The document outlines the processes involved in understanding and developing information systems solutions, emphasizing the importance of defining problems and opportunities. It discusses methodologies, such as business planning and the system development life cycle, to guide solution implementation, including design, technology selection, and user training. Additionally, it covers various conversion strategies and maintenance categories to ensure system efficacy post-implementation.

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INFORMATION SYSTEMS
DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIOM
CHAPTER 2

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Understanding a problem or opportunity
• Hard system thinking is based on the premise that a problem exists and can be
stated by one or more stakeholders in an objective way
• Defining a problem is sometimes the most important and difficult step.
• In short, a system cannot be defined unless it is possible to clearly describe what
it is supposed to accomplish.
• there are three kinds of questions that need to be asked to ensure we fully
understand a problem situation
• . First, how difficult or well understood is the problem?
• who or what is impacted?
• what are the various viewpoints of the problem?

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Cont’d
• Understanding a problem or opportunity is a crucial step in finding a solution or
capitalizing on it. To do so, let's break it down into smaller, manageable parts
• Define the Problem or Opportunity
• Gather Information
• Analyze the Situation
• Frame the Problem or Opportunity
• Evaluate and Prioritize

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Developing an information system solution
• Information system development comprises: -
1) Business Planning
2) Information engineering.
3) System development life cycle
4) Rapid action development

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Developing an information system solution
1) Business Planning
• Through the Business planning the business organization recognize its business,
mission, objective and functions and how this determines its business process.
• It involves the technical information system plan, Operational informational
system plan, strategic information system plan.
A. Technical information system plan
B. Operational informational system plan
C. Strategic information plan

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Developing an information system solution
2. Information engineering
• It is the methodology to build architecture to plan, analysis and design and implement
application for an enterprise.
• This is executed by: - enterprise methodology and business area analysis.
• This comprises of the information architecture, business architecture and technical
architecture
• Enterprise Methodology: - It is a structural approach to help a corporation enterprise on
Information system plan at high level abstraction to model the primary business,
subsystem and application
• Business area analysis: - It is the stage of engineering information. It focuses on
the subset of information architecture. It involves the different business areas,
recruitment and development of the organization. It involves basically two parts:
- recruitment and data mapping.

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Cont’d
3. System development life cycle: -
• System development life cycle method consists of the following activities
 Preliminary investigation
 Requirement analysis or system analysis
 Design of system
 Development of software or coding
 System testing
 Implementation
 Maintenance

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Cont’d
4. Preliminary investigation/ Rapid action development: -
 Request clarification.
 Feasibility study.
 Request approval

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Implementing the information system Solution
• Now that we have a thorough understanding of the problem or opportunity, it's
time to design and implement a solution. Here's a step-by-step guide to
implementing an information system solution:
• Design the Solution
• Select the Technology Stack
• Develop the System
• Deploy the System
• Train and Support Users
• Evaluate and Refine

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Implementing the information system Solution

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Cont’d
• The Systems Approach
• It is a problem solving technique that uses a systems orientation to define
problems
• Analyzing a problem and formulating a solution involves these interrelated
activities:
• Recognize and define a problem or opportunity using systems thinking.
• Develop and evaluate alternative system solutions.
• Select the solution that best meets your requirements
• Design the selected system solution.
• Implement and evaluate the success of the system

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What is Systems Thinking?

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Systems Analysis and Design
• It Includes identification of business problems
• There are two most common approaches of system analysis and design.
a) Object-oriented analysis and design
b) Life cycle
• Systems Development Process
1. Systems Investigation: Feasibility study.
May involve consideration of proposals generated by a business/IT planning process
Also includes the preliminary feasibility study of proposed information system
solutions
Feasibility Studies: a preliminary study to determine the Information needs of
prospective users, Resource requirements, Costs, Benefits and Feasibility.

