3. 1. Before any development of a new system what is carried out to
establish whether it is worth while?
2. What is the purpose of a feasibility study?
3. What do we mean by ICT systems, what is an ICT System?
4. Why are new systems developed?
5. What method is most often followed in order to develop an ICT
System?
6. What is the purpose of the systems Development Life Cycle?
7. What is the occupation of the person required to initiate the SDLC?
8. What are the 6 main stages of the Systems Development Life Cycle?
9. How does the waterfall model of the System Development Life Cycle
differ from the original concept?
10. What must be produced at the end of each stage of the life cycle?
11. What needs to be established in the analysis phase?
12. What methods can be used in order to analyse the current situation?
13. What deliverables should be signed off at this stage (the analysis
stage)?
14. ----NOTE----
4. 15. What needs to be included in the design phase?
16. What deliverables should be signed off at this stage (the design stage)?
17. What two ways are there to construct an ICT solution?
18. What deliverables should be signed off at this stage (the constructing stage)?
19. There are 6 types of testing that can be carried out on a system. What are these 6 different
tests and briefly explain each.
b. What is the difference between white-box and black-box testing? (give examples of each)
20. What deliverables should be signed off at this stage (the testing stage)?
21. What should be considered during the installation and conversion stage?
22. What deliverables should be signed off at this stage (the installation stage)?
23. What 3 types of maintenance are carried out during the review and maintenance stage?
24. If something is done systematically, what does this mean?
25. Formal projects must be managed systematically, large tasks should be broken down into
smaller tasks. For each of these smaller tasks what should be considered?
26. When project planning what plans need to be drawn up?
27. What is Project Management Software and what does it do?
28. The development of a project can be categorised into two different methods, what are they?
29. Describe the differences between the two types of methodologies
5. 30. What do we mean by prototyping and how
can this be an effective development
methodology?
31. Explain the Extreme Programming (XP)
Methodology
32. Explain the Scrum Methodology
33. Explain the Crystal Methodology
34. Explain the Rapid Application Development
(RAD) Methodology
35. Explain the Dynamic Systems Development
(DSDM) Methodology
7. It’s purpose is to judge whether to go ahead
and develop the system
8. Systems where the output goes directly to a human or into another ICT system
Their purpose is to
‘get an output and reduce waste in the process’
Mr S. Skiff 2011
In other words their purpose is to make a particular ‘process’ within an
organization more efficient. They deal with the input and process of data in order
to produce information.
E.g. A data processing system that handles payroll
Components of ICT systems:
◦ People
◦ Data
◦ Procedures
◦ Software
◦ Hardware
◦ Information
9. Current one is out of date
Technology has moved on
Competitors have developed new systems
The organisation has grown
A new part of the company is established
that requires IT support
The company wants to improve the quality
of a repetitive task
13. 1. Analysis
2. Design
3. Constructing the solution
4. Testing
5. Installing and conversion
6. Review and maintenance
14. Original Waterfall
Analysis Analysis
Design
Review &
Design
Maintenance
Constructing
the solution
Installation & Constructing
Conversion the solution
Testing
The waterfall effect suggests that
each stage is not finished off tidily
Installation &
Testing before moving to the next.
Conversion
There is overlap, e.g. designs may
need to be altered if there are
difficulties in the construction of the
solution Review &
Maintenance
15. Agreed Deliverables
These should be signed off by the client
together with approval to proceed to the next
stage.
16. What is the problem you intend to solve?
What does the existing system do?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the existing
system?
What is required of the new system? (Client/User
requirements)
Who will be using the new system and if necessary who
will be viewing the final product? (End Users and Audience)
Are there any constraints that may be placed on the new
solution, e.g. legal requirements?
