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SD & Support Approach
Abdul Akram
1.0
Final
10/04/2020
I:\Marketing\Target Companies\GPS eSourcing
Mandatory
As required
This document contains proprietary information of ION and is tendered subject to the condition that the information be retained in confidence.
Copyright © 2013 ION Information Technologies Ltd, High Wycombe, England. All rights reserved. This document may not be copied in any form without written permission from ION Information Technologies Ltd. Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

Proposed Approach ......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Project definition / requirement analysis..................................................................................................... 3
Design........................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Development ............................................................................................................................................................. 4
Testing ......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
System Integration Approach ............................................................................................................................ 5
Support/Maintenance .................................................................................................................................................... 6
Support Levels .......................................................................................................................................................... 6
Severity ........................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Process ......................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Escalation ................................................................................................................................................................... 9

ION will work closely with the client project and program manager making sure the business and functional requirements are fully understood.
ION will put place a dedicated technical team, each member addressing specific phases of the overall program.
Principal Program Manager (PPM): It is the overall responsibility of the PPM to manage and deliver the project on time and in line with client specification. Our PPM provides leadership, innovation and senior level management.
Project Manager (PM): Our PRINCE II qualified PM has the day to day responsibility to ensure that each phase of the project has appropriate time and resource allocation. Our
PMs manage projects to ensure we accommodate change management undertaking a risk analysis of any changes and reducing the risk to the successful completion and delivery of the project.
Technical Professionals: Supporting the PPM and PM will be a highly experienced and skilled team of designers and software engineers to ensure that the project is delivered on time and on budget.
Development methodology will need to be discussed (Agile, Waterfall, Iterative) with the assigned client project manager.
ION has developed, deployed and support a number of web based applications and will endeavor to re-use any of our library components to bring cost advantages to the client.
Once approved by the client, IONIT will use the design to develop the application, followed by unit testing ready for user acceptance testing (UAT). ION will continue to support the client through development, implementation and post deployment.
Full documented testing, application documents and training documents will be provided as well as training and knowledge transfer sessions.
Narrative on these is included below for information.
Requirements analysis is the process of understanding the client needs and expectations and deciding upon the delivery approach. Requirements analysis process covers the complex task of abstracting and documenting the requirements of the organisation, modelling and analysing these requirements and documenting them as a basis for system design.
This will entail a number of meetings with the client project manager team and potential stakeholders as required.

When designing the application IONIT will take into consideration that the interface needs to be user friendly, intuitive and easy to navigate. The application will be made secure and easy to maintain.
During the design phase the application is planned. The hardware and software architecture: data interfaces and components of the specified functional requirements are defined. IONIT will take into account the quality requirements of the product, such as its maintainability, robustness, compatibility and reusability.
Designing of the application will include formation of wire frames which will help you visualise the application and will be a base for the prototype. This will also include algorithms/architecture diagrams and any implementation issues being raised.
The design will be scalable to accommodate any future enhancements that the client may require for example addition of functionality or even integration with other back-end system.
The design templates and wire frames will be presented and reviewed with the relevant assigned client project manager, before the development begins in order to avoid costly redesign and to ensure the application will be useable and technically valid. This can be reviewed a maximum of three times, incorporating all changes to the design. Timely feedback will be required, as late feedback can potentially have an impact on the project plan and delivery date.
Once the design documents and wire frames have been agreed by the client, IONIT project manager will manage and co-ordinate the development team.
IONIT proposes a phased delivery approach using either Agile or Iterative development methodology. However a discussion will need to be carried out prior to this to best determine development methodology.
All our software development and source code will adhere to our ISO 9001:2008 TickIT accreditation and quality standards. All development will utilise formal, documented and standardised processes.
At each agreed milestone all deliverables for that milestone are tested against agreed regression test scripts that reflect specifications.
Each functionality/module will be tested by the programmer and then by a dedicated independent tester.
Here is a breakdown to the testing programme

Unit Testing – by the programmer


Regression Testing – by an independent testing specialist

Internal UAT – carried by ION tester

Client UAT – carried by Client tester or assigned project manager
Once the client UAT has been completed successfully both parties carry out formal sign-off as acceptance of this module.
Again IONIT adopts clear QA procedures to develop and conduct test plans. Project management approach is available upon request.
For complex systems we follow an iterative integration approach. Following are the major steps involved in each iteration.

