Method for Systems Development - Term Paper Example

 «System Developer is Required to Understand the Information Needs and Culture or an Organization» Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 System Developer is Required to Understand the Information Needs and the Culture of an Organization 2 Introduction 2 Identifying Information within an Organization 3 Culture and Human Activity in Systems Development 7 Method for Systems Development 9 Role of Systems Developer 12 Conclusion 14 References 14 System Developer is Required to Understand the Information Needs and the Culture of an Organization Introduction System developer plays a crucial role in development of an information system for an organization. A system developer has many roles in terms of development of a system. With the changing society, the system developer is required to analyze all the informational needs and culture of the organization so that he/she can develop a system that is well liked and according to the wants of the organization and its users. There are many problems when the system developer tries to identify the information employed in the organization. There can be people in the organization who are not in the favour of system development because they are threatened in terms of the continuity of their jobs. With the current system, they consider themselves quite skilled and for new system, training is required. There can be hindrances in terms of obtainment of information. The users can also hide confidential information from the system developer due to which, the newly developed system will be somewhat lacking in terms of the required output. There are also jargons of a work place due to which, identification of information can be problematic. A system developer is required to understand the culture and human activities in developing a system. By comprehending the culture, the system developer will be able to develop the system according to the needs of the users. System development takes place by means of a system development lifecycle, which helps the system developer to move in a structured manner. By proceeding from one stage to other, the developed system is according to the needs of the users because users are involved in the structured approach of development. CASE tools are employed for system development and these tools make the process of system development quite easy for the users as well as for system developer. With the help of CASE tools, the cultural and human interaction in an organization are revealed and recorded due to which, the developed system is up to the mark according to the user. The role of system developer has changed a lot with the new requirements of the organizations. Now, the system developer is required to get detailed information about the culture, user, organization and recent used system. The system developer is required to make a communicative linkage with the users to get the detailed specification of the system and the organization. Identifying Information within an Organization An organization comprises various functional departments such as accounts and finance, marketing, sales, administration, production and many others, which pass on information between them by means of a networked system. Information is needed to enable a business to produce and sell its products, to assist decision-making and to enable controls to be effected, both at the functional level and overall. Since the advent of computers, the major provider of information to the organization at all levels has been the computer department itself due to which, computer departments have changed their names from Data Processing to Information Systems (Blanchard and Fabrycky 2006). Information is considered as a corporate asset for the organization. The function of Information Systems department is to collect data and process it into information. Information plays an important role in the organizational setup. System Developer has a crucial role in developing the information systems. He should be aware of the information needs and the culture of the organization because due to this knowledge and understanding, he/she is able to develop a system that is able to fulfil all the needs of the organization wholesomely. The system already operative in the organization and its informational needs require to be analyzed so that the newly developed information system is according to the needful (Post and Anderson 2006). The problem with information retrieval can be that for certain outputs, there can be problem with input data due to which, there is inability to get required information. While obtaining information from an organization in the development of an information system, the system developer can face many problems such as the workers can hide some information from him/her in lieu of organizational security; some workers feel that the newly developed system will create problems for their continuation of job due to which, they appear to be a hindrance in obtainment of information; there can wrong information availability due to which, the developed system can be erroneous and there can be problems in understanding all the informational needs of the organization (Johnson 1976). When the software developer gets in touch with the information of the organization’s system wholesomely, he/she is able to develop an informational system that is up to the mark and provides the outputs that are required by the organization. System developer’s involvement in the information related to the organization helps him/her in terms of understanding and selecting the right methodology for the development of the information system. In an organization, the information flows in three primary modes that are horizontal information flow, external information flow and line structure information flow (Cummings 2006). The line structure information flow is such that all the instruction passes from upper management to lower management and then to the staff members while instruction when changes to