What Is Systems Development Life Cycle - Report Example

?Case Study, Stage 4: Decision Paper for System Deployment Business Problem Information and communication technology is fast advancing and this is nohidden fact. But as far as Hillside School is concerned, this claim may be quite doubtful. This is because Hillside School; the Midwestern United States Private School that has existed for over twenty (20) years now does not have an information system that ranks the standard of modern technology. It is not surprising therefore that the school seems to struggle with overall growth. This is said because the present information system does not satisfy the pedigree of advanced administration and this is indeed a mature weakness of the existing information system. Presently, the school has two payment models, which are the fixed tuition fee system and the after care school payment. In both instances, there are variations with how much parents would pay; especially with the after care fee. With the tuition fee, the difference in amount of money to pay comes in as a result of existing discount systems for parents who qualify and fall within discount criteria. With the after school system, the difference comes in how many hours a student would be engaged in the system. This means that the billing system is complicated because of the differences. However, the billing system is typically manual whereby parents have to make payments directly to the vice principal and in her office. One other situation that creates a bit of difficulty with the present billing and information system; apart from its manual nature is that the payment procedure allows for two modes of payments, which are paying in bulk and paying in installment. Generally, this involves high cost and time for the vice principal in keeping records of various times of billing that payments are made. But for the inability of the information system to handle complex processes including the billing system of the school, the school would have grown beyond its present grade 3 level. The fact of the case is that because the information system is highly manual and complicated, the administrative term of the school hardly have any extra time to undertake administration programs that are centered on growth and expansion. If the principals and administrative term had for the past twenty (20) years dealt with something more advanced and modern, they would have spent less time managing the billing system of the school such that they could have concentrated their time on publishing for the physical expansion of the school. Diagrammatically, the billing and information system uses Microsoft Excel software that contain the following data about students and payments. Student Name Parent Name discount on fixed fees Monthly fixed tuition fee Monthly fixed after-care fee Discounted fixed fees Monthly “drop-in” fees Total monthly fee Payment received Amount paid to date Amount outstanding Business Process Improvement The shortcoming of the old system is its manual nature, which makes working on the billing system cumbersome, difficult and time consuming. It was indeed based on these shortcoming and weaknesses that the new information and billing system was designed. The new billing system embraces and encompasses the new approach to technological development because it has its entire operational component rooted in technological operations. This is to say that there is virtually no need and use of manual manipulations to get the new system to run or start and complete a billing process. The new billing system is typically an online process that gives parents the pleasure of making payments from the comfort of their homes and offices. This means that there is a major advantage whereby the need to walk distances from people’s home to the school to make payment has been eliminated. The role of the vice principal to spend almost three quarters of her duties and time in the school overseeing the payment of fees will also stop. This means that there is going to be more time for the school to concentrate on its new expansion project to include grades 4, 5, and 6 in its school setup system. The time and money spent on the old billing system can now be channeled to publicity and promotions. With the new system, all parents need is an access to a credit card or a bank account. The new system makes room for voluminous handling of payment and numerical data. This is because this time round, it is the non-manipulative software that will collect, handle and distribute data. Unlike before when the vice principal had to mathematically manipulate figures to make sure that parents who qualified for discounts were duly covered for the numerous payment formats, the new system comes with a one off identification system. In the one off identification system, parents are given special identities in the form of personal identification number (PIN), which identifies parents as to whether they qualify for any discounts or not. The personal identification number also identifies parents by the type of after-school service they register for. This means that the system identifies and knows the amount of fee that each parent is supposed to make and so even if they pay fees in installment, deductions that will determine outstanding debts to pay will not be difficult at all. All in all, there is a primary justification in sense of how the new system will help in reducing error. This is because the cumbersomeness of the system has been reduced. There is now no need for any person to make mathematical deductions and additions with discounts, afterschool service type and the like. SDLC design, development, and implementation The selection and implementation of any new system such as the one currently prescribed for the Hillside School billing system cannot be completed in the absence of Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) design, development and implementation. Systems development life cycle has been explained by the Search Software Quality (2011) as “a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in an information system development project, from an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application.” The system development life cycle is undertaken by the use of specific methodologies, which guide the project implementer on the specific procedures to use in achieving success and results. For the Hillside School new billing system project, the system