Question

Competency

Manage complex information technology systems.

Scenario

You are an IT industry expert who has spent many years managing complex information technology systems. You have been tapped to write a journal article for IT weekly that focus on innovative approaches to creating Systems Development Life Cycles (SDLC). Your specific focus has been the various SDLC methodologies trending in the business world today.

Instructions

Write a journal article that analyzes at least 3 different Systems Development Life Cycle methodologies and describe the advantage and disadvantages of each.

The article should also include analysis of 2 companies using creative/innovative SDLC methodologies. Explain why you think these approaches are unique and innovative.

Create a Systems Development Life Cycle plan that will support the acquisition, installation and sustainment of a new Database Management System to be included as an addendum to the journal article.

The article and addendum should both be submitted as one Microsoft Word submission. You will need a minimum of 3 pages with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation

Answer 1

Systems Development Life Cycles is used in IT. It describes the process of planning, testing, designing, development, installing, integrating and maintenance. It is an application development lifecycle.

Systems Development Life Cycles methodologies (SDLC) are-

1. Agile- It is a process of combination of new addition and old on-going work. It helps team to identify even small issues during functioning and address the same before they become a big problem. The ultimate motive of agile model is customer satisfaction. Such satisfaction is received by engaging and getting feedbacks from the stakeholders- be it investors, employees, creditors, suppliers, etc on regular basis. Advantage of agile model is that they aim for customer satisfaction continuously by providing the best software with rapid delivery system. Here, customers and developers are in contact on regular basis and give and take regular feedbacks. Disadvantage of agile model is – since the model give emphasis to customer satisfaction or feedback only, any project can take a U-turn or get changed if the feedback from the customers is not clear. In such model only senior developers who have great experience and knowledge can take the charge because juniors might not be that experienced and able to take necessary decisions at right time.
2. Lean- It is the model where people work on specific things and don’t do multitasking. It is inspired by manufacturing practises and its principles. The team looks into the best practises so that there is no excess wastage throughout the process. Example- reducing documentation, reducing the schedules for regular meetings, reducing cost etc. Advantage of lean model is that it reduces wastage, such reduction can be in terms of cost, manpower hard work, reduction in the process of operation, etc. Disadvantage of lean model is that it depends on the team, i.e- the delivery or any action throughout the course of development phase is totally on hands of its team members. The team should be disciplined and have great technical skills in order to produce best outcome at shorter time period.
3. Waterfall- The waterfall model is the very first model introduced for SDLC. It clearly states that one should finish stage 1 first and then move to stage 2 as each and every stages are inter-linked with the activities appearing in the previous stage. It states that each problem or issue should be solved instantly before moving to next stage. It is a very useful model as it ensures that once stage 1 is complete there is no chance of mistake, issue or error. Advantage of waterfall model is that before going to the nest stage, the existing stage needs to be completed, for making sure that a stage is completed successfully quality assurance test is performed. Disadvantage for waterfall model is that any error can be fixed only when in the particular stage, i.e. no going back. It is not desirable for complex projects as in complex projects there are changes at any time at any stage while operation.

Examples-

1. SS Co. is a real estate broking or consultant company, they are hiring XYZ Technologies for making their new website. SS Co.’s management has made a clear presentation stating each and every points they want in their website which would be in name of ssco.in. Few of the points are- the server should be http server, it should be an application software, it should be linked to company’s CRM also, there should be option to generate leads via search panel (property search panel like in major real estate portals), sms and email integration must be done, etc. XYZ Technology accepted the offer by charging Rs. 2,50,000 for designing, testing, installing the software with 1-year free Maintenance charge and that the website will go live within 3 months. While in development phase, XYZ Technology arranged regular video calls and face-to-face meetings to understand whether they were going on the right track by SS Co’s representative themselves. They did this on regular basis and made necessary changes as and when it was required. At final stage when the website was live, it was understood that XYZ Technology was following the Agile Model of SDLC- which says taking regular feedbacks from customers and assuring that they are satisfied. They were highly professional who aimed in customer satisfaction at each stage and at the end.
2. SS Co. is a real estate broking or consultant company, they are hiring ABC Technologies for making their CRM. There were several meetings held between SS Co’s representative and management and ABC Technologies regarding their requirement for the CRM and how important CRM would be for the regular operation. CRM would be one platform which could be used by the entire sales and operations team. There would be nothing maintained manually. They stated that they want a CRM that could keep all of their client’s data, the back end team will be able to share leads generated from any sources via CRM to the Sales Team, we can get any type of reports from this CRM- be it Sales Report Projects Wise, Lead Analysis Report, Executive Wise CRM Login and Logout Report, Project wise Customers Feedback, etc. When the work started for CRM development, ABC Technology focused on completing one stage first then moved to other stage as each and every stage were linked with the other. The entire software was to be beautifully designed and there were so many reports and others areas, which required linking of each stage. Example- They first designed lead enquiry form and then moved to Customer lead management which would be used for transferring leads from operations to sales team as if the enquiry form had problem or error then the lead would not be saved with full details only and the assigning of lead to sales team could not be done. They carefully completed 1 stage and performed the accuracy test by testing the software multiple times by 2 3 persons and then moved to the next stage. They followed Waterfall methodology which clearly states of completing stage 1 and then moving to stage 2.

A Systems Development Life Cycle plan that will support the acquisition, installation and sustainment of a new Database Management System includes the following phases-

1. Planning- It is the first phase where one must think and plan about the activities required to achieve the goal. It helps to find out what is required to get the output.
2. Analysis- Analysing the planned process and breaking the Complex area into sub-part of small parts so that there is easy operation and understanding. It also analyses the need of end user in developing a new system and requirement of team to understand several solutions for problems.
3. Designing- This stage describes specifications, features, operations required for the system development. It includes rules, process diagrams, etc.
4. Development- The real coding behind each stage is mentioned in this stage.
5. Integration and testing- All the small parts are brought together or merged together. It is further set for testing whether such system is working properly or not. This stage identifies all the errors and bugs.
6. Implementation- After the testing is done successfully, the system coding is placed from the trail system to the new system where it has to be operated.
7. Operation and Maintenance- This is the last stage where the end user can start the operation with the system and regular maintenance is provided by the developer at each stage or when there is any error or problem.