1. 3.7 Developing ICT Solutions

3. 1. There are 4 key factors that may aid successful ICT development, what
are they?
2. How can ‘Management and end user involvement’ aid development
success?
3. How does having ‘realistic expectations’ aid development success?
4. How can having ‘professional standards’ aid development success?
5. How can ‘good teamwork’ aid development success?
6. There are 6 key factors that may cause an ICT development to fail,
what are they?
7. How can ‘inadequate analysis’ cause a development to fail?
8. How can ‘poor design’ cause a development to fail?
9. How can ‘inappropriate testing’ cause a development to fail?
10. How can ‘poorly organised installation and changeover’ cause a
development to fail?
11. How can ‘poor user support and maintenance’ cause a development to
fail?
12. How can ‘poor project management’ cause a development to fail?

4. 1. Management and end user involvement
2. Realistic expectations
3. Professional standards
4. Good teamwork

5.  Users at all levels of an organisation are valuable
to the analysis (requirements) and testing (user
manual and proposed solution) stages of the
development process.
 Operational staff should not be underestimated
in terms of understanding and contribution
 Developers should not assume they know what
each user requires, they should simply ask

6.  Developers should be honest with management
and not suggest that unrealistic solutions can be
created.
 A clear specification should ensure all parties are
clear of the requirements and aims of the
solution.
 Time frame and budget should also be realistic
◦ Consider adequate timings for development, testing and
training.

7.  The development team need to be highly
skilled, have an appropriate attitude and not
‘cut corners’
 The development should be well documented
and follow industry standard methods
 Doing the above will ensure thoroughness

8.  Most projects are team projects
 Good communication, leadership, appropriate
allocation of tasks, adequate planning and
scheduling and adherence to standards will
ensure an affective solution is developed.

9. 1. Inadequate analysis
2. Poor design
3. Inappropriate testing
4. Poorly organised installation and
changeover
5. Poor user support and maintenance
6. Poor project management

10.  Lack of detail and thoroughness could prove
costly later on
 The systems analyst is responsible for
identifying any problems and reporting them
to the client
 Any implications must be clearly explained

12.  Designs that don’t consider the analysis will
fail
 Designing inappropriate interfaces could
frustrate users later on

13.  Choice of inappropriate test data and test
types would result in system failure later on
 Insufficient time to conduct thorough testing
can cause failure later on
◦ You should not underestimate the importance and
time required to do this
 Failure to conduct certain tests e.g. user
guide documentation

14.  Poor managed installation and wrong choice
of changeover technique could result in
disgruntled and confused employees
 Lack of training after the changeover could
also have a negative impact on staff moral

15.  A good support and maintenance team can
support staff with any misconceptions
 A good support and maintenance team can
support the new system if there are any
glitches (instantly)
 Without the above staff are left to fend for
themselves

16.  Poor management can lead to ‘mission
creep’, increased costs, over scheduling
 Good project management methods are
discussed in the next chapter
 What is key is identifying and tackling
problems as they arise, allocating sufficient
time to each stage of the development
process and good staff allocation