The Health Diet and Fitness Programs - Essay Example

Introduction The health Diet & Fitness programs are generally designed to simplify daily exercise, diet and wellness management. The information system of fitness system supports health data collection of fitness activities on a person-to-person and event-to-event basis and helps to track the status and progress of the treatment details. The general Fitness Center Management Services Include - Membership Management and Tracking, Prospect Management Tracking and Scheduling, Sales Lead Tracking and Custom Contracts, Front Counter and Check In Solutions, Workout Manager for Member Fitness Tracking, Data Entry for Information Management, Performance Reporting for Club Management, Health Club Business Modeling with Artificial Intelligence, Billing and Accounting System, Cash or Financial Accrual Reporting, Payroll and Commission Modeling for Clubs, Collections Solution for Overdue Payments, Data Exchange, Backup and Restore Need for the IS in Fitness Center: The Information management system of Fitness center automates the above functionalities and allows the users to choose their daily schedules and exercises, with pre-calculated measures and to - do lists. The Sophisticated system offers alerts on regular tests and cholesterol levels giving clarity on health progress. The users can also enter complete laboratory test results, inoculations and medications, which can be kept as their personal digital health record. The combination of weight readings, meals, exercise, supplement or medication, test results, personal notes and detailed one-step charts and graphs for grams of nutrients, calories consumed and burned, exercises, any measurement or test, medications or supplements taken and more. The IS can also be configured with more user-friendly features like alerts on upcoming tests, doctor appointments, tutor schedulers, due dates for payments and balances in accounts. Such type of IS offers integrated member information on a common platform through a real time integration of data resources. The potential areas for such type of IS include - Fitness Centers, Rock Climbing Gyms, MMA Training Centers, Traditional Gyms, Pilates & Yoga Studios, Karate, Golf, Swimming, Tennis Clubs, and the Aerobic Classes. Such systems planning can also help to manage Health Equipment stores. Purpose: The purpose of the Fitness Center Management module is to address the needs of health and fitness management institutes in tracking their visitors, fitness center members' information, payment, and equipment inventory and maintenance. Systems development Systems development is the activity of creating new systems or modifying existing ones. It refers to all aspects of the process from identifying problems to be solved or opportunities to be exploited to the implementation and refinement of the chosen solution. The information system to be established in an organization is considered as Project Management in development terms. The system development project is responsible for determining the objectives of the information system and delivering a system that meets these objectives. Many system development teams use a project manager to head the systems development effort and the project management approach to help coordinate the systems development process. A project is a planned collection of activities that achieves a goal, such as promoting the activities of fitness plant or developing a new decision support system. Besides completing the project on time and within the specified budget, the project manager is usually responsible for controlling a project's quality, training personnel, easing communications, managing risks, and acquiring any necessary equipment, including office supplies and sophisticated computer systems. The roles involved in IS of a Fitness center: Setting priorities and selecting projects typically requires the involvement and approval of senior management. When objectives are set, planners consider the resources necessary to complete the projects, including employees (systems analysts, programmers, and others), equipment (computers, network servers, printers, and other devices), expert advice (specialists and other consultants), and software, among others. The system gives an infrastructure to run the operations. People are one of the essential elements in system to optimize its operations. The role involved in Fitness Information system include, Line staff as well as system support people. The line staff includes the professional roles like- Fitness center Manager, Fitness Instructors, Fitness Coach, Fitness Advisors etc., The typical job description of a Fitness center Manager includes the below: Designing and promoting activities that will satisfy customer demand and generate revenue; Advertising and promoting the club or center to increase usage, which may include commissioning and considering market research; Organizing, training and supervising staff, including drawing up staff rota; Carrying out health and safety checks with equipment and plant and arranging the cleaning of all areas; Maintaining high levels of customer care and handling complaints, as necessary (customer care is paramount - a fitness center manager will need to consider the requirements of clients from all age groups and sectors of society, which may include those with disabilities or those who have been referred by a GP); Delivering fitness training (more common in smaller centers) - some managers elect to carry out small amounts of fitness training to maintain active contact with customers; Preparing and checking budgets and stock, and cashing up money; Writing monthly or weekly reports and preparing cash projections for management; Managing and constantly reviewing the fitness center timetable; Completing a wide range of other administrative tasks. Whereas many of the above managerial tasks needs to be systematized, the Information system supports many inputs to the line staff. The system support people include- System Analysts, System Stakeholders, center Managers (Top and mid level), External agencies, Software programmers, Technical Specialists, Users and help desk people. Systems Development Plan: Importance of IS Planning One of the primary benefits of IS planning and alignment of goals is a long-range view of expansion of the fitness center. Specific systems development initiatives may spring from the IS plan, but the IS plan also provides a broad framework for future success. The IS plan guides the development of the IS infrastructure over time. Another benefit of IS planning is that it ensures better use of IS resources of the fitness center including funds, personnel, equipment, infrastructure and time for scheduling fitness projects. The Steps of IS Planning: Some projects are identified through overall IS objectives, whereas additional projects, called unplanned projects, are identified from other sources. All identified projects are then evaluated in terms of their organizational priority. The basic steps in system development are as follows: 1. Systems investigation This is the very initial phase of system development. Here the system analysts will identify the feasibility of IS in to fitness center. The project viability of checked in terms of financial, strategic and operational feasibility. The initial risks and problems will be identified to figure out the system environment to meet the goals of the fitness organization. 