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Exam Preparation Guide: Exam HP0-786 NonStop Advanced Application Design - Level 2

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HP Certified Professional Program NonStop Advanced Application Design

Exam HP0-786

Exam Preparation Guide

Purpose of the Exam Prep Guide The intent of this guide is to set expectations about the content and the context of the exam and to help candidates prepare for the exam. In this guide, you will find recommended HP training courses, reference and study material to help you achieve a successful passing score.

Studies conducted by HP and Prometric show that a combination of course attendance and self-study maximizes the likelihood of passing the exam on the first attempt.

Audience This exam is targeted for the following personnel, with a minimum of five years’ experience on the NonStop S-Series platforms running the G-Series NonStop Kernel Operating System. Examples of job roles:

• Professional Services personnel who assist NonStop customers.

• Global Customer Support Center (GCSC) personnel, who may have specialized technical expertise in the operating system and NonStop applications and serve as support for both field support technicians and customers.

• Analyst SEs or Pre-SalesTechnical Support (PSTS) personnel, who perform pre-sales consulting and technical account support.

• NonStop Application Designers (both internal and external), System Integrators and Consultant Partners, Authorized Service Channel Partners and Distributors, Customers authorized to service their own equipment.

General areas of content include: Requirements Review, Application Architecting, Engineering Solutions, and Product Knowledge.

Certification Requirements The NonStop Advanced Application Design Exam (HP0-786) is an elective for certification as an Accredited System Engineer (ASE - Level 2) in the NonStop S-series Systems track.


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Prerequisites Successful completion of the Accredited Integration Specialist (AIS) - Level 1 is required for the Accredited System Engineer (ASE) - Level 2 certification. One mandatory exam and three electives, totaling four exams, are required for ASE certification. For NonStop Systems track requirements, visit the website at http://education.hp.com/curr-nonstop.htm (Instructor-Led Training) http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cat/httoc.htm (Self-Study Training) Level 2 mandatory exam: NonStop Kernel Advanced Exam HP0-760

Level 2 electives are based on the participant’s certification goals. Note that one to five years’ experience or more is highly recommended for ASE certification. “Hands on” experience with the NonStop S-series system is essential.

Exam Details The NonStop Advanced Application Design Exam (HP0-786) is a live exam. You will receive a score report with your results after testing is complete. You can use the report to identify areas of strength and learn about areas to improve, if necessary.

Test Information Number of test items: 77

Item type: multiple choice

Time commitment: 90 minutes Passing Score: 53

Percent Correct: 68

Reference material: No online or hard copy reference material will be allowed at the testing site.

http://education.hp.com/curr-nonstop.htm

http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cat/httoc.htm


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Exam Content The following outline represents the specific areas of content covered in the exam. Use this outline to guide your study and to check your readiness for the exam. The exam measures your understanding of these areas. The approximate percentage of exam questions dedicated to each major content area is included in parenthesis. The higher the percentage, the more questions will be on the exam.

1) Requirements Review

1.1 Describe the purpose of the business requirements document

1.2 Identify business requirement topics

• Business functions

• Business algorithms

• Interoperability with external systems

• Internationalization

• Constraints

• Security policy

• Transaction volumes

• Performance requirements

• Availability requirements

• Regulatory requirements

• Schedule 1.3 Identify constraints that may be arbitrary and should be removed 1.4 Identify valid constraints before release for an application design 1.5 Identify undocumented business requirements 1.6 Explain the requirements change control process

• Approval

• Release 1.7 Identify the components of the final business requirements 1.8 Identify the components of the test requirements

• Functional

• Stress


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• Performance

• Recovery

• User acceptance

• Interoperability 1.9 Identify the documentation requirements 1.10 Identify the system and/or application release management policy 1.11 Identify the training requirements (not tested)

• End user training

• System management training

• Operator training

2) Application Architecting 2.1 Discuss the issues in achieving scalability

• Parallelism

• Concurrency

• Locking strategy 2.2 Identify the issues which may threaten application availability 2.3 Describe the conditions which may cause data corruption

• Network transactions

• Transaction boundaries

• Heterogeneous transactions

• Recovery procedures 2.4 Describe the conditions of a manageable application environment 2.5 Describe the characteristics of a maintainable application 2.6 Describe the various methodologies for providing interoperability

• Messaging

• Remote database

• Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

• Data conversion

• Security


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2.7 Identify application security issues

• Guardian

• OSS

• Web

• Encryption

• Network

• Firewalls

• Authentication/Authorization

• Auditing

• Regulatory 2.8 Describe the methods and tools to achieve business continuity

• Data replication

• Application replication

• Automatic communication switch

• Prevention of data loss 2.9 Identify potential performance problem areas

• Bottlenecks

• Network transactions

• Network

• Database

• Memory/cache

• Backups/online dump 2.10 Discuss criteria for choosing a database architecture

• SQL/MP

• SQL/MX

• Enscribe

• OSS file system

• Operational Data Store (ODS)

