The Traditional System Development Life Cycle There are a number of important steps in the creation of a system, regardless of which approach you use. You may choose to ignore some of these steps and combine others, but all need to be considered. The traditional system development life cycle (SDLC) makes all these steps explicit. At the highest level, there are three steps: Analysis Design and construction Implementation (and continuing Operations)

The Traditional System Development Life Cycle I. Analysis Go? No go? 1.Initiation (e.g., an RFP) 2.Feasibility study Technical – can we build it? Economic – should we build it? Operational – if we build it, will it be used? Schedule – will it be ready in time? 3.Requirements definition 4.Specifications 5.Project plan

The Traditional System Development Life Cycle II. Design 6. Logical design (i.e., the external view) 7. Physical design (i.e., the internal view) 8. Coding (or code acquisition) 9. Testing

The Traditional System Development Life Cycle III. Implementation 10. Documentation – ouch! This should have been done all along! 11. Conversion Direct Parallel Pilot Phased 12. Training – both initial and continuing Users I/S staff Management 13. Installation

The Traditional System Development Life Cycle IV. Operations 14. Production 15. Post-implementation audit 16. Maintenance

The Traditional System Development Life Cycle What is maintenance? “It is post-implementation software development, designed to ensure the continued effectiveness of the software in question.” There are three types of maintenance: 1.Corrective 2.Adaptive 3.Perfective How should maintenance be managed? 1.“Cradle-to-grave”; those who built it, maintain it. 2.Separate maintenance department. 3.Outsource the maintenance to a third party.

Prototyping is the process of building a model of a system. In terms of an information system, prototypes are employed to help system designers build an information system that intuitive and easy to manipulate for end users. Prototyping is an iterative process that is part of the analysis phase of the systems development life cycle.analysis phase systems development life cycle What is Prototyping?

The Requirements Phase During the requirements determination portion of the systems analysis phase, system analysts gather information about the organization's current procedures and business processes related the proposed information system. In addition, they study the current information system, if there is one, and conduct user interviews and collect documentation. This helps the analysts develop an initial set of system requirements.

Development of a Prototype Prototyping can augment this process because it converts these basic, yet sometimes intangible, specifications into a tangible but limited working model of the desired information system. The user feedback gained from developing a physical system that the users can touch and see facilitates an evaluative response that the analyst can employ to modify existing requirements as well as developing new ones.

Types of Prototyping Prototyping comes in many forms - from low tech sketches or paper screens(Pictive) from which users and developers can paste controls and objects, to high tech operational systems using CASE (computer-aided software engineering) or fourth generation languages and everywhere in between. Many organizations use multiple prototyping tools. For example, some will use paper in the initial analysis to facilitate concrete user feedback and then later develop an operational prototype using fourth generation languages, such as Visual Basic, during the design stage.

Advantages –Reduces development time. –Reduces development costs. –Requires user involvement. –Developers receive quantifiable user feedback. –Facilitates system implementation since users know what to expect. –Results in higher user satisfaction. –Exposes developers to potential future system enhancements.

Disadvantages –Can lead to insufficient analysis. –Users expect the performance of the ultimate system to be the same as the prototype. –Developers can become too attached to their prototypes –Can cause systems to be left unfinished and/or implemented before they are ready. –Sometimes leads to incomplete documentation. –If sophisticated software prototypes (4th GL or CASE Tools) are employed, the time saving benefit of prototyping can be lost.

What is Outsourcing? Outsourcing involves transferring responsibility for carrying out an activity (previously carried on internally) to an external service provider. The service provider in turn provides services back to the customer against agreed service levels for an agreed charge. In many outsourcings the transfer of the activity involves the transfer of staff and assets.

Advantages The reasons for outsourcing IT are varied but some of the most frequently cited drivers include: Reducing IT costs; Access to world-class IT skills, experience and resources; Removing non-core business; Minimising sizeable capital expenditure on IT infrastructure; and Certainty of future IT spend.

Disadvantages The potential downsides to outsourcing include: A loss of control over a crucial business service; A lack of flexibility in the services received; Damage to staff morale/culture clashes (between the service provider and customer).

Managing the outsourcing relationship Once an outsourcing deal has been concluded committed management of the outsourcing relationship is critical to its success. A successful outsourcing requires processes and procedures for managing the relationship between the customer and the service provider: for example regular service meetings, agreed processes for reviewing the services (preferably involving benchmarking provision against other service providers), reporting procedures and a robust mechanism for escalating and resolving problems. An outsourcing services contract is not a contract which should be put in a drawer once signed—it is a live and operational document.