A coherent software environment simplifies maintenance – and using the same terminology facilitates communication and learning within the IT department.
Having a mixed and complex software environment could put strain on the IT department. Applications and databases needs to be somehow cataloged in case of system failure.
While mapping applications to databases using a unified terminology might seem to be a good idea from the start, but when it comes to generating a data model of interconnections based on terminology – confusion will arise. This confusion could lead to misinterpretations, which in turn could lead to incidents.
Introduction:
Today nearly all large and medium-sized companies have an IT department that support and maintain the IT infrastructure. To support the day-to-day work, many IT workers use different types of software. There is software specialized for application distribution and other software for monitoring.
For most medium-sized companies there is no problem to keep the software environment coherent. With software environment we are referring to the software manufacturers requirements on surrounding software and/or hardware.
In a coherent software environment, the staff can use the same terminology which facilitates communication and learning within the department. However, when companies expand, in terms of clients, servers and/or users, it can become difficult to keep the software environment coherent. Companies can be forced to use a mixture of different environments. Each one of these environments usually has their own terminology defined by the manufacturer.
Source: University of Gävle
Author: Jonsson, Patrik