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Developing an information system is a long job. Some of the information systems you develop as part of your GCSE course will take many weeks to complete. Commercial information systems take much longer to develop. A team of many information technology professionals may work on a project for over a year.
Because the development of an information system is such a long process it is important that a structured method is used during the development. The systems lifecycle is the set of stages that are followed when developing an information system. For the purposes of a GCSE course the systems life cycle consists of five stages which must be followed in order. This diagram shows the system life cycle :
The five stages are analysis, design, implementation, testing and evaluation. Modification is not really a stage as such. Modification is changing the information system to correct any problems that you find.
When you tackle a project you should follow the five stages in the systems life cycle, starting with the analysis and ending with an evaluation of the work that you have done. Wherever possible you should complete one stage before going on to the next. You will also be expected to document (i.e. write up) the work that you have done at each stage. After all - you may have tested the system and convinced yourself that it works, but how are you going to convince the person assessing your work ?
When you complete coursework projects for an exam board you may also be expected to produce a user guide so that the person assessing your project can understand how to use it.
Multi-Part Projects
Some projects can be easily divided into a number of distinct tasks such as customer information, payroll, advertising etc. If this is the case then you can tackle each task separately. Try and follow these three steps :
GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004