SSW Sydney Consulting - Software Auditing

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Fine tune your software with SSW Software Auditing Services

A crisis will pinpoint the short falls of your current technologies. Why wait for down-time or poor sales to discover where your application could be improved?
SSW Application Audit Services will help improve:

Code Quality
Application Performance
Scalability, Maintainability & Reliability
Software Architecture
User Interface Design
Documentation

The companies that we have done audits for range from developer utilities to major enterprise systems.

Specification Review

For new projects, there are many where the specifications we are given are often lacking or incomplete. This option is for clients that already have a specification and/or mockups. Our Business Analyst gives feedback on their specifications and then gives a set of estimates for the work.

How long does this normally take?

Client time commitment: (6 hours with Analyst) (2 meetings)
SSW Time Commitment: 12 hours

Contact us now to arrange a Specification Review

Tip: Doing this one day review *before* coding can save weeks of development.

Architecture Review

I am impressed with the approach you have taken and believe that the implementation of your recommendations will have a dramatic impact on the performance of the application. On occasions like the one that I find myself in, it is comforting to find that there are IT professionals that know how to do the job necessary, do it well and with a good commercial perspective.

Dean Morelli - Aussie Pay

Architectural decisions have a great impact on the subsequent quality of software implementations. Is your system using the most appropriate technology?
Is the system designed for future needs, not only for today's deadlines?

SSW will help you bring your architecture into line with best practices.

This helps:

Discover problems early; its much easier and cheaper to fix problems early.
Improve Performance, Scalability and Reliability.
Review necessary and unnecessary Unit Tests.
Ensure the application can be extended easily in the future.

SSW takes these problems head on, in line with the fourth principle of eXtreme Programming - courage. Design for change.

Contact us now to arrange an Architecture Review

User Interface Review (including flow)

I asked Adam to audit the interface and make suggestions wherever he saw fit. Some 100 odd emails later we have a new version. Adam helped me to understand the unrealistic assumptions of the interface and plug holes and inconsistencies in the UI. We now have a new wizard interface and automatic configuring of IIS, which means even a user with little knowledge can have SQL Scribe, up and running in under 2 minutes. Read it

Greg Obleshchuk - A & G Software

99% of users don't read manuals, so your software must be intuitive and consistent. Establishing consistency in User Interface Design is challenging. There are many standards available, but too often developers and application designers unknowingly choose a proprietary approach.

Do you want:

Frustrated users
Low adoption rate, often leading to project failure

SSW is great at improving old and cluttered UI's - Web, Windows or Access - take a look at how we fast-forwarded an old, barely usable Access application into an ultra-fast, consistent and modern user experience.

Lets make your website/application functional, user-friendly, attractive and efficient.

Contact us now to arrange a User Interface Review

Google Search Engine Optimization

Your website is your point of presence on the Internet. It's great to have a good website but there is no point to this unless people can find it. The number 1 way to reach new clients is through search engines, in particular Google, which claims to be used by 70% of Internet users. SSW's SEO Consultants are the most experienced and know Google’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques backwards ?see our Rules to Better Google Rankings. Search Engine Optimization requires a consistent and thorough approach to make sure all your website's pages are optimized.

Contact us now to arrange Search Engine Optimization for your website

Database Structure Review

Designing a database incorrectly means a real headache later on. Your database could be the bottleneck in your application, if it is not designed well it can slow the application right down.

Poor database structure gives:

Performance nightmares (e.g. Index problems)
Unnecessary Data redundancy (duplicate data stored in the database)
Loss of Data Integrity (e.g. missing transactions)
Difficulty in changing the database structure later on

We will review all your database objects to check for weaknesses, as well as common mistakes that developers make.
Additionally, we measure up your database against our exhaustive SQL Server standards using our product SSW SQL Auditor.

Contact us now to arrange a Database Structure Review

Code Review (Including the Code Architecture)

I recommend SSW audits even for developers that think their products are as good as they can be. There's nothing like having SSW put the blow-torch on an application to make you really justify in your own mind the design decisions you've made. The lessons I learn during the audits are applied not just to the product in question, but to all our products (so there is multiple returns from the investment). There are things SSW has suggested that we would never have thought of, and our clients really enjoy the changes.

Justin Hanson - Lex Australia on SSW Code Review and UI Design services

SSW implements strict standards on all code produced. Implementing strict coding standards means your code can be easily read, easily modified and easily tested.

We measure up your code against the best industry practices and our exhaustive coding standards. Additionally, we measure your code with our award winning tool SSW Code Auditor.

SSW is experienced in VB, VBA, VB.NET, ASP, ASP.NET and C#. This review also includes checking your code tiers, making sure business logic is split from User Interface and database logic.

Contact us now to arrange a Code Review

Performance Review

We were draining 75% of system resources, and supporting a userbase of 11,000 users... SSW came in, and optimised our database structure and queries. We can now support 19,000 intranet users, with over 2 million queries per day, and the application only uses 7% of the CPU.

Simon Renton - Commonwealth Bank of Australia on Commtrack

If you're finding that your software is reaching its limits of capacity, SSW can provide a performance review of your application to target specific areas for improvements.

You should:

Specify the load (e.g. number of simultaneous user requests) and
Set performance goals (e.g. <2 second average response time)

We will analyze your database query design, system architecture and code structure to provide you with a set of recommendations and specifications.

Contact us now to arrange a Performance Review

Security Review

Whether it's because of industry requirement, or your peace of mind, SSW can provide a third party review of your application to target specific issues for improvements. We look at:

Authentication process of identifying who the user is
Authorization what the user can do within the application
Licensing to control the usage of the software
Validation of all inputs in the system
Encryption
Software Licensing protection mechanisms
Methodologies and best practices to reduce your exposure to hostile attacks
Logging who is doing what and when

Contact us now to arrange a Security Review