Application

We’ve all been there before. You have a stack of resumes or employment applications on your desk and a looming deadline to fill a specific job position. Whether they are paper applications, emails or electronic files, the task is just as daunting. Somewhere in this pile of paperwork is the perfect candidate, but to find the right one you need to sort through all the less qualified ones.

Thankfully, application review doesn’t have to be such a manual process. An automated job application system, if set up correctly, can be a tremendous help in reviewing resumes and job applications more quickly and ensuring that your top candidates don’t fall through the cracks. And it doesn’t take as much time as you might think to set up a good automated system that makes your review process much quicker and more efficient. Here are some elements of an automated job application system that can help you speed up your application review process.

Setting up an Online Application

Collecting job applications through an online application process, rather than email or paper, is the first step to making your application review process quicker and more efficient. On an online job application you can ask candidates to fill in information and answer questions that can help you quickly determine if they are a potential match to your job, often without requiring you to even read their resumes. It is much easier and quicker to scan through a table of answers or filter/sort based on what you are looking for.

For example, if you are only looking for local candidates, by collecting information on a candidate’s location you can quickly filter/sort and remove applications that are not in your local area. Similarly, if you are looking for somebody with a certain degree or professional certification, you can ask this on your online application and then quickly see which applications match your criteria and skip or remove the ones that do not.

Of course, for your online application to be useful you need to be able to customize the questions and add your own company or job-specific questions. With an automated Applicant Tracking System (ATS) you can build your own questions with the Questionnaire Builder and attach them to your online application page. And if candidates do not fill out the questionnaires during the online application, you can always send them an email with a link to complete the questionnaire and add it to their application.

Resume Parsing

Even with an online application system, you will still likely receive resumes from candidates directly, usually by email. So your system will ideally be able to import these resumes and parse useful information from the resume automatically. At the very least, your automated system needs to be able to extract all text from a resume for searching later, regardless of its file format (i.e. Microsoft Word, PDF, RFT, HTML, etc). Most automated systems that support resume parsing will also be able to extract the contact information from a resume, and this alone can be a tremendous time saver. Rather than having to re-key the contact data from the resume into your database, you will already have the person’s contact information from the resume.

With an Applicant Tracking Systems such as ApplicantStack you have a resume import mechanism where you can import resumes that you receive from candidates. You can upload resume files or even emails you receive from candidates with resume attachments into the system. All resumes are automatically parsed and the candidate’s contact information is extracted automatically.

WebSphere Application Server is a platform on which Java-based business applications run. WebSphere Application Server Is an implementation of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition(J2ee) Specification.

WebSphere Application Server provides services (database connectivity, threading, workload management, and so forth) that can be used by the business applications. The main element is the application server, a java process that encapsulates many services, including the containers, where business logic executes. If you are familiar with J2EE, you will recognize the Web Container and the EJB container. The Web container executes Servlets and JavaServer Pages(JSPs), both of which are java classes that generate markup to be viewed by a Web browser. Traffic into and out of the Web Container travels through the embedded HTTP Server. While Servlets and JSPs can act independently, they most commonly make calls to Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) to executes business logic or access data. EJBs, which run in the EJB container, are easily reusable java classes. They most commonly communicate with a relational database or other external source of application data, either returning that data to the Web container or making changes to the data on behalf of the servlet or JSP.

The JMS messaging engine is built into the application server. This is a pure-java messaging engine. JMS destinations, known as queues and topics provide asynchronous messaging services to the code running inside the containers, JMS will be covered in more depth later in this course.

As you will see in more detail later on, the web services engine enables application components to be exposed as web services, which can be accessed using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).

Several other services run within the application server, including the dynamic cache, data replication, security, and others. These will be covered later in this course.

There are also some important components outside of the application server process.
WebSphere Application Server also provides a plug-in for HTTP servers that determines what HTTP traffic is intended to be handled by WebSphere, and routes the requests to the appropriate server. The plug-in is also a critical player in workload management of HTTP requests, as it can distribute the load to multiple application server, as well as steer traffic away from unavailable servers. It too roads its configuration from a special XML file.

One of the servervices provided within the application server is the admin service. This service allows for the ability to configure the application server. This files necessary for configuration are stored outside of the actual application server in a set of XML configuration files. There is an application that runs within the Web application-the admin console.

A great ‘aha’ moment in an application developer’s life is when the software is all set to be released. It is the pinnacle of a long and much awaited event; but there are certain points which must be taken care of to retain the elation of the moment as no developer would want its application to be rejected or an uninspiring response to their newly released software application. The next question is what are the factors that can prevent a rejection of the application at an application store? OR what could prevent a bland response to a newly released app on an App Store? The aim of this article is to focus on the basic App refusal errors.

