Quality Issues In System Development
The period between the 1970's and 1980's was a time of great advancement in
computer hardware technology which took an industry still in it's infancy, to a
level of much sophistication and which ultimately revelutionised the information
storage and processing needs of every other industry and that of the entire
world. However, it was also during this period when the shortcomings of
implementing such technology became apparent. A significant number of
development projects failed which resulted with disastrous consequences, not
only of an economic nature, but social as well
. Seemingly, although hardware
technolgy was readily available and ever improving, what was inhibiting the
industry was in the methods of implementing large systems. Consequently, all
kinds of limited approaches materialized that avoided the costs and risks
inherent in big-systems developments.
Times have changed, and with it our understanding and experience as how
best to develop large systems. Today's large systems yield greater benefits for
less cost than those of previous decades. Large systems provide better, more
timely information, the ability to integrate and correlate internal and external
information, the ability to integrate and facilitate streamlined business
processes. Unfortunately, not every system that information workers develop are
well implemented; this means that the computer system which was originally
intended to make a company more efficient, productive and cost-effective, is in
the end doing the exact opposite - namely, wasting time, money and valuable
manpower. So even with all the lessons learned from the 70's and 80's, our
vastly superior methodologies and knowledge of the 90's is still proving to be
fallible, as suggested in the following examples.
System Development Failures
In Britain, 1993, an incident occurred which forced the London
Ambulance Service to abandon its emergency system after it performed... [continues]
The period between the 1970's and 1980's was a time of great advancement in
computer hardware technology which took an industry still in it's infancy, to a
level of much sophistication and which ultimately revelutionised the information
storage and processing needs of every other industry and that of the entire
world. However, it was also during this period when the shortcomings of
implementing such technology became apparent. A significant number of
development projects failed which resulted with disastrous consequences, not
only of an economic nature, but social as well
. Seemingly, although hardware
technolgy was readily available and ever improving, what was inhibiting the
industry was in the methods of implementing large systems. Consequently, all
kinds of limited approaches materialized that avoided the costs and risks
inherent in big-systems developments.
Times have changed, and with it our understanding and experience as how
best to develop large systems. Today's large systems yield greater benefits for
less cost than those of previous decades. Large systems provide better, more
timely information, the ability to integrate and correlate internal and external
information, the ability to integrate and facilitate streamlined business
processes. Unfortunately, not every system that information workers develop are
well implemented; this means that the computer system which was originally
intended to make a company more efficient, productive and cost-effective, is in
the end doing the exact opposite - namely, wasting time, money and valuable
manpower. So even with all the lessons learned from the 70's and 80's, our
vastly superior methodologies and knowledge of the 90's is still proving to be
fallible, as suggested in the following examples.
System Development Failures
In Britain, 1993, an incident occurred which forced the London
Ambulance Service to abandon its emergency system after it performed... [continues]
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