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Chapter 2 - The Origins of Software

This document discusses the various sources of software available to organizations. It identifies the main sources as IT services firms, packaged software producers, enterprise solutions, cloud computing, open source software, and in-house development. It also covers outsourcing software development, criteria for evaluating off-the-shelf software, and the importance of reuse to reduce costs and speed up the development process.

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لوي وليد
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87 views

Chapter 2 - The Origins of Software

This document discusses the various sources of software available to organizations. It identifies the main sources as IT services firms, packaged software producers, enterprise solutions, cloud computing, open source software, and in-house development. It also covers outsourcing software development, criteria for evaluating off-the-shelf software, and the importance of reuse to reduce costs and speed up the development process.

Uploaded by

لوي وليد
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Origins of Software

1
Learning Objectives

After completing this lesson, students should be able to:


 Explain outsourcing.

 Describe six different sources of software.

 Discuss how to evaluate off-the-shelf software.

 Explain reuse and its role in software development.

2
Introduction

There are various sources of software for organizations.


 Most of a corporation’s application software is created by external sources.
 Much in-house coding involves making components work together.
 There are criteria to evaluate software from different sources.

3
Systems Acquisition: Outsourcing

Outsourcing: Turning over responsibility of some or all of an


organization’s information systems applications and operations to an
outside firm

4
Outsourcing (Cont.)

Reasons to outsource
Cost-effectiveness
Take advantage of economies of scale
Make up for lack of in-house knowledge
Free up internal resources
Reduce time to market
Increase process efficiencies
System development is a non-core activity for the organization

5
Sources of Software
 Information technology services firm
 Packaged software producers
 Enterprise-wide solutions
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Cloud computing
 Open source software
 In-house developers

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Sources of Software (Cont.)

Sources of Application Software

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Sources of Software (Cont.)

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Information Technology (IT) Services Firms

 Help companies develop custom information systems for internal use


Develop, host, and run applications for customers
Provide other services

9
Packaged Software Producers

 Serve many market segments


 Provide software ranging from broad-based packages (i.e. general
ledger) to niche packages (i.e. day care management)
 Pre-packaged, off-the-shelf software
 Software runs on all size computers, from microcomputers to large
mainframes.
 Prepackaged software is off-the-shelf, turnkey software
(i.e. not customizable).
 Off-the-shelf software, at best, meets 70% of organizations’ needs.
10
Packaged Software

Microsoft Project

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Enterprise Solutions Software

 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems integrate individual


traditional business functions into modules enabling a single
seamless transaction to cut across functional boundaries.
 SAP AG is the leading vendor of ERP systems

12
Enterprise Solutions Software

SAP’s Business ByDesign, a roduct designed for medium


sized companies.

13
Cloud Computing

The provision of computing resources, including applications, over the Internet,


so customers do not have to invest in the computing infrastructure needed to run
and maintain the resources.
Examples:
Google Drive – users store what they want on servers
 Salesforce.com – online customer relationship management (CRM) software
 Microsoft Azure platform
 Amazon.com cloud infrastructure and services

14
Cloud Computing

 Heavy growth predicted


 Benefits:
 Free internal IT staff
 Faster access to application than via internal development
 Lower cost than internal development
 Concerns
 Security
 Reliability
 Regulation compliance
15
Open Source Software

Freely available including source code


 Developed by a community of interested people
 Performs the same functions as commercial software
How Examples: Linux, mySQL, Firefox
to make money?
 Provide maintenance/services
 Sell a more featured version of the free software

16
In-House Development

 If sufficient system development expertise with the chosen platform


exists in-house, then some or all of the system can be developed by
the organization’s own staff.
 Hybrid solutions involving some purchased and some in-house
components are common.

17
Sources of Software Components

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Selecting Off-the-Shelf Software

 Cost: comparing the cost of developing the same system in-house with the cost
of purchasing or licensing the software package
 Functionality: the tasks that the software can perform and the mandatory,
essential, and desired system features
 Vendor support: whether and how much support the vendor can provide and
at what cost
 Viability of vendor: can vendor continue to adapt/update software to changes
in systems software and hardware

19
Selecting Off-the-Shelf Software(Cont,)

Flexibility: the ease with which software is customized


 Documentation: understandable and up-to-date user’s manual and
technical documentation
 Response time: how long it takes the software package to respond to
the user’s requests in an interactive session
 Ease of installation: a measure of the difficulty of loading the software
and making it operational

20
Validating Purchased Software Information

 Use a variety of information sources:


 Collect information from vendor

 Software documentation

 Technical marketing literature

21
Request For Proposal (RFP)

A request for proposal (RFP) is a document provided to vendors to


ask them to propose hardware and system software that will meet the
requirements of a new system.
 Sometimes called a Request For Quote (RFQ)
 Analyst selects best candidates based on:
 vendor bids
 a variety of information sources

22
Information Sources For RFP

Vendor’s proposal
Running software through a series of tests
 Feedback from other users of the vendor’s product
 Independent software testing services
 Articles in trade publications

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23
Reuse
The use of previously written software resources, especially objects
and components, in new applications

Commonly applied to two different development technologies:


Object-oriented development
Component-based development
Object-oriented development
Object class encapsulates data and behavior of common organizational
entities (e.g. employees)

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Reuse (Con. )
Component-based development
Components can be as small as objects or as large as pieces of software that
handle single business functions
Object-oriented development reuse is the use of object classes in more
than one application (e.g. Employee).
Component-based development reuse is the assembly of an application
from many different components at many different levels of complexity and
size (e.g. Currency conversion).

25
Summary
In this chapter you learned how to:
Explain outsourcing.
Describe six different sources of software.
Discuss how to evaluate off-the-shelf software.
Explain reuse in software development.

26

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