Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Developers nowadays have access to a library of development tools which include menus
or dummy structures of application systems which can quickly be developed by addition of
specific menus and other functionalities.
Internal developers can be used to develop the new system. This has the advantage of build-
ing on internal skills and experience. The disadvantage is the cost of investing into devel-
opment skills and also maintaining the developers after the project goes live. They might
have to be redeployed or given additional assignments because there will be limited devel-
opment work after the system goes live.
The enterprise can also choose to use external developers who have the required expertise
to quickly develop and deploy a new system. External developers are normally dedicated
developers with large investments in development tools and experiences.
Development of a system also requires the use of quality assurance specialists to ensure
high quality is maintained. Testers will also be required to test the various code and mod-
ules which are being developed. All this might add to the overall cost of developing the
system.
The enterprise can also opt to purchase an application system which is similar to what is
planned for development and subject it to large-scale customisation. The enterprise can
search for such an application system on the software market and involve the developers to
customise the application system. This might be a faster way of deploying an application
system without losing much time. Many software development firms are able to carry out
extensive customisation in order to meet the requirements of the enterprise. Customisation
has its own limitations as not all features can be customised as expected.
The role of the IS auditor at the development stage applies both to application development
and customisation. The IS auditor is required to ensure that the application is developed ac-
cordingly to specification and should be involved in testing the application so that it meets
approved system requirements.
System Testing
The system is developed over time and normally modular testing is conducted whilst sys-
tem development is in progress. After system development has been completed, testing is
required in order to ensure that the system is able to function properly as a unit. Testing
would also involve users who would want to give the new system thumbs up before con-
sidering deploying the system.
During the testing phase, users would be involved in order to ensure that they are happy
with the system and it does meet their expectation. Users normally have a good understand-
ing of the business processes and should be able to assess if the system meets the business
requirements. Users under the guidance of the testing team would use various techniques of
Search WWH ::
Custom Search