System Development: Methods, Maintenance, and Prototyping
System Development Methods
Direct Conversion Method
Old System —> New System
Phased Conversion Method
Old System / / / New System
Parallel Conversion Method
Old System
New System
Pilot Conversion Method
*** Old System New System
The pilot and phased approaches are often preferred since they have less risk. As you can see, the decision to adopt either method will be influenced by risk factors and resource availability. Another important aspect of this phase is the training of personnel, which is particularly important to ensure successful use of the system. There may be advanced ways to train personnel, even before having the new equipment, so that the user is familiar with the new system. If the system is simple and the user has some experience, formal training is not necessary, and it is sufficient to put some instructions up to date.
System Maintenance
After the implementation phase begins the maintenance phase. This is the final phase, and it is of great importance, as shown below. It is a permanent stage in what remains of the system’s life. Maintenance begins with an audit of the system and then continues with periodic evaluations. In conducting the audit of the new system, its performance is verified to ensure that it complies with the specifications arising from the design phase and to verify that the processes that have been integrated are indeed appropriate. Otherwise, it is necessary to create a new design to address the detected drawbacks.
Regular evaluations can determine whether the system remains in force regarding its ability to perform the process properly. Otherwise, it requires further adjustments, changes, or modifications that allow the system to adapt to new situations that may arise in the organization. At this point, it is good to highlight that organizations are changing bodies, and the same components and systems, specifically for information systems, must be sensitive to these changes through assessment to bring them to respond effectively to emerging situations.
The Prototyping Approach
A disadvantage attributed to the six-phase analysis process is that it can be tediously long, especially since there are situations where it is not possible to have a long time. There are contexts in which they cannot carry out the assessment, design, and testing in the way described above.
The prototype approach is the creation of a preliminary model of the new system, which can be modified or adapted gradually before the final installation itself as a functioning system. Among its advantages is that it is an expeditious way to generate new systems. End users can see from the beginning what the system will look like, providing their comments on the necessary changes so that the model is well adapted to their work. On the other hand, the exclusive use of this approach is not without risk. Changes or installations can build systems that do not take into account important issues such as costs.
Improvements in Systems Development
The traditional cycle of systems analysis and design might take a long time, even years, in the case of large-scale developments in large organizations. But today, the pace of business and activities of any organization is likely to intensify, to become more rapid, imposing time and quality requirements to sustain the operation and their competitiveness. Thus arises the need for more rapid development cycles while maintaining their reliability.
New methods are beginning to be considered that seek to increase the speed, reducing the time required for development. Among the innovative elements that are integrated into these methods are:
- The use of software or development tools (such as CASE)
- Integration of well-trained groups, focused on the production of applications in less time and with better quality
- Use of new and not-so-new development techniques
But it is appropriate to note that none of these methods should skip the steps of the proposed cycle if you want to work effectively. Bypassing any stage may, in any case, bring more problems than good. It should be clear that these new approaches try to optimize and reduce the time of each phase, rather than avoid them, so as to reduce the total time of system development in general.
In Conclusion
This topic presents a systems development process. Even with its variations and disadvantages, the approach serves as the basis for new methodologies that try to make it more effective. This systemic approach is used for structuring projects and, in particular, to carry out the development of computer systems. Knowing about it is very useful and gives an idea of how to address problems that may have a high degree of complexity.
The development cycle of traditional systems that arises in this matter has indeed for many years served as a guide for systems development. Although according to various sources, the number of phases may vary, the steps can always be raised here, perhaps grouped or listed differently. But there is no doubt that the adoption and proper monitoring of these steps will significantly influence successfully achieving project completion.