Failure Solutions in System Development - Case Study Example

The two articles identify the reasons for system failure and offer solutions to the problems. HCi journal starts by giving an analysis of Standish Group reports which indicates that there are high chances that an IT project will fail and others go overboard in terms of the initial budget, therefore there are concerns about how to solve the problem.

Lack of user involvement has been proven to be a major cause of system failure. The failure of the system will be defined as not meeting the expectations of the users where what has been developed is very different from what the users expected. The article offers a solution the actual users of the system must fully participate in the development life cycle right from the beginning this warrants that no system requirements are misunderstood. Users can participate by developing a prototype system and presenting it to them; they will be able to give their opinion about every aspect of the system. A prototype system is a mock-up system that represents an interface to the users showing them what is expected of the proposed system.

Having a long or unrealistic time scale is another factor that causes system failure because the product and services delivered may not be needed by the organization. Technology keeps changing very fast having software developed within a long period such as ten years for large projects or five years for the small project may lead to failure if, by the time a system is delivered, the technology is no longer in use by the organization or not relevant in the competitive market. The article indicates that having a short period is very important to achieving systems that are within the current technology and desirable. Large projects should therefore be divided into separate projects whereby each is handled as a completely separate project and later integrated with the other modules. An unrealistic timescale is where a large project with a lot of tasks is assigned in a short period by managers who want quick results. Such instances result in a faulty software system. The solution offered in the articles is that proper planning should be done and appropriate computer-aided software engineering tools should be used in coming up with a schedule to come up with a realistic time scale.

Software development a project with poor system requirements creates a scenario where developers design the system they think is required without having proper business knowledge. The resulting system does not work according to the user’s expectations and requirements hence system failure. The article acknowledges that this is closely related to the involvement of the users in the development of the system but it differs by taking a step further demanding that what the users want is precisely stated and captured by the system.  Therefore intensive system requirement engineering process must be carried out thoroughly.

Scope Creep is also an area that has led to system failure. For instance, is a customer management system that only stores customers' details but in the development process managers discover that the system will also have to carry out bill tasks, this is a management issue where all the requirements of the system must be stipulated a contract form so that developers will not be given additional requirements later.

During the system testing developers and users are given a chance to test the system before it becomes operational, in most cases this task led to system failure when the requirement were poor and cannot be tested if their test is done poorly without proper planning when users are not well trained to understand the meaning of system testing and also it can fail if the time allocated for training is not adequate. Therefore carefully designed and planned tests, adequate time for training, and adequate time for carrying out test activities are therefore the solutions to this factor that causes system failure.