• Decision Support System (DSS)


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2.11 Demonstrate knowledge of the different application types

• Tiered

• Distributed

• Query

• OLTP

• Web

• Batch 2.12 Discuss considerations for communicating with remote systems

• Protocols

• Message formats

• Message design

• Middleware and protocol dependencies

• Regulatory considerations

• Cost 2.13 Identify portability issues

• NonStop enhancements

• Non-standard enhancements

• Choice of programming language

• Choice of database

• Version compatibility issues ~ Language ~ Product

• Industry versus proprietary standards 2.14 Discuss internalization issues

• Character sets

• Numerical representation

• Currencies

• Collating sequence

• Date format


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• Time format

• Time zones

• Use of Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT) or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

2.15 Discuss the different test phases of an application

• Unit/module

• Functional

• Failure

• Stress (Transaction)

• Volume (Data)

• Performance

• Regression

• User Acceptance

• Disaster recovery 2.16 Identify migration considerations

• Web enabling

• Coexistence (dumb terminals vs. intelligent clients)

• SQL/MP to SQL/MX

• Enscribe to SQL

• Product versions

• From other platforms

• Application availability

• Application migration

• Non-TMF to TMF-enabled applications 2.17 Demonstrate knowledge of sizing requirements

• Transaction profile

• Data volume

• Batch

• Large queries


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• Response time

• Recovery time 2.18 Indicate design methods to respond to short schedule application changes

• Isolation

• Modular

• Web services

• Parameterization

• Data driven

• Rules based 2.19 Describe the reporting/printing capabilities of a NonStop server

• Spooler

• Font support

• Report distribution

• Broadcast

• Spooler file replication 2.20 Describe the deliverables from the application architecting process

• Internal specification

• External specification

• Test specification

3) Engineering Solutions

3.1 Describe types of functions application frameworks may provide

• Request/reply handling

• Internal error handling

• External error handling

• Logging

• Instrumentation and metrics

• Debugging and tracing

• Security (authorization, auditing, encryption)

• Database referential integrity support


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• Runtime management

• Initialization and parameterization

• Resource pooling/sharing

• Restart/recovery 3.2 Describe project-level reasons for using frameworks

• Quality (standardized and tested)

• Productivity (reuse and maintenance)

• Skills deployment ~ native language developers ~ experienced developers

• Limiting choice for framework users and enforcing decisions 3.3 Identify areas of necessity for software engineering

• Project and application standards

• Portability

• Flexibility and maintenance

• Database integrity enforcement 3.4 Identify relevant engineering techniques

• Module layering

• Isolation libraries

• Use of standard APIs

• Cohesion and coupling management 3.5 Explain implementation choices for common functionality

• Source library-based

• Object library-based

• Tool-based generation

• Buy, share, or develop 3.6 Specify framework functionality available within NonStop application server

products

• Pathway – user provided

• Tuxedo – request handling/security/etc.

• NonStop Enterprise Application Server (EAS)


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~ Container-provided functions ~ Container-hosted functions ~ Web-container Model View Controller (MVC) kits ~ Java components/services (e.g. logging)

• ZLE Development Kit (ZDK)

• iTP WebServer

• CORBA 3.7 Discuss areas requiring special engineering consideration

• Internationalization

• Back-end connectivity

• Heterogeneous transactions

• High concurrency clients

• Long-running sessions

• Long-running transactions

• Specialized clients (legacy and custom protocols) ~ global data ~ in-memory structure ~ programming models (use of dynamic functionality)

• High throughput techniques (boxcarring, multi-buffering, log file and intermediate file handling)

4) Product Knowledge 4.1 Demonstrate detailed knowledge of NonStop server middleware

• Pathway/TS and NonStop TS/MP

• NonStop Tuxedo

• NonStop CORBA

• NonStop EAS

• iTP WebServer

• Pathway/iTS

• NonStop DCE

• ODBC and ODBC/MX


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• JDBC and JDBC/MX

• RSC/MP 4.2 Demonstrate detailed knowledge of NonStop server languages and language

support tools

• C

• C++

• Java

• COBOL (native, non-native)

• TAL/pTAL

• HTML

• JavaScript

• XML (SOAP)

• SCOBOL

• TACL

• SQLCI

• MXCI

• Enform 4.3 Demonstrate knowledge of NonStop server database products

• NonStop SQL/MP

• NonStop SQL/MX

• Enscribe (DDL)

• OSS file system

• DDl (Message definition language, token definitions, DDL to Java)

