TOPIC FOUR SYSTEM SELECTION, IMPLEMENTATION AND REVIEW
At the end of this Topic you will be able to: Understand different alternatives for acquiring information systems Explain the differences between bespoke and end-user development Understand factors affecting software acquisition escribe different changeover strategies Understand organisational aspects of system implementation Understand other implementation issues including: file conversion! training! maintenance and review METHODS OF SOFTWARE ACQUISITION There are three main methods for acquiring the information system necessary to support a particular business need" These are bespoke development! off-the-shelf software and end- user development" BESPOKE DEVELOPMENT #espoke development the term for when an information system is developed from scratch by an $% professional to suit the business requirements of the application" The $% professionals will either work for the business! in which case we refer to this as in-house bespoke development! or for a third party such as a software house! in which case we say that the software development has been &outsourced&" #espoke development has the benefit of producing software tailored to the precise requirements of the business" 'n the downside! there are a number of difficulties: Cost: #espoke development is the most expensive way of developing new information systems" Tim: #espoke development! especially when using formal structured development methodologies! is notorious for time overruns! with delays of months or years not uncommon" Q!"#it$: #espoke software is not usually free from bugs( software bugs can range from the trivial to the catastrophic! the latter often attributable to poor analysis of requirements" PURCHASE %OFF&THE&SHELF% SOFTWARE 'ff-the-shelf purchase of packaged software is an acquisition method which involves direct purchase of a pre-written application used by more than one company" This type of software is pre-written and is available for a whole variety of hardware platforms from )*s to mainframes" 'ff-the-shelf software is written to offer a broad functionality that will suit a wide range of different businesses" This broad range of functions has the benefit of fitting the requirements of a large number of businesses" $t also may offer too many features for any particular business! which may then feel that it is paying for things it will not use" At the same time! it may require businesses to process information in a particular way which is at odds with the way they normally do business" Alternatively! a certain off-the-shelf software package may not offer sufficient features" +or example! a well-known accounting package in ICT for Strategic Advantage the U, only offers an eight-character code for the customer&s order number! when it would appear that some -. per cent of U, companies use longer order number codes" ICT for Strategic Advantage The ma/or benefit! however! of off-the-shelf software packages is their low cost when compared with acquiring bespoke software with the same level of functionality" $n addition! because packaged software has been developed for a commercial market! it is less likely to suffer from the bugs that afflict bespoke software" $n a tailored off-the-shelf purchase! pre-written software is purchased from a supplier! but it is possible to configure it to be specific to the company" $n a component off-the-shelf purchase! different modules may be purchased from different suppliers and built together" 0isual #asic controls for graphing is a good example of a component that can be added to an off-the-shelf application" END&USER DEVELOPED SOFTWARE End-user developed software is software written by non-$% professionals! i"e" the business users" End-user applications are more limited in scope" Applications may be departmental or personal in nature and are usually output or report oriented rather than input driven" These applications may either be written by $T professionals or by the end-users themselves" $f the latter is the case! they are often referred to as end-user developed applications" %uch systems may be simple 1e"g" a spreadsheet or a small )* database2 or less commonly they may be more sophisticated 1e"g" a production planning system based on sales forecast data from several branches of the same organisation2" %uch applications are typically for individual or departmental use! although in the case of the second example above the system may have company-wide relevance" The main benefit of end-user developed software is that it is normally used by those who develop it and so the requirements are not sub/ect to mistranslation or the provision of over-sophisticated solutions" The negative side to this is that in some cases inappropriate software development tools might be used 1such as complicated spreadsheets instead of the construction of a database2" A further significant concern with end-user development is that software may be riddled with bugs as a consequence of corner cutting 1poor or non-existent design! little or no testing and no documentation2" There are also a number of hybrid approaches to acquisition" A group of organisations in the same business or activity area may have information systems requirements which individually may be very expensive to develop" A solution may be for a bespoke system to be developed by a third party! which