The life-cycle of an information system is composed of seven (7) stages. This includes planning, analysis, design, implementation, testing, training, and maintenance. Planning stage involves identification of the current stage of the organization in terms of Information System implementation and what does the company want to be within a specified period of time. It also involves the identification of the goals and objectives of the company in terms of IT implementation or utilization. This stage is very crucial to the development of an information system because everything starts from the plan. If anything goes wrong in this stage, then there is a big possibility that the errors committed in this stage will be reflected in the next stage. After setting the goals and objectives, the analysis come next. In the case if the photography company, it needs to have a foresight of what they want to be in the future.
Do they want to continue with the system they currently have or do they want to implement an more efficient way of recording their employees data that could eliminate time theft?
After deciding what the company wants to have, an analysis of what is done to analyze the current problems the company have and do and cost and benefits analysis. The purpose of the analysis is to determine the necessary requirements to convert to a new system and determine if this system is practical and cost effective.
If the company arrived at the conclusion that implementing a new system is feasible for the organization, the next step that the company needs to do is designing the system. Designing is very crucial because it needs to be cost effective with an ability to eliminate buddy punching. Video recording would be part of the design such as an employee clocking in and after keying in their password the system will be able to snap a picture of the person clocking in for work. There should be constant communication between the systems designer and the users during this phase to ensure that the requirements needed by the client are met. After designing the new system, the implementation and testing phase of the new system can begin. Implementation can come side by side so that while developing the system, test cases can already be made to ensure smooth implementation of the system afterwards.
The department heads only should be part of the test phase to ensure the system works properly in the way they intended and need. Therefore test cases need to be built and executed to verify its results. This testing phase enables management to best determine if new system meets expectations and whether or not changes are needed before training the employees. Testing on the new system is conducted with employee training and then data conversion can be completed.
Data conversion is the process of interpreting the data from the existing formats to those required by the new system. In layman’s term, all the employees’ information must now be transferred to the new system. Now that the new system is up and running the last of the life cycle is maintenance. This is monitoring and finding solutions to issues after the implementation including upgrades when needed. This new system will not only prevent time theft but also keep accurate time thereby rectifying the time entry issue and achieving the company’s goal.
References
The Information Life Cycle Model. (2011). Retrieved on September 7, 2011 from
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/information-lifecycle/introduction/mod
Laudon, K. Laudon, J. P. (2012) Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson Prentice Hall.
Navidi, Joe (2009). The Impact of Regulation on Information System Planning. Retrieved on February 21, 2012 from http://www.theiia.org/intAuditor/itaudit/2009-articles/the-impact-of-regulation-on-information-system-planning/
