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About Quipoz
Quipoz, a provider of software transformation services, specializes in modernizing legacy systems by automatically transforming legacy source code projects into the Java environment. Quipoz understands that old application programs can be expensive and difficult to maintain, and include architecture that is often unfamiliar to its users. As large enterprise systems become older, they are even more difficult to sustain if they use platforms, languages, and operating systems that are no longer supported. Quipoz strives to remove maintenance frustrations by helping their clients extract and decode valuable knowledge embedded within their applications.
Quipoz's Business System Documentation
Quipoz offers a transformation service that produces comprehensive Eclipse IDE-based documentation for computer systems. Quipoz consultants use tools to automatically analyze and document client applications, and return the results in a detailed analysis called Business System Documentation. This report maps out the application’s infrastructure and reveals relationships within a system’s source code. Clients can then use the tools to analyze and extract rules from the applications into RulesEngines as part of a transformation process.
Tom Sawyer Visualization is integrated inside Quipoz’s Business System Documentation to produce component maps and graphical displays of program flows. Component maps visually display all of the connections between elements involved in a particular program, such as database tables, screens, and desktop displays. Program flows map out an application’s source code and reveal relationships, patterns, and connections within the code that are not otherwise obvious. This information helps users understand the logic within a program and gain a clear understanding of their application’s legacy source code.
Quipoz’s Business System Documentation lets users include notes and document the steps they
take while writing a program. In
addition, the application is used online,
so users can easily share information.
According to Dave Matthews, Sales
and Marketing Director of Quipoz,
"Programmers do not traditionally
document information or explain
the code when they are building an
application. With the Business System
Documentation, users can still review
previous documentation to understand
an application’s source code, even
without access to the original
programmers."
Quipoz's Challenge
Prior to the adoption of Tom Sawyer
Visualization, Quipoz found it
challenging to present their analysis
to analysts and decision makers in a
coherent format. Because customer
applications contained vast amounts
of complicated code, non-technical
people found it difficult to understand
the powerful features and benefits of
Quipoz’s transformation services.
Matthews said, "Although technical
clients understand our service, they
are often reluctant to adopt it because
they do not understand the return on
investment on documentation. On
the other hand, it was difficult to have
the more business-focused decision
makers comprehend something that
was intangible to them, especially
during a demonstration or a sales call.
This combination made it a lot harder
to sell our services." |
Choosing Tom Sawyer
Quipoz engineers looked into building
some visualization prototypes
themselves. However, they ultimately
decided that it would be too time consuming and began researching
visualization software to integrate into
their application.
Matthews explained, "It was a no-brainer
that Tom Sawyer had the
software we wanted to use with all of
the functionalities we needed. It was
obvious to our executives that Tom
Sawyer Visualization was going to
give us a leap forward. This became
even more apparent after watching a
demonstration of the product. It would
take years to replicate something
similar. It is much more advantageous
to use Tom Sawyer’s software than to
try and create something on our own."
The Tom Sawyer Solution
Tom Sawyer Visualization is a fully
customizable and extensible set of
class libraries with APIs for developing
graph visualization applications quickly
and efficiently. Quipoz’s main criterion
was to integrate a visualization library
with graphical navigation features and
Eclipse integration.
According to Matthews, "We
researched other graphical application
companies, but the Eclipse integration
was not nearly as commendable as
Tom Sawyer Software’s. Integration
was seamless. We were able to
incorporate the graphical component
to Business System Documentation
without any problems."
The Tom Sawyer Impact
After integration of Tom Sawyer
Visualization, Quipoz can now present
its Business System Documentation
report and analysis solution to key
decision makers more effectively.
Senior analysts and technical staff
can now clearly see how investment
in documentation creates higher
efficiency and accuracy. The
incorporation helps Quipoz sell their
transformation services to a wider
audience, ranging from technical
engineers to business executives.
Matthews said, "The integration
definitely helps us sell the
transformation process and now
clearly demonstrates to our clients
how technically advanced our process
is. The visualization aspect keeps
people interested and we can now
engage customers much earlier in
the demonstration process. Now
that decision makers can easily
understand the benefits and purpose
of our software, they are more likely
to purchase our services. It definitely
makes a difference."
Quipoz's Next Steps
Quipoz is looking into integrating
more visualization functionality
within the graphical user interface of
Business System Documentation.
They are working on incorporating a
further search mechanism that can
find information within large program
flow maps containing thousands of
modules.
Matthews explained, "We are just
scratching the surface in terms of
functionality with what we can do with
Tom Sawyer Visualization. We believe
there is potential to do a lot more and
are researching to see what else our
clients need that we can incorporate
into our application."
Overview
- Reduces dependence on subject matter experts
- Decreases time required to prove and test the data migration
- Tracks data usage through the application code where required
- Conveys high-level requirements of the system with menu structures and schedules
- Visualizes relationships and
connections between database tables or files and database processes
- Shows detailed view of the presentation layer and data layer
- Expresses the detailed logic of applications in English to reflect the program code
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