Phase 5: Systems Operation and Support

    Objectives

    Provide maintenance and improvements for the new information system
    Support users and help them obtain the most value from the new system

Introduction

    The new system must meet user expectations and provide support for business objectives
    Systems analysts perform maintenance, and also act as internal consultants to help users obtain the greatest value from the system
    The more a system is used, the more features and enhancements are requested, and the more maintenance is required

    Chapter topics
        Three types of maintenance: corrective, adaptive, and perfective
        Support techniques include maintenance teams, configuration management, and maintenance releases
        System performance issues
        CASE maintenance tools
        Recognizing system obsolescence

Overview of Systems Support and Maintenance Activities

    The systems operation and support phase begins when the system becomes
    operational and ends when the system is replaced
    After delivering the system, the analyst must perform two tasks
        Provide guidance and user training
        Perform necessary maintenance
 

Support Activities

    Provide guidance and user training
        training
        technical support
        information center (help desk)

    Perform necessary maintenance
        keep the system operating properly
        increase its value to users

    User training and assistance
        Current employees are trained when the new system is introduced
        New employees typically are trained by user departments, rather than IS staff
        If significant changes take place, the IS group might develop a user training package
            Special Help via e-mail or company intranet
            Revisions to the user guide
            Training manual supplements
            Formal training sessions

    Information centers
        An information center has three main objectives
            To help people use system resources more effectively
            To provide answers to technical or operational questions
            To make users more productive by teaching them how to meet their own information needs
        An information center also is called a help desk

Maintenance Activities

    The overall cost of a system includes the systems operation and support phase

    Costs include fixed operational costs and maintenance activities

    Operational costs are relatively constant, while maintenance costs vary over time
        High costs when system is implemented
        Relatively low costs during system’s useful life
        High costs near end of system’s useful life

    Operational costs
        Supplies
        Equipment rentals
        Software leases

    Maintenance activities
        Changing programs, procedures, or documentation to ensure correct performance
        Adapting the system to changing requirements
        Making the system operate more efficiently

 
    Three types of maintenance

•         Corrective maintenance - To fix errors
•         Adaptive maintenance - To add new capability and enhancements
•         Perfective maintenance - To improve efficiency

    Corrective maintenance
        Diagnoses and corrects errors in the system
        Investigation, analysis, design, and testing are necessary before a solution is implemented
        Typically, a user submits a systems request form with supporting evidence, if necessary
        Response depends on the priority of the request
        All maintenance is logged

    Adaptive maintenance
        Adds enhancements to the system
        An enhancement is a new feature or capability
        Adaptive maintenance often is required in a dynamic business environment
        An adaptive maintenance project is like a mini-SDLC, with similar phases and tasks
        Can be more difficult than new systems development, because of the constraints of an existing system

    Perfective maintenance
        Involves changing an operational system to make it more efficient, reliable, or maintainable
        Requests for corrective and adaptive maintenance typically come from users, while requests for perfective
        maintenance typically come from the IS department
        Techniques
        Reverse engineering tools aid design analysis
        Reengineering tools can be used interactively to correct errors
 

Managing Systems Operation and Support

    Systems operation requires effective management techniques
        Maintenance team
        Configuration management (change control)
        Maintenance releases

    Maintenance team
        Consists of systems analysts and programmers
        Systems analysts on maintenance work need
        Solid background in information technology
        Strong analytical abilities
        Solid understanding of business operations
        Effective interpersonal and communication skills
        Analysis: studying the whole to understand the individual elements
        Synthesis: studying the individual elements to understand the overall system

    Configuration management
        Process for controlling changes in system requirements
        Usually involves three steps

                1. The maintenance request

                2. Initial action on the request

                3. Final disposition of the request

•         Objectives of configuration management
•         Manage different versions of the system
•         Organize and handle documentation

    Maintenance releases

•         With a maintenance release methodology, all noncritical changes are held until they can be implemented at one time
•         Each new system version is called a release
•         Numbering systems
•         Whole number = significant change
•         After decimal = relatively minor changes or fixes
•         There are pros and cons to this approach

TRADEOFF

    Should a systems review committee evaluate maintenance and new systems requests separately, or together?

•         Some say "let the dollars go where they will do the most good, regardless of project type"
•         Others feel that separate allocations are needed to protect maintenance projects
•         All projects draw from the same resource pool, but IS groups often are organized into separate teams, and can handle separate projects better

 
Managing System Performance

    System performance directly affects users
    Centralized operations are easier to measure than complex networks and client/server
    systems
    Various statistics can be used to assess system performance
    Capacity planning uses operational data to forecast system capability and future needs
    Performance and workload measurement
        Response time
        Turnaround time
        Throughput

    Response time

•         Response time is the overall time between a request for system activity and the delivery of the response
•         Response time includes three elements
•         The time necessary to transmit or deliver the request to the system
•         The time the system needs to process the results
•         The time it takes to transmit or deliver the results back to the user
•         Response time is critical for user satisfaction

•         Turnaround time measures the efficiency of centralized computer operations, which still are used for certain tasks, such as credit card processing
•         Turnaround time is the amount of time between the arrival of a request at a computer center and the availability of the output for delivery or transmission

    Throughput

•         Throughput measures the efficiency of the computer itself
•         Throughput is the time from the input of a request to the central processor until the output is delivered to the system

•         Monitors current activity and performance levels
•         Anticipates future activity
•         Forecasts the resources needed to provide desired levels of service
•         In capacity planning you can use a technique called what-if analysis, where you vary one or more elements in a
•         model to see the effect on other elements

CASE Tools for System Maintenance

    A CASE toolkit provides valuable tools for system evaluation and maintenance, such as

•         A performance monitor
•         A program analyzer
•         An interactive debugging analyzer
•         A restructuring or reengineering tool
•         Automated documentation tools
•         Network activity monitors
•         Workload forecasting software

System Obsolescence

    A system becomes obsolete when its functions are no longer required by users or when
    the platform becomes outmoded
    Typical signs of obsolescence

•         Adaptive and corrective maintenance is increasing steadily
•         Operational costs or execution times are increasing rapidly, and routine perfective maintenance does not reverse the trend
•         A software package is available that provides the same or additional services faster, better, and less expensively
•         New technology offers a way to perform the same or additional functions more efficiently
•         Maintenance changes or additions are difficult and expensive to perform
•         Users request significant new features to support business requirements