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Synopsis

28 August, 2015 - 10:53
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Organizations exist in a dynamic environment. Driven by demands for IT services, competitive business pressures, and opportunities provided by availability of information technology, the Information Services Function (ISF) of the modern organization must adapt its services quickly and continuously. Examples of these demands include:

  • Demand for increased customer service measured by flexibility, speed, quality, and 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week (called “24/7”) availability.
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  • Demand for added functionality by users of an organization’s IT infrastructure. For example, internal users need access to services away from the office and may want to employ new wireless technologies to do so.
  • Implementation of enterprise systems (ES) to connect business processes and better manage the organization. These implementations often require reengineering of the business processes to match them with the processes in the ES.
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  • Change in processes and relationships along the supply chain to reduce costs and provide better customer service. These require changes to business processes, IT infrastructure, and IS processes.
  • Use of the Internet and related technologies to collaborate with business partners in ways never before seen.
 

Thus, the ISF must align its strategy and objectives to the business’ strategy and objectives and deliver new or modified quality IT solutions in a timely manner. This and the next chapter describe the processes (i.e., management practices, controls) typically employed to develop and modify these IT solutions.

Learning Objectives

  • To name the systems development process and its major phases and steps
  • To describe how Information Systems are planned, developed, and acquired or modified, so that those systems can be directed at achieving an organization’s objectives
  • To explain the importance of managing the systems development process to ensure attainment of development objectives
  • To describe the nature and importance of your future involvement in systems development
  • To name the goals, plans, tasks, tools, and results of the first two steps in systems development, the systems survey and systems analysis
  • To explain the costs of developing, maintaining, and operating an Information System
  • To list typical Information Systems benefits