question archive Pine Valley Furniture Sylvester Harrison BSA/375: Fundamentals of Business System Development Prof Mark Damron PVF Company Information Systems History 1990’s – Invoice Management was a manual process with clients and invoices being kept in file folders and filing cabinets 2000 – Company reorganization into the following functional areas Manufacturing (Fabrication, Assembling, and Finishing) Sales Orders Accounting Purchasing In the early 2000’s , While the company reorganized into several different functional areas, the same archaic filing system remained in place
Pine Valley Furniture Sylvester Harrison BSA/375: Fundamentals of Business System Development Prof Mark Damron PVF Company Information Systems History 1990’s – Invoice Management was a manual process with clients and invoices being kept in file folders and filing cabinets 2000 – Company reorganization into the following functional areas Manufacturing (Fabrication, Assembling, and Finishing) Sales Orders Accounting Purchasing In the early 2000’s , While the company reorganized into several different functional areas, the same archaic filing system remained in place
Subject:Computer SciencePrice: Bought3
Pine Valley Furniture
Sylvester Harrison
BSA/375: Fundamentals of Business System Development
Prof Mark Damron
PVF Company Information Systems History
1990’s – Invoice Management was a manual process with clients and invoices being kept in file folders and filing cabinets
2000 – Company reorganization into the following functional areas
Manufacturing (Fabrication, Assembling, and Finishing)
Sales
Orders
Accounting
Purchasing
In the early 2000’s , While the company reorganized into several different functional areas, the same archaic filing system remained in place. Each area established their own manual information system.
After a preliminary study, management made the decision to convert its manual processes to a centralized database
All of the application software was developed in house
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Systems Analysis and Design Methodologies Importance
Computer Software designed to support organizational functions and processes
Systems Analyst primary responsibility
Having effective systems analysis and design methodologies in place is extremely important when building a system to ensure that the system is what the company needs and allows the information to be used to the maximum benefit.
By implementing analysis prior to building out systems, delays and unnecessary functions and features can be avoided to maximize on the systems’ efficiency. When shortcuts are taken, mistakes can be made and distractions can occur, causing extreme problems with the progress and outcome of the system.
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Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Phases
Requirement Analysis
Feasibility Study
Design
Coding
Testing
Install/Deploy
Maintenance
(SDLC) is a process used to design and develop a high-quality software. The SDLC consists of seven phases which depict various stages/phases of the development process.
Using the SDLC implementation process for PVF allows those within the organization to develop a system that is unique to their business model and practices.
SDLC Phase 1- Requirement Analysis
It is the most important phase in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) in which all the information is gathered from customers, users and other stakeholders.
This phase gives the clear picture of the scope of the project and all the minute details (Planning, risk factors) are collected in this phase which helps to finalize the timeline boundary of the project.
SDLC Phase 2 – Feasibility Study
After the requirement phase is completed, the next phase is to examine the feasibility of the system. The main aim of feasibility study is to how to achieve the scope.
In this phase a Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document is made that includes everything which should be designed and developed during the project life cycle.
SDLC Phase 3 – Design
SRS (Software Requirement Specification) is the reference document used in this phase for the product to be developed. System and software design documents are prepared as per the specification document.
Two kinds of design documents are prepared in this phase:
High-Level Design (HLD)
Low- Level Design (LLD)
SDLC Phase 4 – Coding
After the design phase is over, the coding phase starts. It is the longest phase of the software development life cycle.
In this phase, tasks are divided into the units or modules and it is assigned to the developer. And developers start building/writing the code as per the chosen programming language.
Developers also write unit test cases for each component to test the new code which they have written and review each other’s code, builds and deploy software to an environment.
SDLC Phase 5- Testing
After the unit testing is completed by the developer and the software is complete, it is deployed in the testing environment. The testing team then checks the functionality of the system as per the design documents shared with them.
During this testing phase, QA and testing team may find some bugs/defects which they communicate to developers. The development team fixes the bugs and send it back to QA with the updated design document, if needed to re-test.
This process continues till the software tested is defects-free, stable and working according to the business needs of the system.
SDLC Phase 6 – Installation/deployment
The main phase of deployment stage is to put the solution in the production environment. Sometimes product deployment happens in stages as per the business strategy of the company.