• DataLoader/MP

• DBA/M

• Enable

• VQP (Visual Query Planner) 4.4 Demonstrate knowledge of NonStop server communications products

• TCP/IP and parallel TCP/IP

• X.25

• SNA

• ATM

• SuperCluster


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• Expand 4.5 Demonstrate knowledge of Guardian vs. OSS 4.6 Demonstrate knowledge of NonStop server recovery and availability products

• TMF

• BACKUP and RESTORE

• RDF

• AutoSYNC

• AutoTMF

• Pax

• PAK/UNPAK (G06.16) 4.7 Demonstrate knowledge of NonStop server operations and application

management products

• EMS

• SPI

• ASAP

• NetBatch

• Spooler

• SNMP Agent

• Measure (application instrumentation) 4.8 Demonstrate knowledge of security products

• Safeguard

• Atalla

• Web security

• Guardian and OSS


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Recommended Training and Study References This section lists training courses and documents that can help you acquire a majority of the knowledge and skills needed to pass the exam. You must also gain the practical experience outlined in this guide. You are not required to take the courses listed in this section. However, HP strongly recommends that you attend the classes, participate in class labs, and thoroughly review all course material and documents before taking the exam, even if you believe you have sufficient on-the-job experience.

Instructor-Led Training Use the information in this guide and the practical experience you have gained to determine your need for the instructor-led training. The HP NonStop Systems Certification (Level 2) includes references to a variety of materials that provide information included on this certification exam. Completion of courses and review of materials is recommended, but not required, for success on this exam.

Recommended Minimum Courses Course Title Part

Number Type Length

HP Remote Database Facility (RDF) Workshop U4146S ILT 4 days NonStop SQL/MX Database Quick Start - ILT U4185S ILT 5 Days Web Foundations for HP NonStop Systems U3959S ILT 5 days

Additional Highly Recommended Courses Refer to course recommendations in the 664 Exam Preparation Guide for the Application Design and Development Exam - Level 1 Accredited Integration Specialist (AIS). Go to http://www.hp.com/certification/. Refer to the Application Design document recommended reading for the HP0-664 Level 1 exam http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cert/appdes.pdf.

Course Title Part Number

Type Length

NonStop SQL/MX Basics U4184S ILT 5 days NonStop SQL/MP Database Management U4180S ILT 5 days NonStop Transaction Management Facility (TMF) Operations and Management

U4186S ILT 4 days

ILT = Instructor-Led Training

http://www.hp.com/certification/

http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cert/appdes.pdf


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Courses Descriptions Check web site course descriptions for prerequisites at: http://education.hp.com/curr-nonstop.htm (Instructor-Led Training) http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cat/httoc.htm (Self-Study Training) You can also call (800) 621-9198 in North America, to speak with an education consultant or register for courses. If you are outside of the U.S., call +1 (408) 285-9508 or contact your local education and training resource. Or, you can send an email to [email protected]

Additional Recommended Reference Materials for This Exam References for exam questions are found in the online TIM (Total Information Manager) collections (This guide typically references the latest release available.) TIM is a single interface to all NonStop documentation and support information.

External users must subscribe to the TIM CD collection. See your NonStop Representative for more information.

NOTE: TIM must be installed on your system before using the following default access settings.

External: www.hp.com/go/ntl

http://education.hp.com/curr-nonstop.htm

http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cat/httoc.htm

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.hp.com/go/ntl

http://tex.tandem.com/cgi-bin/timcfg.exe

http://www.hp.com/go/ntl


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Documentation The information in this exam preparation guide is current as of release G06.16. However, you may find the information in earlier or later versions of the TIM documentation as well. Information nested (~) indicates subsections emphasized in the document.

• AccessLog\iTP Active Transaction Pages (iTP ATP) Programmer's Guide (426849-001)

∼ ATP Objects, Properties, and Methods o tp.socket Object

• ASAP Extension Manual, (425265-002)

∼ Introducing the ASAP Extension

• AutoSYNC Software User's Guide (522580-001)

∼ Compaq NonStop AutoSYNC Software Overview

• AutoTMF User's Guide (429952-001)

∼ Introduction to Compaq NonStop AutoTMF Software (Overview) o Being replaced by the business Continuity Workshop Part 2

• Availability Guide for Application Design (124511)

∼ Data Protection and Recovery

∼ What is Application Availability? o (Introduction) o Provide Instrumentation o Provide Performance Data o Physical Outages

∼ Designing Applications for Change o Using Message Versions and Server Upgrade

∼ Overview of Server and Network Fault Tolerance o Mirrored Disks o Additional Availability Problems in Client/Server Networks

∼ Availability in the Pathway Transaction-Processing Environment o Multiple Data Communications Lines and Protocols

∼ Designing Applications for Change o (Introduction) o Architectural Models for Server-side OLTP o Using a Modular Design


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o Using Extensible and Variable Procedures o Using Version-Labeled Interfaces for Intermodule

Communication

∼ Data Protection and Recovery o Possible Solutions o What are the Design Solutions for the Transactional Model

for Batch Programs?

