What are the problems usually encountered by software engineers in the management of the information technology infrastructure in e-Commerce?
Lack of adequate documentation and unrealistic time schedules, at least :-)
The infrastructure must have certain characteristics and meet specific requirements. The properties include mainly the mobile and real-time capability, which are becoming increasingly important in the growing m-commerce trend. The essential infrastructure requirements are the ability to log data flexibly, and be able to evaluate these promptly. As an e-commerce platform can be very dynamic, the logs (eg. click logs) should be stored in semi-structured format.
The major issue is security , quality of service and maintenance of software and hardware. Keeping all the e-commerce players intact like G2G, G2B, B2B, B2C, C2C is the major challenge.
Folakemi, one thing to consider is whether the eCommerce system you are building will be dependent on other systems - usually what are referred to as legacy. These legacy systems were built in a time of different requirements. This is something that Eldar Sultanow points to, but doesn't explicitly mention.
For example, if the legacy system is a mainframe batch system that was designed to handle multiple requests batched together to generate output, then expecting it to respond in 'real-time' to individual requests is a bottleneck. The design might work really well when it was processing 10s (or 100s/1000s) of requests in a single batch, but having to do all the initialization and set up for each request would overwhelm it and the response time will drop.
Software depends mainly on committed sponsors and projects champions. Integration with other systems is an issue that may need contracts with old contractors. security in several levels should be addressed starting early from the design phase.
IT infrastructure includes facilities, equipment, and processes to support all the functional areas of a business. Problems usually encountered by software engineers in the management of the above include:
1. Compatibility issues - it can be difficult to integrate new e-commerce apps with the existing ones
2. Special types of equipment like web servers may be required to run some e-commerce apps other than the already existing network servers
3. Both software engineering and e-commerce are dynamic fields
4. The available network bandwidth may be insufficient to run the e-commerce apps esp in developing countries
5. if the system is purely implemented, it is likely to have security issues
- Stakeholders desires: Getting as much as possible with as few time and cost as possible, which is a natural effect, but can be extremly dangerous due to the fact that things like quality may be problematic.
- stakeholders knowledge: Forcing into the wrong direction
- too much complexity
- Security - Balancing between needs, costs and possibilities
- design for too much (on the IT side)
- the right performance (not necessariliy the fastest one, but sufficiently)
- the right avaiability
- the "last phone call" directly before releasing "could you fix this", or "could you add a function?"
besides security, user friendly interface is a must, and now the design QSS to be opened on mobile sets and tblets
From my experience.
1. Gap between Process and What really done on the floor.
2. "Cooked up" data.
3. Wrong Estimates.
4. Poor review board/infrastructure.
5. Poor Skill.
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