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The Systems Life Cycle

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Teacher’s notes included in the Notes Page

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Functional Skills check

Student task accompanies this slide Printable activity

This lesson will cover:

The life cycle of a system.

The common stages in the design and implementation of a system.

The need for an ongoing process of system design and refinement.

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The systems life cycle

How are new IT systems created?

Many systems are created to solve a problem. The problem has to be identified first so a technological solution can be

analysed and researched.

Think of the IT systems in your school. What problems do they solve, or what processes do they improve?

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Feasibility study

A feasibility study is an assessment of the practicality of a proposed idea or solution. It might look at factors like:

time costs requirements security maintenance.

Feasibility studies can be conducted through different types of research. For example:

studying similar systemsinterviews/questionnaires with usersobservations of existing systems/processes/procedures.

Why are feasibility studies important?

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General election 2010

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Systems analysis

Systems analysis is the process of understanding how systems work, in order to create better systems or make improvements to existing systems.

Flow charts and data flow diagrams are useful tools in systems analysis as they allow us to see what is happening to information, data and users of a system.

yes

no

Start

Is somebody at the door? Open door

Close door

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Planning

This will often involve creating success criteria for the project.

Once a system has been analysed and a feasibility study conducted, the changes and improvements need to be designed and planned.

What is the aim of the project?What needs to happen for the project to be deemed a success?What are the project constraints that must be met by the project?

Ideas can then be discussed and reviewed until a final designand plan can be produced.

Success criteria allow you to review and evaluate the project once it is complete.

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Create a plan

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Implementation

Implementation refers to the execution of a plan. It is the stage in which a design is actualized.

Unexpected problems can arise during the implementation process.

This may require plans to be changed or the overall system be analysed again and redesigned.

What aspects are important to monitor during the implementation stage?

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Testing

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British Airways

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User training and documentation

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Evaluation

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Monitoring and maintenance

Once a system is complete and being used, the work on itdoes not stop. The system will need to be monitored and it may also need regular maintenance to prevent crashes.

Users may also encounter problems and bugs with thesystem over time. This can lead to a new analysis of a systemand a new feasibility study for making the improvements.

In this way the systems life cycle is an iterative review process, i.e. it is constantly repeating the entire process so improvements can be made.

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Systems life cycle