Information System Development and Knowledge-Based Systems - Essay Example

Running head: Information System Development Information System Development Systems are usually designed with users’ needs in mind because they are at the end of the chain of systems development. Users are usually specific in what they require in systems because of their different needs. However, it is not easy to always determine what users need. Users might also not be too sure about what they want or their needs might be too complex for a system to be created. Users’ needs are also dynamic and tend to change at a very fast pace, meaning that more dynamic or flexible systems have to be created. System developers can create new systems according to the needs of users on request or they can have foresight and anticipate users’ needs then create systems with this in mind (Whetten 2002, p. 45-71,). As systems are created by human beings, they cannot be entirely perfect, but trying to reach perfection and minimizing errors should be priority when creating systems. This is because users tend to move on fast from systems that are prone to failures, errors and mistakes, thus running the reputation of firms creating such systems and wasting time and money. With this in mind, system developers should strive to get as many details as possible about users’ needs in order to create systems in line with their needs, and one that works efficiently to meet these needs and requirements. Development of systems usually follows a systematic set of steps in order to ensure that systems produced work in accordance with the way they were supposed to. Missing any step in the development might lead to errors that could easily be avoided. These steps also make it easy to pinpoint where mistakes have been made, hence it is easy to go back and rectify the errors, rather than tearing down the whole system to find the error. The order of steps in system development begins with a feasibility study to determine if the system is worth creating in the first place or not. After the worthiness of the project has been established, the planning process is next. Planning involves setting goals, timelines and determining all the necessities required in order for the project to be carried out successfully. Planning also involves coming up with a budget, creation of a team that will be in charge of the project, assigning of duties to the various team members, determining the chain of commands and to whom progress of the project will be reported, determining external; players and partners and the parts they will be playing in the project and sorting out other details. Failing to plan on any aspect touching the development of a system will have disastrous effects on the whole project (Blanchard & Fabrycky 2006). Systems analysis is a step that involves looking into the current systems in order to determine what users want that is not in these systems, then going ahead to create systems that give users what they need and require. After this has been determined, the system has to be designed, with the needs of users in mind and other anticipated needs (Caspi et al. 2005). In the designing of the system, several aspects are considered including detailed descriptions of its main features and how they work, screen layouts, business principles, legalities involved and other forms of documentation. This part is where the load of the work lies. After this is the implementation stage. Here, the code that is unique to the system being built is written. Code writing involves various numerical, alphabets and symbols that should not be easy to crack or identify by unauthorized users or authorities. Next is the integration of all the various separate parts of the system, as developed by the different people in the team, in order to make a whole part. The integration step involves the setting up of the system and testing it in order to determine if the end product is as required, to check for errors and potential weak points that might lead to the system not operating. Any errors found are rectified at this stage, and the team suggests ways in which the system can further be improved to make it friendlier to use by the end users. Finally, the system is actually installed and put out to carry out business in the real world. After installation, constant monitoring has to be done to ensure that the system is working at optimum level. Constant maintenance is also required, which involves upgrading of parts, removal of redundant parts, corrections that are noted later and changes that need to be carried out. This stage is a perpetual one, unless the system is replaced by another one that is better and more efficient, then all the steps above have to be gone through again. Elicitation techniques are an important step in the development of any system. They help in the collection of data and their arrangement in order to create systems. Various elicitation methods can be used, as listed below. One elicitation method used in system development is the use of interviews. In this method, the interviewer asks an expert or the end user a number of questions pertaining to their requirements, and the user answers accordingly. This can be done face to face, through telephones, via internet chatting, video conferencing or through use of telephones, whichever method is cheaper, less time consuming and convenient for all parties involved. Its advantages include it is the oldest form of elicitation methods, there is more clarity as more details can be gotten and it is easier to collect qualitative data through use of interviews. However, it has disadvantages such as it takes a lot of time and it can be expensive because it involves movement of people from one place to another or the use of expensive equipment like computers or telephones (Sajja & Akerkar 2010, p. 1-11). The second elicitation method common in system development is