The product must be tested in a real environment (User Acceptance Testing). The product first must be deployed in the staging environment and check for any deployment issues, and if there are no issues then the code should be deployed to production environment for client feedback.
SDLC Phase 7- Maintenance
The users start using the developed system, once the system is deployed. In this phase, some issues are discovered and it is important to resolve them to ensure smooth functioning of the software.
Bug fixing (if any), Upgradation and Enhancement of some new features are done in the maintenance phase.
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Importance of SDLC
It acts as a guide to the project and meet client’s objectives.
It helps in evaluating, scheduling and estimating deliverables.
It provides a framework for a standard set of activities.
It ensures correct and timely delivery to the client.
It is important to have an SDLC in place as it helps to transform the idea of a project into a functional and completely operational structure. In addition to covering the technical aspects of system development, SDLC helps with process development, change management, user experience, and policies.
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Off-the-shelf-software
The 2 most important criteria
Functionality
Ease of Installation
Functionality refers to the tasks the software can perform and the mandatory, essential, and desired system features. Ease of installation refers to how easily and readily the software is available and how the user can install it with minimum or no supervision.
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Common Criteria
Cost
Functionality
Vendor Support
Viability of vendor
Flexibility
Documentation
Response time
Ease of installation
The other most common criteria are cost, functionality, vendor support, vendor viability, flexibility, documentation, response time, and ease of installation.
Cost involves comparing the cost of developing the same system in-house to the cost of purchasing or licensing the software package.
Functionality refers to the tasks the software can perform and the mandatory, essential, and desired system features.
While vendor support identifies the amount of support the vendor can be expected to provide, vendor viability examines the vendor’s marketplace strength. Flexibility refers to the flexibility of customizing the software.
The documentation criterion examines issues relating to the user’s manual, technical documentation, and the cost of acquiring additional copies of the documentation.
Response time questions the length of time it takes the software package to respond to the user’s requests in an interactive session and how long it takes the software to complete running a job.
The ease of installation criterion examines the difficulty of loading the software and making it operational. Vendor support and viability will be among the most important.
The importance of the criteria will vary from project to project and from organization to organization. The most important two criteria are vendor viability and vendor support.
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Additional Criteria
Implement ability
Supportability
Cost
Deliverability
implementability: What platform does it require? How difficult is it to integrate with existing systems? Does it have hardware scaling issues? Are there single points of failure?
Supportability: What is available in terms of training? Consulting? Documentation? Community? How stable is the vendor? If the vendor is also intended to be an integration partner, how aligned are you culturally?
Cost: How much will it cost to implement (license, hosting, customization), maintain, upgrade, modify?
Deliverability: (If customization or extensive configuration is required) Will customization be done through APIs (good) or will it need to be done by modifying internals (bad)? How difficult is it to test the package (especially in an automated fashion)? How difficult is it to automate the installation, configuration setup, and builds (wizards are bad, scripted APIs are good)? How difficult is it to set up version control especially integrated with your existing configuration management system?
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Bids / RFP Process
Vendor established track record
Reference Checks
Legal / NDA
The list for evaluating alternative custom software developers would be very similar to that for selecting off-the-shelf application software or for computer hardware and system software. In addition to cost, functionality, vendor support, viability of vendor, flexibility, documentation, response time, and ease of installation, we might include the current staff’s familiarity with the software, need for retraining, compatibility and connectivity with current systems, and the track record of the vendor in successfully implementing similar software in other organizations.
Such vendors should have an established track record of developing similar software in other organizations.
Their references should be checked thoroughly, including visits to these other sites. If the developer’s role will end after the application is accepted, then the reputation of the vendor for handling this transition from external development to internal maintenance is important.
From a legal point of view, you may want to select a custom developer based on the willingness to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so that they are not allowed to develop a similar system for one of your competitors, at least for some amount of time.
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Project Management
The focus of project management is to ensure that system development projects meet customer expectations and are delivered within budget and on time constraints.
Phases
Initiating
Assess the size, scope, and complexity of the project and to establish procedures to support subsequent activities
Planning
Process that focuses on defining a clear, discrete activities and the work needed to complete each activity within a single project.
Executing
Plans created in prior phases are put into action
Closing Down
The final phase of the project management process that focuses on bringing the project to an end.
Risk Mitigation
Assume and accept risk.
Avoidance of risk.
Controlling risk.
Transference of risk.
Watch and monitor risk.
