Cheminformatics Maintenance Project
Challenge
The client requested GGA to take responsibility for the ongoing support of several chemistry applications and services:
- Structure-centric tool for searching the client's bioinformatics data warehouse: It allows users to construct queries on the fly and generate results in various formats. It also allows users to schedule queries to be run and to have the results sent to them automatically. This is a query-and-browse application with no data update capability.
- Electronic notebook used by the client's chemists: Chemists use it for reporting the results of experiments, including structures, analytical information, etc. It interfaces with a variety of the client's services and the analytical results data systems.
- Tool for registering substances and batches within the client's databases: It applies structure normalization rules and does uniqueness checks through the existing services, and assigns compound IDs and batch IDs. It is both a middle-tier service that can be called from an application and a UI component that can be used.
- ETL tool that dynamically detects registered protocols from compound registration and validation services using the Service Integration Component: The engine has administrative utilities enabling the selection of properties to persist from the registered list. Registered compounds are detected from compound registration and validation services and pulled for bulk calculation. Other sources can be configured.
- Website to search for, and visually explore trends in, clinical trial patient data: The application displays clinical trial data from the client's CRUs, from a subset of oncology trials, and from Oracle Clinical (OC). Data classes available for review of OC studies are currently limited to Demography and Adverse Events for OC studies captured in client's data standards.
- Datamart that provides access to clinical trial data in a consistent format, which supports exploration across studies: Data in the datamart is human/person based rather than clinical trial/study centric.
- Search and selection tool with emphasis on structure searching and reagent inventory mining: This enterprise application allows users to search compounds based on chemically relevant and attribute-filtering criteria and generate a list of desired compounds. The tool provides an easy-to-use GUI component as well as services that are consumed by the client component.
- Tool used to register global protocols, reaction templates (VRXNs), and reactant filters (ARM lists) to provide new reaction-based library enumeration capabilities within combinatorial library maintenance tool. It also facilitates the registration of new protocols, reaction templates, and reactant filters for greater access to chemical reactions in combinatorial library maintenance tool.
- Service for data processing and reports generation: It links sample pre-analysis, sample purification, fraction recovery, fraction quality assurance, and a number of liquid handling processes through sophisticated work flow management software. This service provides a single global solution based around common hardware components and central system management software.
- Collection of services that provide chemical structure search, update, and lookup capabilities to many client's applications such as registration tool, search and selection tool, combinatorial library maintenance tool, Pipeline Pilot, Spotfire, File Maker, etc.
Solution
GGA established a dedicated team of software development and QA professionals to provide maintenance and support for the client's applications. GGA's team gained strong and comprehensive understanding of the client's software lifecycle process, security requirements, deployment procedures, testing tools and processes, environments, and various services and tools involved in the operation of the supported applications and in the client's systems integration. GGA succeeded in providing software development and QA services for numerous applications in a timely manner.
Features
- Close communication with the client's support team, including:
- Following the client's security procedures and policy.
- Taking training courses on the client's products.
- Reviewing, refining, and expanding the test sets.
- Establishing the development environment and build procedures for the client's applications according to the client's rules and standards.
- Defect tracking and fixing, including:
- Researching the defect, identifying and reporting the cause of the problem, and fixing the problem.
- Documenting all aspects of the problem, such as cause, solution, its impact on the system behavior and user experience, possible side effects, and suggested further actions (if any).
- Undertaking QA of the application, including regression testing, after the fix is implemented.
- Design and development of required enhancements.