How are Business Information Systems built? A comparison of Waterfall and Agile Methods
Table of Contents
2.1 Reasons and methods of acquiring information systems by businesses. 3
2.3 Typical characteristics of the agile methods. 5
2.4 Traditional Waterfall in comparison to the Software Development Agility in business value 6
1 Introduction
Business operations and functions are considered to bring about a number of changes within the manner that they are carried out within the modern world. In this regard, management of operations is more technologically enriched as the compulsion to control the tech-oriented functions. The core focus of business is its profitability with reduced costs alongside its market success which remains dependent on the extent to which the management remains informed and up-to-date with trends and areas of impacting it. In this regard, it becomes quite important for an organisation to be well-informed of the areas that would potentially impact its growth. The need to ensure that management systems are developed for effective control over the business functions is necessary, which increases the potential for growth and prosperity of the business. Business information systems are thus the solution for value and growth determination of the entity. Thus the selection of an appropriate business information system is considered pivotal for an organisation to make sure that its operations are effectively designed and determine the factor of growth for the organisation. The need for managers is considered quite important to have knowledge of the business information systems and be deployed relevantly with the needs of the business in focus. The report to follow considers two important business information systems methods which the Waterfall and the agile methods in the course of bringing about the discussion over the pros of one over the other. It thus provides a comparative short study and analysis of the business information systems. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
2 Main Report
2.1 Reasons and methods of acquiring information systems by businesses
Monitoring the operations, the resource availability and the decision making needs, including data as well as the crux of using business information systems. According to Pearlson and Saunders (2019), the business information systems are considered to provide aid for the management not just to monitor but further have the relevant contingency measures and help to manage the potential areas of issues which might arise if not controlled. The use of information systems is not limited to the futuristic predictions only but is effective for an organisation enable storage for the previously generated reports of finances and maintain records that help the entity have previous information for better future measures. The ability of an information system to have its records and documents stored for use and preference is the major benefit and reason for using information systems. In light of the research by Pare et al. (2015) the reasons for selection of the information systems by the businesses is considered to be relatively dependent on the nature of operations and the needs for control and monitoring which are important for the entity. The information systems used by the organisation are often relevant to the management information systems.
The manner of acquisition of information systems within the business is considered to be quite important and varies from organisation to organisation. The report by Britannica (2019) has highlighted the fact that while some organisation boast the expertise and the resources to have their customised information system developed in-house, a larger proportion of the organisation is indulged ion purchasing information systems built by a third-party provider. Outsourced information systems are considered dot have the major proportion of information related practices such as telecommunication, data centres, the software and information technology component to other service providers with better expertise in computing and storing the data.
2.2 The Waterfall Model
The waterfall model is considered an eminent project development model, especially implementable for the operations of developing pieces of information systems and software. The waterfall model is presented below:
In light of the waterfall model, as mentioned by Sequeira et al. (2017) project development is considered a stepped procedure which is needed to be completed in a defined manner rather than a different and flexible mode. The waterfall model considers the completion of the project to be in the manner of a staircase where no steps can be skipped. Its links between the steps are strongly linked and cannot be skipped. The sequential design of the waterfall model is considered to bring a wholesome effect to the final product, which is considered to be quite effective when it comes to having one single project as the outcome. As further mentioned by Lei et al. (2017), the mode of operations within the waterfall model allows no changes within the project once it has been started. Requirements are considered to be one time amendable which before the process is initiated. It has been mentioned Chen et al. (2016), the waterfall model is considered to be a one-time process with each aspect inclusive of designing and testing etc. to be allowed just once. This can be considered effective for short scale projects with short deadlines and a clear set of requirements. Moreover, the use of the waterfall model can be considered quite effective when it comes to projects which are strongly posited on the initial requirements till the end and have no area for changes during their phase of completion. The implementation of the waterfall approach is reliant on detail description to be provided and thus be considered quite effective when it comes to developing software in short span. Further, the risk associated with the pricing is also reduced within such an approach to the development of software projects. This is due to the short time span and the projects being developed based on fixed prices.
2.3 Typical characteristics of the agile methods
The word agile refers exactly to the nature of the approach in focus, this considered an important and more modern approach to developing software. Its name describes the sense of flexibility, which is considered to be the exact source of the functions within it (Choudary and Rakesh, 2016). The need to ensure that more modern approaches are developed within its structure the agile model for software development allows for effective changes to be made during the course of development. The project, during its designing phase and development phase can be effectively altered based on customer preferences (Dingsayr et al. 2016). The agility of the approach is further required during the project as it is a more client-focused approach where the process involves the client to be a part of the whole scenario of development. Based on the flexibility, the software during its process of development is tested concurrently. The software development via the agile method is often considered to be product-related satisfaction within the customers due to its ability to alter uses and add different aspects during the useful life
The agile approach can be diagrammatically be defined as follows:
The agile method of software development is considered to promote flexibility and is based on smaller teams yet is suitable for large scale projects which requires expertise both from the managers and the other team members. It has greater acceptance for creativity and growth of innate skills of the team members, which allows for better positioning of the project and increase room for improvement.
