The System Life Cycle

The System Life Cycle makes it less likely for a project to fail. There are five stages within the cycle that help to reduce failures. Formal procedures are essential to make sure that everyone involved can contribute and can give a solution to the problem. Any system will eventually cease and the whole process will start again.

Phase One: Analysis
- Specification of the product - what is it's purpose?
                                             - Who will be using it?
- Research - Interviews
                 - Observations
                 - Questionnaires
                 - Examination of Documentation
- The result of the analysis stage is a requirements specification with system objectives.

Phase Two: Design
- A good design will be detailed enough for specialists to produce the system the way that the designer wanted.
- System Components need to be specified within the design
              - Hardware
              - Software
              - Data Files
              - User Interface
              - Required Inputs
              - Required Outputs
              - Manual Procedures
              - Test Plan
- A final specification is produced and a final design is produced.

Phase Three: Implementation
- Involves - Development of Software
                - Installation of Hardware
                - Installation of Software
                - Preparation of Data Files
                - Training people to use interface
                - Writing the system documentation
- This phase is mainly for making sure that people can use the system without and difficulty.

Phase Four: Testing
- During program design and writing a large amount of time is spent of testing the product.
- When the parts are put together and the software is installed; the whole system needs to be tested before it goes live.
- It also makes sure that the people trained to use the product can with the software installed.

Phase Five: Evaluation
- When the system is fully operational, evaluation needs to be carried out to see what can be improved and to see whether the customer is satisfied.
- Some questions that are asked - Does the system meet the specifications?
                                                 - Is it effective for solving the original problem?
                                                 - Can users operate the system without mistakes?
                                                 - Can users work without stressful conditions with the system?

In the future software is updated. This is so that errors and bugs can be fixed as soon as they are discovered. Users may change their requirements so software has to be updated with the new specifications.