∼ Instrumenting an Application for Availability o EMS Messages o Command Messages o The DMS Subsystem Environment

• Availability Guide for Application Design, (131117)

∼ What is Application Availability? o Analyzing Outages and Developing a Strategy o Availability and Tandem Products o 24-Hour Operations

∼ Establishing Performance Requirements o What are service level agreements?

• Availability Guide for Performance Management (115733)

∼ Establishing Performance Requirements o What are service level agreements?

∼ Performance Optimization and Tuning o Solving Memory Pressure

∼ Analyzing Performance Information o Is Disk Activity Balanced? o Reason: Long-running transaction

• CORBA 2.3.3 Administration Guide (520550-001)

∼ Compaq NonStop CORBA 2.3 Architecture o GCFIOP—GIOP/Pathway Protocol o GFSIOP—File-System Protocol

∼ NonStop CORBA 2.3 Architecture o Parallel Library TCP/IP

• Data Definition Language Reference Manual (426798-001)

∼ Section 7: SPI Tokens (Overview)


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• Data Transformation Engine EDI Mapping Guide (522438)

∼ Chapter 1 - What is an EDI Type Tree?

∼ Chapter 2 - ANSI X12 EDI Trees

• Data Transformation Engine - Type Designer Reference Guide (522444-001)

∼ Group Properties o Unordered Group Components

• DSM Template Services Manual (427187-001)

∼ Introduction o When Do You Need Template Services?

• EMS Manual (426909-001)

∼ B. Example of Reporting Events

∼ Introduction to EMS o EMS Communications in the DSM Environment

• ENFORM Users Guide (058058)

∼ Section 3: Developing an ENFORM Query o Establishing the Query Environment

• ENSCRIBE Programmer’s Guide (520369-001)

∼ Unstructured Files (Overview)

• Guardian Programmers Guide (421922-001)

∼ Section 16: Creating and Managing Processes o Programs and Processes

• Guardian User's Guide (425266-001)

∼ Managing Users and Security o Setting File Security

• Introduction to Data Management (15873)

∼ Protecting Databases With RDF

• Introduction to NonStop Operations Management (125507)

∼ Performance Management o Step 2—Forecasting

• Introduction to NonStop Transaction Processing (103632)

∼ Introduction

∼ Overview of Transaction Processing (overview)

∼ Overview of Transaction Processing


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o The Evolution of Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)

• Introduction to Tandem Himalaya S-Series Servers - (130961 -001)

∼ The Transaction Processing Environments o NonStop TUXEDO Environment

• iTP Secure WebServer System Administrator's Guide (425144-001)

∼ Introduction to the iTP Secure WebServer o Features and Standards Supported by iTP Secure

WebServer

• iTP Secure WebServer System Administrator's Guide (427022-001)

∼ Server Log File Formats o Access Log Format o Extended Log Format

• iTP Secure Web Server System Administrator's Guide (522659-001)

∼ Using NonStop Servlets and JSP With The iTP Secure WebServer o JavaServer Pages

∼ Introduction to the iTP Secure WebServer o ITP Secure WebServer Architecture

• Jolt for NonStop TUXEDO User Guide (no assigned part number)

∼ Key Features o Added Security via Internet Relay

• Measure Reference Manual (520559-001)

∼ MEASCOM Commands o ADD entity–type o ADD COUNTER

• Measure User's Guide (427634-001)

∼ Creating a Custom Measurement Application (Overview)

• NonStop AutoTMF User's Guide (429952-001)

∼ Usage Guidelines o Auditing Unstructured Files

• NetBatch Manual (522460-002)

∼ NetBatch Introduction


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• NonStop JTS/OTS: User's Guide (142999)

∼ An Overview of the Transaction Service o The Transaction Services

• NonStop Pathway/iTS SCUP Reference Manual (520269-001)

∼ SCUP Commands o CONVERT Command

• NonStop RSC/MP 6.1 Installation and Configuration Guide (425709-001)

∼ Introduction o What is RSC/MP?