information, it moves from the staff to lower management and then to the upper management. An up and down hierarchy is adopted for information deliverance. Horizontal information flows between people at similar levels in the hierarchy. Often horizontal information flows are informal and include interaction such as rumour and gossip (Post and Anderson 2006). External information flows from outside the organization. It can consist of transactions such as customers’ orders, suppliers’ invoices and information about any environmental activity. Again, external information flows can also be informal. An organization is structured into different levels such as top management, middle management and supervisory management or lower management. At top management level, information tends to be ill structured, ad hoc, informal, external, uncertain and concerned with the future. At middle management level, information is more structured, formal, internal, regular, certain and concerned with the near future. At supervisory management level or lower management level, information is repetitive, programmable, largely internal and has a very short time horizon (Friedman 1989). Therefore, the purpose of information changes according to the level at which, it is aimed. Supervisory or lower level management requires day to day personal performance information, machine information and information material usage. At middle management level, this can be combined and summarized into exception reports, personnel, equipment or materials above or below accepted levels and comparisons against budget (Blanchard and Fabrycky 2006). At the top management level, middle management information can be combined and summarized and also perhaps at this stage, projections or forecasts are produced. While developing an information system, the system developer should be able to identify the information in an organization and should also be aware of various organizational levels that are going to employ the newly developed information system and for that purpose, he/she has to go through many problems that he/she can face during information systems development (Friedman 1989). In various organizations, the presence and flow of information can be varied and the system developer is required to gain awareness and understanding of the specific information employed in a particular setting. The type of information required for system development is job tasks undertaken by users; goals of individuals and resolution of conflicts between goals; constraints on tasks such as budgets, timescales, staff, etc; performance feedback; sources of help when difficulties are encountered; interruptions and bottlenecks; variations in workload and how coped with; differences in work organization across user locations and flexibility and autonomy for staff organizing their own work (Tudor 1997). The system developer should gain awareness to the jargons employed in the organization in order to fain information for system development. Culture and Human Activity in Systems Development In system development, organizational culture and human activities in the organization play a crucial role. An organization’s culture is rarely completely homogenous. In a hierarchal organization, in which divisional or departmental heads may control huge baronies, the culture may vary considerably from one to another (Cummings 2006). This is a major cause of friction; one department may be focussed on satisfying the customer, whereas another may see optimizing its production planning as far more important. Such differences may be heightened by management behaviour in particular the reward scheme. If one department is rewarded by prompt deliveries and another on optimized production, the opportunity for discord are enormous (Friedman 1989). However, productive your discussions about mission, directions and strategy, operating with conflicting targets is as inefficient as an army which has different interpretations of who the enemy is and how is he to be attacked! However, many organizations operate without any attempt at a coherent, if not uniform culture. As more and more organizations enter into long and short time alliances and interdependences, the need to manage cultural differences become ever more vital (Lucas 1975). The first step towards effective management is, as always, identification of the problem. The types of cultures found in the organizations are generally four in number which are power culture, role culture, task culture and person culture. All of these cultures are different so a system developer needs to be fully aware of the culture adopted in an organization because he/she is involved in developing a system that is going to be used by the people of the organization that follow the respective culture. Generally small entrepreneurial organizations which revolve around a central power source have power culture. In such cultures, there are often few rules and procedures and the organization besides being power-oriented, tends to be risk-taking. Role culture is exemplified by bureaucracies and organized by function and speciality and in such cultures, there are many rules and procedures that should be followed by the workers of the organization (Johnson 1976). Task culture is adopted in project based matrix organizations which place a heavy emphasis on getting job done; a suitable organization would be a team of experts, often decentralized (Cummings 2006). Such cultures are adaptable, flexible and externally focussed. As far as person culture is concerned, it is prevalent in small professional organizations, revolving around individuals, and often with the little formal structure (Johnson 1976). Identification of culture type in an organization is very essential for the system developer and there are certain aspects that are associated to the culture of the organization which are: degree of customer focus; relationships, communication and participation; accountability, measurement and targets; degree of empowerment; degree