Page 197 - Building Big Data Applications

196 Building Big Data Applications

Was a risk assessment conducted to determine impact of such interruptions?
Was a strategy plan developed based on the risk assessment results to deter-
mine an overall approach to business continuity?
3. Writing and implementing continuity plan
Were plans developed to restore business operations within the required time
frame following an interruption or failure to business process?
Is the plan regularly tested and updated?
4. Business continuity planning framework
Is there a single framework of Business continuity plan?
Is this framework maintained to ensure that all plans are consistent and identify
priorities for testing and maintenance?
Does this identify conditions for activation and individuals responsible for
executing each component of the plan?
5. Testing, maintaining, and reassessing business continuity plan
Are the Business continuity plans tested regularly to ensure that they are up to
date and effective?
Are the Business continuity plans maintained by regular reviews and updated to
ensure their continuing effectiveness?
Are procedures included within the organizations change management program
to ensure that Business continuity matters are appropriately addressed?

If the assessment reveals pitfalls or answers which are doubtful in nature, you can be
sure that these areas are the highest risks and they need to be addressed. If these are the
risks and pitfalls, what are the best practices? That is a tough question to answer as the
areas are quite a few for best practices and here is a brief on the same, and there are a
few books that cover these aspects in detail with the topic titled around “Data Driven
Applications”. In general, there are areas to look for excellence in building applications
and they include the following:

User interfacedthe biggest impact is to have the right user interface; else adoption
will be zero. The best user interfaces come from the users directly and hence
engage them to design the screens and components.
User Expectationsdanother dark area when it comes to applications is the user ex-
pectations of
Ease of use
Error handling
Security
Performance
Availability
Self-learning
Ease of platforms adoption
Ensure that these aspects are addressed for the users, and they will be your team
for cheers.