java Class structure as parent-child
references (Competitor A)
Reverse engineering tools showing
database package structure with its
routines & source code (Competitor C)
Reverse engineering tools
converting source code to flow
diagrams (Competitor B)
• We show the execution hierachy for
each java routine calling other
routines as opposed to class
diagram• We show the execution hierachy for
each DB package routine calling
other routines as opposed to
showing routines of a package
• We don’t have this & use such tools
as complementary utilities to build
DFD

27
Comparison with existing Products
No single document contains all
information
Codes & Design docs not in sync
Documents sorted alphabetically,
confused which to start & which next
• Knowledge units maintained as
diagrams
• Guided navigation with Drilldown
tree structure
• Single page Knowledge view
Documents are inherently bulky
• Flow diagrams are created from code
and always up to date
Not sure if one document is latest • Single Point of Truth (SPOT)

• Auto-generates Knowledge
• Approve & store knowledge
• User generates content (UGC)
• Secured access
• Content Delivery Platform
• Guided navigation with Drilldown tree
structure
• Knowledge units as diagrams
• Single page Knowledge view
• Single Point of Truth (SPOT)
• Collaborate knowledge with peers
• Great code review utility
• Debug online
• Approval workflow built-in
• Existing Processes / IT Applications
mapping or migration
Summary
• Permanent Knowledge Asset
• Transfers knowledge faster
• Enables quick comprehension
• Encourages Self learning
• Eases IT Application support &
maintenance

Deployment & Cost structure
• On-premise
• for Big Enterprises
• Installation cost one time
• Maintenance cost every year
• Knowledge creation cost
proportionate with source code
• Company firewall
• Social Media
• for Knowlepdge Workers
• FREMIUM subscription
• Software as a Service(SAAS)
• For SMB Enterprises
• No Installation cost
• No Maintenance cost
• Service charge per month per user
• Knowledge creation cost
proportionate with source code
• Cloud service provider’s firewall
On
Cloud

Get started right away !!!
Sign up at www.confluentminds.com

32
FAQ
Q - We have a huge document repository. Do we have to copy all those to
ConfluentMinds?
A - No, You can link those from here using External URL icon provided at various
places.
Q – Why note icons are used in ConfluentMinds?
A - Note icons let you store small amount of information eg: check points,
process hints etc..
Q - How is the Business Process tree structure created?
A -
ConfluentMinds lets you create the Business Process hierarchy manually by
adding child nodes recursively under the root. It can also be created automatically
from an excel file having data as per the template provided.
Q - How is the Business Process Diagram created and uploaded?
A - You create the Business Process Diagrams manually and upload it at
relevant process using the quick links. It can also be created automatically from an
excel file having data as per the template provided. However complex diagrams can't
be created using this.

Q - What is a Functional Layer?
A -
Any moderately complex IT Application might be having more than one major
functionality. To distinguish between them, Functional Layers can be created
otherwise you need to have only one layer eg: Core Functionality
Q - What is a Layer Element?
A -
A Layer element is nothing but a group of User Interfaces, Back ground Jobs etc.
created to achieve the above said functionality. Some functionality may have both
UIs and concurrent jobs or only one kind.
Q - How do I know what to do where?
A - You can see "Context Help" in each page, where you want to create or store,
knowledge artifacts. Follow the steps and match the result with the expected result
screenshots.

34
Q – How to map existing IT systems with ConfluentMinds?
A – “Upload IT Applications & Application layers” functionality allows such mapping,
using 2 excel templates, which need to be filled and loaded once initially.
Q - Can I create a Logic Tree manually?
A -
Yes, ConfluentMinds lets you build your own logic tree too.
If any routine in a package doesn't call any other routine or is not called by any
other routine then that routine will not appear anywhere in the auto-created Logic
trees. For such individual routines you need to create manual logic trees with only
one node.
Q - How to create Data Flow Diagrams (DFD)?
A -
You need to create DFDs yourself, using any flowcharting tool or MS Word or
Excel etc..
ConfluentMinds doesn't create DFDs but there are few automatic tools
available in the market, which converts a piece of code to flow chart for variety of
languages. Download those here Code to Flow and visustin.

Q - How is a Logic Tree created?
A -
ConfluentMinds creates logic trees automatically for Java Classes and PL/SQL
packages now. Let's assume a pl/sql package has a routine p1 which calls another
routine p1.1 and p1.2 available in same package. Again p1.1 calls p1.1.1 and p1.1.2
routines of the same package. Then confluentMinds create a tree structure as..
p1
p1.1
p1.1.1
p1.1.2
p1.2
Also the start and end line range of each routine appears next to its name. Similar
trees can be created for Java classes too.
Once created you can manipulate the tree untill approval. Once approved, you can't
see the tree in "Review Logic Tree" page.

36
Q - What if a routine of one package calls another routine of another package?
A - ConfluentMinds lets you create a complex tree like this using "Link Disparate Routines" functionality.
Assume there are 2 trees of 2 different packages as..
Package p Package q
p1
p1.1
p1.1.1
p1.1.2
p1.2 q1
q1.1
q1.1.1
q1.1.2
q1.2
Assume q1 is called from p1.2 of package p. Then link it mentioning q1 is child of p1.2 and the resultant
package p will be ..
Package p
p1
p1.1
p1.1.1
p1.1.2
p1.2
q1 ~ 101
q1.1 ~ 101
q1.1.1 ~ 101
q1.1.2 ~ 101
q1.2 ~ 101
This allows you to visualize complex code dependencies from one place, without opening the source code
files.

Reverse Engineer & Manage IT Knowledge

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