Application Development and Management

TALANGS believes that the development models we incorporate have a high impact on the project that is carried out, and also determines which planning, development or test techniques to use. In order to meet the functionality, delivery schedule, cost efficacy and achieve effective project management, our software development framework is smartly chosen to match project expectations.

We implement the Iterative and Agile models through distinct phases, comprising a series of activities, aimed at shorter delivery time. We make sure that every requirement of a project is defined, identified, and the entire architecture and design aspect is attended to thoroughly. Our aim has always been to deliver higher business value and the best of software services through our practices and industry-standard methodologies. 

As we use the Iterative Model, the features released to the end-users may be altered in a phase-wise manner and, new features can be released and implemented based on the feedback. Similarly, the feedback from each stage would also modify the product features.

• Requirement Elaboration Phase: TALANG's team reviews the current requirements document thoroughly with the client and validates the same. In some cases, the team jointly works towards expanding on the requirements or revising them to obtain better clarity.
• High Level Design Phase: The design aspects of the application are completed in the High Level Design Phase, which includes Software Design Architecture, Logical Database Design, Prototype Concept of Design, and Test Strategy.
• Development Phase: This phase is based on the approved requirements from the Requirement Elaboration Phase and a design frozen in the High Level Design Phase. It includes low-level design, user interface, coding, unit testing, integration and system testing. TALANGS prefers to follow shorter development and testing cycles, and provide working deliverables as opposed to a single long cycle and a final deliverable.
• Final UAT Phase: In this final phase, the application will be released and the client will test the application to ascertain that all the features are working as defined in the requirements document. Any issues reported are fixed and other enhancements provided are considered as a 'Change Request'.

Agile project methodology is implemented across projects, wherein the requirements are not well-defined or are evolving unremittingly. A number of our projects being executed for software firms are categorized either under the Scrum or RUP’s Iterative process methodology.

Similar to RUP, Scrum, talks in terms of lifecycle phases. In the case of Scrum, the phases are Planning, Staging, Development, and Release. Both, Agile Scrum / RUP's Iterative process methodology can be best fits for the project that we engage in. Agile Offshore at TALANGS is a proven methodology, which has evolved over time, based on the extensive experiences gained from various project executions.

At TALANGS, we offer a complete arena of Application Management services that cover an entirety of solutions that allows our customers to focus on their core processes. We have the experience and expertise to help in improving the performance of our clients’ essential business systems and application life cycle. Our Application Management includes best practices, procedures and techniques that are essential to ensure optimal operation, efficiency and performance of an organization’s applications.

TALANG's Application Management helps improve the IT infrastructure of an enterprise, streamline its processes, and maximize secure control. Customers can attain higher performance and productivity with the comprehensive Application Management services we provide. Application Development, Infrastructure Management, Application Support and Quality Assurance are the main phases we follow in Application Management.

Application Development at TALANGS is executed with New Development, Re-Engineering and Migration. Necessary tools, resources, processes and infrastructure provide support to carry out our projects proficiently. The lifecycle is tailored to customer requirement and the project execution is completely transparent. Agile, Iterative, Waterfall and V life cycle models are extensively used to execute these projects.

A detailed approach to Application Development includes two main phases – Application Knowledge Transfer and Execution. In both the phases, we follow a methodology and process by using tools to make application development well-run and structured.

• Application Knowledge Transfer is executed using the PMTS, Communication, and Configuration Tools, through a process that involves Historical Data & Estimation, Critical Success Factors, Code Study, Product Study and Project Study Document. Resource planning, environmental set-up, communication plan, expectation set-up and risk plan, form the major aspects of this phase.

• Execution revolves around Estimation & Task Planning, Corrective & Preventive Action, Task Prioritization, Audits & Reviews and Building Integration processes. Task assignment, change management, release management, resource management and defect management are the important elements of this phase that are implemented using several tools such as Defect Tackler, Issue Tracker, Resource management, Time Sheet app, Audit Tracker, Risk Tracker and Workflow management.

The Infrastructure Management we provide helps optimize the performance of a business by adding measurable business value to its operations. It enables leading organizations to secure, manage, optimize and support their infrastructural set up required for critical project executions and application implementations. Our services in this area bridge the gaps in IT support as we aim on maximizing the value of your operational landscape. The approach we trail assists our customers in cost reduction and align their technological requirements with business goals.

