Systems Development Flashcards
What can go wrong with a new AIS?
People are resistant to change
Systems won’t let companies customise their reports
Not easy to understand
Not auditable
Not useful for decision making
What is the systems development life cycle?
The progression through the phases of the systems development process
Formalised, standardised, fully documented activities used to manage a systems development project
What are the 5 steps of SDLC?
- Investigation - identify the organisational problem
- System Analysis - identify what problems there are in the old system that cause this
- System Design - conceptual and physical design
- System Implementation - develop, test, and implement the new proposed system
- System maintenance and review
Many organisations do not:
- Measure ROI
What are common reasons for organisational failure when moving to new systems?
- New data collection methods are INCOMPATIBLE with older systems
- Process documentation is LACKING
- Change of project management leads to LOSS of knowledge
What was NZ Novopay?
All teachers in NZ were getting paid by a central government system but all pay was going through a third-party.
They wanted to change this third-party firm from an on-shore (NZ) to a new-shore (AU) company to cut costs.
What were the issues with NZ Novopay’s transition?
Poor system planning - too ambitious scope
Poor system analysis - lack of understand of the requirements
Poor system design - unusable, lack of data testing –> low quality of data input
System implementation - lack of proper testing to detect data corruption and logic flaws
System maintenance - manual (not properly approved - undocumented) intervention when problems occur
All payroll systems were outsourced and employers are not involved
Schools provided data to datacom
No Minister of Education staff interacted directly with the system
What is the investigation step?
What are the 5 types of systems feasibility analysis?
Economic - will benefits justify the time, money, and other resources required to implement it?
Technical - can it be developed and implemented using existing technology?
Legal - does it comply with all applicable laws, statutes, regulations and contractual obligations?
- people need to be assigned to monitor legal changes
Scheduling - can a system be developed and implemented in the time allocated?
Operational - is HR capable of working these systems? Does the organisation have access to people who can design, implement, and operate the proposed system? Can people use the system and will they use it?
What are the methods used for economic feasibility analysis?
Capital Budgeting Model
- payback period
- NPV
- Internal rate of return: rate that makes NPV = 0 compared to the minimum acceptable rate
What is systems analysis?
Understand what the current system does and how it operates. Specify what the new system will need to do.
What are the steps in systems analysis?
- Study and document the current physical and logical systems
- Define under requirements for the new/modified system
- Develop alternatives
- Conduct a cost/effectiveness study
- Complete and package the approved systems analysis document
What is a system survey?
A tool to gain a thorough understanding of company operations, policies…
GOAL - to get as much information as possible
What are the internal sources of data for systems analysis?
What are the external sources of data for systems analysis?
customers, suppliers, stockholders, government agencies, competitors,
What are four common methods of gathering data for analysis?
Interviews
Questionnaires - good for a large sample but will not provide information as in-depth
Observation - helps to validate information from interviews and questionnaires
System Documentation - describes how the AIS is supposed to work (ie process map, logical and physical dfd, systems flowchart)
What do you have to do at the end of systems analysis?
The analysis documents need to be approved
What is the structured system design method?
Outputs
Data Storage
Input
Processing procedures and operations
Why do we have output as the first part of a structured system design?
We need to lead the design by the goals and intended outcomes
This output can be in the form of:
- scheduled reports
- special-purpose analysis reports
- triggered exception reports
- demand reports
What is systems implementation?
Set of procedures performed to complete the design contained in the approved systems design document and to test, install, and begin to use the new or revised information systems
What are the 6 tasks in systems implementation?
- Complete systems design
What are the 3 types of tests in systems implementation?
SYSTEM TEST - verifies the new system against the original specifications - done by the development team and then by the users
ACCEPTANCE TEST - user-directed test to see if they are happy with it
OPERATIONS TEST - run the system in the actual production environment to see if it is compatible with the actual environment
What are the key documents for delivering the system?
Designers and programmers
operator documentation
…
What are the 3 methods for converting databases?
Parallel - there is an overlap/transition period from the old to the new platform
Direct - turn the old one completely off and launch the new one immediately after
Modular - implement one business unit at a time whilst the rest of the organisation continues to use the old one