• Nonstop RSC/MP 6.1 Programming Manual (425711-001)

∼ Introduction to Remote Server Call (RSCMP)

• NonStop Server for Java Programmer's Guide (426947-003)

∼ Accessing NonStop SQL/MP Databases o JDBC Driver Types

• NonStop SQL/MP Installation and Management Guide (523353-001)

∼ Managing a Distributed Database o Managing CPU Usage in a Distributed Database o Local Autonomy and DML Operations o Altering Distributed Objects

• NonStop SQL/MP Query Guide (118375)

∼ Analyzing Query Performance o Using EXPLAIN

∼ Improving Query Performance With Environmental Options o Keeping Statistics Current

∼ Compiling and Executing a Query o Optimizing Queries

∼ Changing Default Settings o Default Settings That Affect Optimization

• NonStop TMF Operations and Recovery Guide (422843-001)

∼ The TMF Catalog

∼ Occasional Operations

• NonStop TMF Operations and Recovery Guide (128234)

∼ Routine Maintenance


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o Maintaining Distributed Transactions

• NonStop TS/MP Pathsend and Server Programming Manual (132500)

∼ Designing Your Application o Design Considerations

∼ Writing Pathsend Requesters

∼ Writing Pathway Servers o Using Audited and Non-audited Files

• NonStop TS/MP System Management Manual (135027)

∼ Introduction to NonStop TS/MP System Management o Objects and Processes Provided by NonStop TS/MP

• NonStop Tuxedo System Application Development Guide (125218)

∼ Designing Applications for NonStop Systems

• NonStop TUXEDO System Administration Guide (125177)

∼ Introduction

∼ Security Administration o Per-User Authentication

• Nonstop TUXEDO System /Domain Guide (125178)

∼ Running /Domain o Managing Transactions in the Domain Gateway

• Open System Services Management and Operations Guide (520569-002)

∼ Managing Security o Common and Unique Characteristics of OSS and UNIX

Security

∼ Managing Servers o Introducing the OSS Servers

∼ Managing Filesets o Stopping (Unmounting) a Fileset o Creating a Storage-Pool File

• Open System Services Porting Guide (520573-001)

∼ Introduction to Porting o POSIX Standards and OSS Conformance

∼ OSS Porting Considerations o UNIX Features Requiring Substitution


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• Open System Services User’s Guide (420292-001)

∼ Running the OSS Shell o Security

• OSF DCE Application Development Guide—Core Components (124245)

∼ Authentication o Protection Levels

∼ Overview of Security o What Authentication and Authorization Mean

∼ Using the DCE Serviceability Application Interface o 4.1 Overview

∼ RPC and other DCE Components o 14.2.1.1 Cross-Cell Authentication

• Pathway/XM System Management Manual (136665)

∼ Managing a Pathway/XM Environment o PATHMON Object

• Pathway SCREEN COBOL Utility Program (SCUP) Reference Manual (109425)

∼ Introduction to SCUP o Displaying Information

• RDF/IMP and IMPX System Management (522204-001)

∼ Introducing RDF o Available Types of Replication to Multiple Backup Systems

∼ Triple Contingency (Overview)

• Safeguard Reference Manual (520618-001)

∼ Common SAFECOM Language Elements o Safeguard Security Management Features

∼ Device and Subdevice Security Commands o (Overview)

• Security Management Guide (522283-001)

∼ Guardian System Security o Overview of Guardian Security Features

• ServerNet Cluster Manual (520575-002)

∼ ServerNet Cluster Description o The ServerNet Cluster Product


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• SNMP Configuration and Management Manual (424777-002)

∼ ONS Trap Sub Agent (D-Series) o Remote Operations

• Software Internationalization Guide (116809)

∼ Understanding Internationalization Concepts o Internationalization Standards

∼ Software Characteristics That Vary by Locale o The ISO 10646 Universal Coded Character Set

∼ The Tandem Internationalization Subsystem o Components of the Internationalization Subsystem

• SPI Programming Manual (427506-001)

∼ General SPI Programming Guidelines o Version Compatibility o Defining Extensible Structured Tokens

∼ SPI Concepts and Protocol o SPI Message Protocol

∼ EMS Manual

• Spooler Utilities Reference Manual (522295-002)

∼ RPSetup Utility o Interspooler Threads

∼ Font Utility o Running the Font Utility

• SQL/MX Comparison Guide for NonStop SQL/MP Users (429827-001)

∼ Comparing the Differences in the Products o Frequently Asked Questions About Differences o Manageability

∼ Quick Reference to Differences o COLLATE clause

∼ Comparing the Differences in the Products o Why Build a New DBMS?