of restlessness; attitude towards change and innovation; approach to cost and cost reduction; commitment and loyalty of staff and impact of and reaction to technology (Friedman 1989). Understanding organizational culture cannot be underestimated. The system developer has to know and understand an organizational culture because the developed system will be easily adjusted in the organization because of the cultural awareness of the system developer. If the system developer fails to understand the culture of the organization and the activities of the people working there, he/she also develops a system that is considered difficult and not adjustable according to the culture of the organization (Lucas 1975). The system developer should learn about the organizational culture and the activities and tasks performed by the workers to develop a system that is according to the needs of the people of organization. Systems are developed for users. They should be safe, efficient, functional and easy and enjoyable to use. Human-computer interaction (HCI) addresses these areas by concentrating on the user, the user’s job and the work environment (Cummings 2006). The system developer needs to familiarize himself with these aspects before developing a system for users’ needs and requirements in an organization. Users are people! They differ in height, weight, mindsets; they are quiet, noisy, motivated, prejudiced, etc. they can be capable of great feats. The users should not be expected to fit in with the system, the system should be developed for the user (Post and Anderson 2006). The system developer needs to find out who will use the system and what they will use it for. The names and jobs of these users should be identified and recorded. The system developer should inevitably require a detailed understanding of the users and their capabilities within the affected area of the organization (Tudor 1997). This has obvious implications in end-user job design. The system developer can collect information about people and their jobs by observation, discussion, questionnaires and interviewing. Method for Systems Development System development takes place in form of a lifecycle. The reason behind following a lifecycle approach for the development of a system is that the system developer goes through a structured and planned setup for the development of a system. He/she moves from one stage to another for the development of a system and the resulting system is up to the required standard of the organization and its workers. Before inaugurating the process of new system development, the system developer is required to make a decision on the initial strategy. The strategy adopted by the system development team working under the system developer will be part of and derived from the overall company strategy plans (Blanchard and Fabrycky 2006). For developing a system, a series of questions are required to be answered. These questions include: Who will be involved? What are the boundaries of the area to be studied? How long should the initial study take? When will the decision be taken on whether or not to proceed further? The feasibility study, lasting a few man-days, will be carried out by an experienced system developer who produces a feasibility report. This describes the scope of the new system and contains estimates of the time, cost and benefits which would result from the developing system (Friedman 1989). This report will form the basis of the first decision. Detailed work will then commence if the project is to continue. The next two stages, user requirements analysis and existing system analysis may be carried out in parallel but they are quite distinct activities. The user requirements analysis stage will produce detailed information concerning what the proposed system would or should do (Cummings 2006). The result of the existing system analysis stage is an accurate record of the current system operating in the organization. The system specification stage involves the production of a complete written or drawn statement of what the new system is required to do. There must be no implication of how it is to be done, only a statement of what is to be done, expressed in a way which is comprehensible to both the user and system developer (Olle, et. al 1991). From an agreed specification, system developer can start. This involves a consideration of how the work will be done. As a result, one or more possible systems will be identified and another decision point is reached. The decision to be made is which, if any of the possible systems will be developed? If development goes ahead, the next stage begins. System development includes either in-house programming or the selection and installation of suitable packaged software, and the production of user procedures (Cummings 2006). Throughout development, and as a separate stage after development is complete, thorough testing is required and is very essential. Testing is not entirely contained within a separate stage, but follows every step of development. After adequate testing, implementation of the new system takes place. After implementation, maintenance is also needed. Errors must be corrected that come up during checking and analysis (Olle, et. al 1991). The developed system needs to be reviewed time by time for correct updated working. All the stages that are described above are very crucial in the development of an information system. Structured methods for the development of a system are very essential because with them the system developer can produce effective solution to a business problem, which requires the use of a computer system and a set of techniques with which to do this (Friedman 1989). The adopted method should aid communication between all those involved with system development such as management, users and system developer. It should provide a set of techniques so that the tasks can be performed in a standard way, using proven ways of working. It should provide for an effective review to identify errors