Group Task analysis. Under this technique, various experts in the area being discussed sit down, discuss and brainstorm in order to solve a problem or come up with an efficient system. The experts can have the same expertise or be in different fields but those which affect the system being developed, for instance in IT and legal departments. The advantage of this method is that different points of view are put forward and built upon or discarded and that the thought process being documented can be used for future referencing to determine performance of the system being built. Its disadvantages include that it also involves a lot of time, it is difficult to do an analysis of the sessions and the experts may not reach an agreeable stand in the discussion. Another common elicitation method used in development of systems is use of questionnaires, where different and randomly-picked users are given questionnaires with questions enquiring about their needs for systems. The questions might be open-ended, multiple-choice or dichotomous ones requiring one to answer yes or no. questionnaires tend to cover large numbers of people and collect information and different opinions from a diverse group of people. It is advantageous in that it can be used to collect quantitative data and it is easy to code. Its disadvantages include the fact that people may not necessarily give honest answers, it takes a lot of time, it may not necessarily give highly quality results and that they are not easy to analyze. The final elicitation method used in system development is a Wants and Needs analysis. In this method, various experts and users discuss the various needs and wants they require in systems. They cover different aspects of needs that are relevant to the society at large (Lee & Varaiya 2003). The sessions are usually intensive and involve large groups of people. Its advantages include large numbers of ideas are conceived, brings into focus other ideas and the prioritizing of needs and wants through categorizing whether they are needs or wants. Its advantages include it is time-consuming and the needs and wants discussed may not be realistically possible to create. In order to develop efficient systems, developers have to choose the elicitation method that best suits their situation at the time, the needs of the users and the system they are required to create. Knowledge types also form an integral part in the development of systems development. Knowledge can be represented with components like facts, heuristic and rules. Heuristic methods are more of a rule of thumb that can be applied to different situations in order to solve problems. One form of knowledge type used in systems development includes domain knowledge. As the name suggests, this type of knowledge is developed by experts for a particular domain. This type of knowledge is created to solve particular problems that are faced by users and experts, and are specific to only those problems (Rumbaugh et al. 2004). Therefore, in order to solve other problems not specific to the particular system, one has to use a different knowledge type, hence a different system. This is the disadvantage of using domain knowledge. However, experts are making progress in developing knowledge domains that can perform more than one task, hence making it easy to use a single system for multiple uses. The second type of knowledge is Meta knowledge. This kind of knowledge is described as knowledge about knowledge. It is mostly used as a guide to future planning or used in the installation stage of system development. Meta knowledge provides data on the knowledge that a system possesses, how efficient it is and gives the rates of success and failure of past systems. Another knowledge type in systems development is common sense knowledge, which is derived from human beings. It specifies the usual order of things including obvious knowledge and actions (Akerkar & Sajja 2009). Heuristic knowledge, is a specific rule of thumb in a system, and is retrieved from drawn from past events and their solutions. Another knowledge type is explicit knowledge, which can be expressed in numbers, symbols or letters and is shared among users in the form of manuals, universal and general formulas and many other forms. This type of knowledge is usually organized and formal in its usage. Tacit knowledge is another type of knowledge and the most human of all. It comprises of emotions, the subconscious, dreams, intuition and other human attributes that cannot be easily imitated and put into a system or computers. It is the most complex forms of knowledge and what differentiates humans and computers, since the latter do not have emotions nor can they feel. Knowledge-based systems are created from these types of knowledge, depending on the uses that users require. These systems are built in such a way that there is an inference engine within in that uses built in knowledge and their own self learning abilities that decode queries from the user and have a user interface to respond to these queries. These systems are therefore intelligent ones, based on the type of knowledge input in them and their own abilities to decipher queries. They make it easier to solve problems considered generally difficult or complex to the human brain. Analysis, as earlier said, is an integral part of systems development. Analysis involves setting of goals and other parameters used in the development of systems. There are various types of analyses used in systems development, again depending on the needs of the users and the type of system being created. One of these is causal analysis. This type of analysis is a new one in analysis of information systems. It stems from the fact that every action is caused by something and that most reactions are as a result of other actions. This means that events that lead to reactions in others are correlated in a way. Therefore, this