Deployment Activities
Placing system into operation must be done after a new system has been developed and tested. Considering cost, the need to maintain customer relations, the need to support employees within organization, complexity of logistic, and risks that may be raised are such conflicting constraints involved in deployment activities. The details about deployment activities will be explained as follows:
Perform System and Stress Test
Stress test or performance test is an integration and usability test that determines whether a system or subsystem can meet time-based performance criteria as response time or throughput (Satzinger, Jackson, and Burd, 2012). Stress tests are complex because they test maximum allowable time limits for software responses and minimum number of queries and transactions that must be processed in a certain time measurement, usually per minute or hour.
Perform User Acceptance Test
According to Satzinger, Jackson, and Burd (2012), user acceptance test is a system test to determine whether the system fulfills user requirement. User acceptance testing may be conducted near the end of the project. User of the system will be requested to use it to capture whether the system meets the requirement they requested in analysis activities.
Convert and Initialize Data
To support ongoing processing, operational system requires a fully populated database. Because the transaction within organization needs much of data and transaction processing cannot be postponed, developers must ensure that such information is present in the database at the moment the new system replaces the old one. Developers must determine whether reuse the existing database without any addition or changes database content.
Build Training Materials and Conduct Training
Training users is an essential part of deployment project. Users can be divided into two classes: End users and system operators. End users are people who interact with the system in routine to achieve system’s business purpose. System operators are people who have responsibilities to keep the system operating by performing administrative functions and maintenance.
The purpose of both users training is to make them familiar with the system procedures and to make them experienced with the new system. The difference in conducting end users training and system operators training is the nature of the training. Training for end users usually conducted in a formal way and must emphasize hands-on use for specific business processes. Training for system operators can be conducted in much less formal by learning most or all they need to know by self-study.
Configure and Set up Product Environment
Software components based on interaction standards define a set of supporting system software to provide needed services. Considering the new system and the old one system are built with different component interaction standards, developers must ensure the system can adapt with the current environment. Therefore, the environment of a new system must be set up to make system operational.
Reference:
Satzinger, J. W., Jackson, R. B. & Burd, S. D., 2012. Systems Analysis and Design: In a Changing World. Boston: Cengage Learning.
