Discuss about the Accounting Information System for Systems Development Life Cycle.
The SDLC (Systems Development Life Cycle), also referred as application development life cycle, is a term employed in the information systems, systems engineering, and software engineering to narrate a procedure for creating, planning, deploying, and testing an information system. It implies a series of steps that are usable in the development of an application, whether hardware or software or both. The goal behind this is to finish the transformation to a fresh application and disregard the traditional system. In other words, the traditional methods are not very effective and hence, a variation is highly required. Such a variation can be very effective in producing the desired outcomes but it must complete within an appropriate duration in order to obtain such desired outcomes (Alwan, 2016).
The Healthcare industry comprises of several people, procedures, and other services offered by the pharmacies, hospitals, and diagnosis centers etc. Due to such reasons, Healthcare industries are significantly different in comparison to other industries notwithstanding the fact that whether it is a private or public sector. Furthermore, it not only relies on the nature of the industry but size and concentration of industries are also the reason behind the differences. The fact that a healthcare industry comprises of huge procedures and activities, the comparison with other industries becomes very simple.
In the Southern Hemisphere, the project disintegration of the Queensland Health Implementation was one of the most expensive. It costed approximately AU$1.25 billion due to such disintegration. The key reason behind this failure is attributable to several factors. Besides, the major stakeholders associated with the project involved CorpTech, IBM, and Queensland Health.
The first factor was the selection of IBM as the major contractor of the project. An agreement that information regarding the project to be disposable to every project bidders on an equal basis, was for some uncertain reasons, not efficiently obeyed. The Director of the project passed on few extra details to IBM, thereby assisting it to obtain a competitive advantage over other stakeholders and hence, receiving the allotment of project. The passing on of extra information was clearly immoral in nature because it violates the policies established by the government.
For an effective implementation of a project, the roles and responsibilities of the associated team must be clear so that it does not result in an effective operation (Sheilds, 2005). However, it is notable that even though the project initiated, the responsibilities and roles were understandable. The healthcare industry serves people in a variety of ways ranging from their safety to their well-being. Moreover, it purposes to appropriately look after the people and offer hospitality (Coker, 2014). These necessities are not adequately complied by the implementation of system development life cycle. The complications involved within the project can be attributable to factors like complication of system, complication of the industry, and complication of client-consultant connections. Besides, as there are varied systems, they pursue their own characteristics and hence, such complications arise as a result (Mehdi, 2006).
Queensland adopted the arrangement utilized by the Department of Justice in relation to SAP HR and based on this the target goals were set. When IBM got the project allotment, further planning in the October 2008 depicted an underrating of the complications and hence led towards excess time consumption and increment in expenses. In short, from the beginning stage, the necessary requirements of the business did not match up to the expectations and hence created a negative effect.
The risk associated with the implementation of Payroll software in Queensland was devastating because trials were not appropriate and proper testing in bigger government agencies with more complications were also missing. As a result, various problems occurred because testing on a very small scale held. Moreover, it is notable that the pilot program is necessary to operate on a massive scale. However, this requirement failed in the case of Queensland, thereby generating huge risks (Peter et. al, 2013).
After the first test, inconsistencies of worth AU$1.2 million arose and the second test that followed also resulted in an inconsistency of worth AU$30000. Even though these inconsistencies prevailed, Queensland neglected these and decided to Go Live without the full completion of other test modules. In relation to Go Live, it is further notable that several of the employees did not receive their entire payment or received inadequate payments. As the structure of wages and number of employees varied, utilization of WorkBrain could have assisted in the simplification of interface between a fresh system of Payroll and SAP but Queensland failed to adopt such measures.
These were only the technical complications faced by Queensland. Apart from these, many other factors created further complications. Firstly, an industrial strike that led towards the resignation of several employees because of extreme chaos within the project activities. Secondly, the layoff by Queensland of a significant number of employees resulted in various issues and played a role in the facilitation of industrial strike (KPMG, 2012).
As mentioned-above, various factors create complications even in the beginning stages. Therefore, the classification of these is as follows:
The matter of selection of IBM as the major contractor falls in the classification of preliminary analysis where descriptions of the requirements of an organization are available and analysis and classification of the suggested alternative answers are did through a cost benefit analysis. Prejudices in the process of tendering are also a key complication (KPMG, 2012).
The definition of Requirements must be in such a way that information of difficulties and opportunities of adopting companies and operative areas are crucial not only for the assurance of system performance but also for briefing the implementation scope. There has to prevail an appropriate documentation of the necessary requirements that Queensland failed to adopt, thereby facing failures (Chugh & Gandhi, 2013).
Since each project is rare, it must be understandable from their particular viewpoints. Furthermore, each of these viewpoints has their own advantages and disadvantages and therefore, a logical or proper functioning must prevail. Utilization of arrangements of one project over the other creates a failure in phase two that is definition of Requirements and System Analysis. The consistent sequence of steps that one must follow in this phase consists of inspection of already existing systems, collection of facts and evaluation of the suggested system. Over-crossing of the proposed budget and over schedule are also few examples of massive failures in the planning processes (Weistroffer et. al, 2010). In relation to this, the strategy adopted by the Department of Public Housing is not so complicated when compared to the ones adopted by Queensland. This is because the pay structures in the strategy of Department of Public Housing are very flexible and simple. Furthermore, the strategy adopted by Queensland included 24000 kinds of combinations of the pay structures that indicates complication in the wage structures, thereby resulting into devastating results. The prevalence of infinite awards also played a role in creation of various complexities and therefore, it is impossible to determine (KPMG, 2012).
