|
Software Development and Maintenance Plan |
|
Information Technology Department Discount Used & New Tires Co. is a relatively small business and does not specialize in information technology services, which means that it will be too expensive for the firm to hire its own IT department. So rather than developing the new system for the firm in-house, the firm will hire an external organization that specializes in providing these services to do the work. Discount Used & New Tires Co. will hire an external vendor to design and create the software for its system, but the company will operate the system on its own computers by its own employees. Outsourcing allows a firm like Discount Used Tires Co. with fluctuating needs for computer processing to pay for only what it uses rather than to build its own computer center, which would be underutilized when there is no peak load.
Software Development Lifecycle
PLANNING STAGE The planning stage establishes a bird's eye view of the intended software product, and uses this to establish the basic project structure, evaluate feasibility and risks associated with the project, and describe appropriate management and technical approaches.
REQUIREMENTS DEFINITION STAGE The requirements gathering process takes as its input the goals identified in the high-level requirements section of the project plan. Each goal will be refined into a set of one or more requirements. These requirements define the major functions of the intended application, define operational data areas and reference data areas, and define the initial data entities. Major functions include critical processes to be managed, as well as mission critical inputs, outputs and reports. A user class hierarchy is developed and associated with these major functions, data areas, and data entities. Each of these definitions is termed a Requirement. Requirements are identified by unique requirement identifiers and, at minimum, contain a requirement title and textual description.
DESIGN STAGE The design stage takes as its initial input the requirements identified in the approved requirements document. For each requirement, a set of one or more design elements will be produced as a result of interviews, workshops, and/or prototype efforts. Design elements describe the desired software features in detail, and generally include functional hierarchy diagrams, screen layout diagrams, tables of business rules, business process diagrams, pseudo-code, and a complete entity-relationship diagram with a full data dictionary. These design elements are intended to describe the software in sufficient detail that skilled programmers may develop the software with minimal additional input.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE The development stage takes as its primary input the design elements described in the approved design document. For each design element, a set of one or more software artifacts will be produced. Software artifacts include but are not limited to menus, dialogs, data management forms, data reporting formats, and specialized procedures and functions. Appropriate test cases will be developed for each set of functionally related software artifacts, and an online help system will be developed to guide users in their interactions with the software.
INTEGRATION & TEST STAGE During the integration and test stage, the software artifacts, online help, and test data are migrated from the development environment to a separate test environment. At this point, all test cases are run to verify the correctness and completeness of the software. Successful execution of the test suite confirms a robust and complete migration capability. During this stage, reference data is finalized for production use and production users are identified and linked to their appropriate roles. The final reference data (or links to reference data source files) and production user list are compiled into the Production Initiation Plan.
INSTALLATION & ACCEPTANCE STAGE During the installation and acceptance stage, the software artifacts, online help, and initial production data are loaded onto the production server. At this point, all test cases are run to verify the correctness and completeness of the software. Successful execution of the test suite is a prerequisite to acceptance of the software by the customer. After customer personnel have verified that the initial production data load is correct and the test suite has been executed with satisfactory results, the customer formally accepts the delivery of the software.
System Maintenance Plan The vendor who is going to be hired to develop the system will be responsible to for the various maintenance tasks. The vendor will be responsible for debugging the system or correcting problems, any changes in data, files, reports, hardware, or system software, and any user enhancements, improving documentation, and recoding system components for greater processing efficiency. This is the link to the project web site: http://www.angelfire.com/planet/fivegenerations/index.htm References · Laudon, P., Laudon, C. (2005). Essentials of Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. · Elucidata. (2002). The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) For Small to Medium Database Applications. Retrieved July 23, 2006, from http://www.elucidata.com/refs/sdlc.pdf |
