Software Systems Development (SSD) Summary

SSD Revision Notes
Reasons for Systems Development
Reasons for Project Initi ati on
 Changing a business process
 A new strategic direction for the business
 A new requirement for information due to changing laws
 Need to replace an aging system

Reasons for Project Failure
 Poor project specification
 Unrealistic timescales
 Inappropriate staff
 Insufficient involvement by senior management
 Failure to manage user expectations
 Failure to manage change required

Purpose of the Business Case Document
The business case document is a formally written document that provides the justification
for proceeding with a given project.

 Its purpose is to define what the project is intended to achieve
 Examines expected benefits
 Used to set expected costs
 Describes potential impacts of the project on the organisation.

Acti viti es performed during Project Initi ati on
 Develop a Business Case
 Undertake a feasibility study
 Appoint the project team
 Set up the project office




Methods of gathering informati on about the current system

,  Staff interviews
o Ensures the solution will solve company-wide issues. Makes sure the system is
suitable for those that use it every day
o Interviewing every member of staff is both costly and time-consuming
 Examining current system documentation
o This will help the systems analyst identify data requirements and current input and
output of the current system
o Analysing documents is time-consuming and tedious and does not provide feedback
from users of the system
 Questionnaires
o This is an inexpensive method that gather information from a lot of people over a
large area very quickly.
o They do not produce detailed answers. It is also common for users to misunderstand
questions and therefore not answer as expected, affecting the accuracy of the
results
 Observation of the current system in use
o The analyst is able to notice any problems or bottlenecks in daily practices. The
analyst can spot problems in both the ICT system and business practices and can
verify results obtained from interviews or questionnaires.
o Observation is time-consuming and people often behave differently if they know
that they are being watched. The analyst may also not be able to obtain feedback
from users with this method.

Purpose of a Feasibility Study
The Feasibility Study is used to decide what is or is not possible in a project. It will include:

 Technical feasibility – is the technology available for the suggested solution to be
implemented?
 Economic feasibility – are the development and running costs affordable?
 Legal feasibility – for example, does it breach the Data Protection Act?
 Operational feasibility – is the proposed system viable in daily use?
 Social feasibility – for example, it might pose a health hazard, breach the ethics of the
community or be hampered by a lack of available qualified personnel

Job descripti on of a Systems Analyst
 Communicate with customers and stakeholders to learn and document requirements in
order to create a technical specification
 Interact and coordinate with developers and stakeholders
 Help perform system testing
 Deploy the system
 Help with technical documentation like manuals
 Deliberate over post-project assessment




Job descripti on of a Programmer