Week 9

This post gives the different approaches of chageover methods to answer th week 9 question.

System Changeover: System changeover is a process of retiring the old system and installing the new information system.There are four different types of changeover methods depending on how they are inmplemented.They are discussed  breifly as follows.

Direct Cutover: The direct cutover approach causes the changeover from the legacy system to the new information system immediately when the latter one becomes operational. Direct cutover is the least expensive one when compared to all other changeover methods because the IT group has to work and maintain only one system.Direct cutover has more risk than other methods. Despite of thorough and careful testing and training, some difficulties can arise when the system is operated lively. A system also can face more difficulties at thhe real time than in the testing phase.Companies often choose the direct cutover for implementing commercial packages. Direct cutover is also used in arganisation where old and new system both cannot be supported alternatively.

Parallel Operation: In this method both old and new systenm are executed fully for a specific period of time.Data is inputted in to both the systems and the feedback generated are compared for the accuracy.When the IT group satisfies that new system is performing correctly then the old system is terminated.The main advantage of paralell appraoch is low risk.If the new system does not work properly then the organization still performs its operations with the old system.Errors in new system can also be spotted easily with paralell operation method.This technique however has disadvantages since it is very expensive because the company has to pay for both operations.New employees should be hired to maintain the workload.

Pilot Operation: The pilot operation is a technique where a selected location of a company is changed with the new system. That location is termed as pilot site. During the pilot operation the rest of the organization will be running the old system.When the experts think that the system in the pilot state is working correctly then the whole system is changed using direct cutover method.So pilot operation is a combination of parallel operation and direct cutover methods.

Phased Operation: The phased operation method allows to implement the new system in stage wise.And each particular stage is implemented by any of the other three changeover methods.This method is used to reduce the risk and cost.The errors are also limited to only implemented stage.The employees are also comfortable with this method because a more dlear understanding is possible.

 

Week 8

This post answers the week 8 requirement

Managing change in an Information system development organization.

Object-Oriented systems development has attracted greatly in the field of information system field because of its advantage to develop easily and to maintain simply.One more important use of object oriented approach is the software can be reused.But anyway shifting from structured or traditional approach to object-oriented approach is not so easy.The aritcle deals with how the concepts of structured development helps to gain the understanding of object-oriented development approach

Refernce List

Shaft TM, Albert LJ, Jasperson J 2008,’Managing change in an information systems development organization’,Information systems Journal,vol.18,iss 3 ;p275

Week 7

The following post answers the week 7 questions

Name one way that the traditional and object-oriented approaches to information systems development are similar. Explain how they are similar.

Document Review is one way of fact-finding technique which is similar for both Traditional and object-oriented approach to information system development process.Because in either of the approaches a clear understanding of the existing system is a compulsary need to develop a system which satisfies the needs.The document review process will help the system analysts to know the procedures followed by the current system in the organization.Hence this a common and very important technique which is used in both traditionaland object -oriented approach of systems development.

Name one way that the traditional and object-oriented approaches to information systems development are different. Explain how they are different.

 In mypoint of view the main difference between the traditional approach and object-oriented approach is the involvment of the users in the process of information system development. In the traditional approach users are involved in only the initial stages of the development process where as in object-oriented approach users are involved in every stage.The development process is also a single project in tarditional approach where as in the object-oriented approach the project is divided in to modules for the ease to develop and for furture usage.Depending upon the type of the system and the size of the project one is going to develop using either of the two methods.

 

Week5

The purpose of this post is to give the Data dictionary for two processes of the week4 diagram 0 DFD of renting a DVD.

Prcess Name : Verify Membership

Process Number :1

Purpose : The purpose of this process is to check the membership of the customer.

Input Data Flows :

•  Order DVD 

 Output Data Flows :

• Picking List
• Accessing the data
• Ordered Rejected

Process Description :The order initiated by the customer enters in to this process,where the details of the customer is checked with the membership details from the Data store and if they are matched then the order is sent to the picking list.If they are not matched then the order is rejected.

Note :This process includes a simple logic.