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• SQL/MX Data Mining Guide (424397-001)

∼ Introduction o The ORDM Approach o Profiling the Data

• SQL/MX Programming Manual for C and COBOL (523395-001)

∼ Data Consistency o Transaction Management for Host Programs

∼ Simple and Compound Statements o Compound Statements

∼ Rowsets (Overview)

• SQL/MX Reference Manual (520357-001)

∼ A. o Access Options

• SQL/MX Queuing and Publish/Subscribe Service (520561-001)

∼ Introduction o SQL/MX’s Implementation of Publish/Subscribe

∼ Major Queuing Features o (Overview)

• TACL Reference Manual (429513-002)

∼ Using TACL Interactively (Overview)

• TCP/IP (Parallel Library) Configuration and Management Manual (522271-001)

∼ Introduction o Single IP Host

• TMF Application Programmer’s Guide (422900-001)

∼ TMF Programming Environment o (Overview) o Defining a Transaction

• TMF Introduction (421952-001)

∼ Transaction Coordination o How Distributed Transaction Coordination Works

∼ Transaction Protection and Database Recovery


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• TMF Management Programming Manual (422875-001)

∼ Introduction to TMF o Recovery Process

• WAS (Web Application Services) User Guide (no assigned part numbers)

∼ Introducing the Jolt Web Application Services

• XML for SQL - Programming and Reference Guide (429281-001)

∼ Introduction to XML for SQL o Understanding XS

Web Site References • http://www.hp.com/education/sections/nonstop.html

• http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cert/exams.htm

• http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cert/appdes.pdf

Other References 1. Application Design Course (54179)

a. Module 4-8 b. Module 5: Server Issues (5-9 to 5-13)

i. Operating System Layer ii. Application Layer iii. Database Access Layer

c. Module 10-8

See online file(s) accompanying the 786 Exam Preparation Guide. Refer to http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cert/exams.htm. 2. Ewing, Moore, What Are Architectural Design and Solutions? (786 EPG, Appendix A).

3. Gray, Jim and Reuter, Andreas. 1993. Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Concepts and Techniques, Transaction Models, Atomic Actions and Flat Transactions, Atomicity.

4. Highleyman, Wilbur H., Application Design and Development Process diagram (786 EPG, Appendix B).

5. Highleyman, Wilbur H. Performance Analysis of Transaction Processing Systems. Refer to the online file accompanying the 781 Exam Preparation Guide

http://www.hp.com/education/sections/nonstop.html

http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cert/exams.htm

http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cert/appdes.pdf



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http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cert/exams.htm. Chapter 1, The Performance Analyst, Uses of Performance Models, also The Source of Performance Problems, Chapter 2: Concepts and Techniques, Transaction Models, Atomic Actions and Flat Transactions, Atomicity, Chapter 4-8 Chapter 7: Data Base Environment

6. Kruchen, Philippe. 2000. Rational Unified Process: An Introduction (2nd Edition). Addison-Wesley, Chapter 5: Component-Based Development, The Purpose of Architecture to the end of the chapter, Chapter 12: The Test Workflow.

7. Malveau Raphael, and Mowbray, Thomas. 2001. Software Architect Bootcamp, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Chapter 4, Software Architecture : Drill School, chapter 4.3 systems Integration p. 121.

8. McConnell, Steve. 1993. Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction, Redmond WA: Microsoft Press, p. 2-3, 15-17, 21 29-34, 42-45, 89-92, 94-104, 156-160, 535-546.

9. McConnell, Steve. 1998. Software Project: Survival Guide. Redmond WA: Microsoft Press, 37, 54, 143-155 esp. 144.

10. McHutchion Jim. 1993. Application Design Service Handbook. Tandem Computers Inc., Chapter 2: Application Design, Chapter 4: Server Design, Chapter 5: Application Testing See online file(s) accompanying the 786 Exam Preparation Guide http://education.nonstop.compaq.com/us/cert/exams.htm.

11. Reifer, Donald J. 2002. Making the Software Business Case: Improvement by the Numbers. Addison Wesley Inc., p. 9-29, 31-57, 53-102.

12. Ruh, William A., Magginnis, Francis X., Brown, William J. 2001. Enterprise Application Integration. John Wiley and Sons Inc., Chapter 7: Enterprise Architecture, Chapter 8: Effective EAI Development; The SAIM Methodology.

13. Sodhi, Jag. 1993. Software Requirements Analysis and Specification. (Out of Print) McGraw Hill Inc. p. 31-37, 26, 13-20, 5-9.

14. Van Vliet, Hans. 2000. Software Engineering: Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition. John Wiley and Sons, p. 1-72 process and lifecycles, 181-258, esp. 254, 438-440.

15. ZLE Architecture and Tools (ZAT) Course Support Materials, Architecture and Tools for the Zero Latency Enterprise (ZLE), Parts 1 and 2 (429389-001)

• Go to ZLE website for internal access.

• Or, contact [email protected].



mailto:[email protected]


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Conclusion HP wishes you success in the HP Certified Professional Program and in passing the exam for which you are preparing.

Note that three appendices follow:

• Appendix A: What Are Architectural Design and Solutions? How Do They Fit into the Software Lifecycle Model? by Moore Ewing, Application and Database Consultant, HP

• Appendix B: The Application Design Process by Wilbur Highleyman, CEO, Sombers Group

• Appendix C: Standard J2EE Model for Enterprise Applications

It is strongly recommended that you review this information in preparation for the exam. Some of the test questions relate to information found within these appendices.


