Systems Development System: What Is A System Development Process?

!!!What Is Systems Development Process?

The system development process is more commonly known as the system development life cycle. The system development process is a term used in the development of systems where a set of methodical processes or activities are used to develop and implement a software system.

With the rapid development and constant evolution of systems technology to date, different development processes have been established. Each of these processes where designed with a specific design in mind but we will find out that many of them share common tasks and are geared towards achieving the same goal

We will take a look at a few of these system development processes highlight their merits and demerits.

!!!Different System

The design process is characterized by system of structured steps unlike the ad-hoc process. Figure 1 is an illustration of the Waterfall process.

Figure 1. Waterfall System

[{Image src='waterfal_final.jpg' alt='waterfall'}]

As we can see from diagram the waterfall process consist or a series of successive steps with the dashed arrows designating successive feedback and correction points. This system development is like a chocolate cake recipe. It strictly follows a series of steps with one completed step preceding the next.

!Waterfall System Steps

#System Investigation - this involves the analysis of all areas of the business process. These investigations pursue the relationship and goals between the steps.

#System Analysis - all the information pertinent to the proposed system is gathered at this stage of the process. This analysis facilitates the development of the system requirements.

#System Design - armed with the system requirements developed the design stage is geared towards detailing the construction of the system defining system specifications and how the various tasks within the process will be

The Iterative development process was established due to the problems experienced with the Waterfall system process. In this case the project is divided into small manageable parts. Design results are available earlier in the process providing valuable feedback for the next process step. Once individual process steps are completed they can go into production immediately and not delayed till the last completed process as demonstrated in the waterfall model.

!Demerits

# The end-users have to be involved throughout the lifecycle of the process. This constant involvement though productive, for the iterative characteristics of this system process, means that staff time is consumed and project delays increased.

Imagine trying to develop banking software and you have representatives of cashiers, back office operators, finance, human resources, data processing, vault management, online banking and reconciliation all making their individual demands for improvements and corrections throughout the entire process cycle there will be