Business Requirements of a Software Company

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Business Requirements Software companies have business and technical requirements that they must address in order to stay operational. Business requirements describe the needs of the business and its users like vendors, and customers, that guide the business’ future design (de la Vara & Sanchez, 2020).

Technical requirements, on the other hand, refer to factors including tools and equipment that the business requires to deliver its desired function. For FractalApps to succeed, the business must support new offices, improve end-user experience, cut costs, comply with regulations, and improve business continuity.

Analysis of Business Requirements i.

Support New Offices

FractalApps must be able to support the offices in Washington, DC, New York, and San Francisco. Since it is a startup, it will probably rent the premises. The offices will also need to be equipped and maintained. FractalApps need to be ready with all the costs. The offices must also be convenient for clients. For instance, if a client wants to visit an office in person, she should have an easy time doing so. Even though FractalApps’ services can be delivered to clients without any physical interaction, some clients may want to visit the premises, especially when there are disagreements. However, since most transactions will be taking place online, there is no need for the offices to be located on the ground floor. The office in San Francisco needs to provide the developers with a quiet and serene environment. According to Smite et al. (2022) programmers need an office with a desk layout with enough room to support pair programming and enough horizontal space for books, monitors, and documents.

2 Improve end-user Experience Improving end-user experience is a crucial business requirement. FractalApp is a startup that is trying to penetrate a market which is already dominated by established brands. This means that it will not have the chance to penetrate the market if it cannot improve end-user experience.

Successfully addressing the users' needs better than the competitors will give FractalApps a significant competitive advantage. Even for established brands, failure to satisfy users’ needs may make them lose their customer base.

Cut Costs Established brands always have enough revenue to cater for all their financial needs and still remain with profits. This is, however, not the case for startups. There is a period when a new business has to depend on funds from its owners since the business's customer base is still small.

During this period, the startup’s managers need to exercise higher levels of financial intelligence.

According to Corporate Finance Institute (2022), a startup ought to have a cash reserve with enough reserve to sustain it for at least six months before launching its operations. If FratcalApps keeps that amount in its reserve, the managers must conserve it for it to sustain the company until it starts making profits.

Comply With Regulations Even though complying with regulations may not contribute to a business's profitability, it is a requirement that cannot be bypassed. Some regulations that all businesses must comply with include the fair labor standards Act, Equal opportunity Act, worker compensation, trademarks, patents, and income tax. Failure to comply with these regulations may lead to the revocation of FractalApp's business license or huge fines, which may derail the company's operations and growth.

3 Improve business continuity.

Growth is every business owner’s dream. Business growth occurs when a business expands. Growth is marked by an increase in revenue, product output, customer base, and workforce. As a business grows, its profit margin also grows. When a business has picked up and acquired a wider customer base than it can cater for, it may decide to go public to acquire funds from the public or take bank loans.

Appropriate Cabling for LAN There are several cabling options that FractalApps can use for its three Local Area Networks, which will be located in Washington DC, New York, and San Francisco. The types of cables the company can choose from include fiber optic cables, Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6A, Cat7, and Cat8 twisted pairs, and coaxial cables. The factors that the company have to consider when choosing the best cables include cost, usability, convenience, and durability, among other factors. When cost is considered, the Category 5 twisted pair is the cheapest. However, Cat5 is very ineffective as it can only handle speeds of up to 100Mbsps, which is a great data transfer limitation. This makes it only suitable for small homes. Cat5 is also prone to crosstalk which occurs when a signal transmitted in one circuit or channel creates undesired effects in another channel or circuit (Khan, 2022). Cat5e is an improved version of Cat5 and can support speeds of up to 1Gbps, and does not have crosstalk. Even though Cat5e can handle FractalApp's current needs, the company may need to replace them when expansion creates the need for a more robust infrastructure. To avoid the need for upgrades in future, it would be a good idea to just use an option that will not require replacement. Cat8, which is the most efficient twisted pair option, is, therefore, a better option. Cat8 can support speeds of up to 40Gbps and frequency of up to 2Ghz, which is four times better than Cat6a bandwidth. Compared to fiber optic cables, fiber optics

4 cables are superior but also more expensive. Cat8 is copper based hence does not require fiber transceivers, and this makes Cat8 relatively cheaper. However, Cat8 cabling can only have a permanent link of 24m. Fiber optic cables, therefore, remain the most expensive and the most effective. Fiber optic cables can also handle voice and video communication needs. Fiber optics will reduce maintenance costs and improve business continuity since they will not need to be upgraded. They are also easy to install since they are relatively thinner. This makes their cabling easier. Since using them does not go against any regulation, they using them address all the five requirements.

