The Systems Development Life Cycle

The Systems Development Life CycleJasmin Rose A. Dales

Develop a Strategic Systems PlanThis involves assessing each potential projects benefits, costs, and strategic implications to the organization. Development will proceed on proposals that show the greatest potential for supporting the organizations business objectives at the lowest cost.

The vertical dimension shows project priority in terms of organizational need. The horizontal plane shows the expected costs of each project.The size of the circle reflects the projects strategic impact.

Create an Action PlanThe balanced scorecard (BSC) is a management system that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback from internal business processes and external outcomes to continuously improve strategic performance.Create an Action PlanMuch of the BSCs appeal stems from its ability to integrate financial and operational measures into a single comprehensive framework that can translate a companys strategic objectives into a coherent set of performance measures.The BSC can help managers identify opportunities for improvement in IT and track the impact of improvement initiatives through a wide range of performance indicators.Create an Action PlanThe BSC suggests that we view the organization from four perspectives. We develop metrics, collect data, and analyze it relative to each of the following perspectives:

The learning and growth perspective.The internal business process perspective.The customer perspective.The financial perspective.The Learning and Growth PerspectiveThis perspective includes employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self- improvement. Metrics can be developed to guide managers in channeling training funds where they can be of greatest benefit.The Internal Business Process PerspectiveMetrics based on this perspective allow managers to know how well their business is running and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements.The Customer PerspectiveRecent management philosophy has shown an increasing realization of the importance of customer focus. These are the leading indicators: if customers are not satisfied, they will eventually find other suppliers that will meet their needs.The customer perspective includes objective measurements such as customer retention rate, as well as more subjective criteria such as market research and customer satisfaction surveys.The Financial PerspectiveThe financial perspective includes traditional measurements such as profitability, revenues and sales. An overemphasis on financial performance, however, may stimulate short-run decisions that create an imbalance with other perspectives.

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Project InitiationProject initiation involves obtaining a detailed understanding of the user problem and proposing multiple alternative solutions. Each of these proposals is assessed in terms of its feasibility and cost-benefit characteristics.Depending upon the nature of the project and the needs of the organization, a system will require in-house development, a commercial package, or both.

Systems AnalysisIs the foundation for the rest of the SDLC

Is actually a two-step process involving an initial survey of the current system and then an analysis of the users needs.The Survey StepThe analyst often begins the analysis by determining what elements, if any, of the current system should be preserved as part of the new system. This involves a rather detailed system survey.When all the relevant facts have been gathered and analyzed, the analyst arrives at an assessment of the current system.Disadvantages of Surveying the Current SystemThe most compelling argument against a current system survey centers on a phenomenon known as the current physical tar pit. This is the tendency on the part of the analyst to be sucked in and then bogged down by the task of surveying the current system.Disadvantages of Surveying the Current SystemSome argue that current system survey stifle new ideas. By studying and modeling the old system, the analyst may develop a constrained notion about how the new system should function. The result is an improved old system rather than a radically new approach Advantages of Surveying the Current SystemFirst, it is a way to identify what aspects of the old system should be kept.Second, when the new system is implemented, the users must go through a conversion process. The analyst must determine what tasks, procedures, and data will be phased out and which will continue. To specify these conversion procedures, the analyst must know not only what is to be done by the new system but also what was done by the old one.Advantages of Surveying the Current SystemFinally, by surveying the current system, the analyst may determine conclusively the cause of the reported symptoms.Gathering FactsThe survey of the current system is essentially a fact-gathering activity. The facts the analyst gathers are pieces of data that describe key features, situations, and relationships of the system. System facts fall into the following broad classes:DATA SOURCESthese include external entities as well as internal sources. USERSboth managers and operations usersDATA STORESare the files, databases, accounts andsource documents used in the systemPROCESSESare manual or computer operations that represent a decision or an action that information triggers.DATA FLOWS.The movement of documents and reports between data sources, data stores, processing tasks, and users represent data flows.CONTROLSThese include both accounting and operational controls and may be manual procedures or computer controlsTRANSACTION VOLUMESThe analyst must obtain a measure of the transaction volumes for a specified period of timeERROR RATESAs a system reaches capacity, error rates increase to an intolerable level. RESOURCE COSTSThe resources the current system uses include the costs of labor, computer time, materials (for example, invoices), and direct overhead.BOTTLENECKS AND REDUNDANT OPERATIONS. The analyst should note points where data flows come together to form a bottleneck. At peak-load periods, these can result in delays and promote processing errors. Likewise, delays may be caused by redundant operations, such as unnecessary approvals or sign-offs.

Fact-Gathering TechniquesOBSERVATIONObservation involves passively watching the physical procedures of the system.

TASK PARTICIPATIONParticipation is an extension of observation, whereby the analyst takes an active role in performing the users work.Job descriptionsPerformance reportsAccounting recordsSystem flowchartsCharts of accountsSource documentsPolicy statementsTransaction listingsDescriptions of proceduresBudgetsFinancial statementsForecastsFact-Gathering TechniquesPERSONAL INTERVIEWInterviewing is a method of extracting facts about the current system and user perception about the requirements for the new system.REVIEWING KEY DOCUMENTS

System Analysis ReportThe event that marks the conclusion of the systems analysis phase is the preparation of a formal systems analysis report. This report presents management or steering committee with the survey findings, the problems identified with the current system, the users needs, and the requirements of the new system.

The primary purpose for conducting systems analysis is to identify user needs and specify requirementsfor the new system. The requirements statement within the report establishes an understanding between systems professionals,management, users, and other stakeholders.