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Appendix A: What Are Architectural Design and Solutions? How Do They Fit into the Software Lifecycle Model?

The majority of development methodologies and software lifecycle models include a phase in which high-level design of the overall solution takes place. This phase can be considered as consisting of the following two major activities which define the basis for subsequent detailed design and construction phases.

Architectural Design The objective of architectural design is to produce a definition of 1. the components (processes) and the flows of control and data by which an

individual transaction is executed including the flows of control and data by which components interact during that execution and the technologies in which the components will be implemented

2. the mechanisms by which multiple concurrently executing transactions will be managed, with special regard to the allocation of access to resources, and the mechanisms by which the number of concurrently executing transactions can be scaled

3. the logical database structures of the application and the access requirements of the transactions including the boundaries of any logical units of work (ACID transactions)

4. any background components required by the solution such as bulk data maintenance and reporting functions and application-specific operations management functions

5. the mechanisms by which data integrity and recovery and application availability will be achieved.

In association with the architectural definition, performance budgets and sizing information should be produced for all significant or performance sensitive components of the solution including any assumptions upon which the information is based.

As an initial part of the architectural design phase the business requirements provided must be resolved into a set of agreed technical requirements, which form the contract between the business customer and the solution provider.

This process requires the requirements to be reviewed to ensure that they

• are consistent and complete especially for more technical areas such as required capacity, performance, availability and data retention

• are not unnecessarily prescriptive e.g. they do not define how requirements should be met rather than what the requirement is or do not define performance requirements in mathematical terms without understanding the mathematical significance of that definition


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• identify constraints upon the solution (technologies, time scales, costs, essential and desirable functionality) and provide a basis for trade-offs between those constraints.

Solution Engineering The objective of solution engineering is to produce a definition of any constructional components and/or tools to be used to build the components identified in the application architecture. This centers on the definition of

• any development methodologies, tools and language systems to be used

• any re-usable collections of source or object code and any parameterized tool(set)s which are to be created or acquired in order to provide standardized functionality across multiple components with the objectives of increasing product quality and development efficiency or of supporting portability and maintainability of the resulting solution.


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Appendix B: The Application Design Process

Introduction In a general sense, application design is the process of designing a system to meet a specific set of business requirements. These requirements may include issues that go far beyond just the functionality to be provided to automate certain aspects of a business’ operations. They may (and probably should) cover such additional considerations as performance, processing volume, availability of functionality to the users, security, and many others.

Likewise, the resulting design cannot be limited simply to the design of programs that implement the business functionality. It has to consider the characteristics of the operating system and platform to be used, the tools to be used, issues of maintainability and portability, and so forth.

The application design process as defined above is a subset of the general topic of software engineering. There probably are nearly as many models for the process of application design as there are books on the subject. And there are also perhaps nearly as many standards that cover various aspects of this process. This paper provides a fairly generic overview of the application design process which is aligned with much of the published literature.

1. An Application Design Model The application design model that is discussed in this paper is shown in Figure 1. It begins with a business requirements document prepared by the management team responsible for the business functions being automated or improved, and ends with design specifications delivered to the implementation team. The application design model describes three major phases:

• a review of the business requirements

• the design of the architecture for the application

• the engineering of this design into an implementable solution.

Imperative to the architecting and engineering phases is a detailed knowledge of the products and tools to be used in the implementation of the application.

2. The Business Requirements Review The purpose of the business requirements document is to tell the architects everything they need to know in order to design the application. Included in this information should be:

• a description of the business functions to be implemented

• any special algorithms to be used (such as special discount calculations)

• external applications or systems with which the application must interoperate


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• internationalization requirements

• security policy

• transaction volumes

• performance requirements

• availability requirements

• regulatory requirements

• constraints that affect the design of the application

• schedule constraints.

This document must be carefully reviewed by the architects to ensure that it provides all of the necessary information which they need to design the application without over-constraining the design.

Arbitrary constraints might include the requirement to use a specific platform when other platforms might be more appropriate, or the over-specification of performance parameters (such as specifying a 99 percentile response time when a 95 percentile requirement would be perfectly acceptable, thus resulting in a smaller system).

Appropriate constraints might include the specification of a language in which the application should be written if the company’s implementation staff is limited in its language or maintenance skills, growth requirements over a specified period of time, and future portability requirements.

The architects must negotiate these desired changes with the originating management team in order to arrive at a mutually acceptable business requirements document. In fact, throughout the application design process, there will be a continual flow of requested changes from the architects, engineers, implementers, and users. These may be the result of desired functional changes or changes to accommodate improvements in the design, to facilitate reduced cost or schedule, and so on. Therefore, there must be a requirements change policy in effect that determines who must approve requirements changes and how and when they should be released.

