1. What was the most difficult assessment item you completed in COIS20025 this term (not counting the examination which is not until the examination period)?
2. What was difficult about it and how would you suggest it could be improved?
3. Name three (3) things you learnt this term in COIS20025.
4. What career are you working towards?
5. How will you be able to use the knowledge and skills learnt in this course in your future career?

What was the most difficult assessment item you completed in COIS20025 this term (not counting the examination which is not until the examination period)?

Assessment two was interesting as it has all the concepts thought involved and it is related to the complete process of development of a product. This being part A , part B was also a challenging task as we have to collect all the information about In-House development and Outsourcing the projectg development. So, assessment two was a challenging and interesting onen as it has both theoretical and practical stuff involved in it.

What was difficult about it and how would you suggest it could be improved?

In assessment two we were asked to draw the entity- relationship diagrams and create a database for those entities. We were also asked to write an essay on Project development In-House and outsourcing. Instead this assessment can be divided into parts so that each individual task can be asked to do every week and the essay writing can be extendead to more words or can be given with an additional topic.

Name three (3) things you learnt this term in COIS20025.

The course was interesting and it taught me many things to me that can be helpful for me in my career as an IT professional.  I learned about the various stages in the software development life cycle and what steps have to be performed in each stage to make the produce the best and outperforming. Most importantly i have learned about the database concepts relating to the software development life cycle which would be a huge advantage for my career.

What career are you working towards?

I would like to become a successful software professional with database as my core concept. I am interested  in the database concepts and would like to become a database administrator.

How will you be able to use the knowledge and skills learnt in this course in your future career?

This course was a challenging and the most interesting course that i have learned. In this course i have learned about the basics of the database concepts which would be like the starting step for my learning of the database concepts. This course has also taught me about the role of a systems analyst and by learning these concepts this can also become an alternate career option.

Thus, I can conclude saying that this course is the base for any software professional as we can learn about the database concepts and also about the role of a systems analyst in a software development life cycle.

Any textbooks, articles and websites that provide information cited in your essay should be included in the reference list of your essay.

This week you should begin an annotated bibliography in your post to the blog for this week. The resources page for assignment 3 contains a description of what an annotated bibliography is and what it should contain.

It is expected that you will list two or three textbooks, articles and/or websites. For each textbook, article or website you should write a paragraph or two briefly summarising it and explaining how it will support the arguments that you are making in your academic essay.

Your annotated bibliography must be started by the end of this week. It does not need to be completed this week. I suggest that you add information to your annotated bibliography as you add references to the reference list of your essay.

Outsourcing: “According to Steve Benson, 2008 Outsourcing means paying a third party outside the organization to perform specific functions such as data processing, application development, communications, or electronic data processing audit”.

Outsourcing: According to Gary B.Shelly, Harry J.Roseenblatt 2008, outsourcing is the transfer of information systems development, operation, or maintenance to outside firm that provides these services for free on a temporary or long-term basis.

In-House Development: According to Gary B.Shelly and Harry J.Roseenblatt 2008 In-house development is like a support system which can act like a help desk for providing support to the users of the current system.

As discussed in the IBM Website “Outsourcing enables a customer to offload the operation of IT systems and processes in order to focus on core business functions. Though outsourcing, clients gain cost-effective and flexible IT solutions that enable them to rapidly respond to changing business needs and freeing from the demands of keeping pace with technological change.”

“Outsourcing can:

• Help reduce IT costs and improve shareholder value
• Provide the flexibility to transition and transform to the next generation of infrastructure and applications
• Let companies focus on their core competencies
• Improve service levels

• Gain access to industry, business and technology experts”.

From the above discussion we can clearly understand that there are some advantages and some disadvantages for the in-house system and in the same way there are some pros and cons for the system that is being outsourced. Now a days most of the IT companies are outsourcing the projects, and this is being done mainly toreduce the cost and also for efficient people to work on the project for best outcome. On a whole we can understand that outsourcing is a good option for most of the cases.

Bibliography:

The following articles, Text books and websites are used:

Clifford F.Gray, Erick W.Larson, 2000, Project management: The managerial Process, Singapore.

Heather M., May 2008, “Outsource Software Development and Open Source: Coming of age in the 2000S”, ABI/INFORM Global.

http://www-935.ibm.com/services/au/index.wss/itservice/gts/a1006298

Jeffery A.Hoffer, Joey F.George, Joseph S.Valacich, 2008, Modern System Analysis and design, 5^th edn, New Jersey.

Kemal Carr, Richard Huff, “To Outsource or to Insource?”, Document Processing Technology, Madison, Aug 2007, Vol. 15, Iss. 5; pg.20

Richard L.Van Horn, Albert B.Schwarzkopf, R.Leon Price, 2006, Information system solutions: A project approach, New York.

Sandeep Sahay, Brain Nicholson, S.Krishna, 2007, Global IT outsourcing 2^nd edn, New York.

Steve Benson & Craig Standing, 2008 Information Systems: A business approach, 3^rd edn, China.

• Process name
• Process number
• Purpose
• Input Data Flows
• Output Data Flows
• Process description
• Notes

Data dictionary entry for the process “Payments”.

Process Name: Payments.

Process Number: 5.

Purpose: This is a very important process shown in the DFD diagram. The main purpose of this process is to take the payment from the customer and differentiate the mode of payment.

Input Data Flows: The input data flows for the process are “Order Report” and “Payment”.

Output Data Flows: The output data flows for the process are “Cash Record” and “Credit Card Record”.

Process Description: In the system the “Payments” process is used to take the payments from the customers. It has an input data flow of the “Order Report” which tells us the total bill amount and the “Payment”, which is the payment form the customer. Now, depending on the customer’s mode of payment it maintains a record of the transaction in the data storage.