development life cycle use was by the researcher was the Rapid Application Development Process commonly referred to as RAD process. Fundamentally, “the Rapid Application Development methodology was developed to respond to the need to deliver systems very fast” (Head, 2011). And this is the first justification for selecting the rapid application development process. From the case of Hillside School, it can be seen that the school is in urgent need of a new and improved billing system that will meet the demands of the school’s ever increasing task of fee paying system. The implementer could therefore not compromise on using methodologies that would cause delays. Another major justification is that is process is relatively cheaper and considering the fact that the school is hard pressed for money, there could not be any methodology better than this one. Generally, the rapid application development process works best in business scenarios where business objectives are well defined and generally narrow. It could be seen that the task that needed to be carried out for Hillside School was well defined in the sense that there was already an existing system that only needed to be improved or advanced. Secondly, the project is very narrow because it has to do with only one defined system and that is the payment system. This was not like in very big institutions where corporations where systems in several wide areas like human resource, finance, marketing and publicity all needed to be fixed. The researcher used already existing data from the old system in getting the new system done. This means that the researcher made use of data such as names of parents, discounts allowed to each parent and the afterschool time schedule selected by each parent. All in all, the project was undertaken through three major tasks or phases, which are given as prototyping where demonstrable results were first created at an early stage and later refined to meet a more pressing demand. Next was iteration, which “is a commitment to incremental development based on refinement. Prototyping and iteration go hand in hand” (Head, 2011). Finally, there was the time boxing, which is an implementation technique that focuses getting final deliveries done. The cycle of rapid application development process can be represented in a simplified diagram as follows: System Requirements Checklist Process: The system shall employ the use of two major payment systems, which shall be online and offline payment systems. This shall widen the payment scope and reach and make things more accessible to parents. The fact that there shall be options means that there is going to be a lot of freedom allowed to all manner of parents. However, the system will seek to fade off the offline payment system with time. Input: With the online payment system, parents shall have access to payment inputs through the use of bank payment where they shall pay through checks or pay via the use of credit cards. Offline input was going to be done directly at the school and in cash. Output: The output of the new software remains one of it major strengths. This is because the software will identify each parent with a unique pin that embodies all discounts due individual parents. For this reason, there will not be the need for cumbersome output calculations involving additions and subtractions. All that the software would have to put out is total amount of all payments. Performance: On the whole, the rapid application development process is not expected to have very complicated performance functionality. This not withstanding, the overall performance is expected to be very effective as it is expected that each parent will be given an automated generated personal identification number. The personal identification number shall be given at the beginning of the term and it cannot be changed till the end of a particular term. This is because the personal identification number shall work on a term basis whereby all discounts and aftercare schedule selected at the beginning of the term shall be used to determine how much each parent is supposed to pay. Control: The system shall be controlled by a special software consultant. The consultant would have to adjust the regulation of the system only on a term by term basis to meet the demands of parents who may be having to use new discount models. Use Case Diagrams for human interactions Kathy Gilliard Susan Brown After-care teachers User training User training for the new system will not be very difficult. This is because the system works on the basis of simplicity. The end users to receive training shall be the two principals, thus the major principal and the vice principal. The school shall also have to employ the services of information communication managers. Once the managers arrive, they shall also be part of the training program. The program shall seek to educate the participants on how to readjust the software to cater for the automatic generation of the personal identification number for parents. The readjustment shall be done on a term by term basis based on how much discount each teacher qualifies for in the coming term. In line with the fact that the users shall operate the software at the beginning of the term, the training program shall take place during vacations. Maintenance activities Maintenance of the new billing and payment system is very important. To this end, there shall be several forms of maintenance activities for the program. There shall be preventive maintenance that focuses on how the school can prevent any damage to the system or software. Such maintenance shall be directed towards the operations of the system that relates to things like power supply. Other forms of maintenance shall be corrective maintenance whereby mistakes and errors detected shall duly be corrected. Perfective maintenance shall focus on making the functions of the system improved, advanced and better. Finally, adaptive maintenance shall look into expanding the functionality of the system such that is can be adapted for use in other sectors of the running of the school. REFERENCE LIST Head G. (2011). Rapid Application Development Process. Retrieved October 27, 2011 from http://www.gantthead.com/content/processes/11306.cfm Search Software Quality (2011).What is systems development life cycle (SDLC)? Retrieved October 26, 2011 from http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/systems-development-life-cycle Read More