SYSTEMS STRATEGY. The first step in the SDLC is to develop a systems strategy, which requires
understanding the strategic business needs of the organization. This may be derived from the organization’s
mission statement, an analysis of competitive pressures on the firm, and the nature of current and
anticipated market conditions. These needs reflect the organization’s current position relative to where it
needs to be in the long term to maintain strategic advantage. In addition, project management must consider
the information systems’ implications pertaining to legacy systems and concerns registered through
user feedback. A strategic plan for meeting these various and complex needs, along with a timetable for
implementation of selected systems, is produced.
PROJECT INITIATION. Project initiation is the process by which systems proposals are assessed for
consistency with the strategic systems plan and evaluated in terms of their feasibility and cost-benefit
characteristics. Alternative conceptual designs are considered, and those selected enter the construct
phase of the SDLC. Depending upon the nature of the project and the needs of the organization, the proposal
will require in-house development, a commercial package, or both.
IN-HOUSE DEVELOPMENT. As mentioned earlier, some organizations have unique information
needs that can be adequately met only through internal development. The in-house development step
includes analyzing user needs, designing processes and databases, creating user views, programming the
applications, and testing and implementing the completed system.
COMMERCIAL PACKAGES. When the nature of the project and the needs of the user permit, most
organizations will seek a precoded commercial software package rather than develop a new system from
scratch. The organizations that can implement commercial software accrue a number of advantages.
These include lower initial cost, shorter implementation time, better controls, and rigorous vendor testing.
All of these benefits translate into cost savings for the user. This process, however, is not without risk.
Formal procedures need to be followed to ensure that the user gets a package that adequately meets his or
her needs and is compatible with existing systems.
MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT. Maintenance involves both acquiring and implementing the latest
software versions of commercial packages and making in-house modifications to existing systems to
accommodate changing user needs. Maintenance may be relatively trivial, such as modifying an application
to produce a new report, or more extensive, such as programming new functionality into a system.
The feedback loops from maintenance to the project initiation and systems strategy steps, respectively,
despite these relationships.
Traditionally, systems maintenance was viewed as a separate and distinct stage of the SDLC that could
last 5 to 10 years. Modern businesses in highly competitive industries, however, see frequent changes in
technology and much shorter system life spans. Indeed, this is becoming the norm for many organizations.
Many complex systems today are developed and implemented using an incremental approach that
integrates maintenance and new development. Systems maintenance is often viewed as the first phase of
a new development cycle. Existing (maintained) applications are the prototypes for their new versions.
Thus, instead of implementing an application in a single big-bang release, modern systems are delivered
in parts continuously and quickly as smaller releases that can more accurately reflect changing business
needs. Another aspect of modern maintenance includes establishing a user support infrastructure. This
could include helpdesk services, providing user training and education classes, and documenting user
feedback pertaining to problems and system errors.
PARTICIPANTS IN SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
The participants in systems development can be classified into three broad groups: systems professionals,
end users, and stakeholders.
Systems professionals are systems analysts, systems designers, and programmers. These individuals
actually build the system. They gather facts about problems with the current system, analyze these facts,
and formulate a solution to solve the problems. The product of their efforts is a new system.
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