Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Software Development - Essay Example

E-School of Business & Quality Management Project Work By Date Table of Contents E-School of Business & Quality Management 1 Table of Contents 2 “Identify and describe each of the five systems development approaches in context to Dynamic System Development Method.” 6 “Discuss the concept of virtual reality, especially with regard to VRML and its applications in the business arena.” 8 “What is the difference between a neural network, fuzzy logic, and genetic algorithms? Which would be most useful to an organization of astronomers analyzing gamma ray emissions reaching Earth?” 10 References 13 Introduction In this report I will present the answers of the different questions. In the first part of this report I will discuss about the concept of the outsourcing, which is a very commonly used term these days as many software development firms outsource their software development activities. In the second section I will discuss about the dynamic software development methods, which is somewhat similar to agile software development methodology. In the third section I will discuss a most modern concept that is known as virtual reality. In the last part, I will differentiate among three terms, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic. These techniques have their own importance and in different cases they work very well. “What is outsourcing? Describe the advantages and disadvantages to outsourcing software development.” These days, a very common activity for decreasing the software development time is to subcontract the software development. The subcontractor may have access to modern and up-to-date technology or knowledge that will augment speed of the accomplishment of the action (Gray & Larson, 2006, p.284). Additionally, organizations can create software themselves by making use of their own IT staff otherwise they can outsource it, which means they find an external source to develop it for them. In fact, by outsourcing some part of software development or the entire software development to other organization, an organization can find an opportunity to pay more attention to their some other important tasks along with allowing the other firm with additional skills and workers to complete this operation. Also, the majority of firms outsource just the some part of their IT operations such as software development part while others outsource all their IT operations. The reason of doing this is to keep on competitive in this era where competition is always increasing (Shelly et al., 2005, p.638). Basically, the term ‘outsourcing’ is very straightforward. In this scenario, software development related activities are contracted to a third party organization that can complete the operations at lower cost and, confidently better quality. As a result of this operation, the software development related processes performed by an organization internally are just limited to a contract management process. However, the decision whether an organization should choose to outsourcing or not can be either tactical or strategic. At the tactical level, a project manager identifies that all the project can be best accomplished by subcontracting the software work. On the other hand, at the strategic level, business managers think about whether a major part of all the software work can be contracted to others (Pressman, 2001). Moreover, an organization should outsource or not, it is still a very serious and confusing matter (Hirschheim & Lacity, 2000). In fact, there are several advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing (Cramm, 2001). In this scenario, the basic reason for the confusion is that a number of advantages of outsourcing have continuing payoffs or are intangible. In addition, there are several risks also linked with outsourcing. For instance, elusion happens when an external organization deliberately underperforms alongside claiming full fee (e.g., asking to pay more than work, offering outstanding personnel in the beginning and afterward changing them with less experienced personnel. However, the major advantage is that an organization can take the benefit of experieenced people working at other organization. In this way, an organization finds more time to pay attention on important functions. An organization can save money as it does not need to hire and pay a software development firm that is an exra heache (Turban et al., 2005, p.615). On the other hand, poaching takes place when an outside firm takes the charge of software development for a company and then sells it to other company. In addition, the opportunistic reprising takes place when a client enters into a long-term agreement with an outside firm and the outside firm varies monetary terms during the project or at end or takes extra charges for unexpected improvements and agreement extensions (Leavy, 2004; Gonzalez et al., 2010). Moreover, a company that is outsourcing its software development process will lose control over their software development activity that it needs, thus, a corporation by outsourcing runs the risk of putting the fate of its competitiveness into the hands of a third party. Another potential risk of outsourcing is unproductive effort to determine all the expenses. Since, some expenses are unknown (Pressman, 2001; Barthelemy, 2001). “Identify and describe each of the five systems development approaches in context to Dynamic System Development Method.” A software development methodology is a roadmap which guides the software development teams throughout the software development process. These methodologies Help the software development teams decide about the people, resources and processes in a definite and repeatable way. In this scenario, the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) is a software development methodology which represents a great deal more existing knowledge about