Developing Computer Applications for Business Needs.
The standard Office applications such as word processors and spreadsheets are at their most basic useful business tools. Some simple modifications can yield substantial increases in productivity, for example creating templates in the word processor or the development of macros in the spreadsheet can automate many time consuming operations. In a sense these modifications make the applications "fit" the business better.
The more complex the application, and the more critical it is to the enterprises success, the more benefit that can be gained from the application closely modelling the business. Unfortunately the more complex the application the less likely it is that an "off-the-shelf" package will "fit" the enterprise. Consider the standard letter template; a record company will probably want to make it less formal while a firm of solicitors probably want it to reflect the ethos of the enterprise. If something as simple as a standard letter template is not usable "out of the box" without modification then it seems unlikely that a complex application will meet more complex business needs without more substantial modification.
The total cost of ownership of an application, as with computer hardware, is much more than just it's purchase/development cost. There are:
These costs can be considerable but are for the most part foreseeable and can be planned for.
More potentially damaging is where the computer application is either poorly implemented or is inappropriate to the enterprises current or future needs.This can result in:
An off the shelf package should have the advantage of extensive debugging and user-testing. Unfortunately this isn't always the case, but at lest a mature package should have the advantage of other users having found (and hopefully reported) many of the bugs and incompatibilities that might otherwise have caused you problems. Ideally the business needs that the application should address will be explicitly stated before the selection process begins. However, it may that a more intuitive process of examining the specifications of an existing package, seeing demonstrations, speaking to existing users and comparison with other products, will lead to choosing the most appropriate package.
A bespoke application gives the enterprise the opportunity to develop an application to closely model it's own business practices closely. This is both the greatest benefit and biggest problem of the bespoke development route. It's up to the business to specify the application and communicate this clearly to the developers.
A good place to start with developing a new system is to analyse the existing system. This analysis should consider current and future objectives, and the feasibility of implementing a new system. During systems analysis information about the entity should be gathered; this could be by means of questionnaires, interviews, document flow charts etc. Other techniques, which are also of use in the following systems design phase, include: data flow diagrams, flowcharts, entity modelling, program flowcharts and structured English.
Systems analysis forms the basis for the system design; this is the design of a computer system that will achieve the objectives identified by the systems analysis. Essential elements of system design include input and output, file design, the coding systems for each data item, the computer programmes and security and control issues.
The next stage is to specify the sytem.