allows the development costs to be spread among all the organisations involved" 3ood examples here are a university student records system and various systems used in police forces across the U," %imilarly! an off-the-shelf package may provide 4. per cent of the required features! but others may need to be added through some bespoke development by either $%5$T professionals or by end-users" FACTORS AFFECTIN' SOFTWARE ACQUISITION There are a number of factors that will influence the choice of acquisition method" The first of these are time! cost and quality considerations" $f an organisation has a pressing problem that requires a new information system quickly! it is probable that a package or tailored package will be sought" The different acquisition options have different strengths when considered in terms of these three critical criteria" ICT for Strategic Advantage Table 6 shows how the alternatives compare with regards to these criteria" 7uality of the delivered product is considered from two respects: the number of bugs or errors found and the suitability of the software in meeting the requirements of the business user" A()!isitio* O+tio* D#i,-$ Tim Cost Q!"#it$ ./!0s1 Q!"#it$ .2it /!si*ss *3s1 #espoke in-house )oor )oor )oor 3ood #espoke software house 3ood 0ery poor 8edium 8edium End-user development )oor 8edium )oor 3ood Tailored-off the shelf 3ood 3ood 3ood 8edium %tandard-off the shelf 0ery good 0ery good 0ery good )oor Table 6" Alternatives for procurement of software The benefit of packaged software occurs because the cost of developing and debugging the software is shared between more than one company" This results in lower and fewer bugs than bespoke development for a single company" The use of software by more than one company is also its greatest weakness! since its features must suit the typical company" As a consequence! it may not meet the needs of an individual company" 'ther factors affecting software acquisition include the following: O-0"*is"tio* si45 A small to medium-si9ed business will inevitably have relatively limited resources for the purchasing of information systems and information technology 1$%5$T2" This suggests that there will be a tendency for such organisations to favour the purchase of off-the-shelf packages or possibly end-user applications development" I*&6o!s IS7IT 8+-tis :here little in-house $%5$T expertise exists! either in the form of $%5$T professionals or experienced end-users! there will be a need to use third parties in the acquisition of new business information systems" These may include software vendors for off-the-shelf software packages! the use of consultants and5or software houses" )recisely what form of third party is used will depend on the other factors discussed here" Com+#8it$ o2 t6 -)!i-3 i*2o-m"tio* s$stm :here a business information system requirement is particularly complex! or for an unusual application not available as a packaged solution! it is possible that one may view bespoke software 1either developed in-house or by a third party2 as the only viable solution" ;owever! complexity does not necessarily equate to &uniqueness&" +or example! one could regard a materials requirements planning system or a complete accounting system as complex! but many packages exist for a variety of hardware platforms" Therefore! complexity is not necessarily an indicator that an off-the-shelf package should be ruled out" ICT for Strategic Advantage U*i)!*ss o2 t6 /!si*ss o- /!si*ss "-" to / s!++o-t3 The higher the degree of uniqueness which exists in the area to be supported! the less likely it is that a suitable off-the-shelf package can be found" This is clearly an indicator! therefore! for bespoke development of some kind" As before! we must not confuse uniqueness with complexity" $t may well be feasible for a non $%5$T specialist to develop a solution using tools available to end-user developers" 'f course! if the required system is both complex and carries a high degree of uniqueness! then bespoke development by $%5$T professionals is probably the best acquisition method" IS7IT 8+-tis "mo*0 *3&!s-s A certain degree of $%5$T literacy and expertise is necessary if end-users are to be able to develop information systems" $n addition! such literacy is desirable when selecting suitable off-the-shelf packaged software! as it can help the business focus more clearly on its precise requirements both from a functional and a technological perspective" $f an organisation has little end-user $%5$T expertise of its own! but has its own $%5$T department! it will be very much dependent on solutions provided by $%5$T professionals with or without third-party support" Li*9"0s :it6 8isti*0 "++#i("tio*s so2t:"- :here new business software needs to integrate very tightly with existing information systems! there is a higher probability that at least some bespoke development work will need to be done to integrate the two systems" Also! a high degree of integration may imply that the new information system has to be developed in a bespoke fashion in order to achieve the desired level of integration" ;aving said that! many software vendor supply packages for different business areas which integrate very well with each other" #y looking at combinations of the above! it is possible to come up with a &best-fit& acquisition method" +igure 6 illustrates the relationship