Instructor: Kevin Robertson

Building/Acquiring Information Systems

Lecture Outline 12
Principles and Learning Objectives
 Understand the process used by organizations to manage the
development of information systems
 Describe each major phase of the system development life cycle:
systems identification, selection, and planning; system analysis; system
design; system implementation; and system maintenance
 Understand the factors involved in building a system in-house, along
with situations in which it is not feasible

2
Why do Organisation need New Systems?

 Organizations need new IT systems to meet business objectives

including:
 improving competitiveness
 increasing productivity and efficiency
 accelerating growth
 supporting innovation reducing costs
 At times external factor also drive the need to build information
systems
 Regulatory
 New technologies

3
Buying Off the Shelf Software

 Today, most organizations purchase or rent software they need

 Software applications can vary from an unmodified, commercial off-
the-shelf (COTS) software package to a custom, written-from-scratch
program
 Typically build proprietary software when the requirements and
functionality are truly unique, or if there is an opportunity to sell the
software

4
Systems Development

 Sometimes, a system that is needed by a business is not available as a

'canned' system which can be bought and installed

 Such a system must be custom-built either by systems developers in-

house or by external consultants

5
System Development Life Cycle
Usually a system is developed in 6 specific SDLC stages:
1. Systems Investigation:
a) Problem Definition
b) Feasibility Study
2. System Analysis
3. System Design:
a) General Design
b) Detailed Design
4. System Development (Building)
5. System Implementation
6. System Maintenance

6
Systems Investigation
 The purpose is to gain a clear understanding of the specifics of the
problem to be solved or the opportunity to be addressed
 Feasibility analysis: assessment of the technical, economic, legal,
operational, and schedule feasibility of a project

 Steps of the investigation phase

1. Review systems investigation request
2. Identify and recruit team leader and team members
3. Develop budget and schedule for investigation
4. Perform investigation
5. Perform preliminary feasibility analysis
6. Prepare draft of investigation report
7. Review results of investigation with steering team
7
Systems Analysis
This phase of systems development involves:
 Gathering data on the existing system
 Determining the requirements for the new system
 Considering alternatives within identified constraints
 Investigating the feasibility of alternative solutions

 Steps in the systems analysis phase

1. Identify and recruit team leader and team members
2. Develop budget and schedule for systems analysis activities
3. Study existing system
4. Develop prioritized set of requirements
5. Identify and evaluate alternative solutions
6. Perform feasibility analysis
7. Prepare draft of systems analysis report
8. Review results of systems analysis with steering team
8
Systems Analysis – Critical Success
Factors
1. Critical Success Factor (CSF) is an element which is necessary for a
project to successfully achieve its goal
 For example, a CSF for a successful system design is user involvement.

2. CSF is a means of identifying the tasks and requirements needed for

success, and A means to prioritize requirements

3. At the lowest level, CSFs become concrete requirements

9
Systems Analysis – Joint Application
Design
1. JAD is a special type of a group meeting in which all (most) users
meet with an analyst at the same time

2. Users jointly define and agree upon system requirements or design

dramatically reducing the design time

10
System Design
 Creates a complete set of technical specifications that can be used to
construct the information system

 Steps in the systems design phase

1. Identify and recruit team leader and team members
2. Develop schedule and budget for systems design activities
3. Design user interface
4. Design system security and controls
5. Design disaster recovery plan
6. Design database
7. Perform feasibility analysis
8. Prepare draft of systems design report
9. Review results of systems design with steering team
11
System Construction (Build)
 The phase of systems development that converts the system design into
an operational application

 Steps:
 Acquiring and installing hardware and software
 Coding and testing software programs
 Creating and loading data into databases
 Performing initial program testing

12
Integration and Testing
 Types of testing
 Integration testing – connect core functions/features together, e.g. database,
application(s), reporting technology
 System testing – wide range testing program/process
 Volume testing - load, performance
 User acceptance testing
 Smoke Testing – very high-level test cases – does the application perform
its main functions?