Notes: Payments process is used to differentiate the mode of payment made by the customer and depending on that maintains a record in the database.

Context DFD: Context diagram for the process of buying a food item from a fast food restaurant.

Context Diagram

Diagram 0 DFD: Diagram 0 for the process of buying a food item from a fast food restaurant.

Diagram 0

            What is involved when outsourcing system development?

Every firm or an organization have there own systems and the system development techniques. Some of the organizations would like to outsource them, this could be due to various reasons like cost effective or efficient work and many other reasons. Every firm before outsourcing a project, their systems analyst must use some fact- finding techniques which include who, what, where, when, how and why. Systems analyst can use some other fact-finding techniques like “Document Review”, “Observation”, “Questionnaires and Surveys”, “sampling” and “Research”. Now we are going to discuss how these fact-finding techniques are helpful when outsourcing system development.

Document Review: This fact-finding technique is used to understand how the current system is suppose to work and depending on the review we can decide whether the process has to be outsourced or not. As a systems analyst we have to consider document review as an important fact-finding technique, because using this technique we can understand the standards and the procedures that is being followed in the current system. As every coin has two sides the bad part of the document review when we are outsourcing system development is that in most cases the documents are not maintained up-to-date, which might lead to a wrong decision and as a systems analyst we cannot relay on that. Thus, document review can be helpful for outsourcing but cannot be an important fact finding technique.

Observation: Observation is another important fact-finding technique used by systems analyst. Observation could be used as a fact-finding technique for outsourcing because seeing the system in action will give us a better understanding of the system procedures. In this type of fact-finding we can observe the pros and cons of the present system and depending on that we can make a decision. Thus observation can be used as a fact finding technique.

Questionnaires and Surveys: This according to me is a very important and efficient way of fact finding which can be use for outsourcing system development. A questionnaire or a survey is a document containing a number of standard questions that can be sent to many individuals and these questionnaires should be having an anonymous response so that we can find the faults of the current system. But not all the questions should have an anonymous response, Some of the questions should be build in such a way that it can be helpful for fact finding. Thus, Questionnaires and Surveys is an efficient way of fact-finding.

Sampling: Sampling is a fact-finding process which includes records, reports, operational logs and various other forms. Sampling is not a good technique used for outsourcing as it does not provide us appropriate information. Sampling technique includes systematic sampling, stratified sampling and random sampling which may vary from case to case depending on the sampling technique used. Thus, sampling is not a recommended technique to be used for outsourcing.

Research: Research is another important and an efficient way of fact-finding. Research includes Internet, IT magazines, books, technical material news about industry trends and development etc… Research may also include professional meetings, seminars and discussions with other IT professionals. So, research can be an effective tool which can be used for fact-finding.

What is involved when developing systems in-house?

When we are developing the system in-house fact finding plays a very important role because depending on the fact-finding techniques the system will be developed in-house. Now let us see the impact of various fact-finding techniques on developing system in-house. 

Document Review: Document review plays a very important role in fact-finding when developing the system in-house. As the document review helps us understand how the current system works it is important to keep all the documents up-to-date and if all the forms, documents are up to date it can be helpful for fact-finding and will be helping us to develop the system in-house.

Observation: Observation is also an important fact-finding technique used to develop a system in-house. As we are developing an in-house system it is important to know all the facts of the existing system and this can be done through observation. So, observation plays a vital role for building a system in-house.

Questionnaires and Surveys: This part of fact-finding technique could be useful for building a system in house. As Questionnaires and Surveys are used to find the responses and the feedback from the people who are working in the current system even this could be a handy fact-finding technique.

Sampling: Sampling is another important fact-finding technique that can be used for building an in-house system. By using the best sampling technique among systematic sampling, stratified sampling and random sampling we can use this information for building an in-house system.

Research: Research is another important fact-finding technique used to build the system in-house. By this fact-finding technique we can get up-to-date information form Internet, IT magazines, books, technical materials and many more. In addition we can attend professional meetings, seminars, and discussions with other IT professionals can be very helpful in problem solving and fact-finding. Thus research plays a vital role in fact-finding to develop a system in-house.

What textbooks, journals and/or websites might be useful to search for articles about discussing the topic?

We need to do a research on articles relating to the topic and this can be done using the Internet. We can search for heaps of textbooks and journals using the search engines like “Google”, “AltaVista” etc… These would be helpful for finding the journals and textbooks and we can even use the questionnaire technique to search for articles. And this can be done using the “yahoo answers” and various other sites. We can even use some forums to find the information and the latest articles. Some of the online discussion forums will be helpful to research about the topic.

 
The information system that is being developed should take care of the basic requirements of Steve and sue. As per their requirements it should handle the bookings, conformation and account details of the guests. It should maintain a database of all the guests who booked the cottage and also the public who visited the restaurant. We should develope a system which takes care of booking which include how the booking was made and how the conformation was sent to the guests. It should also have a field for the customers who have a credit card so that we can update the credit card information onto the database, we should include another field for the customers wether the meals are to be included inthe bill or not.So, the most important thing is that it should maintain the database of all the guests with their account informetion and the database of the future bookings.

What information do you need to find out about the business processes to develop a detailed understanding of the required system?

As a system analyst, first I would like to know about their business objective so that it would be easy for me to analyze their business requirements and build an information system accordingly. I would also like to know whether they want to install an outdoor spa in future and give public access to it, so that we can create the system keeping in mind the changes that are going to happen in the future. For bookings as they were expecting via telephone, mail or e-mail I would like to know whether they wish to change the booking system completely in the future by making it online. I would like to know at the time of booking whether they wish to give an option to the customers to select the cottage of their choice.