Applying the ISRQCC Method in a Web Reengineering Process. The SwissInsurances (SWI) Web Engineering Audit

Abstract

The most important factor in maintaining Web Engineering Information Systems (WEIS) lifecycle is the reengineering process that in most cases is due to serious problems and hence high maintenance costs; this process must be closely monitored by audit procedures. Once the WEIS was put into production, the maintenance and reengineering considerations started, and the Information System Risk and Quality Check Coefficient (ISRQCC) method was periodically used to audit it. It also established the relationship between the (re)design and the reengineering process. This paper presents the application of the ISRQCC method in the SWI's Web Engineering (WE) project, where the audit operations resulted in a major reengineering process.

Audit, Control and Monitoring Design Patterns (ACMDP) for Autonomous Robust Systems (ARS)

“…Of course the main requirement is autonomy! In fact, automation is implied in the term proactive monitoring (Trad, A., Kalpic, D. & Fertalj, K. 2002).…”

“…The ACMDP, can be adapted to any monitoring system. A good place to begin is to identify the possible sources of problems (known as factors), which in the ARS or an MRS monitoring system are known as factors (Trad, A., Kalpic, D. & Fertalj, K. 2002).…”

“…& Olsen, A., 2002), all the components communicate using the TCP/IP supported network. ARS or an MRS architecture, also known as Multi-Agent System, specify how to accomplish and integrate planning, monitoring, and control into a system constrained by: (1) sensors and actuators, which cause failures and misperceptions; (2) restricted computational resources, which limit the amount of planning and data processing; and asynchronous events (Trad, A., Kalpic, D. & Fertalj, K. 2002), such as failures or errors, which call for immediate attention; and (3) probably the most important hyper-fast processing (In average, it takes about 100 nanoseconds for an agent to take control and perform an elementary operation) (Dessimoz, J.-D., Gauthey, P.-F. & Roulin, P., 2003).…”

“…Hence the IS audit activities are becoming a very common intervention to 'save' them from failure (Trad, A., 1995). The ISRQCC audit and control method is intended to be of interest to non-technical auditors, audit managers, audit committee members, senior managers in charge of critical computing systems such as robot systems, executives, board members, and even seasoned IS auditors (Trad, A., Kalpic, D. & Trad, C., 2002). This audit method results in a heuristic model which will help information system auditors to estimate the probability that an IS will succeed or fail (Dayton, D., 1999).…”