Our client belongs to the entertainment and recreation industry and serves over 20 million guests at more than 250 locations in the United States.
Challenge
The system had a lot of bugs and incomplete functionalities that cost the client time, money and energy.
AhaApps’ Methodology
AhaApps started by asking the client about the challenges, expectations and priorities. We understood their requirements and based on that we made some decisions.
AhaApps’ Solution
The modules were broken down in such a manner that there was a minimal dependency on each other.
Client’s challenge:
The client had an existing Dynamics 365 implementation done by another vendor. The implementation was a complete mess. The system had a lot of bugs and incomplete functionalities that cost the client time, money and energy.
AhaApps’ analysis:
Upon inspection of the system, we discovered that the implementation was done hastily. The plugins and the JavaScript code that was written, had a lot of bugs in it. Some of the codes were using soon-to-be deprecated function calls as well. There was a lot of redundant code that was impacting the performance of the system as well.
AhaApps’ methodology:
AhaApps started by asking the client about the challenges, expectations and priorities. We understood their requirements and based on that we made some decisions.
First, we decided to resolve all the existing bugs in the system. Once we did that, we moved on to the enhancements.
- We started by researching the existing environment. We examined each module in detail.
- We recorded the bugs in the system.
- We devised a plan on how to resolve the bugs. We broke down the system into different modules.
- We analyzed the dependency of each module on each other.
Once we differentiated the various modules, we started resolving the bugs in each module. When we fixed a major chunk of the existing bugs, we moved to the new functionalities requested.
AhaApps’ solution:
The system was broken down into different modules. The modules were broken down in such a manner that there was a minimal dependency on each other. In this way, we were able to achieve the maximum amount of parallel work among developers. We resolved the bugs in the system first. This was done so that we can build the new functionalities on top of a stable system.
We also replaced some of the deprecated function calls written in C# and JavaScript. The number of database calls in the plugins was a lot previously. This was reduced to the maximum amount possible. We ensured that periodic code reviews were done and compulsorily before release. Since the system was highly unstable previously, the emphasis was on performance.
We also suggested some design changes to the client to improve the performance and once accepted, we implemented the changes.
Tools Used:
- Dynamics 365
- SSRS
Time taken:
1.5 years
The ‘aha!’ moment
The client was really happy once they started seeing the results. They did not have any performance-related breakdowns of the system for a long time. The “Aha” moment was when the client was confident enough in their system that they decided to move all their outlets from using the legacy system to Dynamics 365!