Chapter 12

Information Systems
Development
Study Questions
Q1: What is systems development?
Q2: Why is systems development difficult and risky?
Q3: What are the five phases of the SDLC?
Q4: How is system definition accomplished?
Q5: What is the users role in the requirements phase?
Q6: How are the five components designed?
Q7: How is an information system implemented?
Q8: What are the tasks for system maintenance?
Q9: What are some of the problems with the SDLC?

10-2
Q1: What is Systems Development?

Process of creating and maintaining information

systems

Requires
Establishing system goals
Setting up the project
Determining requirements
Business knowledge and management skill

10-3
Q2: Why Is Systems Development Difficult
and Risky?
Many projects are never finished. Those that finish often
200300% over budget.

Some projects finish within budget and schedule, but dont

satisfactorily accomplish their goals.

Even with competent people following an accepted

methodology, the risk of failure is still high.
10-4
Five Major Challenges to Systems Development

10-5
Q2: Why Is Systems Development
Difficult and Risky? (contd)
Difficult to determine requirements
What specifically is system to do?
How does wedding planner use new system to reserve a room or
building?
What does data entry screen look like for a nurse?
How does planner add/reduce facilities once wedding scheduled?
What should system do when a doctor appointment is cancelled?
Facility schedule system interface with accounting systems? How?
Will the system produce both standard and exception reports?
Are those reports fixed in structure or can user adapt them? If the
latter, how?
Must create environment where difficult questions are
asked and answered.
10-6
Q2: Why Is Systems Development Difficult
and Risky? (contd)
Changing requirements
Large, long projects aim at moving target

Scheduling and budgeting difficulties

How long to build it?
How long to create data model?
How long to build database applications?
How long to do testing?
How long to develop and document procedures?
How long for training?
How many cloud resources? labor hours? Labor
cost?
Whats the rate of return on investment?
10-7
Q2: Why Is Systems Development Difficult
and Risky? (contd)
Changing Technology
Do you want to stop your development to
switch to the new technology?
Would it be better to finish developing
according to the existing plan?
Why build an out-of-date system?
Can you afford to keep changing the
project?

10-8
Q2: Why Is Systems Development Difficult
and Risky? (contd)
New staff must be trained
Diseconomies of scale by productive members
who lose productivity while
Brooks Law
training new members.
Adding more people to a late
project makes the project later. Schedules can be compressed
only so far. Once a project late
and over budget, no good
choices exist

10-9
A late project costs more and increases the unit price.
Is It Really So Bleak?

Systems development is
challenging, but solid
methodologies exist when
supported and managed
Yes properly.

and No
Systems development life
cycle (SDLC), most formal
approach and process for
systems development.

10-10
Q3: What Are the Five Phases of the SDLC?

Based on problem
analysis and decision
making processes

10-11
Q4: How Is System Definition Accomplished?
Team of both users
and IT professionals
Small business may
hire consultant to
work with managers
and key employees
Assign a few
employees, possibly
on a part-time basis,
to define the new
system, to assess its
feasibility, and to
plan project

10-12
A Gantt Chart

10-13
Q4: How Is System Definition Accomplished?
(contd)

Purpose: Increase revenue from

wedding events
Define
Goals: Eliminate or at least
scope for reveal schedule conflicts and
new Fox improve maintenance tracking
Lake Scope: Specify users or business
system processes that will be involved, or
facilities, functions, events that
will be involved

10-14
Assess Feasibility: Dimensions of Feasibility
Cost feasibility (economic feasibility)
Approximated, back-of-the-envelope analysis
Purpose: eliminate infeasible ideas early
Consider cost of previous projects, operational and labor costs
Schedule feasibility and operational feasibility
Ballpark estimate (guesstimate, approximate estimation)
Technical feasibility
Do we have the hardware, software, personnel, expertise to
complete project?
Organizational feasibility (legal feasibility)
Fits customs, culture, charter, legal requirements of organization

10-15
Form a Project Team

Typical development team

Systems analyst and/or business analyst
Managers
Programmers
Software testers
Users
Outside Contractors
Team composition changes over time

Active user involvement is critical throughout

10-16
Q5: What Is the Users Role in the
Requirements Phase?
Review and approve requirements

Interviewing skill
crucial

10-17
Team Composition Changes Over Time

Requirements definition heavy with business

and systems analysts
Design and implementation heavy with
programmers, testers, and database designers
Integrated testing and conversion augmented
with testers and business users
Users have active involvement and take
ownership of the project throughout the entire
project development process.

10-18
Role of a Prototype
Use when requirements are difficult to specify
Can be expensive to create
Provides direct experience for users
Provides evidence to assess technical and
organizational feasibility
Used to estimate development and operational
costs
Greater clarity and completeness of requirements
Often re-used in operational system

10-19
Q6: How Are the Five Components of IS
Designed?
Determine hardware specifications
Purchase it, lease it, or lease time from hosting service
Determine software specifications
Off-the-shelf, in-house developed, customized
Design database
Convert data model to a database design
Design Procedures
Normal, backup, and failure recovery procedures
Design Job Descriptions
Create and define new tasks and responsibilities

10-20
SDLC: Component Design Phase

10-21
Hardware and Database Design

Hardware design
Determine specifications and
source of hardware
Purchase, lease, or lease time from
a hosting service in the cloud
Database design
Convert data model to database
design (i.e., relational to NoSQL?)

12-22
Software Design

Software design depends on source of programs

Off-the-shelf software
Off-the-shelf-with-alteration software
Custom-developed programs
Decide where application processing will occur
Mobile devices
Processing can occur on cloud-servers, or a
mixture

12-23
Procedures to Be Designed

Figure 10-7

10-24
Design of Job Descriptions

Teams of systems analysts and users determine

job descriptions, functions for users and
operations personnel
New information systems may require creating
new jobs
If so, duties and responsibilities need to be
defined in accordance with human resources
policies
More often, new duties and responsibilities added
to existing jobs

10-25
Design and Implementation for the Five IS
Components

10-26
Q7: How Is an Information System
Implemented?

1. Building
2. Testing
3. Converting
10-27
Q7: How Is an Information System
Implemented? (contd)
System testing

Test plan

User testing
Develop test plans and test cases
Final say on whether system is production ready
Certifies that the system is free of errors and
Audit Testing: ready to go!

Alpha testing (internal acceptance), Beta testing

(external user acceptance)
10-28
System Conversion Approaches
Implement entire system in limited portion of
business
Pilot Advantage: Limits exposure to business if
system fails
System installed in phases or by location
Staged Each piece is installed and tested
Complete new and old systems run
Parallel simultaneously
Very safe, but expensive, time consuming
Abrupt High risk if new system fails, no fall back system
Cutoff (Big Only used if new system not vital to company
Bang) operation

10-29
Q8: What Are the Tasks for System
Maintenance?

Failure is a difference between

what system does and what it is
supposed to do.

10-30
Q9: What Are Some of the Problems with the
SDLC?
Sequence of non-repeated phases
SDLC Waterfall It rarely works smoothly, causing
Method development team to go back and
forth, raising costs and delaying project

Business requirements change

1.Requirements
Analysis paralysisprojects spend so
documentation much time on documentation it
difficulty hampers progress

Time and cost estimates for large

2.Scheduling and project usually way off
budgeting People who make initial estimates
difficulties know little about how long it will take
or cost
10-31
SDLC Waterfall Method vs. RAD

Minimal planning

User participation in
Similar to SDLC
prototyping

10-32