TALANG's Infrastructure Management offerings include:

• Application Operations
• IT Helpdesk Support
• Network Management
• Desktop Management
• Infrastructure Provisioning

We follow a unified approach to Infrastructure Management that improves our service quality and efficiency, at reduced costs. We combine the network, system and environmental factors to help your organization adopt an integrated approach to IT operations management, thus helping our customers with business performance improvement, greater flexibility and growth. 

TALANGS has a unique engagement model, Pavilion®, to be incorporated in Application Support. Our model suits customized needs of our clients and supports their organizational functions in a convenient manner. Problem tracking, issue management and ticket closures are handled through internal or customer-provided tool, thus making the system very robust and transparent. The metrics data on task execution, efficiency and defects, measure the performance of the support activities effectively.

Rationalized and standardized application support services we provide help our customers maintain a futuristic computing environment by extending the utility and lifespan of an application. We support high performance platforms in order to ensure that our customers can manage and operate their business applications seamlessly. By reviewing the nature of your business operations, TALANGS tailors its application support services accordingly so that our customers can transform their business-critical applications to meet the evolving technology competitiveness.

TALANG's Application Support assures:

• Faster time-to-market
• Higher productivity for strategic business initiatives
• Enriched operational efficiency & improved cost effectiveness

Maintaining utmost quality in services is a proactive discipline in TALANGS. Process compliance, quality assurance, historical data analysis, rich industry experience, and baseline publication, altogether make our project execution process extremely robust. Various tools such as Task tracker, Issue tracker, Risk tracker, Timesheet and Change Request tracker applications developed in-house help the project and quality check teams to ensure that the SLAs or the important success factors are met.

Quality assurance forms an integral part of our strategic vision. We also believe that it creates good opportunities to self-monitoring and improve our quality processes with time. Our quality is strategically aligned so that business objectives and customer expectations are concurrently met and exceeded as well. A look into the way we develop applications and maintain our processes, assures our customers the build of quality into their project at all stages of its development.

• Process Assurance: TALANGS follows development and management processes that are above par and comply by all the requirements of the industry as well as the customer specifications. Our periodic process improvement initiative aids us to constantly achieve better results.

• Quality System: We demonstrate a quality system that conforms to the established / best practices of the IT industry or any other standards that may be required by our customers. Quality management systems are always in place at TALANGS so that the customer receives nothing but the best. 

TALANGS has a dedicated "Centre of Excellence" (CoE), which focuses on working together to promote best practices and leading edge technologies. This team conducts research on the latest technologies, patterns, implementations, rule engines and libraries that help customer projects to derive benefit. Our CoE team provides solutions in complex integration segments such as enterprise data integration, cross-domain access and application integration areas. The team maintains a proven record in technology innovation, knowledge sharing, and provides support to the teams engaged in completion of projects using modern technologies.

The team has greater technical knowledge, broader experience and specialist tools to address advanced technological demands. This group also concentrates on project management and process improvement. For TALANG's CoE, being effective is all about maintaining a unique outlook, along with a strong ability to explain, excel as well as communicate. 

TALANGS has a strong track record of 1000 person years of experience in Microsoft .NET practice as an expert solution provider. Our dedicated team has developed and deployed over 150 web applications and built several desktop solutions. Our capability allows us to deploy systems that meet end-user requirements and our competency helps to maintain and extend the systems we design and build.

The solutions we deliver are innovative and cater to the rapidly evolving needs of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), B2B needs and applications required in an enterprise. Our experience in custom development, using Microsoft products like SharePoint server, BizTalk server, Commerce server and Microsoft Dynamics, has reduced software development and support costs and enhanced product functionality for generating greater value to our customers.

TALANGS has a library of .NET-based framework and re-usable components that can seamlessly integrate with other applications. This significantly lowers both the development effort and the cost. To achieve the dual objectives of high-quality software and time-to-market, we have built many .NET applications using third-party components such as Infragistics, NetAdvantage tools, Component One Studio and Telerik Controls.

TALANGS has a team of Open Source enthusiasts with extensive experience in building applications based on Open Source platforms. The team actively follows the progress of various Open Source technologies to help customers leverage on proven systems. We have successfully executed several projects with different complexities and sizes (1-6 person years) on LAMP, Java and other Open Source technologies such as Perl, Ruby and Python.