2. Systems analysis The consolidation and affirmation of the business needs takes place here. The system analyst will analyze the intended use of the different functional utilities of fitness center ARE and specify the functional and data requirements. Initial mapping of functional requirements to the data requirements will takes place here. The high level architecture and logical design will be represented, as IS business model. A logical model is constructed that describes the fundamental processes and data needed to support the desired business functionality. This logical model will show how processes interact and how processes create and use data. An analysis of business activities and data structures is performed to produce entity-relationship diagrams, process hierarchy diagrams, process dependency diagrams, and associated documentation. An interaction analysis is performed to define the interaction between the business activities and business data. This analysis produces process logic and action diagrams, definitions of the business algorithms, entity life-cycle diagrams, and entity state change matrices. A detailed analysis of the current technical architecture, application software, and data is conducted to ensure that limitations or unique requirements have not been overlooked. Possible requirements that are gathered during system analysis study includes the below: Functional and capability specifications, including performance, physical characteristics, and environmental conditions under which the software item is to perform; Interfaces external to the software item; Qualification requirements Safety specifications, including those related to methods of operation and maintenance, environmental influences, and personnel injury; Security specifications, including those related to compromise of sensitive information Human-factors engineering including those related to manual operations, human-equipment interactions, constraints on personnel, and areas needed concentrated human attention, that are sensitive to human errors and training Data definition and database requirements; Installation and acceptance requirements of the delivered software product at the operation and maintenance site(s) User documentation User operation and execution requirements User maintenance requirements The system analysis phase also defines the roles and responsibilities required for the project execution. Also this phase specifies the end phase deliverables of the project in technical as well as non technical terms like, documentation, testing requirements, end user specifications and release requirements. 3. Systems design The objective of the Design Phase is to transform the detailed, defined requirements into complete, detailed specifications for the system to guide the work of the Development Phase. The decisions made in this phase address, in detail, how the system will meet the defined functional, physical, interface, and data requirements. The system design phase establishes the Application Environment by specifying the target, the development and the design and testing environment. And during the process of designing the application, the system characteristics are to be defined. The data storage and access for the database layer need to be designed. The user interface at the desktop layer needs to be designed. The business rules layer or the application logic will be converted to technical layer. A top-level architecture specifies the configuration items, software configuration items, and manual operations. The high level and low-level designs will be drawn out of the above and gives standards to the system developers to maintain uniqueness and order in development. A design review ensures that all the business requirements are allocated to its design and development components. The support and maintenance details of the system will be defined during the phase. A Design Conversion/Migration/Transition Strategy is formulated, if current information needs to be converted/migrated/transitioned to the new system, plans need to be designed for those purposes, especially if converting means re-engineering existing processes. Security risk assessment will be conducted by identifying assets, threats, vulnerabilities, likelihood, consequences and safeguards to evaluate the compliance of the IS. The project manager is responsible and accountable for the successful execution of the Design Phase. The project manager is responsible for leading the team and for reviewing deliverables for accuracy, approving deliverables and providing status reports to the management. The project team members (regardless of the organization of permanent assignment) are responsible for accomplishing assigned tasks as directed by the project manager. 4. Systems implementation The systems development phase involving the creation or acquisition of various system components detailed in the systems design, assembling them, and placing the new or modified system into operation. The Implementation Plan describes how the information system will be deployed and installed into an operational system. The plan contains an overview of the system, a brief description of the major tasks involved in the implementation, the overall resources needed to support the implementation effort (such as hardware, software, facilities, materials, and personnel), and any site-specific implementation requirements. This plan is updated during the Development Phase; the final version is provided in the Integration and Test Phase and used for guidance during the Implementation Phase. An important task during this phase is to train the users. Systems implementation results in an installed, operational information system that meets the business needs for which it was developed. 5. Systems maintenance and review: This is the final phase of system development cycle. In this phase the system is expected to exhibit perfect utility by the users, with a minimum support of the developer. The development team will resolve the minor non-conformities that may arise in the new environment after deployment during this phase. A maintenance agreement will therefore need to be structured to resolve non-critical problems as well as the need to respond, as a matter of priority, to critical failures that may cause major disruption to the organization and its business. System maintenance is considered to be services required for: a Remedial maintenance - to correct faults and return the system to operation in the event a hardware, system software or network component of the system fails; and b Preventive maintenance - to undertake scheduled maintenance tasks to keep the hardware and system software in good operating condition. c The preventive service is likely to include: Hardware maintenance to keep electromechanical equipment correctly operating (fans, filters, back up batteries, adjustments, alignments, etc) Replacement of hardware components to keep the equipment up to current specifications (e.g. engineering changes) Updating of system software (bug fixes, new versions, etc) Testing and analysis of system reports (error logs, self tests, system guidelines, performance measures, etc.,) Maintenance of system documentation. The remedial service is likely to include: Maintaining a Help Desk function