Systems Design

In the text, Malaga outlines the seven phases of my favorite systems development methodology, the system development life cycle. The phases begin with planning. The planning phase is a high level phase requiring management involvement. An expert will determine the viable options to meet a business need, propose a system to meet the needs identified, and propose a schedule and a budget for the proposed project. Management will help in deciding on the business need and what options will be chosen to address the need.

Next is the systems analysis phase in which information is gathered about the problem to be solved. This information will help the project team to understand the nature of the problem, which is needed in order to develop the information system with mitigating capabilities.

Systems design is the phase where the developers decide how to create a system that can mitigate the factors identified in the systems analysis phase. Once the system is designed, the development phase is started. It is this phase in which the system is built.

After building the system in the development phase it is time for the testing phase. The testing phase may be comprised of several sub-phases, depending on the testing methodology chosen. For example, there may be stub testing and then unit testing before going on to validation testing.

After completion of the testing phase the system is ready for deployment in the implementation phase. The implementation phase is the time when the new system goes live and solves all of the world's problems, or at least those identified in the systems analysis phase.

After the system is operational it still must be maintained and updated as necessary. This is done in the maintenance phase. The maintenance phase, as may be obvious by the name, is the phase in which the system is maintained and upgraded as necessary for prolonged operation.

Malaga, R. (2005). Information Systems Technology. Prentice Hall.