• Java: TALANGS delivers Java / JEE applications based on the application and business needs. We follow an application development cycle that includes Elaboration, Architecture, Design, Construction, Deployment and Transition and help clients choose the right lifecycle methodology. Our aim is to deploy our team of skilled SCJP Java / JEE developers to deliver solutions using various development models successfully to effectively meet customer requirements. Our Java Application Development and Maintenance includes designing and implementing enterprise solutions, which are mission-critical, scalable, open, reliable and highly available systems.  We use industry standards and proven application development frameworks to achieve higher degree of separation between presentation and business layers and improve re-usability. The use of Object Oriented Design Methodologies and Design Patterns (J2EE, GOF), and robust authentication and authorization using PKI over SSL and, RBAC based on ACL, have largely resulted in highly maintainable and extensible applications. We use Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) tools like JDO, JPA, Hibernate, iBatis, EJB Entity bean and TopLink to build the persistence layer for top-grade solutions. Our approach is aimed towards optimal solution finding based on the business scenario by building business ties with appropriate Frameworks that are built on JEE specifications. 

• PHP: We specialize in designing and building E-Commerce Applications, Websites & Web Applications, and offering Reporting and Web services by implementing our PHP expertise.
• MySQL: Our proficiency in MySQL spans across offering Database Design, Localization Support, Performance Tuning, and Replication, Backup & Recovery of Databases.  
• APACHE: We develop web-based applications using Apache Web Server, which supports scripting languages like PHP, Perl, Python, etc., and are also involved in Custom Apache Module Development.
• Perl / Ruby / Python: TALANGS specializes in other similar scripting languages and tools, and extensively uses Perl, Ruby and Python scripts for Test Automation scripts, data porting, schedulers & cron jobs, and development & enhancements of utilities for data validation workflow.

Several enterprises of the present day operate with legacy applications, which are stable, yet inflexible, expensive and challenging to maintain. Such enterprises need to adapt to customer requirements and be responsive to the ever changing business practices through modernized computing systems.

TALANG's Approach:

TALANGS always decides the best possible way to deploy an application and follows a structured approach so that your existing systems perfectly fit into today’s business environment. We assist our clients to migrate their project-critical applications running on legacy platforms like Mainframe, AS/400 and client server environments to current technologies. TALANGS aims to deliver value to customers with well-defined and proven models in Legacy Application Development and Maintenance. Our proven methodology and best practices and tools are used for moving legacy applications onto the newest technology platforms. We add value by providing various alternative technical solutions, re-usage of core business rules by building interfaces using latest technologies such as Java, .NET and third-party tools.

We have successfully modernized legacy systems and native applications by web-enabling the application UI, and help clients retain core business layers and re-engineer the UI layer to provide browser-based access to end-users. The approach will depend on the specific application and business need. However, these approaches to web-enabling of existing applications have common objectives to achieve. This includes retaining the existing functionality, business rules and leveraging the advantages of using new internet technologies.

TALANGS maintains distinct processes for the development, maintenance and execution of Legacy projects. Our solutions help customers to migrate or re-engineer legacy systems in a structured process, bringing down business risks and maintenance costs. We study the existing system and architecture, and upgrade the system with the right technology without affecting critical business areas.

Specialty Sphere:

TALANGS has a dedicated team and knowledge in various domains that works on Legacy systems as well as specific technologies like Mainframe, AS/400, LANSA, Power Builder and ColdFusion. Our expertise spans across modernizing legacy technologies and web enabling by updating our knowledge base with modern tools and technologies. We also have the capability to formulate accurate estimation based on historical data and experience. The modernization process we implement includes application and database migration, based on the technical challenges and criticality of our customers’ businesses.

Our services support maintenance, conversion, migration, porting and database qualification, apart from helping in re-engineering the applications to the current standards and technologies. In the Hybrid approach we follow, some part of the legacy application (like UI) is retained and other parts (like data processing) are moved to a new platform and technology. We provide services that help customers focus on vital aspects of their business applications. TALANGS helps with application and database migration, based on customer’s business criticality and technical challenges. We also carry out technical evaluation for suitable architectural framework and provide best possible solutions to build and re-design the application. Our main aim is to increase agility, reduce cost and comply with requisite changes.