Consulting - Tech Debt Analysis

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Industry

Healthcare / Digital Health

Product

Unified Digital Health Application

Technology Stack

ReactJS

Java 11

Spring Boot

Amazon EC2

AWS

Amazon RDS

GitHub

SonarQube

Kibana

Grafana

Jenkins Code Quality & Monitoring

Docker

Quick Summary

IntelERA partnered with a healthcare client to perform a comprehensive technical debt analysis for their digital health ecosystem application. The goal was to identify key performance, scalability, and user experience challenges, and to provide a strategic solution blueprint that would guide the client in upgrading their system. The analysis included recommendations on UI/UX improvements, backend architecture, cloud infrastructure, and containerization to make the platform more robust, secure, and scalable for future growth.

Problem Definition / Challenges

Poor Performance: Slow load times and inefficient system operation.
Global Browser Compatibility Issues: The application didn't perform well across different web browsers, impacting user accessibility.
Scalability Constraints: The existing system wasn’t designed to scale effectively with the growing user base.
Unimpressive UI/UX: The outdated interface led to a suboptimal user experience, affecting usability.
Tech Debt: Accumulation of technical debt had led to issues with maintainability and difficulty in adding new features.

Our Approach / Solution

IntelERA conducted a thorough Technical Debt Analysis to evaluate the client’s existing infrastructure, application codebase, and technology stack. Based on this analysis, we documented a detailed report outlining areas of improvement and strategic solutions for the client to implement. Key aspects of the analysis included:

UI/UX Improvements:

ReactJS 18+, HTML5, and Bootstrap were recommended for a modern, component-oriented design. This would ensure the application is responsive, mobile-compatible, and easy to navigate, addressing the outdated UI/UX.

Backend Architecture Optimisation:

Transitioning to Java 11 with Spring Boot and Spring JPA would enhance the backend infrastructure, improving performance and simplifying future updates and feature integrations. This would also support more efficient and maintainable functional programming practices.

Cloud Infrastructure and Containerisation:

We recommended leveraging AWS for enhanced scalability and security. By adopting Docker for containerized architecture, the system would become more flexible and portable, with the ability to deploy consistently across different environments.

EC2 instances were proposed to ensure high availability and elasticity.

Database Optimization:

Moving to Amazon RDS for SQL services would improve database management and performance. We also recommended using new Amazon SDKs for faster, more efficient interactions with the database, reducing potential bottlenecks.

CI/CD Pipeline and Automation:

Implementation of a streamlined CI/CD pipeline using GitHub, Jenkins 3, and SonarQube was suggested to improve deployment speed and security. Automating deployment and continuous integration would ensure more efficient updates and faster time-to-market for new features.

Monitoring and Logging:

We advised integrating Grafana for real-time system monitoring and Kibana for log management. These tools would help the client proactively address performance issues and maintain better operational oversight.

The Result

Comprehensive Technical Debt Report:

The client received a detailed and actionable report, identifying 18 critical areas of technical debt and recommending over 25 specific solutions for modernizing the platform. This helped pinpoint over 40% of the system that was considered outdated or underperforming.

Strategic Upgrade Path:

Based on the analysis, the client defined a clear upgrade roadmap, estimating a 25% reduction in costs for system upgrades over the next 12 months. The approach allowed for the prioritization of 5 key business-critical features, offering a 20% faster go-to-market timeline for new releases.

Future-Ready Infrastructure:

The suggested cloud-based, containerized architecture would enable the client to scale their system by 3x, supporting up to 10 million active users while reducing operational costs by 30% through improved resource allocation and elastic scaling.

Improved User Experience:

The recommended changes to UI/UX and backend architecture aimed to increase user engagement by 25%, while reducing page load times by 40%, enhancing the overall responsiveness and usability of the platform.

Security and Performance Improvements:

The strategic use of AWS, modern technologies, and optimized databases would reduce security vulnerabilities by 50%, while improving system performance by 45%, ensuring scalability and reliability as user demand increases.

IntelERA's in-depth technical debt analysis enabled the client to identify the limitations of their system and provided a thorough set of recommendations for upgrading their application to better meet future demands. Although the client handled the implementation, the report served as a clear roadmap for the development process. Based on our recommendations, the client upgraded the application, and the new version's performance improved by 40-50%, resulting in enhanced efficiency and greater user satisfaction.