Design – Build – Run: Applied Practices and Principles for Production-Ready Software Development

10.4. Summary

Batch is still an important part of keeping your system healthy and in a good state to meet your requirements. This chapter looked at the types of jobs that need to be executed and how the jobs fit in to the overall batch schedule. You also saw the importance of having an application-specific batch run date.

The following are the key points to take away from this chapter:

• Batch is not dead. There are a number of jobs that need to be executed to keep the system in a healthy state. In addition, there could be many functional jobs required for the system.

• The batch window is ever decreasing. In today's 24/7 operations, batch processes need to be fast. In addition, some or all of the system may need to be available whilst batch jobs are executing. You need to ensure that all batch jobs can be executed within the required time. Where possible, jobs should be executed in parallel to reduce the end-to-end execution time. In addition, you should include all third-party applications, such as backups and anti-virus (where appropriate), to ensure that these jobs are captured appropriately.

• Capture batch requirements early. You should capture batch requirements early in the lifecycle and there should be a significant amount of time in the plan to develop and test batch jobs thoroughly as a standalone component. Batch testing should not rely on other test activities.

• Understand the batch architecture. You should understand the batch architecture to ensure that it supports the batch ...