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Mustafa
 UNIT 01

Systems Development
Foundations

Reviewed and Modified

by Dr. Suleiman H. Mustafa
 UNIT 01
(Part-2)

System Outsourcing and

Software Reuse

Reviewed and Modified

by Dr. Suleiman H. Mustafa
Software Development
Outsourcing
 • Outsourcing is the practice of turning over
some or all responsibility for information
systems applications and operations to
another firm.
• Examples:
– Outsourcing firm develops and runs applications
on their computers (Payroll application)
– Outsourcing firm runs applications at your site on
your computers.
• Needs to be considered during systems
analysis

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 Why Outsourcing?
• Outsourcing the critical software tasks and
projects is an efficient approach. Potential
advantages of outsourcing software
development may include:
– Cost saving on project execution
– Time-efficient project execution and smooth project
delivery within the given time and budget.
– Better Experience and Resources
– Risk reduction and flexible services which can be
adjusted to the demands and needs.

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Six Sources of Software
1. Information technology service firms
2. Packaged software providers (off-the-shelf
software)
3. Vendors of enterprise solutions software (ERP)
4. Cloud computing providers
5. Open-source software solutions
6. In-house development (build it yourself)

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• Utilize when
– Organization lacks resources to develop in-
house
– Suitable off-the-shelf solution is not available
• What they do?
• Develop custom information systems
• Develop, host and run applications
• Can provide domain expertise
• They employ consultants with domain-specific
experience
• See Table 2-1 for a list of top 10 firms

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• Produce pre-packed or Commercial Off-the-
Shelf (COTS) systems
– MS Project, Intuit QuickBooks,
• Products range from broad-based packages
(MS Office) to industry specific packages
(AP/AR)
• COTS software can meet up to 70% of an
organization’s needs.
• Two types of software applications:
– Turnkey: not modified, one size fits all
– Customized (non-turnkey): modified by vendor to
meet great portion of user needs

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 COTS vs. Custom Software
• Custom software development is the process of
designing, creating, deploying and maintaining
software for a specific set of users, functions or
organizations.
• In contrast to commercial off-the-shelf software
(COTS), custom software development aims at a
narrowly defined set of requirements.
• Custom software addresses users’ specific
needs more comprehensively than traditional off-
the-shelf packages.
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 Off-the-Shelf vs. Custom Software

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 Criteria
› Cost / Benefit - In-house versus purchase
› Functionality
› Vendor Support
› Viability of Vendor
› Flexibility
› Documentation
› Response Time
› Ease of Installation

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 Information from vendor
› Documentation
› Marketing literature
› Questionnaire
 Request for Proposal (RFP)
 Software test drive
 Feedback from other users
 Independent software testing services

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• Enterprise software or ERP (Enterprise
Resource Planning) System is a collection of
computer programs that have
– common business applications, organization
modeling tools, and application development tools.
• The software is intended to solve an enterprise-
wide problem, rather than a departmental
problem.
– It aims to improve the enterprise's productivity and
efficiency by providing business logic support
functionality.
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• ERP system consists of a series of integrated
modules
• Accounting
• Distribution
• Manufacturing
• Human Resources
• Integrated to focus on business processes rather
than business functional areas
– Enables an organization to integrate all parts of a
business process in a unified information system
– E.g. - All aspects of an order transaction occur
seamlessly in single information system

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31 Purchase Order
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 – Benefits
• Single repository for all aspects of a business
process
– Ensures more consistent and accurate data
– Less maintenance
• Flexibility of modules
– Additional modules can be added as needed
– Immediately integrated into existing system
– Disadvantages
• Complexity and time of implementation
• Reliance upon consultants
• Often, organizations must change the way that they do
business in order to use systems
– ERP vendors
• SAP AG, Oracle Corp

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• Cloud computing is the delivery of different
computer system resources and services
through the Internet, including
– data storage, servers, databases, networking, and
software.
• Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of
resources and services without direct active
management by the user.
• Cloud-based storage makes it possible to save
files to a remote database and retrieve them on
demand.
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• Five essential characteristics
– On-demand self-service (no vendor interaction)
– Broad network access
– Resource pooling
– Rapid scalability (option to increase/decrease service)
– Measured Service

• Some examples:
– Three vendors dominate the public cloud computing
market: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft
Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP),
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 • Pay for use (software as a service):
dynamically rent software from third party
providers (runs on remote servers = the cloud)
• Pay for service: Applications bought, installed
and maintained by service provider
• Pay for platform (hardware as a service):
dynamically rent platform and manage your
own virtual data centre

• Users pay per-use or month-to-month license

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 › Benefits:
› Freeing internal IT staff
 Faster access to applications than internal
development
 Lower-cost access to corporate-quality
applications
› Concerns
 Reliability
 Security of information
 Compliance with government regulations

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• Open-source software (OSS) is computer
software that is released under a license in
which the copyright holder grants users the
rights to use, study, change, and distribute the
software and its source code to anyone and for
any purpose.
• Open-source software may be developed in a
collaborative public manner.

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› Freely available
› Includes source-code
› Maintained by a group of interested individuals
› Some examples
– Linux
– Firefox
– mySQL

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  In-House Development
› Complete system
› Hybrid systems
› Off the shelf PLUS custom code

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Software Reuse
 Use of previously written software resources in
new applications

 Most often applied to object-oriented and

component-based development
 Reuse of object classes
› Increases productivity
› Reduces defect density
› Reduces rework
 Reuse plan must be matched with companies
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strategic business goals
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 Four Approaches
1. Ad hoc Reuse
2. Facilitated Reuse
3. Managed Reuse
4. Designed Reuse

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 END

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