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SD A Poor record!

SD A Poor record!. The Traditional SAD Process -Success or Failure? Mowshowitz found in a survey of North American organisations that:- Only 20% of systems achieved intended benefits 40% showed marginal gains 40% were failures Other surveys have supported these findings.

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SD A Poor record!

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  1. SD A Poor record! The Traditional SAD Process -Success or Failure? • Mowshowitz found in a survey of North American organisations that:- • Only 20% of systems achieved intended benefits • 40% showed marginal gains • 40% were failures • Other surveys have supported these findings

  2. IT in the Public Sector • In the public sector the Comptroller and Auditor General has produced several reports highly critical of IT applications in the:- • Inland Revenue • The NHS • The Civil Service

  3. IT in the Public Sector • In the IR a major project was abandoned in 1985 costing 16.5 Billion pounds to be lost Failure was largely due to:- • weakness in project management • poor system design • inadequate staffing • lack of skilled IT staff

  4. Examples of poorly developed/failed systems • Large number of well publicised examples of failed systems within the Public Sector • DHSS • Privatisation of Government IT Services • Ministry of Defence • West Yorkshire Police • Teachers Pensions • Wessex Health Authority • LAS

  5. Reasons for failures • The National Audit Office identified several key reasons including:- • Weakness in project management • Poor system design • Inadequate staffing • Lack of skilled IT staff • Lack of/inadequate training • Poor specification of requirements

  6. Systems Failure • More recent evidence suggests that systems failure continues to be a problem • Survey by KPMG revealed that in America 31% of software projects were never completed (KPMG 1995) • The main reasons for these failures included • Poor project planning • Did not relate to organisations business needs • Weak poor definitions of requirements • Subsequent survey in 1997 replicated previous findings (KPMG What went wrong? Unsuccessful IT Projects)

  7. Recent Systems Failures • The computer press almost weekly continue to report on the failure of a particular system • In the last 36 mths the following systems have experienced difficulties due to a range of factors including human technical & organisational • A 4million MET Police System ‘SID’ May 1996 • 25m DSS welfare benefits system scrapped • Passport Agency delays 2X slower than old system 1999

  8. What went wrong? • The SA&D methods developed in the 60's and 70's •  These were applied to well understood and relatively straightforward applications •  Invoice generation •  Rates •  These were BATCH processing applications •  Users were mainly concerned with running the application and entering data

  9. SAD Issues • The advent and proliferation of PC's the type of applications and the tasks that the system is expected to be able to do has meant that :- • Processing is now done more in REAL TIME • Centralised computing resources have become decentralised • Greater number of users now have direct contact with computers •  Users are different!! • Thus there has been a fundamental shift in the issues that need to be addressed in the SA&D process

  10. Evidence suggests that IT implementation has not been a great success • Design criteria should be to develop a system capable of serving organisational goals - not simply to develop a technical system which is only capable of delivering a technical service • This can lead to a system which does not serve the users

  11. SAD Issues • Now there is the need to not only consider the technical aspects of system design, must also consider the • social aspects and the organisational consequences of computerisation • Unlikely to achieve real benefits unless ways can be found to ensure that the design process adequately addresses the human organisational and technical requirements •  Traditional methodologies failed to adequately address these aspects

  12. Design Methods • Leads to Socio- Technical Design of IT systems when this is achieved we may experience and expect a greater chance of success •  Suggests that we must look for methods that place less emphasis on the technical aspects of systems design

  13. Systems Design Methods • As a result of the changes in technology and in recognition of the need to consider human issues design methods have changed dramatically in recent years • The following major methods of design have emerged:- • Traditional Data Processing design • Structured Design Methods - SSADM • Soft Systems Design - SSD • Participative Design Methods - ETHICS • Socio Technical Systems Design •  User Centred Design •  End - user Developed Systems • RAD • OOAD

  14. Structured Design Methods (SDM) • These provide a well documented and consistent set of procedures for the developers of the system to follow • They follow the traditional cycle of development but include a number of important innovations •  They place emphasis on the entities as well as the processes in the application • They require extensive and specific documentation at key stages  • They inject discipline into change control - a change to one part of the proposed system means that any consequences for other interdependent parts will be thoroughly examined •  they provide for progress reports at key stages which the user ' signs off ‘

  15. SDM • At the end of each stage there is a formal user review before progression to the next stage • Implicit in this methodology is the concept of a customer - contractor relationship •  At various stages the designers are obliged to provide evidence of progress and customers are empowered to assess the progress of the design •  Design cannot proceed until the customer is satisfied that the system is being designed to meet their requirements •  Thus the user formally accepts the specification and the design •  On the face of it this provides users with a greater input and involvement in the design process

  16. SDM Stages - Documentation • Documents required from stage 2  • DFD's ELH's LDS • Problem requirements list • Function catalogues entity descriptions • Event catalogue

  17. Stage 3 - examples of steps in stage 3 •  Create technical options •  User selects from technical options

  18. Problems with SDM •  What do you consider the kind of problems that this particular method might have? Lack of technical knowledge • Communicating with specialists • Defining needs • Seeing opportunities • Which users • Resolving conflict • Technical not organisational design • Acting quickly - must specify early in the process - therefore presents users with a limited 'window' for making a contribution to the design process

  19. Addressing H& O issues • Hornby & Clegg Article

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