Free of Bugs

The application should be thoroughly checked across various devices to detect and fix any bugs. It should be complete in nature and crash free. Reviewing the application before submission would prevent rejection.

Name, Title and Accurate Description

Setting aside a primary name for the application would ensure a specificity to the mobile application as it cannot be used by any other application. This would also smoothen up the process during release as the developer would not be distressed about working out an appropriate app name at the time of releasing the application. A pointer here is to check the policy of the App Store over name reservation. Care should be taken to prevent breach of any policy related to trade name of the store. Getting an appealing title would ensure that the app is eye-catchy on social media sites. Besides, it should be the developer’s prime concern to provide precise and truthful information about the application and its functionality. Correct description of the application would enhance user understanding and their experience. Usage of appropriate keywords in the applications metadata and description would help to locate the application in app Store. So keywords should be judiciously selected.

Deliver as Categorized

The Application should be listed in the correct category and provide users the functionality as penned in the application description. Hence appropriate primary, secondary and sub categories should be chosen. Just as a travel application would not be appreciated in a reading category; so would an application though correctly categorized, but with false promises of certain attributes and functionality (which it actually does not deliver) would be disheartening for the users. This would not only frustrate the users and lead to rejection but would also chew away the trust and brand name of the company.

Avoid Duplicity

The developer must avoid making and submitting similar or related applications in an application store as this might affect the review process and the end-user experience too. Chances are the app would be rejected! It is best to review the various apps and combine related ones into a single package for enhanced end-user experience.

Today for an application to be successful there should be an organized development platform that enables control of an application lifecycle, simultaneously reduces the costs and provides continuous business solutions. Application lifecycle management – is supposed to be a strategic answer to application chaos and a means for business growth.

According to the Online Cambridge Dictionary, a lifecycle means the series of changes that a living thing goes through from the beginning of its life until death, while management implies the control and organization of something. Projecting these definitions on the information technologies sphere application lifecycle management can also be generally explained by summing up of the two terms, though with light changes due to a specific character of the subject (software applications). So, dilettantish, one can defy application lifecycle management, or to put it in short, ALM, as a process of governing and controlling of a software application existence from its first appearance until it reaches its final point, in other words, until it is removed from the market.

However, taking into account the modern market challenges and requirements to any product, including a software application, we cannot limit ourselves with such a narrow view concerning ALM. Let’s get deeper into the topic. From a more scientific perspective application lifecycle management is the entire period of managing the life of an application from a concept to its removal. This period encompasses the whole development process which is not so far away from us as it seems to be at first sight.

Applications are used for private and business purposes. Surely, there is no doubt ALM is first of all made for business customers. However, as far as any application lifecycle encompasses certain stages, it will be better to examine them referring to a beloved Skype application and make the ALM definition clear for everyone. It is always right to go from an easier to a more complex thing.

Let’s see which components ALM consist of. Here one can reason on an everyday level.
Without doubt, each of us faces ALM every day. Suppose the top 10 examples of applications include Microsoft Word, Google Chrome, Windows Media Player, World of Warcraft, Adobe Photoshop, iTunes, Skype, Steam, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Corel WordPerfect. On a philistine level we are offered to “refresh” this or that application in our PC. This is a part of ALM in a broad sense which satisfies a necessity to make an application more adaptive to the needs of users and, in such a way, more profitable at the market. (Generally one can defy the goal of the ALM in such a way in general).

In other words, an update of an application is one of the application lifecycle stages. However, the ALM itself begins much earlier.

Let’s take Skype as a philistine and for all understandable example. Just some information:

Skype was founded in 2003. The first public version was released on 29 August 2003.

At first, the application had a simple interface, voice adapted unlike ICQ and MSN Messenger. During installation Skype chose the language localization of Windows and had a quick and easy registration login in comparison with competing programs. It was and is easy to install. This is how Skype’s ALM began, with an idea that users demand a highly innovative product, easier to be treated, in this particular case in comparison to the existing communication programs, and this can also be called requirement management. It is also a continuous process through the project. Thus, referring to our Skype example, the Skype 1.2 Version included Voicemail for the first time, as well as introduced a Skypeln function that allows linking a Skype account with a phone number. In other words, requirement management as a part of the ALM includes verification and adaptation of an application to the needs and expectation of its users and stakeholders, both external and internal. Generally, requirements management investigates the situation, makes a decision on the requirements’ feasibility, then designs and constructs the application, tests it to make sure that the work still complies with the initial requirements and budget and finally releases the application. The requirements management extends over the entire application lifecycle management and is its crucial point, is a method and a means to provide what business need.