BMC AppSight Application Problem Resolution

Business Challenge

As an application development manager, you are under continuous pressure from the business to improve on all project variables: build more functionality, increase quality, and do both within rigid time-to-market schedules. At the same time, you have to hold the line and often reduce cost, all while grappling with the hiring and attrition of the technical staff.

Many development organizations have been able to achieve reductions in cost and increases in efficiency through off shoring, adopting Agile development methods, and implementing service-oriented architectures. But none of these methods addresses a core process that consumes 30 to 60 percent of your developers’ total time. This process is enmeshed in every application development project, yet it adds no business value - It is the process of problem resolution.

Business Problem

Problem resolution encompasses the time spent on documenting, recreating, and diagnosing defects uncovered during development and testing, as well as those escalated from the help desk or IT operations staff during the maintenance stage. It is an inefficient, manual process that is based on trial and error. It typically involves excessive communication cycles, as well as finger-pointing among developers, testers, support staff, and end users.

Our Solution

BMC AppSight Application Problem Resolution System automates the problem resolution process using patented technology that is analogous to a black box flight recorder on an airplane. The system automatically records full problem information, communicates it to development, and provides analysis views for determining root cause.

BMC AppSight Application Problem Resolution System significantly accelerates the problem resolution process. This innovative solution:

• Automates the information-gathering step, capturing and documenting all relevant data in a single pass
• Eliminates the need to recreate the environment in which the problem occurred or reproduce the exact steps that led up to the problem
• Accelerates the analysis step by permitting the developer to quickly diagnose the problem and isolate root cause, regardless of the problem type.

Key Features and Value

• Shrink time-to-market by automating problem documentation, eliminating the need to recreate problems, and speeding root cause determination
• Increase the functionality and quality of applications, while still meeting schedule commitments
• Reduce staffing requirements for development projects by increasing developer efficiency
• Eliminate multiple round-trips among developers, testers, and operations staff by streamlining and automating information exchange
• Reduce defects by conducting more rigorous testing and fixing previously “irreproducible” defects
• Make testers more efficient by reducing the time they spend on documenting defects
• Minimize disruptions to ongoing development efforts by cutting the time required to diagnose and fix issues escalated from the production environment or service desk

• BMC AppSight Application Problem Resolution for Windows/.NET
• BMC AppSight Application Problem Resolution for Java EE