Chapter 9 – System Operation, Support and Security

Question 1

User Support Activities

Answer 1

• User training

* Help Desk (Information Center)

Question 2

User training (*)

Answer 2

• New employees must be trained on the company’s information systems
• User training package
• Similar to initial training

Question 3

Help Desk (Information Center)

Answer 3

• Show a user how to create:
- Data query
- Report
~ That displays specific business information
• Resolve:
- Network access
- Password problems
• Demonstrate:
- An advanced feature of a system or a commercial package
• Help a user:
- Recover damaged data
• Enhance & improve:
- Productivity
- Utilization of a company’s information resources
• Functioning as a:
- Valuable link between IT staff and users
- Central contact point for all IT maintenance activities
• Can utilize many types of automated support

Question 4

Maintenance Activities (*)

Answer 4

• Systems operation, support and security phase:
- Important component of TCO (total cost of ownership) because:
~ Ongoing maintenance expenses can determine the economic life of a system
• Operational costs
- How much money is spent in normal day-to-day activities
- Example:
~ Printers
~ Ink catridge
• Maintenance expenses
• Maintenance activities

Question 5

Corrective Maintenance (*)

Answer 5

• Repairs flaws
	- In a system design, coding or implementation
• As some modules were developed by inexperienced programmers:
	- Users may some:
		~ System errors
		~ Bugs
• Correcting the error
	- Most important and urgent to solve

Question 6

Adaptive Maintenance (*)

Answer 6

• Implements changes to a system to:
	- Evolve its functionality to:
		~ Changing business needs
		~ Changing technology
• Consists of adaptive software:
	- To changes in environment such as the:
		~ Hardware
		~ Operating system
• Term ‘environment’ in this context refers to the:
	- Conditions
	- Influences
		~ Which act from outside the system

Question 7

Perfective Maintenance (*)

Answer 7

• Mainly deals with:
- Implementing new or changed user requirements
• Involves:
- Making functional enhancements to the system in addition to the activities
~ To increase system’s performance even if changes have not been suggested by faults

Question 8

Preventive maintenance (*)

Answer 8

• Comprises:
	- Documentation updating
	- Code optimization
	- Code restructuring
• Involves:
	- Performing activities to prevent possible future
	- Analysis of areas where trouble is likely to occur in order to avoid problems problems
• Tends to:
	- Reduce the software complexity
	- Improve program understandability
	- Increasing software maintainability

Question 9

Maintenance activities summary

Answer 9

• Corrective 			
	- Fix errors
• Adaptive 		
	- Modify and add new function
• Perfective 			
	- Modify and improve the system
• Preventive 			
	- Prevent future errors
	- Futureproofing

Question 10

Managing System Performance

Answer 10

• System’s performance:
	- Directly affect users
		~ Who rely on it to perform their job functions
• To ensure satisfactory support for business operations, the IT department:
	- Monitors current system performance
	- Anticipates future needs
• Benchmark testing
• Performance and Workload Measurement

Question 11

Performance and Workload Measurement

Answer 11

• Metrics
• Response time
• Bandwidth and throughput
• Turnaround time
• Capacity Planning
• System Maintenance Tools

Question 12

Response time

Answer 12

• Overall time between:

- A request for the system activity
- Delivery of the response

Question 13

Bandwidth

Answer 13

Amount of data that the system can transfer in a fixed time period
• Kbps (kilobits per second)
• Mbps (megabits per second)
• Gbps (gigabits per second

Question 14

Throughput

Answer 14

Actual system performance under specific circumstances
• Affected by:
- Network load
- Hardware efficiency

Question 15

Turnaround time

Answer 15

• Measures:
- Response time, bandwidth, throughput and turnaround time
~ to evaluate system performance both before and after changes to the system or business information requirements
• Uses current:
- Performance data
- Workload data
~ As input for the capacity planning process

Question 16

Capacity Planning

Answer 16

• Process that:
- Monitors current activity and performance levels
- Anticipates future activity
- Forecasts the resources needed to provide the desired level of service
• What-if analysis
- Allows the users to:
~ Vary one or more elements
• In a capacity planning model to:
- Measure the effect on the other elements
• Most important:
- Accurate forecast of future business activities
• If new business functions or requirements are predicted:
- Develop contingency plans based on:
~ Input from users and management

Question 17

System Maintenance Tools

Answer 17

• CASE tools include:
	- System evaluation
	- Maintenance features
• Can also use:
	- Spreadsheet
	- Presentation software
		~ To:
				- Calculate trends
				- Perform what-if analysis
				- Create attractive charts and graphs
			\+  To display the results