System Development - Tools and Techniques Essay - 1

System Development - Tools and Techniques - Essay Example Information system failure can occur to any organization, since there are a myriad of causes to such failures. However, the underlying factor is the disruption of the organizational functions and the losses that comes with such system failures. Therefore, this discussion seeks to analyze the various causes of system failures within organizations, with a keen interest on the challenges faced by the system developers, while also seeking to unearth the different techniques that can be applied to address the issue of system failures within organizations. Key challenges facing system analysts and developers resulting to systems failure Information systems failure can occur at different points in the implementation of the information system project within an organization. The information system failures may occur during the pre-implementation, implementation and even in the post-implementation stages of the project. The causes of these failures include: Lack of adequate research During the pre-implementation stage, it is important that a comprehensive research is done, to discover the information needs of an organization, and thus determine the sought of the information system that such an organization requires [2]. ... A good case study of lack of adequate research and incorrect assumptions, is that of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where a system was developed to test nuclear reactors, where an error was made through a miscalculation done in the earthquake testing system by the system developer due to inadequate research regarding the system requirements [2]. Five nuclear reactors were developed using the same system, and the error was discovered months after the nuclear reactors had started being used to produce energy. This posed a great health danger, as well as the disruptions of the services of the utility companies that were depending on these reactors, causing them to turn to alternative sources of energy production, such as petroleum and coal power, which were relatively expensive and inefficient [5]. Lack of adequate training or expertise Another major challenge, which falls in the pre-implementation stage of information system development, is lack of adequate formal training, or lack of expertise on the side of the system developers. The lack of training and expertise results to poor system development, where either some of the information system components are left out, or where the information system prepared does not meet every specification of the organizational needs [2]. The weakness of the system developers, owing to lack of adequate training or expertise can also be demonstrated in the testing stage of the information system, where the testing of the system may not be done, or the testing process may fail, or even pose a great danger, due to some system faults. A case example in point, is that of the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, where a computer system that was meant to store data for 220