If they haven’t already been specified, there may be certain additional specifications that the architects may want to include in the requirements document that are not management driven, but which the architects wish to impose upon the implementation team. These might include:

• testing requirements for functional, stress, performance, recovery, interoperability, and user acceptance testing

• documentation requirements

• change control process

• application release process


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• training requirements.

This revised and enhanced business requirements document then becomes the architectural requirements document that feeds the application architecting phase of the application design process.

3. Application Architecting Given the architectural requirements document that they have negotiated, it is now the application architects’ job to design the structure of the application. Though they must be driven by the architectural requirements, there is a myriad of facets which they must consider in the application structure:

• the scalability of the application through parallelism, with the attendant problems of concurrency, locking, bottlenecks, and so forth

• application availability as it may be affected by both system faults and scheduled downtime

• data integrity

• application manageability

• application maintainability

• interoperability with other systems and applications

• security issues

• recovery of the application and its database following a disastrous failure

• achievement of proper performance without over-designing or over-sizing

• problems associated with the migration of this application from other systems, databases, or products if migration is an issue.

Given these considerations, the architects will specify the general structure of the application and will choose the products and tools that will be used in its implementation. This will lead to several “make or buy” decisions, where “buy” means the use of an existing product, whether an internal product or a product which must be purchased or leased, and “make” means designing the facility so that the implementation team may build it. The resulting application structure will include:

• the operating system to be used

• the general structure of the application (tiering, OLTP, query, batch, Web)

• the database to be used

• interoperability products to be used to communicate with other applications or systems (typically messaging, database, or RPC middleware)

• communication products to be used

• Web products to be used

• security products to be used


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• recovery products to be used

• internationalization products to be used

• migration products to be used

• reporting products to be used

• design specifications for any required modules that must be custom built.

Many of the product decisions listed above may depend upon the schedule constraint. If the application is to be fundamental to the core business of the company, it presumably will be scheduled with enough time to make it an enterprise quality application built with tools that ensure long-term quality. On the other hand, if it is an opportunistic application that must be brought up in a very short time but does not have to be enterprise quality, it might use a totally different tool set and architecture (such as a quick and dirty Web application).

To this architecture, the architects will add:

• a detailed functional specification for each application process that must be written

• an optional sizing estimate for the system

• an optional costing estimate for the system

• a test plan for the application.

From this information, the architects will prepare:

• an external specification that defines the application from a black box viewpoint (screens, reports, interfaces to other applications and systems)

• an internal specification that specifies the products to be used and the modules to be developed

• a test specification that details all of the testing to be carried out on the application.

The external specification and the internal specification are passed on to the solutions engineering team. The test specification is passed on to the implementation team.

4. Solutions Engineering The job of the solutions engineers is to convert the specifications received from the architects into detailed design specifications for the implementation team. Central to this activity is the specification of an application process framework. The framework is a collection of shared functionality (generic or domain-specific) provided to assist in the creation of individual solution components. The framework is intended to ensure the standardization and quality of the resulting application processes, improve productivity and maintainability through reuse of modules, and enable the use of a more junior class of programmers.


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The framework can include products, libraries, and custom code to provide standardized functionality for

• request/reply handling

• internal and external error handling

• logging

• instrumentation and metric reporting (transaction volume, queue lengths, etc.)

• debugging and tracing

• security (authorization, auditing, encryption)

• database referential integrity

• runtime management

• initialization and parameterization

• resource pooling and management.

In addition to the general framework that will be used for all processes to the extent possible, the solutions engineers must prepare detailed design specifications for every module to be programmed by the implementation team. In doing so, they should continue to use the strategies of layering and modularity to achieve the highest possible degree of productivity, quality, and maintainability in the final product. The result of the solutions engineers’ efforts are a set of design specifications delivered to the implementation team that guide them in the actual building of the application.

5. Product Knowledge As mentioned earlier, central to the job of the architects and the engineers is a thorough knowledge of the products that they are expected to use. These product categories include:

• operating systems

• databases

• middleware products

• languages

• communication products

• recovery products

• application management products

• security products.

Exam Preparation GuNonStop Advanced A

1. Review Business Requirements

Architectural Requirements

2. Application Architecting High Level Design

Internal Spec

(Architectural Spec) Test Design Test Spec

s

changes

External

Business Requirement

ide: Expplica

3. Solutions Engineering Design Specs

to Implementation

4. Product Knowledge
Figure 1. Application Design Process
am HP0-786 tion Design - Level 2

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Appendix C: Standard J2EE Model for Enterprise Applications

Review this four-tiered J2EE Model in preparation for the 786 Exam.


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