Chapter 11: PROBLEMS AND PLANS

The System Development Cycle
 --> The Five Stages
1. Understanding the problem
2. Making decisions
3. Designing a solution
4. Implementing the solution
5. Testing, evaluating and maintaining the solution
Example: Bus Duty for teachers
- Conduct a survey
- When are they available ?
What are some other ways to organise it that is not necessarily paper- based
* Could have it online
* Spreadsheet on Excel, appropriate number of columns : Days of the week, tally up how many minutes are done.
* Improvements: Easier!

Picture:

 Step 1
- Understand the nature of the system, understand the problem. What does the system do?What are the inputs and outputs?  what people are involved in the system ( users and participants)?
- Most important step
- You have to know what you are making in order to form a solution
- Observe system in progress
-   Interview participants in system

 Step 2
- Decisions to be made
--> Keep paper- based one or go online
--> Is it online IT or local solution
--> What will be its nature
--> One master copy
--> What software and hardware needed

 Step 3
-  Design the solution

Step 4
- How to implement  the solution?
- Make it accessible
- Put it in place
- Activate it
- Install hardware and software
- Training

Step 5
- How to test and evaluate
- Get someone to try it ou
- Sample Data and Test Data
- Sample: Typical data, feed it in and see if system copes
- Test: Put in unusual values, checking for unexpected values
- Feedback from clients( participants and users)

- The cycle goes around and around, it CONTINUES!