Generally, the steps of the systems development life cycle include understanding the business need or problem; understanding how those needs should be addressed, developing an implementation plan, implementation of the plan, implementation evaluation, maintenance of the plan, review and destruction. However, according to the Waterfall model, there are six phases: Feasibility, analysis, design, implementation, testing and maintenance (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012).
Feasibility involves determining if the project should be started and supported. This involves the creation of a project plan and budget for SDLC phases. Nurses should be involved in this phase because they are well-versed in operational, economic and schedule issues and can inform the process constructively. For example, nurses know how long it would take to integrate a process into a health institution. Absence of nurses in this process may lead to wrong estimations in the budget and schedule. This may jeopardize the success of the project. Analysis involves examination of workflows and practices. Nurses should be involved because they know the business needs of the organization because they have interacted with the challenges. For example, a system should be able to store patient records in a manner convenient for the nurse to retrieve (Kelley, Docherty, & Brandon, 2011). Failure to involve them may lead to inadequate information on organizational needs.
Design phase involves establishing the programs needed and how they will work. Nurses can prove useful by providing feedback on the user interfaces. If nurses are not consulted, the software interfaces created may not be suitable. The implementation phase involves bringing the designs to life through programming. Nurses should be involved to enhance their troubleshooting capabilities. The testing phase involves evaluating the program through tests. Part of this involves checking that the system is appropriate for the user. Nurses have to be involved in this because they determine if the system is performing according to their expectations. The maintenance phase involves ensuring that the system runs accordingly and making any necessary alterations or repairs. This necessitates nurses because they should be able to troubleshoot when problems arise and take necessary measures.
References
Kelley, T. F., Docherty, S. L. & Brandon, D. H. (2011). Electronic Nursing Documentation as a Strategy to Improve Quality of Patient Care. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 43(2), 154–162.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2012). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