17. Interviews at all levels
Questionnaires/Surveys
Analysis of existing paper work
Observation of users of the current system
18. User Requirements
List of tasks and subtasks that need to be
completed
A Gantt Chart to show scheduled timings
An assessment of user skills
Hardware and Software requirements and
limitations
Performance indicators of evaluation criteria
matching the client/users requirements
An outline of the proposed method of
solution
19. The analysis phase describes WHAT the
project is going to do
The design phase explains HOW it is going to
do it
20. Justification of the software and tools you will
use
Data capture and validation methods
Designs for the user interface
Processing to be carried out
Outputs to be produced
How the solution will be tested
21. Details of file definitions, data structures and
processes
Design of outputs
A test strategy and plan
22. Customising a package
◦ Using a generic or special purpose package and simply
customising it
◦ May require compromises (not able to fully customise)
◦ Less risky
◦ More help and support available
Writing Code
◦ This is when you build the solution from scratch
◦ More flexible
◦ Likely to take longer
◦ Likely chance of errors
Documentation of construction is essential for both
23. A working system
Documentation of the solution
Draft version of the user guide
24. Module/Unit testing
◦ Testing individual sections of the software
◦ Written by the programmer
◦ White box testing – tester has access to internal data and algorithms
Integration Testing
◦ Modules are combined and debugged
Functional Testing
◦ Tests the operation of the system
◦ Written from a users perspective
◦ Black Box Testing – checks a given input produces the correct output
Systems Testing
◦ Tests the complete system in preparation for user testing
◦ Tests transactions are processed correctly from beginning to end
User Testing
◦ Actual end users will test the system and offer comments
◦ Final stage of testing
◦ Testing user documentation is important at this stage
◦ Should result in acceptance by the client and sign off to be installed
Operational Testing
◦ Conducted in the environment or simulated version of the environment
25. White-box testing
◦ Concentrates on HOW the programs carry out what
is expected
Black-box testing
◦ Concentrates on what the software should DO
rather than how it is done
26. Test data and results
Modified user guide
Client approval to install
27. The type of changeover (discussed in unit 3.10 Introducing large ICT systems into
organisations)
Direct – Company literally switches off the old system and switches on the new
one.
Parallel – The company runs both the old and new system in parallel for a time.
Once they are sure it is working properly and staff are ready they will do a
complete change over.
Phased – Old system is still active but parts of the new system are used e.g. The
front end input screens are used but run the old systems back end.
Pilot – complete new system is installed in a small number of departments /
branches. They use the system and feedback to the analyst.
Legacy systems
Training
28. Fully functional solution
Full documentation
◦ User guides
◦ Technical documentation
29. Corrective maintenance
◦ Putting right any reported errors once the system is
operational
Adaptive maintenance
◦ Altering the system to meet new organisation,
legislation or security requirements
Perfective maintenance
◦ Where any inefficiencies are tweaked i.e. make the
system even better
30. Means there is a system – carried out in an
organised and logical manner
31. A defined timescale
A approved budget
Resources e.g. staff,equipment
32. Resource Plan
◦ Lists the human resources required e.g. staff skills and roles
◦ Lists the equipment resources required e.g. specifications, quantities
Financial Plan
◦ Allocates financial budget to each stage
Quality Plan
◦ Lists clear quality requirements for each deliverable
Risk Plan
◦ Foreseeable risks, what can be done to reduce them and how they will be dealt with if they
arise
Acceptance Plan
◦ Criteria and schedule for client acceptance reviews
Communications Plan
◦ What method will be used and how often communication between teams will take place
Procurement Plan
◦ Good and services obtained externally and processes by which suppliers will be chosen
33. It is software than can be used to manage a
project
It allows a project to be broken down into
sections, each of which can be planned and
then linked to the other sections to produce
an overall plan
35. Linear methodologies such as the waterfall model
are very sequential, they tend to be easy to
manage but are inflexible and less able to
respond creatively to problems and opportunities
that present themselves along the way.
Iterative methodologies such as the scrum
method are very agile. Iterative methodologies
loop around the stages of the development until
the developers and/or client are happy with the
solution at that point and can move on to the
next stage.
36. It relies on a process of continuous
refinement based on experiences at each
stage.
Small stages of the solution are built and
refined with as much user involvement as
possible.
Time and budget is difficult to control
37. Based on user stories written by clients as things that
the system needs to do for them.
Each of the stories is about three sentences long
Acceptance tests are then created to verify the user
story has been correctly implemented
When time comes to implement the ‘story’ developers
will receive a detailed description of the requirements
They then work in iterations (of about 3 weeks) until
the solution is complete
38. People in the team fulfil a distinct task that come
together to form an effective whole
Short daily meetings are used to address
immediate problems and keep tabs on progress.
Sprints (of around 4 weeks) are then carried to
work on development
At the end of each sprint the teams come
together and present their solutions
39. Focuses on people and teams rather than
processes
40. Uses:
◦ computerised development tools
◦ prototyping, to improve development times and quality at low costs
Uses tools like:
◦ GUI builders
◦ Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools
◦ Database Management Systems
Aim of this method is to meet the business needs quickly and at
acceptable costs rather than most technically sound solution
RAD proposes that the following are effective:
◦ Using workshops or focus groups to gather requirements
◦ Prototyping and user testing of designs
◦ Re-using software components
◦ Following a schedule
◦ Informal communication
41. An extension of RAD based on:
◦ User involvement produces accurate decisions
◦ Project team is empowered to make decisions
◦ Frequent delivery of products for review
◦ Main criteria is delivering a system that addresses
the crucial business needs rather than perfect
system
◦ Development is iterative and driven by users’
feedback
◦ Testing is carried out throughout
◦ Communication and cooperation must be efficient
and effective