What makes a new system feasible?
Technical, economic, legal, operational, schedule feasibility
Change Management
The transition of shifting the client from an old system to a new one
What makes change management difficult?
Employee Training
How the system will be implemented
Cost
Layoffs
Legacy system
old technology, hardware, computer system, or application
Business merger
Combination of 2+ businesses
Keep both systems to have the same functionality
High maintenance cost
Replace both information systems with new one
Increased initial cost
Select best information systems from each company and combine
Difficult for employees
Select just one company’s information systems
Policy problems
Local host
Larger and complex systems
Remote host
No necessary hardware Administration to outsource responsibilities
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Services on the web
Pros of (SaaS)
Cheaper to maintain, subscription service
Cons of (SaaS)
Data loss if company goes out of business, connection may be worse, integration is difficult
Direct installation process
Unplug old system and plug new system simultaneously
Pros of direct installation process
Quick and cheap, if the system is not critical
Cons of direct installation process
Risky
Parallel installation process
Run both systems at the same time, unplug the old one when satisfied
Pros of parallel installation process
Limited risk, outputs can be compared
Cons of parallel installation process
Expensive, unhelpful if new system is different
Phased installation process
Upgrade one module of the system at a time
Pros of phased installation process
Limited risk, good for big systems
Cons of phased installation process
Training and adoption takes long, doesn’t always apply
Pilot installation process
New system in one site, extended to others over time
Pros of pilot installation process
Less risk, proof of concept
Cons of pilot installation process
Sites may be different, doesn’t always apply
Data migration
The transfer of data between different formats, storage types and computer systems
Problems of data migration
Incapability to move data due to different systems/languages
Ways of testing
Test commands, inputs, menu functions
Use of testing functions
To see if the functions work and to fix them accordingly
Importance of user documentation
Allows the code to be more organized and understandable
Pros of self instruction
Cheap, Quick, Flexible
Cons of self instruction
Less focus, less help, less learning
Pros of formal class
In depth, teacher assistance
Cons of formal class
Expensive, Long
Pros of Online classes
Individual, in-depth, anywhere
Cons of Online classes
Expensive, Errors, Time consuming
Causes of data loss
Malicious Activity, Natural Disasters
Malicious Activity examples
Internal activity by employees, destruction, viruses
Natural disaster examples
Floods, earthquakes, fires
Consequences of data loss
Loss of records, data and information
Pros of manual updates
Can be printed and kept on hand
Cons of manual updates
Harder to look up information can’t help with very specific problems
Pros of email support
Can help with specific problems
Cons of email support
Takes a while to get a response
Pros of frequently asked questions
No one required to assist
Cons of frequently asked questions
Might not have an answer to your specific question
Methods used to prevent data loss
Failover, redundancy, removable media, offsite/online storage
Failover
When a standby computer is used while the primary computer is unable to work
Redundancy
Duplicating data to another computer to prevent loss if the primary computer becomes unable to work
Removable Media
Storing data on an external device such as a USB, or disk, and can be used on multiple computers
Offsite/Online Storage
Storing data offline with an encryption key / Storing data online on sites like Google drive with an encryption key
Strategies for managing releases and updates
Manual, Automatic updates
Manual updates
User gets notified on the update User can decide if they want to update They must allow the update to work
Automatic update
Application constantly checks for updates Users does not need to confirm update User does not need to go through the process of updating