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Discuss various issues in developing information systems and fulllinginformation needs at dierent levels in the organization.

Information Systems functionality is increasingly becoming a necessity and not anoption. Imagine a company that relies on e-commerce that has its website takendown due to software failure and security issue. This fault in the software canmake the company lose thousands if not millions of dollars in revenue. Thus,robustness and security of the system are equally important to ensure systemcondentiality, integrity and availability !I"#. The two main challenges facingtoday$s information systems are operational and technical challenges. Thesechallenges must be addressed from the very beginning to ensure softwarepro%ects do not fail.

Operational Challenges&erhaps designing information systems software may have become easier thanwhat it was in the past, however, operational challenges have become even moredemanding. Some of the key operational challenges facing today$s information

system$s development include'

• Bad Communication: (ack of understanding)planning for customer, organi*ation

and other stakeholders requirements)needs for the pro%ect.

• Unclear Reuirements: +hen requirements are not clearly identied, this will lead

to change of requirements during middle of the pro%ect which will increase pro%ect

delivery time and anger many customers.

• !ncreasing Cost: "ll of this will lead to added labor and pro%ect cost. Thus making

the pro%ect less protable and takes away interest from stakeholders.

• Delayed "ro#ect Delivery: The result of what mentioned above will cause pro%ect

milestones to be pushed back and a potential software with less functionality than

what agreed upon in the beginning agreement with the client.• $ar%et "ressure: "nother important aspect is the rapid development of software to

meet the ever-changing market demands.

In order for the pro%ect to succeed from an operational perspective allstakeholders including the end-user customers#, managers who inuencedirection and budget, and software developers must be in full collaboration toensure successful delivery of the new information system.

&echnical Challenges The other main and important part of information system$s development

challenges are the technical challenges. Technical challenges determine the truesystem functionality, reliability and availability. Today$s information systemschallenges include'

• 'no(ing the &echnical needs: This is about understanding programing languages,

the frameworks, the systems and the algorithms needed for a particular information

system to be successful. "n important factor today is making sure that your web

based information system works on all browsers and devices. It is also about knowing

your developers programming epertise and using that to your advantage.

• Right Design "atterns: Identifying the right design patterns for your information

system software and establishing an actual design review, quality evaluation criteria

and design management is something highly neglected today because of the time

and eort it takes.

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• )uality Control: Sometimes codes are not built with a /sanity in mind/ which can

lead to signicant challenges in the future. 0uilding quality and maintainable code

that can scale to multiple systems to serve millions and millions of customers is a key

challenge today if addressed can save the company from catastrophes and put them

ahead of their competition.

• *ecurity: Security is highly important especially with today$s cyber warfare and

attacks. 1nsuring no leaks are open during information system development is key in

safeguarding your customer and employee private data. 1ducating your employees

about reverse engineering is also another key important thing that developers and

technical sta overlook.

• +l(ays De,ugging: 2ou3re always on the lookout in ing logical errors, debugging

those innite loops or divide by *ero bugs in the code. "ccording to (inu$s law, always

have enough eyeballs to lookout for bugs in the system.

+n alternative approach to systems development

Incorporation of research interests into information systems may result in thecollection of too much data that will rarely, if ever, be used, making the systemsunworkable. 4owever, there is merit in looking at systems development as aresearch)learning eercise in order to start the process of training participants inthe use of the information as soon as development of the system starts. Thesteps that would be involved in this approach follow'

• Dene a very specic o,#ective. This is analogous to dening the ob%ective or

hypothesis of a research pro%ect. 5aintaining a narrow focus will enable the

participants to keep the nal ob%ective in mind throughout the system development

process. 6or eample, answering the question /4ow many doses of each serotype of 

657 vaccine do I need net year8/ as opposed to /(et3s computeri*e the 657 controlprogramme/ is a much more attainable ob%ective. It keeps the focus on the important

question - number of vaccine doses - instead of on the computeri*ation eercise.

• Collect and process data manually. The second stage should be to involve the

user group in the collection and processing of the required data manually. This will

accomplish several ob%ectives. 6irst, it will integrate the user group into the process.