between the complexity of the required application 1as driven by the business needs2 and the uniqueness of the application under consideration" *ompexity of application ;igh 'ff-the-shelf package #espoke development <ow 'ff-the-shelf package 'r! end-user development #espoke or end-user development <ow ;igh Uniqueness of desired application +igure 6" Application *omplexity 0 Uniqueness ICT for Strategic Advantage ACQUISITION CHOICES AND METHODS :hen considering acquisition choices and methods! the make or buy decision will occur and different suppliers of off-the-shelf or bespoke solutions will be evaluated" The economic! technical! and operational feasibilities will be evaluated for each of the suppliers after a tender or request for proposals has been sent out to suppliers" $f a company decides to use a third party to develop its information systems or provide other $% services! this is known as outsourcing" :hen purchasing a system! structured decision making is required to ensure that the best option is selected" Three methods for making product or supplier decisions are given below" F"t!- C6(9#ist 2i-st (!t 8(#!sio* This checklist is initially used to exclude products that are perhaps missing a key function or do not support the operating system used by the company" The feature checklist is the most useful and easily applied tool that can be developed in-house! or! drawn up by external sources including the industry maga9ines" F"t!- C6(9#ist 3t"i#3 -"*9i*0 The detailed ranking attaches relative importance to features by extending them! and give each feature a weighting of say between =.> and =6..> points for each factor and then add up the scores for the different products Fi*"# S#(tio* !si*0 B*(6m"-9i*0 'nce the list of possible software has been narrowed down using the feature checklists to two or three contenders! a number of options are available to make the final decision" These can be quite costly for both purchaser and supplier" +irst! it is possible to benchmark against other organisations who are performing similar tasks ? what are their experiences! what performance is the software achieving! are they an independent reference site@" %econd! if it is a large order5contract! the suppliers can be asked to provide the software and test important functions using example process scenarios from the company" SOFTWARE SELECTION FACTORS :hen comparing software! cost is an obvious constraint on any purchase! but since this is often a fixed constraint! the focus would be on the technical merits of the products and how they vary" #oci/ suggests eight key factors in deciding on software: +unctionality Ease of use )erformance *ompatibility %ecurity %tability or reliability )rospects for long-term support of product Extensibility ICT for Strategic Advantage SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTATION 'nce Unit testing! system testing and acceptance testing 1<ecture A2 has been successfully completed! the next step is to implement the system with limited disruption to operation and business activities of the company" *hoosing the implementation strategy is one of the important decisions that the pro/ect management team must make during the implementation phase" *hangeover can be defined as moving from the old information system to the new information system" Bote that this changeover is required whether the previous information system is computer or paper based" #efore considering the alternatives! it may be relevant to briefly discuss the main factors that managers should consider when evaluating the alternatives" These factors are: Cost5 This is of course an important consideration! but the quality of the new system is often more important" Tim5 There will be a balance between the time available and the desired quality of the system which will need to be evaluated" Q!"#it$ o2 *: s$stm "2t- (6"*0o,-5 This will be dependent on the number of bugs and suitability for purpose" Im+"(t o* (!stom-s5 :hat will be the effect on customer service if the changeover overruns or if the new system has bugs@ Im+"(t o* m+#o$s5 ;ow much extra work will be required by employees during the changeover@ :ill they be remunerated for this@ There are four main alternatives for moving from a previous system to a new system" P"-"### -!**i*0 :ith parallel running the old and new systems are operated together for a period until the company is convinced that the new system performs adequately" This presents a lower risk than the immediate cutover method! since if the new system fails! the company can revert to the old system and customers will not be greatly affected" )arallel running sometimes also involves using a manual or paper-based system as backup in case the new system fails" The cost of running two systems in parallel is high! not only in terms of maintaining two sets of software and possibly hardware! but also in the costs of the human operators repeating operations such as keying in customer orders twice" $ndeed! the increase in workload may be such that overtime or additional staff may be required" The parallel method is only appropriate when the old and new systems perform similar functions and use similar software and hardware combinations" This makes it unsuitable for business reengineering pro/ects where completely new ways of working are being introduced that involve staff working on different tasks or in different locations" ICT for Strategic Advantage Di-(t (6"*0o,- This method involves moving directly from the original system to the new system at a particular point in time" 'n a designated date! the old system is switched off and all staff move to using the new system" *learly! this is a high-risk strategy since there is no fallback position if serious bugs are encountered" ;owever! this approach is adopted by many large companies! since it may be impractical and costly to run different systems in parallel" #efore cutover occurs! the company will design the system carefully and conduct extensive testing to make sure that it is reliable and so reduce the risk of failure" Pi#ot st!3$ $n a pilot implementation! the system will be trialled in a more limited area before it is deployed more extensively" This could include deploying the system in one operating region of the company! possibly a single country! or in a limited number of offices" This approach is common in multinational or national companies with several offices" %uch a pilot study usually acts as a trial before more extensive deployment in a big bang implementation" P6"s3 im+#m*t"tio* A phased implementation involves delivering different parts of the system at different times" These modules do not all become live simultaneously! but rather in sequence" As such! this alternative is part way between the big bang and parallel running approaches" Each module can be introduced as either immediate cutover or in parallel" $n a modular accounting system! for example! the core accounting functions! such as accounts payable! accounts receivable and general ledger! could be introduced first! with a sales order processing and then inventory control module introduced later" This gives staff the opportunity to learn about the new system more gradually and problems encountered on each module can be fixed as they are introduced" Although this may appear to be an attractive approach! since if a new module fails the other modules will still be available! it is difficult to implement in practice" To achieve a phased implementation requires that the architecture of the new system and old system are designed in a modular way! and that the modules can operate independently without a high degree of coupling" +or all systems! however! data exchange will be required between the different modules and this implies that common data exchange formats exist between the old and the new systems" This is often not the case! particularly if the software is sourced from different suppliers" esigners of systems are using techniques such as ob/ect-oriented design to produce modules with fewer and clearer dependencies between each other" This should help in making phased implementations more practical" $n the example given for the modular accounting system! modules in the old and new system would have to have facilities to transfer data" ICT for Strategic Advantage USIN' COMBINATIONS OF CHAN'EOVER METHODS The different changeover methods are often used in con/unction for different stages of an implementation" +or example! in a national or international implementation it is customary to trial the pro/ect in a single region or country using a pilot of the system" $f a pilot system is considered successful there is then a choice of one of the following: $mmediately implementing the system elsewhere using the big bang approach Cunning the new and old systems in parallel until it is certain that the new system is stable enough( $f the new system is modular in construction! it is possible for the implementation to be phased! with new modules gradually being introduced as they are completed and the users become familiar with the new system( parallel running will probably also occur in this instance! in case there is a need to revert to the old system in the event of failure of the new system" 'nce the system is proved in the first area! then further rollout will probably occur through the big bang approach" Table D summarises the advantages and disadvantages of each of these changeover strategies" Mt6o3 M"i* "3,"*t"0 M"i* 3is"3,"*t"0 irect Capid! lowest cost ;igh risk if serious errors in system )arallel <ower risk than immediate %lower and higher cost than cutover immediate cutover )hased 3ood compromise between immediate cutover and parallel running ifficult to achieve technically due to interdependencies between modules )ilot Essential for multinational or national rollouts ;as to be used in combination with the other methods Table D" Advantages and disadvantages of changeover strategies OR'ANISATIONAL CHAN'E MANA'EMENT The implementation of a new system will always cause disruption to staff! because changes to their patterns of working will occur" $n some cases staff may be transferred to new roles" The change involved in the introduction of the new system needs management so staff motivation and productivity are not adversely affected" The best approach to managing this change is to use education to communicate the purpose of the system to the staff! in other words! to sell the system to them" This education should target all employees in the organisation who will be affected by the change" $t involves: Explaining why the system is being implemented Explaining how staff will be affected $nvolve users in specification! testing and review: treat them as customers Training users in use of the software Above all! listening to users and acting on what they say ICT for Strategic Advantage FILE CONVERSION +ile conversion is a ma/or part of the systems implementation +ile creation or file conversion! means converting existing master file records and reference file records on to a file suitable for the new system" A system cannot become operational until master files for the new system have been created" As an example a sales ledger application package cannot be brought into use until the user has created a sales ledger file for existing customers for the new system" +ile conversion can be tedious and time consuming" #ecause of the volume of data that must be copied on to the new files! the problem of input errors getting on to the master file is a serious one! in spite of data validation checks in the file conversion program" 'nce the file has been created extensive checking for accuracy is essential! otherwise considerable problems may arise when the system becomes operational" :here the file conversion is from manual records the manager or systems analyst in charge of planning the conversion must establish the following" The location of the data 1data for each record may be on one or more forms2 :hether the existing forms are suitable for data capture :hether the data format and sequence is suitable for the computer system :hether the existing records are maintained centrally or not :hether each record is easily accessible The volumes involved 1how many records of each type there are2 :hether the existing files are to be converted directly or amalgamated in way $f the system is already computerised! the difficulties of file conversion will usually be reduced and the above problems more easily established" +urthermore! when it comes to transcription from the old files to the new computer files the use of a special program will speed up the whole process" $t is important to note that! before starting to load live data about customers! suppliers or employees etc! management should check whether the system must be registered under the ata )rotection Act" TRAININ' Training is a key issue in the success of implementing a new system" The approach adopted and the medium through which the training is given will vary depending on the target audience" %enior management are more likely to be interested in the overall capabilities and limitation of the system" The middle management would receive a more structured and more tailored to the particular applications within their remit! while /unior staffs need to be taught the functional aspects" MAINTENANCE The maintenance phase of a pro/ect starts when the users sign off the system during testing and it becomes a live production system" $t involves reviewing the pro/ect and recording and acting on problems with the system" After a system is live! there are liable to be some errors that were not identified during testing and need to be remedied" :hen problems are encountered! this presents a dilemma to the system manager! since they will have to balance the need for a new release of the system against the severity of an error" ICT for Strategic Advantage $t is not practical or cost effective to introduce a new release of the software for every bug found! since each release needs to be tested and installed and fresh problems may exist in the new system" 8ost systems managers would aim not to make frequent! immediate releases to correct problems because of the cost and disruption this causes" $nstead! faults will be recorded and then fixed in a release that solves several ma/or problems" This is known as a maintenance release and it might occur at monthly! six-monthly or yearly intervals according to the stability of the system" POST IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW A post implementation review or pro/ect closedown review occurs several months after the system has gone live" $ts purpose is to asses the success of the new system and decide on any necessary corrective action" The review would include the following: Ceview of faults and suggested enhancements with agreement on which need to be implemented in a future release Ceview the success of the system in meeting its budget and implementation timescale targets Ceview of the success of the system in meeting its business requirements ? has it delivered the anticipated benefits described in the feasibility study Ceview of development practices that worked well and poorly during the pro/ect An addition reason for performing post implementation review is so that lessons can be learnt from the pro/ect" 3ood practice can be applied to future pro/ects and attempts made to avoid techniques which failed" QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION :hy would a small business be more constrained in its choice of software acquisition method than a large organisation@ iscuss iscuss the different alternatives for acquiring information systems iscuss different approaches to changeover strategies iscuss the factors influencing the choice of changeover strategies *an a post implementation review add value to the organisation@! how@ :hat is the significance of the maintenance phase in the system implementation process@ R2-*(s #oci/! )"! et al"! =#usiness $nformation %ystems>! +inancial Times! 6EEE 3upta! U"! =$nformation %ystems>! )rentice ;all! 6EEE