2.4 Traditional Waterfall in comparison to the Software Development Agility in business value
The waterfall and agile model are considered effective in their own respective realms when it comes to software development. The two models to software growth and development are considered eminent when it comes to the needs of the business and the nature of the business for the entities. The section of the report provides effective details of using one method over the other. The need to ensure that any of the two is used must be based on the analysis of the realms of advantageous opened for the business based on its ability to ensure profits and effective operations such as decision making and growth.
2.4.1 Positives
The benefits of using waterfall methods are found to have a series of advantages when compared to the agile method. During software development within an entity and its managers have some pre-decided goals and objectives to be satisfied once the software or the information system is developed. It has been considered in the research by Nganji (2019) the traditional waterfall; model is considered to bring about an ease of handling. The traditional waterfall model is considered to be quite effective with each step of the model staged with specific areas to be covered. This becomes further effective as the stage once completed is designed to conduct a review of its own prior to progressing for the next step. Furthermore, as provided by Dikert et al. (2016) the next benefit of using the traditional waterfall method against the agile method is with the agile being excessively flexible, it requires the managers to have sufficient needs for expertise and skill to be handled. On the other hand, the traditional waterfall is simple and straightforward and can be acceptable with smaller-scale projects which are short term and have easily definable goals and objectives. Thus, as mentioned by Jemaa et al. (2016), agile has serious shortcoming with smaller projects and information system development. Due to the traditional waterfall model being simply designed with defined steps, the agile due to its excessive flexibility becomes complex and can cause issues when deadlines are short, and software or information systems are to be delivered in a brisk time frame.
In organisations where the teams responsible for the development of the software are supposedly flexible and change frequently, issues can arise when using the agile method. As mentioned by Gill and Chew (2019), the traditional waterfall method is considered to bring about a series advantages based on its step by step mode of operating and thus reduces complexities for the new teams. The managerial expertise for agile is quite high, while a simplistic knowledge for the project can be considered enough for the traditional waterfall method. In this regard with the management off the traditional waterfall is considered else costly as it requires lesser expertise and managers with excessively high expertise are not compulsory. Outcomes of the project are the most important areas which need to be covered as a result of the completion of an information system which is developed. As mentioned by Fukuda et al. (2019) in this regard, it becomes highly effective with traditional waterfall model where the final stages and the completion is easy based on the fact that managers must ensure compliance with steps only and the result is positive. However, when using the agile method, issues arise if the managers are himself vague in the knowledge of the outcomes to be achieved. This can make the whole project to go off-track and progress made until then could be lost with issues too often start-over.
2.4.2 Negatives
The Waterfall model is traditional. This stands as quite a disadvantages for it within the long run where the modern-day organisations are considered to bring about several areas consistent changes and flexibility in their processes. As highlighted by Conforto and Amaral (2016), this requires a development process which is equally suited to changes and has higher flexibility within the long run. The Traditional waterfall model is considered to bring about a step by step and phase-based development model. This is based on the fact that the use of the model can be limited to improvement and goal-based decisions just once, and no additions or deletions can be made once the process is initiated. According to Periera and Russo (2018), this, when observed with respect to the agile model, is quite effective where the client based nature of the model allows for the fact that the client is made the part of the development process and is allowed to make changes to the process. Waterfall model is considered monotonous and excessively systematic where the openness to creativity is not allowed as compared to the agile model of the software development. It is considered in the research by Al-Zewairi et al. (2017), this lack of creativity is considered quite optimal within the agile model for software development. In this regard, the agile model, when compared to the waterfall model allows for better results. It has been further added by Guinan et al. (2019), this is especially the case within the large scale software and information system development where the need to improve and add or delete measures taken is considered usual. The operational development within an agile model is considered complex and allows room for flexibility as well with the chance to add and delete steps at any stage. This is considered an advantage within larger projects where objectives to development are easily mouldable.
Comparative to the waterfall model, the agile model with its need for better and more experienced managers allow the final project which may be a software or the information system to be of superior quality and better functioning. The higher experience required within the agile model is considered to be quite important when it comes to developing superior quality projects and software. The negatives associated with the use of waterfall method are considered to be more inclined towards the smaller projects and can be suite smaller business sand their needs for the information systems rather than larger ones.
3 Conclusion
The changes to the business environment can be rightly considered the reason behind various new approaches being developed for different software to be produced designing of this software is often varying nature. In this regard, the short report above has led to the conclusions that no process completely becomes obsolete within the market. This can prove en true in case of the waterfall and the agile method of software development and design. Where the report mentions that agile being more modern and handy when it comes to its flexibility falls short when it comes to short-scale projects. It, at the same time, finds the waterfall method to be traditional yet systematic, which may be considered handy for the shorter scale projects. However, it may fall ineffective when it comes to various projects. The need to ensure that managers are well-versed in each of the two designing approaches is considered quite important. This can be considered to be the major reason where the managers can be effective in indulging in knowledge seeking for both when project-based variations are required for them. An organisation may find itself in need for any of the two during its lifetime based on both having some vital aspects which are vent within the other. Business systems can be thus mentioned to derive development from any of the two approaches, which are both applicable in the modern arena as well. This based on the fact that the situation and the ends for the project vary which allow for separable focus from the projects.
4 References
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