Even though servers can work from any of the offices, it is better to keep them at the San Francisco office. The New York office will have marketing personnel, while the Washington DC office will mainly have managers. Many people in the San Francisco office will be IT experts, and it is, therefore, the best to host the server. Other LAN components like network switches, routers, modems, firewalls, and devices need to be available in all the offices. The firewall will be responsible for monitoring and filtering incoming and outgoing data based on FractalApp’s policies. The role of a router is to manage intra and internetwork traffic by forwarding data packets to their intended IP addresses (Sahu, 2022). A switch is a hardware or software-based virtual device in a network that connects devices thus enabling them to exchange data packets.

Wide Area Network Infrastructure The first component of WAN is the end devices. The end devices include PCs, mobile devices, and servers. The primary function of a WAN is to connect end devices. The connection of these end devices makes up a LAN and several connected LANs make up a WAN. Another component of WAN is Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). CPEs help in improving the network's performance and aligning the infrastructure with the company’s business needs.

5 Examples of CPEs are; physical firewall appliances, telephones, routers, set-up boxes, and hardware devices.

Connecting media is also an important component of a WAN. Connecting media are responsible for carrying data packets to and from different WAN components. They include fiber optics cables, traditional MPLS lines, satellite connectivity, and cellular (3G, 4G, 5G) spectrum.

4G connection and satellite connectivity are used for connecting WANs whose LANS are in distant locations. Another important component of a WAN is Unified Management Portal. Even though this component is not a must, it is very important. It enables central management of the whole WAN from one location, and without it, each LAN within the WAN has to be managed independently. Unified Management Portals work best when they are cloud-based. For FractalApps, it should be managed from San Francisco because that is where IT experts are. The last component is the network switch. These switches are placed between routers, access points, and end devices. They ensure that each device receives the bandwidth they need for optimal performance.

This WAN arrangement is cost-effective since each office is only equipped with the components it needs. This also makes it easier for the new offices to accommodate all the components of the infrastructure. Since all components that need to be handled by experts will be kept in the San Francisco office where IT experts are, this WAN arrangement improves user experience as the users will only be operating components they can manage. This arrangement is also compliant with all regulations, and since it gives experts more control, it will improve business continuity.

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New York office

Washington DC office

San Francisco office

Servers

LAN Switch

LAN Switch

LAN Switch

Firewall router

Firewall router

Firewall router

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Wide Area Network

VPN components VPN will greatly help FractalApps to secure its network. The most convenient way to use a VPN is to use it as software and have its many components handled by the VPN service provider. However, an end user can also keep some of the components. The main component of a VPN is a VPN server. This server is responsible for processing requests from the VPN's clients in a remote location and storing data involved in the process (Gopinath, 2020). The second component is the clients. The clients will include the sales personnel in the fields and the development staff, who will be working from home. The next component is a VPN connection which provides a secure link for data transit between networks.

Another important component of VPN is Tunnel. A tunnel is responsible for performing data encapsulation which enables transmission of datagrams over IP based network. Tunnels work through tunnelling protocols, which is another component. Some tunnelling protocols include Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) and Point-to-Point Tunneling (PPTP). This VPN will be cloud-based, and this will ensure that no gadgets are added to the office. This will reduce the cost of maintaining all the components. The VPN service will ensure that they comply with all regulations. Since the providers are always conducting user experience assessments, the VPN

8 will be able to improve user experience by being always up to date will improve business continuity.

References Corporate Finance Institute. (2022). Cash reserves. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/accounting/cash-reserves/ de la Vara, J. L., & Sánchez, J. (2020). Improving requirements analysis through business process modelling: A participative approach. Business Information Systems, 165–176. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79396-0_15

9 Gopinath, D., Vijayakumar, S., Ramalakshmi, R., Jeevalinggesh, M., & Janarthanan, D. (2020).

Implementation of Internal and External Border Gateway Protocol for Efficient Traffic Flow using MPLS L3 VPN in Green Network. Journal of Green Engineering, 10, 54785486.

Khan, S., Zhao, Y., Wei, Y., Mueed, A., Ullah, Z., & Khan, A. (2022). Simulation of HighFrequency Twisted Pair Cable Using DDM-FEM Hybrid Algorithm. The Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Journal (ACES), 109–116. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13052/2022.ACES.J.370113 Sahu, P. P. (2022). Optical Networks and Components: Fundamentals and Advances. CRC Press.

Smite, D., Tkalich, A., Moe, N. B., Papatheocharous, E., Klotins, E., & Buvik, M. P. (2022).

Changes in perceived productivity of software engineers during COVID-19 pandemic: The voice of evidence. Journal of Systems and Software, 186, 111197. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2021.111197