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Cont’d
• Operational Feasibility: How well the proposed system will:
• Support the business priorities of the organization
• Solve the identified problem
• Fit with the existing organizational structure
• Economic Feasibility: An assessment of:
• Cost savings
• Increased revenue
• Decreased investment requirements
• Increased profits
• Cost/benefit analysis
• Technical Feasibility: Assessment of:
• Hardware
• Software
• Network

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Cont’d
• Human Factors Feasibility: Assess the acceptance level of:
• Employees
• Customers
• Suppliers
• Management support
• Determine the right people for the various new or revised roles
• Legal/Political Feasibility: Assess
• Possible patent or copyright violations
• Software licensing for developer side only
• Governmental restrictions
• Changes to existing reporting structure

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2. Systems Analysis: Functional requirements
• An in-depth study of end user information needs
• It produces the functional requirements used as the basis for the design of an
information system
• It typically involves a detailed study of the:
• Information needs of a company and end users
• Activities, resources, and products of one or more of the information systems
currently being used
• Information system capabilities required to meet the information needs of
business stakeholders
• Organizational Analysis: Study of the organization, including…
• Management structure
• People
• Business activities

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3. Analysis of the Present System
 Before designing a new system, it is important to study the system to be
improved or replaced.
• Hardware and software
• Network
• People resources used to convert data resources into information products
• System activities of input, processing, output, storage, and control

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Cont’d
• Logical Analysis: A logical model is a blueprint of the current system.
• It displays what the current system does, without regard to how it does it
• It allows an analyst to understand the processes, functions, and data
associated with a system without getting bogged down with hardware and
software.
• Functional Requirements: This step of systems analysis is one of the most
difficult.
• Determine what type of information each business activity requires
• Try to determine the information processing capabilities required for each
system activity.
• The goal is to identify what should be done, not how to do it

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Systems Design
• It is the process of defining elements of a system like modules, architecture,
components for a system based on the specified requirements
• Systems design focuses on three areas
User interface design
Data design
Process design
• Prototyping: Prototyping is the rapid development and testing of working models.
• An interactive, iterative process used during the design phase
• Makes development faster and easier, especially when end user requirements are
hard to define
• Has enlarged the role of business stakeholders

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User Interface Design
• Focuses on supporting the interactions between end users and their computer-
based applications
System Specifications
• Formalizing the design of:
• User interface methods and products
• Database structures
• Processing procedures
• Control procedures
End User Development
 Information system professionals play a consulting role, while uses do their
own application development

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4. Implementing New Systems
• The systems implementation stage involves
 Hardware and software acquisition
 Software development
 Testing of programs and procedures
 Conversion of data resources
 Conversion alternatives
 Education/training of end users
Implementation Process
 Acquisition of hardware, software and system
 Software development or modification
 Data conversion
 End user training
 Conversion of implementation

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Documentation
• User Documentation
• Sample data entry screens, forms, reports
• System operating instructions
• Systems Documentation
• Method of communication among those developing, implementing, and maintaining
a computer-based system
• Detailed record of the system design
• Training: End users must be trained to operate a new business system or its
implementation will fail
• May involve only activities, such as data entry, or all aspects of system use
• Managers and end users must understand how the new technology impacts business
operations

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Major System Conversion Strategies
• Direct Conversion
• The simplest conversion strategy
• The most disruptive to the organization
• Sometimes referred to as the slam dunk or cold-turkey strategy
• Has the highest risk of failure
• Involves turning off the old system and turning on the new one
• Parallel Conversion
• Old and new systems are run simultaneously until everyone is satisfied that:
• The new system functions correctly.
• The old system is no longer needed.
• Conversion to new system can be single cutover or phased cutover
• Has the lowest risk, but the highest cost.
• Can cost 4 times more than using the old system
• Best choice where an automated system is replacing a manual one.

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Pilot Conversion
• Scenarios best suited to a pilot conversion:
• Multiple business locations.
• Geographically diverse locations
Phased Conversion
• A phased or gradual conversion:
• Takes advantage of both the direct and parallel approaches
• Minimizes the risks involved.
• Allows the new system to be brought online as logically ordered
functional components

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Systems Maintenance
There are four basic categories of system maintenance
• Corrective: fix bugs/virus and logical errors.
• Adaptive: add new functionality.
• Perfective: improve performance.
• Preventive: reduce chances of failure
5. Post-Implementation Review:
• Ensures that the newly implemented system meets the established business
objectives
• Errors must be corrected by the maintenance process
• Includes a periodic review/audit of the system as well as continuous
monitoring