Identify interfaces and external actors involved in the system

Identify interfaces and external actors involved in the system

Define and establish interface contract definitions and communication protocols

Identify service quality level parameters like response-time, data security, etc.

Define the interfaces and their simulators/stubs

Identify integration test cases to be executed to evaluate integration correctness

Design and develop the interface components as per the specifications

Conduct unit-test on the individual interface components for operational correctness

Identify and plan the finished interface components for integration

Conduct interface integration

Perform System Integration Testing based on the integration test-cases

Correct any faults / defects based on the test results

Apply the corrections and baseline

Plan for next set of interface components for integration

ION can also provide 1st, 2nd and 3rd level support. IONIT will provide a named resource where support issues will be logged and actions defined. We have three ways to report including telephone, email or our support portal.
The methodology outlines the levels of support which are available, the severity and the process in which incidents and issues will be raised.
The methodology can be tailored to suit any preference.
Level 1
This initial level of support is responsible for covering basic technical level support functions.
A dedicated Helpdesk resource will take note of the User and the issue being reported and what they are trying to achieve. The Helpdesk will assign the issue to Level 2 or Level 3
Support.
First line support can be available 24/7.
Level 2
In-depth technical support for escalated issues escalated from Level 1.
A more senior technical resource will be assigned to review the issue and work done via the
Level 1 technician and seek to resolve the issue.
If the issue cannot be resolved or requires code change, then the issue will be escalated further to Level 3.
Level 2 support will be available within UK office hours: 08:30 to 18:00, Monday to Friday
(excluding public holidays). Out of hours support can be available if required.
Level 3
This is the code level support and takes responsibility for resolving all application level code bugs. Any systems enhancements can be handled via Change Request process.
Level 3 support will be available within UK office hours: 08:30 to 18:00, Monday to Friday
(excluding public holidays). Out of hours support can be available if required.
For Support requests, service levels will be based on their severity levels. Severity levels will be assigned by our project managers.
Severity Level Definition

Severity Level
1
Definition
The Application has ceased to work or is preventing the performance of business critical activities.
2
3
An essential function of the Software has ceased to work leading to work or the Software is considered unstable and users are subject to periodic interruptions. Business critical activities are not affected by the problem.
There is a problem with the Software but there is no work stoppage. A work around may be available, with limited or degraded function.
4 Issues which do not impact the application operation in significant way or relates to good to have features.
All support requests will be logged in the incident tracking system, by the person who has encountered the problem. If it is encountered by the customer team, it will be routed via the designated Customer project manager to our designated project manager. A problem will generally pass through a number of phases during the course of its resolution.
These phases include:
Phase
Reporting the problem
Initial response from support engineer
The point at which a qualified support engineer takes ownership of the problem and first communicates with the Customer.
Problem Identification
Description
The point at which the Customer’s assigned contact provides first details of the problem to the Supplier.
Resolution Plan
When the nature or cause of the problem has been determined. This phase may require the Customer to provide further information or undertake additional analysis under the guidance of a Supplier’s support engineer.
When a plan is produced to resolve the problem and agreed with the Customer. This will typically require additional work and negotiation between the Supplier and the Customer to implement an acceptable solution.
Resolution or Reprioritisation When the Supplier delivers a tested resolution or

workaround to the Customer or the severity of the problem is reviewed with the Customer and reprioritised accordingly.
The following table sets out our maximum response time targets from the point at which the problem is reported. Note that these times represent elapsed working time.
Support hour
During working hours
Severity 1
Immediately
Severity 2 within 30 minutes
Severity 3
Within 1 business day
Severity 4
Within 2 business days
Outside working hours
Within 60 minutes
Within 90 minutes
Within 1 business days
Within 2 business days
The service described shall be offered 08:30 to 18:00 (UK), Monday to Friday (excluding for public holidays). For Severity 1 and 2 problems; support will be provided on a 24/7 all year round.
The ION support team will have a number of resources who will be playing the primary and backup support role on a rotation basis. This team will have BlackBerry’s which will help them to be reachable on a 24/7 basis.
For development and relatively large project enhancements; our team will provide a detailed milestone based Project plan with resource utilisation projections. These will be used in progress reviews.
Incident reporting process

If the end-user decides that the issue is not being resolved within an acceptable timescale then the issue can be escalated by the end-user to the next support level.