Measuring Solution Quality

Systems You Have Seen
Enterprises depend on a multitude of special applications and frequently, these applications are each installed ontheir own computer.  As a result, the person running those systems has a desk that is characteristic of that type of integration.  This person frequently  becomes the exclusive expert for the systems because no one else can access them.

Does this desk belong to someone you know?
Is this your desk?
What’s under your desk?

These special applications computers, sitting on desks along with other special applications are hard to reach from other Enterprise computers.  These conditions arise because the special applications don’t interactively communicate, don’t share computing resources, don’t share networks, and in many cases, can’t even be viewed at the same time.  Essentially, your Enterprise ends up depending on Balkanized smokestacks of non-integrable software.  

Some would say that as they are on the same desk means that they are integrated.  This is not so and this figure is not one of a well integrated system.

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Sharing A Computer and Desktop
As noted, different applications that don’t share computers, keyboards, data, and activity limit the Enterprise and cannot be considered well integrated.  Of course, today it is not so difficult to place lots of applications on a single desktop.  The applications have to play well enough together to tolerate operating on the same computer and cohabiting its desktop and the computer must be sufficiently powerful. 

Is this sufficient for a system to be well integrated?  We think not! In many cases, current integration technology is inflexible, usually proprietary, and narrowly focused on the subsystems from which they were spawned.  It generally resists seamless integration of diverse functions under a common user interface.   Certainly, cleaning up the desk and sharing a computer desktop is a positive step toward a well integrated system but achieving this does not guarantee a well integrated system. A well intetgrated system requires attaining a higher standard, a common user interface.

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Common User Interface
Effectively integrating the diverse systems critical to the operation of today’s Enterprise is the central objective of integration.  A well integrated system will present a common user interface for all of the integrated applications.  This means that the method of interacting with the active windows of the integrated solution will be the same from one window to the next.  Right clicks, left clicks, double clicks, etc. will all behave the same within all of the windows independent of the kinds of information and technology being integrated.  Additionally, where appropriate for a transaction all of the relevant windows will have the same transaction context.  Changing selections in one window will cause synchronized changes in other windows that are necessary to ensure that the human  user has a complete, accurate view of all of the information relative to servicing a specific transaction.

Such a desktop is said to support a one-keyboard-one-mouse user interface where the windows “talk” to each other, a distinguishing characteristic of a well integrated system.  Absent such a user interface, it is not possible to say one has a really well integrated system. 

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Measuring Quality
So, we have a qualitative definition of a well integrated system.   Is this sufficient?  How do we measure it?   Let's recognize that a “one-keyboard-one-mouse user interface where the windows “talk” to each other” is not a sufficient to declare a system well integrated.  We have all seen systems that have wonderful, glitzy, smooth user interfaces with cute icons, perfect colors, etc.  Much of the time these systems don’t really work.  You have probably seen that too. A well integrated system actually has to work! 

A well integrated system has the proper common user interface and fully performs all of the missions to which it is tasked.  It is scalable, extensible, and highly available.  It is enormously maintainable with a limited and local staff.  Some of these things may be evaluated by study, e.g., scalability may be evaluated by learning how the solution is scaled.  But how is mission success determined? 

There is only one reliable way to establish mission success and that is by testing the solution’s capability to perform its mission.  A mission is defined by the list of the uses to which the system will be put.  These uses, also called use cases, define a solution’s capabilities.  Each is a narrative that describes solution performance.  For each use case and any included scenarios that consider specific actions for specific conditions, test cases may be constructed that verify the capacity of the system to meet the use case requirements.  Solution quality is then determined objectively by evaluating the results of the testing.

It is important that the test cases actually relate to real-world use cases.  The test cases must test the business objectives of the missions and not be reduced to testing functions that could be combined to make a real-world component.  This distinction, while obvious, is easy to miss.

The Center and Laboratory for Integrated System Excellence follows this practice and all of the use cases that describe EnterpriseSMS capabilities and solutions are a part of the test suite of the Center.   

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