Visualize this situation: your company has just developed a successful web application that everyone is proud of. Yet, suddenly, it stops working, and nobody notices – until customers start to complain via chats and emails. Your support team can’t determine the cause, so they frantically try to collaborate with IT while your angered clients are one click away from turning to your competitors’ similar products. So, ensure you implement some system for continuous monitoring to check website status or program errors — it will be conducive to preventing such a situation.
Best practices for monitoring apps
It’s easy to forget the importance of regularly monitoring your applications – however, with a structured process, it’s nearly certain something will be noticed and quickly fixed. And so users will not ask questions like “Is HBO Max Down?” or something like that. Here are three simple best practices to keep tabs on your programs and ensure they function as expected:
- Invest in an APM and avoid surprises. The right software can provide you with advanced warning of any issues so that your operations run as smoothly as possible.
- Leverage the app. Although tools are essential, having a dedicated team member actively monitors your app is equally important. IT departments can assign a daily duty of signing into the application and testing its functionality as ordinary users to guarantee that everything works properly. Yes, this requires extra effort on their part and will take away from other duties; however, if something goes wrong, they’ll be able to detect it much earlier than you receive any disgruntled customer messages – thus allowing for swift rectification.
- To be prepared for the worst, it is wise to craft a detailed disaster plan. Establishing realistic recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) are pivotal components in ensuring that your application remains online as much as possible during times of crisis while also minimizing any potential data loss due to this incident.
What to remember
Keep in mind some things when you work on the app:
- Mitigate other dangers. For some industries, the consequences of disruptions are more than just financial losses. Regulatory penalties may be imposed, and your brand’s credibility could suffer irreparable damage. Therefore, taking adequate measures to minimize these risks before they occur is crucial.
- When your app malfunctions, it can create a chain reaction of negative impacts. Your customer service team will become overwhelmed as they field inquiries from frustrated customers, and technical personnel must shift their current focus to resolving the issue, resulting in wasted time and money.
- Proactively managing your app opens the door to a bevy of opportunities. Your team can capitalize on potential changes and make improvements to optimize user experience with enhanced features or new customer benefits.
Following the steps summarized in this article, you can ensure that your applications remain continuously operational and prevent any unexpected issues or outages. With proper planning and preparation, you’ll be able to protect yourself from costly interruptions while keeping end users happy with stable service delivery.