13
Systems Implementation
 Successfully introducing an information system into an organization

 The major challenges to successful implementation of an information

system are often more behavioral than technical
Strong, effective leadership is required to overcome the behavioral resistance

 Steps involved in implementation

 User preparation
 Site preparation
 Installation
 Cutover

14
System Implementation: Conversion
Conversion Approaches – the process of taking information from an old system to populate a new
system. This is accomplished through manual and/or automated methods – each comes with a different
level of risk

15
System Operations and Maintenance
 Systems operation: using a new or modified system under all kinds of
operating conditions

 Systems maintenance: changing and enhancing the system to make it

more useful in achieving user and organizational goals

16
Alternatives to Systems Development

17
Needs for Alternative to Internal Systems
Building

18
Alternatives to Internal Development

19
End-User Development - Tools

20
End-User Development - Benefits

21
End-User Development - Pitfalls

22
External Acquisition – Steps to Proceed

23
System Development Life Cycle

24
Package Evaluation Phase
 Steps in the Package Evaluation Phase include:
 Identify potential solutions
 Select top contenders
 Research top contenders
 Perform final evaluation of leading solutions
 Make selection
 Finalize contract

25
Package Evaluation Phase
 Identify Potential Solutions
 Project team should make a preliminary assessment of the software marketplace to determine whether
existing packages can meet the organization’s needs
 Request for Information (RFI) is a document that outlines an organization’s needs and requests vendors
to respond with information about if and how they can meet those needs

26
Package Evaluation Phase
 Select Top Contenders
 Project team will review information provided by vendors in response to
the RFI
 Selection will be made based on:
 How well the vendor’s software appears to meet the organization’s needs
 Preliminary cost and timing estimates
 Information gleaned from references
 How easy the vendor has been to work with so far

27
Package Evaluation Phase
 Research Top Contenders

 Begins with a detailed investigation as well as in-depth discussions with

two or three customers of each contender

 Contenders should be asked to make a final presentation and demonstrate

their solution using a performance evaluation test

 Conducted in a computing environment, with a workload that matches intended

operating conditions

28
Package Evaluation Phase
 Make Selection

 Weigh factors such as:

 How well the vendor’s solution matches the needs of the users and business
 The amount of effort required to integrate the new software with existing software
 Results of the performance evaluation test
 Relative costs (including any software modifications) and benefits
 The technical, economic, legal, operational, and schedule feasibility
 Input from legal and purchasing resources on the legal and financial viability of the
contender
 Feedback from customers on how well the software performs as well as on the
quality of the support provided by the vendor
29
Finalise Contract
 Develop a fair contract when acquiring new computer hardware or
software
 Allow at least two months for review and negotiation of a final contract
 Take special precautions in signing contracts with the service provider
of cloud-computing or software-as-a-service
 Contract should have provisions for: Monitoring system modification
quality and progress
 Ownership and property rights of the new or modified system
 Contingency provisions in case something doesn’t work as expected
 Dispute resolution if something goes wrong

30
Implementation
 Key implementation tasks include:
 Use data-flow diagrams to map current business processes and requirements to
the software, and identify any gaps that must be filled by changing current
processes or by modifying the software.
 Install the software and configure all of its capabilities and options to meet the
project requirements.
 Customize any aspects of the solution needed for the organization.
 Integrate existing software with the new software.
 Train end users.
 Test the software to ensure that it meets all processes and requirements.
 Convert historical data from the old software so that it can be used by the new
software.
 Roll out the new software to users in a live work environment.
 Provide for ongoing end-user support and training.
31
Custom-built vs Off-the-Shelf Software

32
Outsourcing – Why Consider?

33
Outsourcing – Types of Arrangements

34
Outsourcing – Relationship Management

35
Systems Development & Acquisition

End of Lecture 12

36