1.3 System Development Life Cycle

Most organizations have and follow a formal system development life cycle. Most organizations follow a problem-solving approach in system development process as in Table 1-1. Generally there are FIVE main phases in the system development life cycle such as :

1. system planning
2. system analysis
3. system design
4. system implementation
5. system maintenance

1.3 System Development Life Cycle

Overview of the Phases and Activities

System Planning

Figure 1-2 shows five phases in the system development life cycle. All the phases are iterative processes whereby it can be return back to the previous phases. The first phase of SDLC is system planning. System planning phase is where the information system process begins. Usually it begins with a formal request to the IT department, called a system service request. System service request describes problems or desired changes in an information system or a business process (Shelly et. al., 2006). The purpose of system planning phase is to perform a preliminary investigation to identify the needs of the system based on the business opportunity and problems.

1.3 System Development Life Cycle

Overview of the Phases and Activities

System Planning

The people involved in the first phase are the system owners, analysts, and system managers who coordinate the project. Activities involves in this phase are problem or opportunity identification, planning a project, estimating the project scope, and documenting the results. The output for this phase is a feasibility report containing a problem definition and summarizing the objectives. This feasibility report will help the management to make a decision either to proceed with the project or not.

1.3 System Development Life Cycle

Overview of the Phases and Activities

System Analysis
The Joint Application Development (JAD) methodology aims to involve the client in the design and development of an application. This is accomplished through a series of collaborative workshops called JAD sessions. JAD is thought to lead to shorter development times and greater client satisfaction, both of which stem from the constant involvement of the client throughout the development process. On the other hand, with the traditional approach to systems development, the developer investigates the system requirements and develops an application, with client input consisting of a series of interviews.

In this phase, special tool such as data flow diagram and entity relationship diagram have been used to help the analyst make the requirement determination. The analysis phase will answer the questions of who will use the system, what the system will do, and where and when the system will be used. At this point, system analyst conducts an assessment and prepares a system proposal that summarizes all about the system. The system proposal is the initial deliverables that describe what business requirement the system should meet. The people involved in the second phase are the project managers, system analysts, and system users.

1.3 System Development Life Cycle

Overview of the Phases and Activities

System Design
The third phase of SDLC is system design. The purpose of this phase is to design a database, input and output and also interfaces that will satisfy all documented requirement for the system. System analyst will convert the description from the previous phase into logical and then physical system specifications. The people involved in the third phase are the project managers, system analysts, and system designer.

System Implementation
The fourth phase of SDLC is system implementation. System implementation is where the information system is coded, tested, installed and supported in the organizations (Hoffer et. al., 2005). In this phase, the programmer will start their work in coding. The physical system specifications are turned over to programmers as the first part of implementation phase. Coding is when programmers starts to write the programs that make up the whole system. After completed he coding, programmers and analysts will sit together to do a testing. Testing should be done from the individual programs and the entire system in order to find and correct errors if applicable. During the installation, the system will be installed and users are introduced to the new system. After that, users will be trained on how to use the system. The people involved in the fourth phase are the project managers, system analysts, and system builders.

1.3 System Development Life Cycle

Overview of the Phases and Activities

System Maintenance
The fifth phase of SDLC is system maintenance. Once the system is installed, the team should establish support and help when the system needs to change. Although after the system development phases have been completed, sometimes there is still a problem with the new system. Besides that, sometimes, organization's needs were changed over the time. Because of this reason, system maintenance is important in order to make sure that the system reflecting the changes of business process. Programmers will make a changes request by the users and modify the system. The people involved in the fifth phase are the project managers, system analysts, and system users. Maintenance is an ongoing process over the life cycle of an information system.

Throughout the system development life cycle, the process must be carefully planned and managed. The phases are a highly linked each other whose the previous deliverables feed the next subsequent process.