Ability to manage change is a critical factor to the success of Information Systems

development. The Development of new information systems will invariably affect the work

environment and habits of users. It is unfortunate to note that, not everyone adapts easily to

these changes. This problem will multiply with the increasing complexity of systems.

Managing change requires the ability to recognize existing or potential problems, particularly

ones that are concerns of users and deal with them before they become a serious threat to

the success of the new or modified system.

Several of the most common problems are listed below.

1.An Employee may feel that he/she will loose his/her job, power , or influence within the organization.

2.Some employees may be reluctant to work with computers and computer staff.

3.The staff may believe that the proposed system will create more work than it

eliminates.

4.The staff may be worried that the proposed system will negatively alter the

structure of the organization.

5.The staff may not be willing to learn new procedures or approaches.

6.The staff may believe that other problems are more pressing than those solved

by the proposed system.

7.The staff may be worried that the system is being developed by people

unfamiliar with the way things need to get done.

Coordinating effort from all those who are involved or who have interest in the

Information System being developed, is needed to prevent or deal with these type of

problems. One remedy is simply to talk with all the people concerned and identify their

biggest concerns. Subsequently the management can deal with those concerns and try

to eliminate them. Once these immediate concerns are addressed, people can become

part of the project team.

Another key factor that contributes to the success of system development is the quality

of project planning. When the project is bigger, it is more likely that poor planning will

lead to significant problems.

Poor systems development planning can be deadly.

Eg. A federal jury found that a company developed navigational software that was

partly responsible for an air plane crash near Cali, Colombia.

Failures of large system projects are due to the following reasons.

Proper planning can minimize the likelihood of occurrence of these type of problems.

Some factors that contribute to the failure of system development project with

countermeasures to eliminate them are summarized below.

Project management is the process of planning, scheduling, directing, controlling and

the development of an acceptable system at a minimum cost within a specified time

frame. Even for small systems development projects, some type of project

management must be undertaken.

Although the steps of systems development seem straightforward, larger projects

can become complex, requiring hundreds of separate activities. For these systems

development efforts, formal project management methods and tools become

essential.

A PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) chart is a graphical network

model that shows a project’s activities and the relationships between those activities.

It is a formalized approach to develop a project schedule.

A Gantt chart is a simple horizontal bar chart that shows project tasks against a

calendar. Each bar represents a named project task. It is used for planning,

monitoring, and coordinating projects.

Both PERT and Gant techniques can be automated using project management

software.

Several Project management software packages are given below.

Another key factor that contributes to the success of system development is the

Organizational Experience with the Systems Development Process. One way to

measure this experience is the Capacity Maturity Model (CMM). CMM is a

standardized framework for assessing the maturity level of an organization’s

software development process. CMM is organized into five maturity levels.

Level 1- Initial: At this level system development projects do not follow a consistent

process. Each development team uses its own tools and methods. Skills and

experiences of the team determine whether the project is successful or not. A project

typically encounters many crises and is frequently over budgeted and behind

schedule. Documentation is irregular or not consistent from one project to the next,

thus creating problems for those who must maintain a system over its lifetime.

Almost all organizations start at level1.

Level 2- Repeatable: At this level, project management processes and practices are

established to track project costs, schedules and functionality. The focus is on

project management. Although a system development process is always followed, it

may vary from project to project. Success or failure is still a function of the skills and

experiences of the project team. However strenuous effort is made to repeat earlier

project successes. Effective project management practices lay the foundation for

standardized processes in the next level.

Level 3- Defined: In this level, a standard system development process (Sometimes

called a methodology) is purchased or developed. A tailored version of this process

is used for all the projects to develop and maintain information systems and

software. As a result of using the standardized system development processes for all

projects, each project results in consistent and high quality deliverables and

documentation.

Level 4- Managed: In this level, organizations use detailed measures of the system

development process. This will help the organization to manage the process and

improve software and system quality.

Level 5- Optimized: In this level all aspects of the system development process is

continuously monitored and improved.

It is very important to recognize that each level is a prerequisite for the next

level.

They are tools design to automate many of the tasks required in a systems

development. CASE tools also enforce adherence to the systems development life

cycle. Think of CASE tools as software that is used to design and implement other

software.

Typical Case tools and their providers are given below.

Advantages and Disadvantages of using CASE Tools in Systems Development are

listed below.

Some times, information learned in a particular phase requires cycling back to previous

phase.

Prototyping takes an iterative approach during the systems development

life cycle.

The following activities take place during each iteration of the life cycle.

At the beginning either you develop an initial model of a major subsystem or scale down

version of the entire system.

Eg. Prototype develop to show the screen images of the entire system. Initial processing

activities will be simulated. You will refine it gradually to build the actual system.

Visual Basic is considered as a good language for prototyping.

Initial preliminary model will be polished to form the next generation prototype. This process

continues until the final system is developed.

Tools, techniques methodologies are used in this popular approach to speed up the

development. It uses structured prototyping.

RAD is the merger of various structured techniques with prototyping techniques and Joint

Application Development (JAD) techniques to accelerate systems development.

Joint Application Development emphasize participative development among

users, and others involved with the system.

RAD is considered as most suitable for Decision Support Systems and Management

Information systems.

Other approaches to rapid development such as Agile Development or Extreme

programming (XP), allow system modifications while they are been developed.

The term end-user systems development describes any systems development project in

which the primary effort is undertaken by a combination of business managers and users.

The flexibility of many packaged software programs available in the market has also

enabled non IS employees to develop solutions to meet their requirements. Employees who

develop their own systems believe that by bypassing formal requests to the IS department

stating the required needs and resources, they are able to develop systems more quickly.

Furthermore, they believe they have a clear idea as to what is required and therefore able to

develop systems that match their requirements.

End-user development projects can vary from the size. Some may be very minor projects

such as the development of an additional report. There can also be projects with significant

organizational value such as development of a system to monitor on-line customer contacts.

Two disadvantages of end-user development are lack of training to effectively develop and

test a system and poor documentation. Lack of documentation can lead to errors when

these systems are updated.

However, due to the importance of some of the end-user developments many IS

organizations help end-user development by providing them with necessary resources.

The term outsourcing means the practice of turning over part or all of an organisations IS

functions to external service providers for a fee. Organisations can outsource its software

development rather than developing it internally. There are advantages as well as

disadvantages of outsourcing. However, many organisations consider it as a cost effective

approach.