Once IT solutions have been identified and approval to proceed has been received, development—and/or appropriate acquisition—of the application software, infrastructure, and procedures may begin. To ensure that applications will satisfy users’ IT requirements, an organization’s SDLC should include procedures to create design specifications for each new, or significantly modified, application, and to verify those specifications against the user requirements. Design specifications include those for inputs, outputs, processes, programs, and databases.
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The SDLC should also include procedures to ensure that platforms (hardware and systems software) support the new or modified application. Further, there should be an assessment of the impact of new hardware and software on the performance of the overall system. Finally, procedures should be in place to ensure that hardware and systems software are installed, maintained, and changed so as to continue to support existing or revised business processes. |
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To ensure the ongoing, effective use of IT, the organization’s SDLC should provide for the preparation and maintenance of service level requirements and application documentation. Service level requirements include such items as availability, reliability, performance, capacity for growth, levels of user support, disaster recovery, security, minimal system functionality, and service charges. These requirements become benchmarks for the ongoing operation of the system. As IT organizations become larger and more complex, especially those that must implement and operate enterprise systems, these service level requirements become important methods for communicating the expectations of the business units for IT services. Further, if the organization is engaged in e-business these service levels are benchmarks for service on a Web site or to and from business partners engaged in electronic commerce. |
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