It is important for any application but especially e-business/commerce applications to plan for growth technically and for the business. This does not mean that you need to install an infrastructure to support the growth for five years out. However, the infrastructure should have the ability to grow in increments with the anticipated growth.

Anticipated growth will impact both the technological infrastructure but the business infrastructure as well. It is SBDi's recommendation is that you elicit volumetrics as part of the requirement process:

1. For the time periods: 1st Day, 1st Wk, 1st Month, 2nd Month, Third Month, 2nd Qtr, 3rd Qtr, 4th Qtr, 2 yr, 3rd yr, 4th yr, and 5th yr.



2. Keep volumetrics in terms of minimum, average, and maximum for the time periods. (network engineers should plan for worst case scenarios)



3. Note peak time periods such as peak hour, seasonal peak



4. Note all volumes by: actors, information, network node, event, processing, conflicting policies



5. Initiate requirements that will:
   - Define monitoring procedures
   - Define capacity planning warning measures if volumes reach maximums for business
   - Define business and technical procedures when maximums are exceeded

This information helps the technical architects to plan for scalable increments to the e-business infrastructure.

This information is also valuable when planning for risks in breaks in the supply chain. Knowing potential orders will assist in negotiating with multiple vendors. Vendors can be also be prepared along their supply chain.

Not eliciting volume information, could lead to performance problems or unsatisfied orders. Both can result in reduced market share.

RECOMMENDED READING: IEEE 1230: System Requirement Specification for the section on non-functional requirements.

Hope this months tip helps. Please feel free to contact Strategic Business Decisions, inc. if you have any questions or comments on this months tip. Pat Ferdinandi