Discussion: Hospital Information Systems

NOW F OR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT:Discussion: Hospital Information Systems

The SDLC is an iterative process—a conceptual model that is used in project management describing the phases involved in building or developing an IS. It moves from assessing feasibility or project initiation, to design analysis, to system specification, to programming, to testing, to implementation, to maintenance, and to destruction—literally from beginning to end. As the IT analyst describes this process, once again he sees puzzled looks. He quickly states that even the destruction of the system is planned—that is, how it will be retired, broken down, and replaced with a new system. Even during upgrades, destruction tactics can be invoked to secure the data and even decide if servers are to be disposed of or repurposed. The security people will tell you that this is their phase, where they make sure that any sensitive information is properly handled and decide whether the data are to be securely and safely archived or destroyed.

After reviewing all of the possible methods and helping you to conduct your feasibility and business study, the analyst chooses the DSDM. This SDLC model was chosen because it works well when the time span is short and the requirements are fluctuating and mainly unknown at the outset. The IT analyst explains that this model works well on tight schedules and is a highly iterative and incremental approach that stresses continuous user input and involvement. As part of this highly iterative process, the team will revisit and loop through the same development activities numerous times; this repetitive examination provides ever-increasing levels of detail, thereby improving accuracy. The analyst explains that you will use a mockup of the hospital information system (HIS) and design for what is known; you will then create your own mini-system that will interface with the HIS. Because time is short, the analysis, design, and development phases will occur simultaneously while you are formulating and revising your specific requirements through the iterative process so that they can be integrated into the system.