System Fundamentals Quiz

Outline the difficulties in Changing Software Systems.

• People find change complex.

• From a technology perspective, change might lead to incompatibility.

• New systems might omit old features.

• There might be data loss during migration.

• Old systems might be faster in certain circumstances.

Outline compatibility issues resulting from situations including legacy systems or business mergers.

• Software incompatibility, some countries may still use old versions of operating systems and applications while other countries are using the advanced versions.

• Hardware incompatibility, some countries may still use old devices and low speed internet connections while other countries are using the advanced network tools.

• Language differences, business mergers from different countries may speak different languages, which could lead to misunderstanding and vague communications.

• Time zone differences, business mergers from different countries may experience delay problems due to time differences between their countries.

Compare the implementation of systems using a client's hardware with hosting systems remotely.

• One time purchase, user backups, manual updates, client's security tools.

• Data centralization, the organization can get back up and running immediately in the event of a service outage.

• Needs a third party for hosting, so issues such as identity and access management must be addressed.

• Service provider is responsible for availability and performance.

• Cost saving, as fewer employees are needed, no need for in-house server capacity or software licenses, and finally you pay as you go.

Evaluate alternative installation processes.

• Parallel running, old and new system run concurrently, new data entered into both.

• Pilot running, new system is piloted (tested) with a small subset of the organization, once it is running correctly, it is implemented across the whole organization.

• Direct changeover, the old system is stopped and the new system is started.

• Phased conversion, introduced in phases, old system gradually phased out.

Discuss problems that may arise as a part of data migration.

• Incompatible File Format, different systems and different software versions may produce different file formats.

• Data structures, moving stored data from a table to a flat file, or from an array to a linked list, may arise problems.

• Validation rules, one system may be much less strict in different rules for valid data than the other.

• Incomplete data transfer, if the transfer is interrupted, only part of the data will be received at the destination, leading to data loss.

• International conventions on dates, currencies and character sets.

Suggest various types of testing.

• Dynamic Testing (with code execution)

• User Acceptance Testing (end-user testing)

• Static Testing (without code execution)

• Beta Testing

• Alpha Testing

Identify a range of usability problems with commonly used digital devices.

• Laptop: battery life is too short

• Cell phone: screen size is too small, not waterproof

• Digital camera: buttons are too small

• Games consoles: complex menus

• MP3 players: battery life is too short

Identify methods that can be used to improve the accessibility of systems.

• Text Dictation

• Braille Keyboard

• Touch Screen

• screen readers

• Voice Recognition

Identify a range of usability problems that can occur in a system.

• Ticketing system, may behave slow load time

• Online payroll system, may have complicated interfaces not giving simple instruction

• Scheduling system, may have an inconsistent design in timetabling

• Feedback systems, may have bad voice recognition