The Testing and integration stages are not complete because testing of the overtime and casual claims are incomplete for the appropriate requirements definition. As a result, the existence of bugs, errors, and other inefficacies are unable to eliminate (Siraj et. al 2011).
The allotment of project to IBM is attributable to the key configuration of WorkBrain but even the actual implementation of this configuration was missing and as a result, a significant failure generated. The main responsibility of the WorkBrain was to deport and process timesheets from the requirements of SAP into requirements of a format acceptable by the financial institutions. Moreover, as WorkBrain did not employ complications like system maintenance, testing, up gradation etc, it resulted in an enhancement of data quality (KPMG, 2012). The absence of such an effective system in Queensland created infinite difficulties.
Despite huge inefficacies in the Go Live payments, abandoning of the systems did not occur. This clearly signifies that the systems of installation, acceptance, and movement were also a major failure and in a very topsy-turvy situation. The exertion of pressure upon Go Live eliminated the likelihoods of a collateral testing procedure. Although the categorization of the complications or flaws was initially at four, yet there was a reclassification because of the variation in the requirements and these flaws were not fixable due to the decision of Go Live that resulted in a messy situation. Therefore, it is observable that various complications existed because of faulty planning, poor management, and improper understanding of complications.
Although overruns of expenses and time are representative in the healthcare industries, insufficiencies in the processing of orientation and complications resulted in the failure of the Payroll system of Queensland, thereby becoming the worst illustration in relation to the same. The requirements of an effective methodology of the projects are highly in need so that the complications are easily avoidable (Dezdar & Ainin, 2011). Until the year June 2009, proper structures of governance were missing and as a result, the roles and responsibilities of each of the team were unknown. In order to achieve efficient and smooth outcomes, compliance of SDLC (Systems Development Life Cycle) is very necessary (Rud, 2009). Organizations must be eloquent enough to employ an accurate measure of implementation, conduct a significant level of testing prior to the reaching of Go Lives’ decision, employ a perfect methodology of project management, and regularly communicate with each of the groups of stakeholders for better outcomes (Chugh & Gandhi, 2013). In relation to this, it is notable that communication is very crucial because attaining of project governance is possible if and only if there is proper communication level between consultant, client, and vendors. When information is provided in a transparent manner it leads to better projection of the information and helps in attaining better position. Furthermore, the absence of appropriate documentation strategy also results in operative issues and acceptance issues that pave ways for complications to enhance (KPMG, 2012).
In relation to healthcare industries, it must be observable that every patient is special and unforeseeable and therefore, approximately more than half of the healthcare organizations have boycotted the IS systems in their organization as it leads towards complete failures. But, it is notable that maximum proportion of such failures are attributable to the absence of appropriate management measures, weak project management, ineffective communication betwixt the group of shareholders and other technical flaws like absence of proper requirements definition and weak testing of systems (Olsen, 2012). Queensland accommodated all of these flaws and therefore suffered massive difficulties. Moreover, the system of WorkBrain would have been more appropriate.
Conclusion
From the above-mentioned discussion, the relevance of planning, collateral testing, and communication policies are clearly understandable. In addition, lessons regarding implementation, Go Live, and testing of the project is also very important. Besides, a proper methodology must be in place so that complications are avoidable (Kimball, 2008). Furthermore, because of the requirements of numerous ranking and numerous sub-projects, a massive problem faced by Queensland in relation to inappropriate implementation of payroll project. Recognition of prime areas of reform and addition of numerous layers of governance policy took place. Hence, apart from economical and technical flaws, the failure of this project also connects with the entire nation and industry.
References
Alwan, M. (2016). What is System Development Life Cycle? Accessed September 22, 2016 from https://airbrake.io/blog/insight/what-is-system-development-life-cycle
Chugh, R & Gandhi, S. (2013). Why Business Intelligence? Significance of Business Intelligence tools and integrating BI governance with corporate governance. International Journal of E-Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 4(2), 1-14.
Coker, F. (2014). Pulse: Understanding the Vital Signs of Your Business. Ambient Light Publishing, 4(3), 41–42.
Dezdar, S., & Ainin, S. (2011). The Influence of Organizational Factors on Successful ERP Implementation. Management Decisions 49(6), 911-926
Kannampallil, T.G., Schauer, G.F., Cohen, T., & Patel, V.L. (2011). Considering Complexity in Healthcare Systems. Journal of Biomedical Informatics 44(6), 943-947.
Kimball, R. (2008). The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit. Wiley.
KPMG. (2012). Queensland Health: Review of the Queensland Health Payroll System. Retrieved September 22, 2016 from https://delimiter.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/KPMG_audit.pdf
Mehdi, K.P. (2006). Emerging Trends and Challenges in Information Technology. Management. Idea Group.
Olsen, E. (2012). Strategic Planning Kit for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons.
Peter R, Alaa S, Aladdin A. (2013). Business Intelligence and Performance Management: Theory, Systems, and Industrial Applications, Springer Verlag U.K
Rud, O. (2009). Business Intelligence Success Factors: Tools for Aligning Your Business in the Global Economy. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley & Sons.
Sheilds, M.G. (2005). E-Business and ERP: Rapid Implementation and Project Planning. John Wiley and Sons.
Siraj, S., Mikhailov, L. and Keane, J. A. (2011). Priests: an interactive decision support tool to estimate priorities from pairwise comparison judgments. Research, 12(4), 45-61
Weistroffer, HR, Smith, CH & Narula, SC. (2010). Multiple criteria decision support software. Oxford University Press
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download