[Question] Things to ask a clients IT department about new app dev.

mrmac

Forgive my noob-ness but I'd appreciate some advice. I'm about to start my 3rd year of a BSc. in Applied Computing. Next year (4th) as part of my final grade, I've a software / app project to do - however, I think I may have stumbled upon something suitable already.

I'm an experienced equipment maintenance technician, having worked in the semi-conductor industry for many years, and it is this background that has led me to this (hopefully simple-ish) project.

A firm I've worked for, uses checklists when performing standard maintenance tasks. These are often fairly large lists, with 100 plus steps. At the moment these are stored as Excel files, and are printed every time the technician requires a copy. The completed copy is then stored for 12+ months.

I'm hoping to convert this process to a web application.

At the moment I have a completely blank sheet, no specs or requirements.

I've gotten approval from the Maintenance Manager to do this project, and I've an appointment with their IT Dept. on Friday to go over some technology questions, but I'm unsure of what exactly to ask them???

I have no idea what technology they use, web server OS, security protocols, internet or intranet access, wifi availability, internal or external servers, external service providers - I know none of their details yet.

Last semester we got introduced to dynamic websites, with an XAMPP setup, using dreamweaver & PHP. I really enjoyed it, but tbh, I've no idea if this is the best method to use for this project.

This kind of dropped in my lap, and while I'm very happy to do it, I'm struggling with where to begin! To make things more interesting, I'm not in Ireland atm; meeting on Friday, heading home on Monday - so this may be the last chance I have for a Face-To-Face!!

Really appreciate any advice you can give me.

P.S. You'll probably see me back here a lot over the next 2 years!

Freemancon

The best way to get started is to ask yourself how the staff will actually use this application and then work backwards to how to the management, accounts, etc needs. Once you have this full process in your head you can start to see some of the problems that might be caused based on different implementation approaches.

For example, If this is a web app then are the technician's going to be walking around with tablets or smart phones that will have internet access? Will the application need a certain amount of security - user logins, etc. What level of access will be necessary (e.g. Admins, Superadmins, etc). Assuming that the technician's use their phones to access the application - once they submit it does it need Admin approval - or does it go straight to archived storage. It goes on and on....but this is all dependent on how complex your App intends to be.

Regarding systems: Since the App is web based (by the way, nice choice - future oriented, cool) the system can be pretty much whatever you feel most comfortable with. However, it is quite likely that if this is a major company - or has a well established IT dept - they will probably want it hosted on their servers. Thus, you will probably want to ask them what servers they are currently using for your web based applications, websites etc. If you don't mind building in their preferred infrastructure ...then they will be more comfortable supporting this longterm.

The last bit is the most important; No matter what you build - the real question for the company is....who will be supporting this application longterm? Will it be you?....No, probably not...so then do they have the expertise in house? If so...happy days. If not then they will have to outsource it - and that can be a bit tricky as most companies don't like to support software they didn't build.

If the company is serious about this implementation then they might consider using it longterm...then it might be a good idea to build your App as a Prototype. Then the company can use it to go to a company and have a fully built and supported App developed for them based on your design.

Sorry, there is a lot there but hopefully it gets you started on seeing the bigger picture. I hope it goes well for you. It sounds like a big project but a lot of fun.

mrmac

Thanks for the suggestions, I hadn't thought of the longterm support issue.
I suppose what I'll be doing, even if fully functional, will be like a prototype app for them to develop / incorporate into their on system.

They have their own IT Department, with an internal network/servers etc, so security/login/admin/superadmin features are all going to be part of the requirements. I'm meeting their Systems Administrator tomorrow, and I think I now have enough questions to appear like I have a clue!

I agree that it should be a very interesting project.
Any suggestions on what the best method for doing something like this would be?
All I've done so far is MySQL & PHP, which I'm fairly comfortable with - think I should be able to complete this project using those - but are they the best solution?

mrmac

Linux / Apache
PHP

Woooohoooooo - Only stuff I've learned so far, so a good start!

Oracle Database! - ah nuts!

Got to figure out how to create a dev environment that will incorporate an Oracle DB. Only used MySQL before - hoping there's not too much of a difference between them.

Have to head into work now, but if anyone has any set up suggestions, that'd be great!