project management. Historically, the DSDM was emerged from software development community, however the union of various other aspects such as software development, process engineering and for this reason business development projects has changed the DSDM structure to turn out to be a wide-ranging methodology for complicated problem solving activities (Voigt, 2004). Basically, the DSDM framework is built on the basis of five stages of which the initial two stages are in a sequence by nature and the remaining three are incremental and iterative (Gorakavi, 2009). Life cycle of DSDM is sown in the figure 1. Figure 1Dynamic system development methods framework, Image source: (Gorakavi, 2009) In addition, DSDM framework is based on the following activities: Active user participation is essential Teams must be allowed to take decisions Pay attention on everyday report Appropriateness for business is decisive factor for established deliverables Iterative and incremental development is compulsory All changes determined while developing a system must be traceable Needs and requirements are baselined at high-level Testing is incorporated all through the system lifecycle Mutual and co-operative method Moreover, DSDM doesn’t require the users to put into practice the entire project arrangement; however it simply requires strictly compliance with the above stated 9 principles, with the exception of that, any project manager can put into practice a development activity becoming more or less agile, however it strictly depends on the circumstances and the limitations, yet integrating DSDM with various other methodologies is acceptable (Voigt, 2004). “Discuss the concept of virtual reality, especially with regard to VRML and its applications in the business arena.” Virtual Reality (VR) is a most modern and recently growing IT supported idea which effectively uses the always increasing power of computers to make obvious real-world and artificial environments and ideas with widespread level-headedness and interface. Basically, the basic reason behind the emergence of the virtual reality is its power to create experiments and teats on the point of day by day life with magnificent tentative power (Plancher et al., 2008; Wyk & Villiers, 2009). In addition, the phrase ‘Virtual Reality’ can be used to demonstrate a lot of scenarios with a lot of definitions. In this scenario, a lot of people believe that the virtual reality is a definite collection of technologies and tools for instance a Head Mounted Display, Glove Input Device and Audio. On the other hand, many people use this term to include pure fantasy, traditional books, movies and thoughts. In fact, this term is used in computer science where this term is limited to computer supported systems. Here, virtual reality is referred as a tool for the computer users to visualize, have power over and be in touch with computers and extremely complicated data and information (Isdale, 1998). As discussed above, the virtual reality is a virtual structure or platform that is built by means of computer applications and offered to the people in such a way that the people suspend faith and take it as a real and physical platform. Basically, “the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is a very well known tool that can be used by the developers to demonstrate images and the rules for their solution and communication using textual language statements.” In addition, people on a virtual reality platform find it an interesting experience (Strickland, 2012). Currently, the virtual reality can be used in a wide variety of areas of life; some of them are given below: (Bernatchez, 2004) Architecture Visualization Entertainment Gaming Manufacturing Augmented Reality In the business, virtual reality can be used to demonstrate the actual physical environment. I other words, an organization can use it to show its customer how this product will look like in the real world. It can be used to give a real experience of the imaginary idea. “What is the difference between a neural network, fuzzy logic, and genetic algorithms? Which would be most useful to an organization of astronomers analyzing gamma ray emissions reaching Earth?” “An artificial neural network (ANN) is a collection of data structures and programs that is nearly equal to the process of the human brain”. A neural network normally based on a wide variety of processors working in a parallel manner, each with its own small sphere of facts and uses the data in its local memory. In addition, they are very helpful for solving those problems which are difficult to resolve through customary techniques, as well as often a lot of them have been tackled through neural networks, for example analysis of seismic signals, forecasting grassland community or solar radiation, control of chaotic dynamical systems, data and air quality control and categorization of remotely sensed information (Benvenuto & Marani, 2000; Giles, 1998; Laudon & Laudon, 1999). Fuzzy logic and Fuzzy logic based machines are considered as the future of the Artificial Intelligence (AI). This paradigm of the AI offers greater capability to get things done in a more powerful way. According to Kaehler (2009), “the fuzzy logic is a problem solving technique and control system technology that allows itself to execute in systems varying from small, straightforward, embedded micro-controllers systems to huge, multi-channel computers, networked, or big workstation supported data gathering and handling structures. Basically, it can be used to apply in hardware, software or a combination of both. In addition, Fuzzy logic provides a clear-cut way to attain goal supported by ambiguous, unclear, rough, missing input and noisy information (Kaehler, 2008). On the other hand, genetic algorithms are a family of automated methodologies stimulated by growth or development. Basically, these algorithms work by encoding a possible solution to a particular issues or