Free Essay Example on Design and Implementation in System Design

The process of developing a new system involves several steps which lead up to the final product which is a complete system. The steps can be divided into various steps according to the main activities that take place. For example, design and implementation are a number of actions based on the different steps that occur. System developers must ensure that they adhere to the principles of system development to come up with an ideal system. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the importance of design and implementation in system development while incorporating the core value of integrity. Integrity is the core value at Saint Leo University and refers to the aspect that all stakeholders live up to the mission and deliver on the promise. As such, integrity involves honesty and consistency in both words and actions.

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Design

The phase of system design depends on the user requirements and a detailed analysis of the new system. The design stage is important since it is considered as the most crucial one in the development process. It involves moving from the logical model which is developed in the analysis level to the physical design. The importance of the design process is seen in the transition from what questions in the analysis point to the how questions. The design step involves how the system will work as compared to the analysis process which answers questions about what the system will do (Barry, 2008). Therefore, the design activity is equally important in the documentation process for recording how the system works. Furthermore, such documentation plays a significant part in the debugging process since the debugger only has to go through the documentation to understand how the system was designed.

In addition, the design phase is critical since the physical design describes all the steps that are needed to solve the original problem. The description involves input, output, forms, databases, codification schemes as well as processing specifications. The significance of describing these attributes is that everything is identified in detail. Most importantly, after making these considerations, the programming language, software and hardware platforms for the new system are decided in this stage (Bronzite, 2008). Other key details that are considered in this stage include the data structure, equipment source, control process, workload and limitations of the system, training, interface, backups as well as staffing requirements. Integrity needs to be upheld in these processes since developers need to be assured that these components of the system will live up to the expectations. More so, developers have to ensure that these components are compatible in the system. These considerations ensure that the system will work to achieve its purpose as defined by the intended users. In counterchecking the integrity of the components and the system in the design part, the developer must use tools such as the data flow diagram, flowchart, and decision table and decision tree as well as data dictionary. These help in cross-checking that the system will work effectively.

Implementation

Implementation is an equally important period in the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) because it comes after user acceptance. Once the users have accepted the system, the implementation stage begins. The process of implementation involves different steps such as the acquisition and installation of software and hardware. The role of a developer is to ensure that the selected hardware and software provide the right platform for the developed system to run (Barry, 2008). The implementation activity also involves conversion from the old system or existing system to the new system. The implementation phase also involves user training as well as documentation of the complete system.

Other integrity considerations made by the developer include checking that the hardware and the relevant software which is required to run the system are fully functional before implementation. Additionally, developers need to take the system users through the conversion process where data from the existing system is converted into operational data in the new format of the new system. Most importantly, the database requires to be set up with recovery and security features that are fully defined (Bronzite, 2008). The implementation process is also important since the user training takes place at this point. The main areas of training include how to execute the system, how to enter data, how to process data and how to create reports using the system. The developers have to ensure that users understand all these processes. After the training, the conversion begins through a technique known as the changeover. The developer has to choose between a direct changeover, parallel run or a pilot run based on the success of the training and the evaluation of the new system compared to the old system.

Conclusion

Indeed, integrity applies in different aspects of the system development processes including the design and implementation of a new system. System developers are tasked with the responsibility of upholding integrity throughout all phases of system development. As such, developers need to come up with different checks and measures to ensure that each step in the system development process brings out the expected results. The design phase is important because it involves detailing of how the system will work and meet the user needs. Similarly, the implementation phase is important since it involves training the users and changing from the existing system to the new system. In all these actions, integrity is maintained to ensure that the user requirements match the systems functionality.

References

Barry, C. (2008). Information systems development. New York: Springer.

Bronzite, M. (2008). System development. London: Springer.