is a cause and effect analysis that is used to determine how elements in a system affect each other using a causal path. It is also used to establish what elements are not related to each other and the extent to which those that relate affect each other and in which way they do so (Bento 2004, p.3-4). This analysis uses various assumptions in order to achieve its goals, for instance that an element in a system can only affect another and cause it to move in only one direction, not in two opposing directions. The second analysis that is used in development of systems is risk analysis. This analysis is important in determining the kinds of risks that a system might face. These may include operational risks, functional risks, financial risks and technology risks. Technological risks are those that may render a system redundant because the new technologies may not necessarily be compatible with the system, making it important to create systems that are flexible enough to be used with advanced technologies without being rendered un-operational (Panda 2001, p.75-80). Risk analysis involves coming up with all kinds of risks that a system might face, both specific and general, and coming up with measures that can mitigate, reduce or completely eliminate these risks. Some risks, however, have to remain in systems because they cannot be completely eliminated and do not pose very big threats. Data analysis of the data collected is also very important. Data analysis can be in form of simple descriptive statistics or more complex statistical inference, depending on the type of system to be created, its intended use and the users’ requirements. The above analyses depend on whether the variables being used are single, bivariate or multivariate. The more variables there are, the more complex the analysis becomes hence the more complex a system will be. This needs careful collection of data to get accurate results. Content analysis is also important. It helps in establishing whether all the data that has been collected is relevant to the system being created. Content that is not useful is discarded, while useful content is integrated into the system to create a more appropriate information system. Decision analysis is also imperative in developing an information system. It involves analyzing decisions that have been made in light of all information and risks available. Decision trees are a good way of analyzing decisions that have been made and how they will affect the options and outcomes in the future. A lot of caution has to be taken in decision making as this could mean the success or breaking of an information systems project. Information systems are man made and therefore prone to break downs once in a while, no matter how well the system was made or how efficient it was working before. Therefore constant maintenance is something users should consider in order to save time and money and to lessen the stress they will undergo if their system completely breaks down. Furthermore, there is the risk of losing important data should that happen. However, if the system was created using the necessary steps in its development, it may be easy for the maintenance experts to locate the specific trouble point and fix the problem without having to dismantle the entire system. However, with the knowledge and experienced gathered over time on potential trouble spots in different systems, experts can advance into creating systems that can either rectify these problems themselves or avoid these problems all together. Users would appreciate systems such as these because the maintenance costs will not only be lower, but the systems’ efficiency levels will also be high enough to allow users to do more work in much less time periods than with problematic systems. With the advancement of technology, users also require systems that can multi-task and stand the test of time by withstanding the harsh realities of changing technologies without becoming redundant. Furthermore, users want faster systems that can be compatible with different operating systems and advanced technologies. In a fast-paced world where how fast delivery occurs is a very important consideration for information systems, users’ needs are becoming more and more demanding and scaling levels not thought of before. This puts a lot of pressure on researchers and information systems experts to be more imaginative in creating such systems for users (Cummings 2006). In addition, the world of technology and information systems is very competitive and any firm worth its salt is better off coming up with more innovative products for users, otherwise they will fade into oblivion. In conclusion, serving the interests of users is the most important end result of the creation of any information system. Information systems, therefore, need not only to be efficient but also user friendly. Complex systems are not attractive to users as they want to spend the most minimum of times trying to figure out the system, and more of it carrying out their businesses using the systems, because that is what the systems were created to do. Anticipating users’ needs and delivering it before the users know what they want helps to encourage innovations and put information systems experts ahead of their competitors. In reality, users do not necessarily know what they want and this gap can create opportunities for experts to come up with ways to surprise users with interesting and useful information systems. References Akerkar, R.A. and Sajja, P.S. 2009. Knowledge-based systems. Sudbury, A, USA ; Jones & Bartlett Publishers,. Bento, R. 2004. The Use of Causal Analysis Techniques in Information Systems Research: A Methodological Note. Journal of Information Technology Management, 15. Pp.3-4. Blanchard, B. S., & Fabrycky, W. J. 2006. Systems engineering and analysis (4th ed.) 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