Choosing A Good Deployment Environment

Note: Assignment 11 of System Analysis and Design

By the definition of Satzinger, Jackson, and Burd in their book entitled “Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World”, application deployment environment is the configuration of the computer hardware, system software, and networks, in which the new application software will operate. Thus, to ensure that the application software for the system will run efficiently, choosing the right deployment environment is really important. The deployment environment must be defined in a way that it has to match the specific requirements of the application. 

In defining the deployment environment, some factors are considered by a system analyst:

·   Compatibility with system requirements

The system analyst must be able to know and determine what would be the best requirement such as the user locations, speed of access and update, security, and transaction volume would best fit the defined requirements of the system. Each task of the system must be functional in a way that it would result to the desirable output. 

·   Compatibility among hardware and system software

This refers to the effective combination of hardware and software choices for the application system. Considering that the development of hardware and software are made only by two or three companies, then there would be efficiency issue when you try to use a combination of hardware or software from different developers. But there are also instances that other combinations result to a better performance than the package set by a company. Thus, the system analyst should be able to determine the arrangement between the hardware and software that are compatible to each other.

·  Required interfaces to external systems

There are systems that require interactions to external systems. It is when the external system needs an input data from the current system or either the current system needs to process the data from the external system. And so to enable the efficient communication between the two systems, there should be a good interface that is compatible between the two systems.

·   Conformity with the IT strategic plan and architecture plan

If the system software does not conform to the strategic and architecture plan of the company, then there would be a failure on the project because the goal of the system is not met.

·   Cost and schedule

The cost of the deployment environment should also be kept in mind. The cost of the deployment environment, if possible, should be low so that the company will have to spend only a low amount. The schedule is also considered. It means that the time to gather and assemble the deployment environment should be conforming to the schedule plan of the system.

     To sum it up, the analyst must be able to define an application deployment environment that would enable the application software to meet the requirements of the system, fits the IT strategic plan and architectural plan of the organization, and should be acquired and configured within the accepted limits of budget and schedule.

Source:
http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=onoxYRropMoC&pg=PA292&lpg=PA292&dq=application+deployment+environment+system+analysis+and+design&source=bl&ots=Xiow0iRfeW&sig=FK9_tHj82Teff1iGBVWuXZr5L7U&hl=tl&sa=X&ei=8jk9T6mbOefmmAWkpr2tBw&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=true