Planning for a New System
A new system can bring numerous benefits to different users within an organisation:
- Improved Efficiency: Streamlined processes can save time and reduce errors.
- Better User Experience: Modern interfaces and intuitive design can make work more enjoyable and productive.
- Enhanced Capacity and Scaling: New systems often allow for growth and increased workloads.
- Cost Efficiency: While there may be upfront costs, new systems often lead to long-term savings.
- Future Proofing / Competitive Advantage: Staying up-to-date with technology can give organisations an edge over competitors.
- Better Compliance: New systems can help ensure adherence to regulations and industry standards.
Imagine a small retail business upgrading from a manual inventory system to a digital one. This new system could provide:
- Real-time inventory tracking
- Improved accuracy
- Enhanced reporting and analytics
and so on.
The Importance of Planning
- Aligns with Organisational Goals: Ensures the system supports strategic objectives.
- Identifies Risks: Anticipates potential challenges and mitigates them early.
- Ensures Stakeholder Buy-In: Involves users and stakeholders to foster ownership and acceptance.
Neglecting user input during planning can lead to a system that doesn't meet their needs, resulting in low adoption and high resistance.
Primary Stages in System Life Cycle
We can outline five stages:
- Analysis - understanding the context (what the users need and how the current system works)
- Design - making detailed plans for software and hardware components
- Implementation/Operation - actually realising the system (e.g. programming)
- Installation - installing and launching the system
- Maintenance - provide support (e.g. updating)
There exist multiple strategies of gathering data for the analysis and installing new system
Understanding the Context
Generally, two central considerations can be considered:
- Extent: What should the new system achieve? What functionalities should be present?
- Limitations/Feasibility: What are the potential issues with the system? What resources are available?
Limitations (Feasibility) Study Components: Feasibility Study (TELOS)
One of the key steps in this process is conducting a feasibility study, often using the TELOS framework:
