3.7 developing ict solutions
- 1. 3.7 Developing ICT Solutions
- 3. 1. There are 4 key factors that may aid successful ICT development, what are they? 2. How can ‘Management and end user involvement’ aid development success? 3. How does having ‘realistic expectations’ aid development success? 4. How can having ‘professional standards’ aid development success? 5. How can ‘good teamwork’ aid development success? 6. There are 6 key factors that may cause an ICT development to fail, what are they? 7. How can ‘inadequate analysis’ cause a development to fail? 8. How can ‘poor design’ cause a development to fail? 9. How can ‘inappropriate testing’ cause a development to fail? 10. How can ‘poorly organised installation and changeover’ cause a development to fail? 11. How can ‘poor user support and maintenance’ cause a development to fail? 12. How can ‘poor project management’ cause a development to fail?
- 4. 1. Management and end user involvement 2. Realistic expectations 3. Professional standards 4. Good teamwork
- 5. Users at all levels of an organisation are valuable to the analysis (requirements) and testing (user manual and proposed solution) stages of the development process. Operational staff should not be underestimated in terms of understanding and contribution Developers should not assume they know what each user requires, they should simply ask
- 6. Developers should be honest with management and not suggest that unrealistic solutions can be created. A clear specification should ensure all parties are clear of the requirements and aims of the solution. Time frame and budget should also be realistic ◦ Consider adequate timings for development, testing and training.
- 7. The development team need to be highly skilled, have an appropriate attitude and not ‘cut corners’ The development should be well documented and follow industry standard methods Doing the above will ensure thoroughness
- 8. Most projects are team projects Good communication, leadership, appropriate allocation of tasks, adequate planning and scheduling and adherence to standards will ensure an affective solution is developed.
- 9. 1. Inadequate analysis 2. Poor design 3. Inappropriate testing 4. Poorly organised installation and changeover 5. Poor user support and maintenance 6. Poor project management
- 10. Lack of detail and thoroughness could prove costly later on The systems analyst is responsible for identifying any problems and reporting them to the client Any implications must be clearly explained
- 12. Designs that don’t consider the analysis will fail Designing inappropriate interfaces could frustrate users later on
- 13. Choice of inappropriate test data and test types would result in system failure later on Insufficient time to conduct thorough testing can cause failure later on ◦ You should not underestimate the importance and time required to do this Failure to conduct certain tests e.g. user guide documentation
- 14. Poor managed installation and wrong choice of changeover technique could result in disgruntled and confused employees Lack of training after the changeover could also have a negative impact on staff moral
- 15. A good support and maintenance team can support staff with any misconceptions A good support and maintenance team can support the new system if there are any glitches (instantly) Without the above staff are left to fend for themselves
- 16. Poor management can lead to ‘mission creep’, increased costs, over scheduling Good project management methods are discussed in the next chapter What is key is identifying and tackling problems as they arise, allocating sufficient time to each stage of the development process and good staff allocation