Bead Bar Systems Development Project Essay

The primary objective is to organize information and operate in a planned and controlled manner to capitalize on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the organization. The proposed information system would departmentalize the operations of the various departments and make the organization accessible to its stakeholders in a pre-approved and designed manner. Not everyone would be allowed to access all kinds of information and all activities can be tracked so as to ascertain the state of the organization at every point of time. The involvement of EIS, MIS, DSS, TPS and knowledge work systems would ensure that different variants of stakeholders manage the system with their given privileges to drive the enterprise. Proposed system: We propose to create a company website which can be accessed through the internet enabling the franchisee locations to access it and perform the business functions of recording and updating the system for all the business changes. All the franchisee locations are connected with the help of public data carriers so that it is able to access the company website to perform their functions. Each such franchisee would have their access privileges to enter the transaction section and operate their business process. The president and the owner, vice president’s of all the departments would have an Executive Information System (EIS) Management Information System (MIS) to manage their operations. The accounts department may use Transaction Processing System (TPS) and the ground level workers can use Knowledge Work System to measure worker output, productivity and others. Lists of Input and Output information and sources: Prior to outlining the input and output information, the system development life cycle must be in place so that the analysis is done accordingly. The correct nature of the inputs and the outputs would make the system design vary accordingly as it requires to capture the information and put it into a frame to interpret in a decisive manner to take further decisions. The systems development life cycle for Bead Bar is as follows: 1. Feasibility analysis: The new proposed system and the present working system are analyzed so that the ROI (Return on Investment) is obtained. The proposed system is further analyzed for economical, technical, schedule and other feasibilities so that it stands in front of all difficulties in the development of the project. The Bead bar enterprise’s key management people are involved in the process of feasibility analysis. All the inputs, outputs and external environment are studied in detail so that the underlying intricacies would be researched well for their impact and development. Inputs: Bead Bar’s inputs are in the form of company’s short and long term objectives, its financial base and credibility for years to come, its general strategic plans, consent of the advisors and directors, risk handling strategies and many others. Outputs: The feasibility has outputs in the form of higher management approval for the sustenance of the systems development, its full length use to cover all business functions, risk mitigation strategies and many others. 2. Systems planning and requirements gathering: After the system is thoroughly checked for all its inputs and outputs, the requirements phase takes the lead. All the key stakeholders of the departments and the users of the system must be taken into account for gathering the crucial departmental functions, requirements and its interaction with other departments to achieve the central goal of the enterprise. Input: It must be in the form of the users of the system who are better-off to understand and figure out the exact ground level happenings in the business. Their view of the workings of the enterprise must be captured so that appropriate implementation can be done. Output: The valuable information fetched from the users of the system must be given a representation and frame it accordingly to fix it into a system. 3. Systems Analysis and Design: Bead Bar’s system requirements are studied and the system is analyzed and designed accordingly. The flow of data is analyzed so that the system captures the entire business cycle and their functions. Inputs: It would come from the requirements gathering phase and the order of business flow. Outputs: It would result in helping the analysts and designers in the process of database handling and further development of the system. 4. Database Model: The database model for Bead Bar is as follows, which shows the interaction of the different entities of the business. Figure 1 : Database Model 5. Coding: The above design is given a representation of the business and the various functions are finally implemented at this stage. Inputs: It is in the form of requirements gathered from the previous stages and the design documents. Outputs: It results in actual implementation of the system so that it can be viewed physically. 6. Implementation and Training: This stage correlates with actual planting of the system at the Bead Bar so that the present system is replaced and the proposed system takes its place. The users must be trained to operate the business functions with the system, store and retrieve data whenever it is demanded. 7. System feedback and maintenance: The general working of the system must be responded back so that any form of negative points would be highlighted and discussed to take advantage of the system and technologies involved. 8. Systems Review and Maintenance schedule: The review and maintenance schedule must include the following: Preventative maintenance – Maintenance schedules are a necessity for keeping the resources of a system in good health. The hardware, network equipments, communication programs and software must be periodically checked whether it is up and running (Mawer, 2000).