Second, it will clarify in their minds eactly what data are required and what analyses

have to be carried out on those data. Third, it will provide the user group with a clear

understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the data that might go into the

information system. 6inally, it will contribute to the development of the information-

processing and interpretation skills of the user group.

• Determine (hat data are availa,le. 9ne of the failings of many informationsystems is the developers3 desire to produce systems that are self-contained.

7evelopers often ignore information that may be readily available from other sources.

!ollecting and processing data manually in a small-scale pilot pro%ect should lead to

the evaluation of data sources that might otherwise be ignored. It is important to

avoid the duplication of data collection eorts.

• Determine the needs of data collectors. It must be remembered that information

systems often have one group of users contributing data to the system and a second

group using the output. The needs of those who will contribute data to the system

must be assessed. If the system does not meet their local needs, there will be no

incentive for them to ensure that the data going into the system are accurate and

timely. 6or eample, in the development of a hospital record system at the 9ntario

:eterinary !ollege, ;uelph, !anada, the fact that the computer was able to print all of 

the instruction labels to be stuck on prescriptions dispensed by the pharmacy ensured

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that the appropriate information went into the system. In turn, this resulted in

accurate medical records and appropriate charges on the bill.

• Revie( availa,le hard(are and soft(are and develop programs. If the focus

of the system development eercise can be kept on the original specic ob%ective,

then the user group will want to meet that ob%ective as quickly and easily as possible.

 This may help prevent the /we-can-do-it-better/ syndrome, although there can be no

guarantee of this 9nce the users have become familiar with the data, determined the

needs of all involved with the system and begun to develop information usage skills,the development of the programs should be relatively straightforward.

• !mplement the system. "t this point, the training requirements should be conned

to the relatively simple eort of training specic user groups in the operation of the

system. Those involved in the development should now have considerable skills in the

use and interpretation of the information generated. 4owever, there remains the big

problem of keeping those people in a position where they can use both the new

system and their new skills to help solve the original problem. There are two serious

temptations that must be avoided. The rst is to continually pull people away from

these tasks and assign them to /ght other res/. The fact that they have improved

information-processing skills makes them even more vulnerable to secondment to

other pro%ects. The second problem is that of reward and promotion. 5echanisms

must be found to reward people for superior performance in the %ob that they started

out doing, otherwise, there is a serious tendency to promote people with new skills

and qualications into more senior administrative positions, leaving the information

system devoid of trained users.

$odular system

It is hoped that the end product of the development process described above willbe an information system with a very specic focus, function and set of goals. The

system users will not only be trained in the operation of the system, but moreimportant they will know how to use the output information eectively.

9ne serious potential drawback to such a development process is that it willresult in a variety of systems with specic goals within the overall animal healthprogramme. If the development of these systems can be adequately coordinatedand integrated, then an overall animal health information system with a modularstructure will result. If development is not coordinated, then a group of disparateprogrammes that may or may not relate will result. The most serious problemwith uncoordinated development is that it will inevitably lead to the duplication of data-collection eorts and wastage of resources.

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"lthough resource limitations are not restricted to developing countries only, theyare more acute there. The biggest limitation is not the scarcity of computers andprogrammers, but the lack of animal health specialists with information-processing and quantitative problem-solving skills. 1ducation programmes indeveloping countries often do not emphasi*e the development of problem-solvingskills to the same etent that programmes in developed countries do. Thisproblem is particularly acute in the area of handling and processing quantitativedata. !onsequently, it is imperative that these skills be developed in concert withthe development of the information system.

"s the price of microcomputers drops their availability becomes less of an issue,but it is still critical that resources be directed to the most eective users.9wnership of a microcomputer is still a symbol of prestige and potentially anindication of authority. =nfortunately, this often results in machines being claimedby senior administrators who may have no specic skills in their use. " relatedissue is that of /critical mass/. The use and acceptance of computers is muchhigher if there are su>cient resources in the area so that a group of users can

support each other in the learning process.