INFO 33.7 Developing ICT Solutions

Specification

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?

To consolidate you should be able to answer these questions…

1. Management and end user involvement2. Realistic expectations3. Professional standards4. Good teamwork

7.1 There are 4 key factors that may aid successful ICT development, what are they?

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

7.2 How can ‘Management and end user involvement’ aid development success?

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.

7.3 How does having ‘realistic expectations’ aid development success?

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

7.4 How can having ‘professional standards’ aid development success?

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.

7.5 How can ‘good teamwork’ aid development success?

1. Inadequate analysis2. Poor design3. Inappropriate testing4. Poorly organised installation and

changeover5. Poor user support and maintenance6. Poor project management

7.6 There are 6 key factors that may cause an ICT development to fail, what are they?

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

7.7 How can ‘inadequate analysis’ cause a development to fail?

An AnalogyHow it could all go wrong

Designs that don’t consider the analysis will fail

Designing inappropriate interfaces could frustrate users later on

7.8 How can ‘poor design’ cause a development to fail?

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

7.9 How can ‘inappropriate testing’ cause a development to fail?

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

7.10 How can ‘poorly organised installation and changeover’ cause a development to fail?

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

7.11 How can ‘poor user support and maintenance’ cause a development to fail?

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

7.12 How can ‘poor project management’ cause a development to fail?

Past Paper Questions

Past Paper Questions