problem on a trouble-free genetic material such as data structure and put into operation recombination processes to these structures in an attempt to protect vital information (Whitley, 2010). In addition, genetic algorithms are adaptive heuristic search algorithm built on the basis of development techniques of ordinary collection and genetic. In this scenario, the basic idea of GA is to design to replicate operations in expected system required for development. Moreover, they can be used to correspond to an intelligent utilization of a random search inside a defined search space to resolve a problem (Dulay, 1998). Thus, genetic algorithms can be used for increasing the searching capabilities. As discussed above, there are three techniques to problem solving. The basic purpose of all the techniques is to resolve the problems. But the usage of these techniques depends on the nature of the problem. As we discussed above ANN can be used for signal processing, while fuzzy logic can be used to embedded systems and genetic algorithms can be used to increase the search capabilities. From the features of three techniques, it is clear that for “an organization of astronomers analyzing gamma ray emissions reaching Earth” ANN will be the best technique. Conclusion In this report I have presented the answers of the different questions. In the first part of this report I have discussed the concept of the outsourcing, which is a very commonly used term these days as many software development firms outsource their software development activities. The decision of outsourcing depends on the resources and size of the business. Before taking this decision, an organization must carefully look at the benefits and disadvantages of the outsourcing. In the second section I have discussed about the dynamic software development methods, which is somewhat similar to agile software development methodology. In the third section I have discussed a most modern concept that is known as virtual reality. In fact, virtual reality is an idea, in which we use computer to show virtual world. This technology is very common for architecture and games. In the last part, I have differentiated among three terms, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic. These techniques have their own importance and in different cases they work very well. For the gamma ray project I have selected ANN because of its applications for such kind of projects. References Barthelemy, J., 2001. The Hidden Costs of IT Outsourcing. MIT Sloan management review, 42(3), pp.60-69. Cramm, S., 2001. The Dark Side of Outsourcing, Farming out the best work will hollow out your organization. CIO Magzine. Dulay, N., 1998. Genetic Algorithms. [Online] Available at: http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_96/journal/vol4/tcw2/report.html [Accessed 24 April 2012]. Gonzalez, R., Gasco, J. & Llopis, J., 2010. Information systems outsourcing risks: a study of large firms. Industrial Management & Data Systems Volume 105, Issue 1, pp.284-303. Gorakavi, P.K., 2009. Build Your Project Using Dynamic System Development Method. [Online] Available at: http://www.asapm.org/asapmag/articles/A5_AboutDSDM.pdf [Accessed 23 April 2012]. Gray, C. & Larson, E., 2006. Project Management, The Managerial Process. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hirschheim, R. & Lacity, M., 2000. Information technology Insourcing: Myths and Realities of. Communications of the ACM, 43(2), pp.99-107. Isdale, J., 1998. What Is Virtual Reality?: A Web-Based Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://vr.isdale.com/WhatIsVR/frames/WhatIsVR4.1.html [Accessed 20 April 2012]. Kaehler, S.D., 2008. FUZZY LOGIC - AN INTRODUCTION Part1. [Online] Available at: http://www.seattlerobotics.org/Encoder/mar98/fuz/fl_part1.html [Accessed 13 April 2012]. Laudon, K.C. & Laudon, J.P., 1999. Management Information Systems, Sixth Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Leavy, B., 2004. Outsourcing Strategies: opportunities and risks. Strategy and Leadership 32(6), pp.20-25. OPREA, M. & MATEI, A., 2010. Applying Artificial Neural Networks in Environmental Prediction Systems. [Online] Available at: http://www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2010/Iasi/ICAI/ICAI-18.pdf [Accessed 23 April 2012]. Plancher, G., Nicolas, S. & Piolino, P., 2008. Virtual reality as a tool for assessing episodic memory. In VRST '08 Proceedings of the 2008 ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology., 2008. ACM New York, USA. Pressman, R.S., 2001. Software Engineering: A Practicioner's Approach, 5th Edition. London: McGraw Hill. Shelly, Cashman & Vermaat, 2005. Discovering Computers 2005. Boston: Thomson Course Technology. Strickland, J., 2012. How Virtual Reality Works. [Online] Available at: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/other-gadgets/virtual-reality1.htm [Accessed 20 April 2012]. Thompson, T., 2010. What Is Outsourcing? [Online] Available at: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-outsourcing.htm [Accessed 21 April 2012]. Turban, E., Leidner, D., McLean, E. & Wetherbe, J., 2005. Information Technology for Management: Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy. New York: Wiley. Voigt, B.J.J., 2004. Dynamic System Development Method. [Online] Available at: http://amadeus.ifi.uzh.ch/rerg/fileadmin/downloads/teaching/seminars/seminar_ws0304/14_Voigt_DSMD_Ausarbeitung.pdf [Accessed 22 April 2012]. VRS, 2009. Virtual Reality. [Online] Available at: http://www.vrs.org.uk/ [Accessed 20 April 2012]. Whitley, D., 2010. A Genetic Algorithm Tutorial. [Online] Available at: citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.850 [Accessed 23 April 2012]. Wyk, E.v. & Villiers, R.d., 2009. Virtual reality training applications for the mining industry. In AFRIGRAPH '09 Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality, Visualisation and Interaction in Africa., 2009. ACM New York, USA. Read More