Structured English:

If customer is a genuine customer and

  If customer orders from the Picking List

          Create Invoice

Else

       Rejected Order

Process Name : Create invoice

Process Number :2

Purpose: The purpose of this process is to create the invoice for the rented DVD.

Input Data Flows:

• Completed Order

Output Data Flows:

• Invoice

Process Description:When the order is completed then it is entered in to this process and then the invoice is created depending up on the rate of the DVD.The invoice details are then sent to the customer as well as to the Accounts Recievable Data store.

Notes : This process is the intermediate process of the whole operation.

Week 4

The following are the solutions for week 4 Assignment

Week3

The following post answers the week3 questions.  

What is the traditional approach to systems development?

As a part of preliminary investigation in system analysis phase there are several fact finding techniques,which are described how they are useful to traditional approach to system development as follows.

Document Review:-

The Document Review is a very useful technique whose main intention is to get the forms or documnetation of the current system .But the system analyst should be very keen that the collected documents are the latest which are presently used by the system.

Observation:-

The other important fact finding technique in traditional approach is observation.Observing the current operations gives the extra information and a deep understanding of the current procedures.Observation also verifies whether the staements of the interview and the documents produced by the company are exactly same or not.

Questionnaires and surveys:-

Depending upon the size of the company and other aspects questionnaires and surveys can also be used.A set of standard questions can be given to many individuals and answers for a more complex and controversial topics can also found.Surveys are also very cheap when compare to personal interviews.

Sampling:-

As a process of fact finding technique sampling is done for a sample of individuals of the organization.There are different methods in sampling for example, systematic sampling, stratified sampling and random sampling.

Research:-

Research is also a useful fact finding technique .system analysts can attend the professional meetings,seminars and IT workshops to get more understanding and knowledge which is useful to learn more about the current system.

What is the Object-Oriented approach to systems development

The object -oriented analysis uses a popular fact finding technique called Joint Application Development.In JAD technique mainly the users have important responsibility and they are active participants in the development process .The IT staff will meet the users initially and they also interact with the users through out the development of the new system.The users involve formally and informally in every stage.One popular method is the JAD team approach ,which consists few users ,managers and IT professionals ,they work together in collecting the information defining new system.

What text books ,journals and /or websites might be useful to search for articles about comparing and contrasting the traditional and object -oriented approaches to systems development?

Research is the important fact finding technique.A lot of information can found through the internet,IT magazines and academic books to obtain information about the traditional and object-oriented approaches to systems development.Research through internet is also helpful in finding information from various kinds of sources including  government sites,other publishers and libraries around the world.Site visit is also a part of reasearch which means ,visit the physical location.The main aim is to observe a system of another organization and their processes.

week2

 The following post consists the answers for week2 questions from the course COIS20025 of Term1,2008 written by Saritha Kalakonda

what are the current problems with the Child Health Information Systems?
Childhood is a sensitive period combined with a lot of factors that effect a child’s physical and mental ability.So a good genesis is vital in a child’s life for his wellbeing and bright future.Initially the Health Centres of the Health Department of a small country used to keep watch over the health of their country’s children.However,the rapid increase in population and decreased budget, it became evident that the current health system is inconsistent.The major problem was the absence of a system common to the whole nation.No exact records were available for the children with proper vaccination and the type of vaccines they have recieved.And all the other important information such as weight and past medical history of the children is also not available.

 what information do you need to find out about the Child Health Information System to develop a detailed understanding of the current system?

 An extended and detailed information is needed to understand the current system to enhance and develop a new potential Health Information System.We have to know about all the Health Centres working in that country including their name ,identity name,contact(fax and phone)and the population covered by the Health Centre.All the children information have to be collected which includes child name,a unique identity number,age,gender,school and their grade .Child vaccination information is the one other category which should consists vaccine type on a particular visit to the health centre.Different types of vaccines necessary to prevent diseases.The other important information is the specific reason for the medical visit in which weight should be noted and disease that has been cured and the severity.The types of diseases that are common in children in that country should also be find out.