Chapter 13

    Just two days ago and yesterday I was a part of creating a system to generate a report for a big shot guy in California. My manager gave me what needed to be done (the request from the user) which was the analysis part done for me. Then I started the design part to decide which categorical qualifications to pull for the report to be accurate and how to split the work up between myself and the other interns to get the job done quicker. The programming part included actually developing the string of qualifications and running the report and tallying how many tickets were open. The testing part of this project was sending that number to my supervisor to see if that sounded right, if it wasn't then I would run new strings and reports again. Then the conversion would have been sending the report in an email to the user in California and asking if they would like anything else done. Finally the production & maintenance would be any future enhancements (which I did have to make) to the report and strings to gain more accurate information.
    This week I read chapter 13. On Tuesday we discussed the chapter. Then I completed our Assessment over the case study on Chrysler's choice to outsource to TCS's information systems. After that, on Thursday we discussed a little bit about the case study and then we kind of went more in depth in the systems development process by deciding what the steps were for building a house (my group) and cooking (other group). Finally now I am finishing up my blog for the week.
    This week we learned about systems development. We learned that the steps for creating a system include Analysis, Design, Programming, Testing, Conversion, and Production & Maintenance. The main goal in the analysis stage is to locate and find problems or find what is needed. In the design stage, the company plans out how they are going to make the changes without actually making any change. Programming is the stage where the system actually gets changed or created. Conversion is the time it takes to start using the new system. There are a few different kinds of conversion techniques including the parallel strategy, where the new system is implemented alongside the old system simultaneously, the direct cutover technique, where the new system immediately replaces the old system, the pilot study, where the new system replaces the old system for only a small group of people before replacing the old system for everyone else, and the phased approach, which is where only one functionality of the new system replaces the same functionality on the old system at a time. This was a very interesting week of learning as this is probably what I plan to do when I have my degree (program and upkeep those programs). Well, I hope you enjoyed!