IT Solutions: Developing A System For IT Consultants And Clients

IT Solutions is a small IT service provider company located in Sydney's Central Business District (CBD). The staff consists of twenty IT consultants (technicians, designers, systems analysts, programmers) and two administration staff. The company provides support to a range of networking, computer hardware, and software problems to businesses in the CBD area.

The IT consultants are getting a large number of new clients. Clients call and e-mail whenever they have any kind of networking, hardware or software problem. IT consultants manage the requests and perform the required tasks. If the problem is complex it may require multiple trips, and the consultant has to keep track of what he or she has done to try to fix the problem. Sometimes a second consultant has to be dispatched, necessitating communication concerning the previous work.

The CEO of IT Solutions wants to develop a system that is both more responsive to clients and helpful to consultants. He would like to see a system that allows clients to directly enter their service requests. The system would track the status of each request along with the hours spent for billing purposes.

Methodologies

The IT Solutions is a firm that is undergoing positive growth that is brought about by the use of technological infrastructure within the Sydney CBD. The firm offers technical services on matters of networking, hardware and software resources (Ang, Chong, and Li, 2015). The IT Solutions is made up of a group of staff and two administrative staffs.

This growth has created a niche for the firm to develop a system that will ease the work of the consultants that is becoming overwhelming to them. The manager of the firm is looking forward to a system that will act as an intermediary between the clients of the firm and the IT consultants.

In system development, a methodology is a blueprint that governs the processes and structures of developing a system.

The System Development Life Cycle is a series of well-stipulated phases that are used to guide system developers to successfully develop a system. It is made up of seven phases:

This phase mostly involves identifying the scope of the domain problem and identifying the possible solution to counter the problems.

At this phase, the developer tries to identify the functional requirements of the system. This phase is where system analysis is carried out to identify the need of the system user.

At this phase, the developers try to create mock-ups of the actual system that capture the specific details of how the system is supposed to behave once it has been completed (Bentley, Dittman and Whitten, 2010). The mock-up should capture all the functional requirement of the system.

At this phase is where the actual coding of the system is done. The system developers try and ensure the details captures in the mock-ups are captured in the actual code. The developers only code what is captured from the system design phase.

In this phase, the different models that were coded are integrated so as to form a super system. The system is then tested to ensure that the system is functioning as expected.

This phase involves coding and transfer of the information for the previously existing system. At this phase, a large percentage of the coding is done.

This is the last phase of the SDLC where the system is given to the actual users. Based on their response to the system, modifications can be done to meet the client’s demands or preferences.

There are various factors that affect the approach that will be used to develop a system. There are generally to the type of approaches that are used by designers. They include;

SDLC

This type of SDLC evolved from the (RAD) Rapid Application Development. This approach provided the ability to change or adapt to the change in the input of the system. This type of approach is best suited for systems that don’t have a predefined input.

Pros of Adaptive SDLC approach 

• It provides an extensive influence of users before the actual development starts
• The developer observe transparency as the clients are involved in each stage
• It hastens the development thus release of system to the users is faster
• The involvement of the users leads to a high percentage of acceptance  
• Breaking software development facilitates the development of high-quality software.

Cons of adaptive SDLC approach

• If not properly managed, the involvement of users wastes a lot of time.
• The detailed analysis required as a result of changing outcomes may consume a lot of time
• It requires a lot of capital

In contrary, the predictive approach is characterized by planning for the future outcome and risks. In this approach, the developers can give detailed information about the system features through the entire development process. The adaptive approach of SDLC is more preferable and effective that the predictive approach.

Pros of predictive SDLC approach

• More straight forward than adaptive thus easy comprehension.
• Easy to budget since one can predict the expenses.
• It is easy manage due to less involvement of users  .

Cons of SDLC approach

There is no midway software thus making it difficult to know the final outcome of the system.

When it comes to more complex system, it has limited capabilities

The methodology of choice for the development of the IT Solution system is agile methodology. This methodology is an adaptive approach to SDLC and it involves the users at every stage. The user involvement will enable IT solutions to develop an enhanced system that will meets the requirements.

Also known as requirement elicitation, it involves a thorough process of identifying the requirement for a system. There are several requirement gathering techniques;

An interview is a technique that is used to obtain qualitative information from various information sources. An interview is performed when an interviewer asks questions that are either formal or informal. This type of requirement gathering can be used to interview the staff members of IT solution. The interview will be economical since they are few in number and it will give detailed information on the challenges that they are experiencing form the current system.

Brainstorming is a requirement gathering techniques that enables a group of experienced staff members to come up with Ideas and thought concerning a system. The ideas are normally abstract but most of them act as the basis of developing the required system (Kendal and Kendall, 2010). This technique can be employed to the staff members for them to try and raise ideas of the requirements that the new system should meet.

The fact that questionnaires have been occasionally applied in order to determine the shifts, preferences, and opinions of the users to a particular system makes it most favorable to use this technique on the numerous users (Valacich, George and Hoffer,  2014). In comparison with interviews, it is suitable for gathering quantitative information.

This method is also coast friendly and easy to administer to the users of the system. Based on the questions asked, the IT Solutions will be able to gather information from its clients.

There are two main categories of requirements; functional requirements and non-functional requirements. The non-functional requirements are the criteria that are used to determine the performance of a system (Senn, 2009). On the other hand, functional requirements are the function that a system is supposed to meet.

The functional requirements of the IT Solution system include;

• A client can be able to access the IT solution system.
• A client can create an account.
• A client can log in to his account.
• A client can register his complaint.
• A consultant should get the complaint.
• A consultant can give a client feedback.
• A consultant can seek further assistance.
• The system should bill the service.
• A manager can monitor the activities.

The non-functional requirements include

• The system should be available to the users.
• The system should be able to handle multiple clients.
• The system should maintain the clients and consultants security.
• The system should be easy to use.
• The system should be responsive to the client’s demands.
• The manager should be able to manage the system’s error if they arise.

Conclusion 

The requirement gathering techniques in this report will be able to ensure that the system will work as required. Also, the requirements that have been stated in this report will aid the developer to design the system that will be able to meet the clients need as well as ease the work of the staff members.

The approach of SDLC that I would recommend that is the adaptive approach. This will enable the system to adapt if the requirements may change. The adaptive approach has also over the past proven to be more successful than the adaptive approach.

References

Ang, K.H., Chong, G. and Li, Y., 2015. PID control system analysis, design, and technology. IEEE transactions on control systems technology, 13(4), pp.559-576.

Bentley, L.D., Dittman, K.C. and Whitten, J.L., 2010. Systems analysis and design methods. Irwin/McGraw Hill.

Kendall, K.E. and Kendall, J.E., 2010. Systems analysis and design. Prentice Hall Press.

Valacich, J., George, J. and Hoffer, J., 2014. Essentials of systems analysis and design. Prentice Hall Press.

Senn, J.A., 2009. Analysis and design of information systems(Vol. 2). New York: McGraw-Hill.