earlier in the system lifecycle rather than later (Friedman 1989). It should permit flexible business and technology changes by, for example, separating the design phase from analysis phase of the system development. It should enshrine a development strategy to eliminate ‘ad-hoc’ problem solving. It should indicate when and to what extent user involvement is required, encouraging and enabling it to occur and lastly, it should ensure that sufficient effort is put into the analysis of the business so that the system delivered addresses business and user requirements appropriately (Friedman 1989). CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering) is an engineering process of system development with the help of which, all the above stated tasks are fulfilled. Through this methodology, the CASE tools are employed for developing a system. The CASE tools aid the system developer in developing a system and follow all the aspects required for system development (Blanchard and Fabrycky 2006). CASE tools provide support for software design via the automation of a software system development method. The provided tools assist in capturing requirements and recording, data modelling and database design, testing, documentation, configuration management and version control and all other tasks of system development (Olle, et. al 1991). CASE tools help in the understanding and comprehension of culture and human interaction with computer systems due to which, they make the process of system development quite accommodating for the user as well as the system developer. Role of Systems Developer The role of system developer is very crucial in terms of system development and all the discussion that is done earlier on indicates that system development is a task that is incomplete without system developer. The role of system developer is changing with information needs of the organizations working in automated environments. The system developer has to develop a communicative link with the workers of the organization for which, he/she is developing the system. The system developer has to classify the users on the basis of certain levels. The users can be categorized on the basis of user capability in terms of IT. The system developer has to analyze the users’ capability in terms of IT usage in which he/she has to analyze whether the users have any computer related awareness such as word processing, spreadsheets, electronic mail, etc (Blanchard and Fabrycky 2006). the system developer has also to analyze the users’ expectations of the new system. If the users’ expectations are high, they will be helpful and in case of low expectations, the users will create hindrance for system development. Some users may urgently require a new system for their work and are fully in favour of it while others may not like the idea regarding it as a threat to their job. The users of the newly developing system may also vary according to their degree of dedication. Some users make continuous use of the system, others may be casual users, e.g. department managers may only need to generate reports (Cummings 2006). There are also uncontrolled users such as the general public when using a Bank Cash Terminal, will need a very high level of help, they must be guided through each step of the operation and allowed to return to a previous step if they make a mistake. The system developer has also to analyze the users on the basis of organizational culture and standards. There may be company standards or practices in place for dealing with the public or customers. These must be adhered to by the system developer when developing a system. The system developer also needs to understand the environment of work and users in terms of the physical capabilities, language issues, knowledge needed to successfully complete a task, training received and training required, organizational position and other systems that will be used at the same time as the new one (Johnson 1976). The role of system developer is to get detailed information about the organization, its people, its environment, adopted culture, number of users and type of users. Conclusion System developer plays a very crucial role in the development of a system. The system developer is required to gain knowledge about information needs and culture of the organization so that the developed system is easily adjustable in the organization and also the users face no problem in shifting to it from their old system. The system developer is required to communicate with the users and has also to analyze the users and their expectations with the newly developed systems. The system developer may face problems with information collection related to organization because of jargons, hindrance from the workers and noncooperation. By knowing the culture and informational needs, the developed system will be successfully implemented in the organizational environment. References Blanchard, B. S. and Fabrycky, W. J 2006, Systems engineering and analysis, (4th ed.), Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Cummings, Haag 2006, Management Information Systems for the Information Age, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Toronto. Friedman, Andrew L 1989, Computer Systems Development: History, Organization and Implementation, John Wiley, New York. Lucas, H 1975, Why Information Systems Fail, Columbia University Press, New York. Johnson, Richard Arvid 1976, Management, systems, and society: an introduction, Goodyear Publications, Pacific Palisades, California. Olle, T. William, Henk, G. Sol and Ian, G. MacDonald 1991, Information Systems Methodologies; A Framework for Understanding, (2nd ed.), Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA. Post, G. and Anderson, D 2006, Management information systems: Solving business problems with information technology, (4th ed.), McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York. Tudor, D. J 1997, System Analysis and Design-A Comparison of Structured Methods, MacMillan Press Ltd, London. Read More