OCR A2 ICT G063 - Chapter 5

a) Client Involvement

Involvement when custom-written computer-based system is produced – involvement at all stages of the systems life cycle from initial problem definition to evaluation, provides requirements to project manager to form the basis of the new system, consulted at end of each stage in systems life cycle to ensure that system still meets requirements, identifies errors that need to be completed, involved in testing of the system to ensure it meets requirements

b) Custom-Written vs Off-the-Shelf

Implications of software not meeting requirements – increased costs which will require reduced service to compensate, time delays reduce efficiency of service, technical failure of ICT will lead to late arrival to scence, perceived failure causes public concern

Issues of support from custom-written – charges for support can be high as no one else can support it as effectively as the authors, company that write the system may have a licence agreement preventing anyone else looking at the codewhich prevents third parties supporting it, as a single firm knows the system if they ceased trading it would  be hard to find support

Compare

Off-the-shelf rather than custom-written – adv: software should have most of the bugs removed because it has been tested using the public for some time, there may be help available as the software is used by many similar companies, staff may be familiar with the software so will need little training, it can be used immediately, dis: may require changes in working practice, may not do exactly what is required and therefore involve further costs in having it adapted, software may have a larger memory footprint than custom-written

Custom-written and off-the-shelf for stock control system – custom will do exactly what you want but off-the-shelf will contain bloat ware, no unwanted functions with custom software but off-the-shelf contains these which will increase the memory footprint, software will belong to the firm if it is custom written but off-the-shelf is a much cheaper one off cost

Custom-written

Advantages – the company gets exactly what it wants so the solution performs only the functions it needs to, final system matches user requirements so no redundant features using memory, system can be modified to stay compatible with the needs of the business, may be compatible with existing systems so installing and running the training should not have a problem and give immediate use, can be sold to similar companies when produced so development costs can be recouped as the airline will own the copyright

Implications of custom-written – system will meet all requirements of business because users are part of the design process, it will not be instantly available because the system may take time to complete, system may have a lot of bugs in it because it won’t be extensively tested, system will integrate more with existing systems as design is based on current system

Off-the-shelf

c) Feasibility

Factors to consider when upgrading software – expertise of the staff because they may need training to use the…