that will log and action any calls from the customer on the occurrence of a system problem Investigating the problem (on-site or via remote login) Resolving the problem directly or managing the resolution if a third party service is required Restoring and returning the use of the system to the customer Updating documentation with respect to the problem and its resolution. The following parties may be involved: The hardware/operating system manufacturer or supplier (for a prime vendor or systems integrator as systems maintenance supplier) The supplier of system tools and utilities where these are not provided by the hardware supplier The supplier of the application software The building owner (building services relating to power, water, telephone/data circuits, etc) The uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and emergency generator agent and the air conditioning agent The network (LAN and WAN) equipment and service provider The telecommunications service provider (phones, leased data circuits, private/public network access) The PC supplier The computer cabling supplier(s) Review: The Post-Implementation Review is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the system development after the system has been in production for a period of time. The objectives are to determine if the system does what it is designed to do: Does it support the user as required in an effective and efficient manner The review should assess how successful the system is in terms of functionality, performance, and cost versus benefits, as well as assess the effectiveness of the life-cycle development activities that produced the system. The review is scheduled to follow the release of a system or system revision by an appropriate amount of time to allow determination of the effectiveness of the system. A representative from the functional development group or other member of the major user organization participates in the review. The System Proponent ensures that all documentation and all personnel needed to participate in the review are accessible. The reviewer and an assigned team collect the information needed for the Post-Implementation Review by interviewing end users and their managers, system administrators, and computer operations personnel. The report is then prepared and provided to the user organization that requested it and the information systems organization, which may jointly use the findings to start other actions. Rollout Strategy This phase is the complete handover phase of the system from development phase to implementation phase. After this phase the system is expected to perform on its own without any major involvement of development support. Following are the entities of the rollout phase: The user groups involved, with reasoning for selection Staged rollouts Duration Use of project plans etc The dependencies that affect the rollout strategy will be identified very early and hence will be taken care in this phase. The rollout will be communicated, both to participants and to the wider community - fitness center users, member's online visitors etc., The details given in the Implementation Plan to deal with issues for rollout has to be cautiously observed during this phase for any technical and non technical details. System Infrastructure The system roll out has to take care of the following aspects and has to be handover from development team: Disaster Recovery: Ensure details are discussed, gathered and entered the DR portfolio Change Control: Relevant details entered the change control system. This will need to done before full systems rollout. CMS: Configuration management system has to be carefully observed or downloaded to the new system to maintain the appropriate ness of file management locations. System compatibility matrix: Transfer information from testing phase to matrix Asset register: Details of any new hardware acquired as part of the project MIS Web site updates: Review of the MIS external and support web-sites to see if any updates or additions are required System Support Document: Ensure SSD if completed and accurate UAT & QA: User acceptance Checklist and Quality Audit Reports Handover Checklist: To ensure that every agreed deliverable is met according to criteria of the system plan. User training and System training manuals: As it is mentioned in SRS document and System Implementation plan, training has to be conducted for the specified users at the specified locations- online or onsite. Training materials like User Guides, Training Booklet etc., has to be procured to give the new users acquaintance with the system. Benefits to the Users: By having a developed system and having everything did through a system plan, all the stakeholders of the fitness center will be on the beneficial side, through the clarity offered by the system itself at each stage. - The management will be benefited from the up-to-date benefit ratios MIS reports from the IS - The Fitness center manager will be at ease to operate the daily activities and concentrate much on efficiency instead of filling the details on paper and making report - The members of the fitness parlor will be benefited, through a consolidated and comparative reporting system on their test reports and fitness measurements, even with alarms for the next schedules. - The fitness instructors and advisor will be at ease of counseling and couching with the information of their class participants in hand. - The system developers and maintenance people can go back to their documents at any time to update the features and functionality derived from SDLC. Conclusion: Like any other system, The IS for Fitness management system should also follow a system development life cycle. The SDLC observed here envisages the fitness center to estimate the initial factors required to start up the project. The system analysis will collect and design the basic business and functional requirements for the users and fitness center activities. The system design phase gives a complete design of fitness center for the developers of system. The design review ensures the complete conversion of business rules of fitness center to the technical components. The implementation plan offers the details of system implementation requirements like environment, training facilities and roll out strategy to be followed at the deployment site. The system Maintenance Phase offers the maintenance support in the deployed environment. The development team resolves the new issues rose after the deployment. The rollout Phase takes care of the system handover from the development phase to complete go live state. The system is announced to the users during this phase by the way of publishing, Training and promotion. The Fitness Center that has been approved through the above phases will be less likely to face failures and risks with the performance issues. References: Systems Development and Social Issues: Fundamentals of Information Systems [Electronic version], Thomson Course Technology Member Module Features: aptussoft. Retrieved February 9, 2007, from http://www.aptussoft.com/aptussoft/membermodule.asp Dow Fitness Center Information: Dow Family health. Retrieved February 13, 2007, from http://www.dow.com/familyhealth/health/dowfitness.htm Systems Development Life Cycle, Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_development_life_cycle Read More