By system, what we mean is an arrangement of parts or functions in an orderly manner to get a work done with desired results. A system needs different parts that has to be aligned in order to facilitate completion of a task with minimum resources giving optimal benefit. So, development of system could be the first thing that has to be planned before getting into any task. This shows us how much importance has to be given in developing a system, that has the required features. Hence, there has to be a proper flow, for developing a system, and it has to be proven and an established way of developing a system. An efficient team, external or internal to an organization, participates in the system development process. By system, here I mean information processing and controlling systems that are used in industries. Broadly classifying, there are seven stages in system development:
Preliminary Investigation:
It is the first step in system development cycle. In this stage, the user’s requirement is analysed. User’s requirement may be to change, enhance or improve the existing system. The objective of this stage is to determine whether the user’s request is valid and feasible and only then any recommendations are made.
Requirement Analysis:
If creation of a new system is feasible, based on the preliminary investigations done, the requirement analysis begins. This stage has two phases:
i. Requirement Analysis
The purpose of this phase is to collect and analyse all the data that are available to get more information about the user’s requirement and to remove all the inconsistencies and incompleteness in their requirement.
ii. Requirement Specification
In this phase, after collecting all the details, they are documented. This document serves as the base for the furtherance of system development cycle. This requirement specification document becomes a kind of contract between the development team and the customers.
System Design:
In system design stage, the requirement specifications are transformed into a structure, suitable enough to be implemented by programming language. In technical terms, through this stage, we derive the software design, in flowcharts and diagrams, from requirement specification document.
System Construction:
Once all the paperwork regarding requirement specification and designs are done, it has to be transformed to be a physical structure. It is in this phase programming comes into picture. Required programs are coded, debugged and documented. System construction takes its roots from the requirement specification and system design stages. So, both these stages has to be carefully studied to construct a system.
System Testing:
A system is constructed and before being implemented, it has to be carefully tested in order to satisfy the requirements of the user. Several series of test data that closely resemble real time data are given to test whether the system will be able to handle real time transactions. If the system satisfies the tests then it is recommended to be implemented.
System Implementation:
In this stage, hardware and software are installed through site preparations, training of the end users and other means. Now, again the system is tested, but by the users. Their feedbacks are collected and conclusions are made. Implementation stage is the most crucial phase in the system development process.
System Maintenance:
System development doesn’t get completed with the implementation stage. After implementation it has to be maintained properly to avoid any shortcomings and any sort of further development. It is estimated that system maintenance requires more cost than development.
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