Jeanning Strothers, the impatient manager, did not take Jeff's advice. She built the new system, but she can't get top management to allow her to use it. And she's run into a number of other problems. First, the financial comptroller has been reevaluating company investments strategies and policies. Jeannine wasn't aware of that. The new system does not account for many of the policies being considered. Her won staff has rejected the investment and divestment orders generated by the system. She used information Systems' existing file structure to design those orders only to find out that her clerks had abandoned those file two years ago because they didn't include the data necessary to execute order transactions. Her staff is also critical of the design, saying that minor mistakes send them off into the "twilight zone" with no easy way to recover. The computer link to the investment data bank has been useless. The data received and its format are not compatible with systems requirements. Although other data banks are available, the current data-bank has been prepaid for two years. Additionally, jeannine is now skeptical of such services. Some of her subordinate managers are insisting on graphic reports. Unfortunately, neither her database management nor spreadsheet package supports graphics. She's not sure how to convert the data of either package to a graphic format. To top off her problems, she isn't sure that her existing database structure can be modified to meet new requirement without having to rewrite all the programs even those that appear to be working. And her boos is not sure he wants to invest the money in a consultant to fix the problems. Jeannine analyst friend Jeff is not very sympathetic to her problems: "Jeannine, I don't have any quick answers for you. You've taken too many shortcuts through the project life cycle. When we do a system, we go through a carefully through-out procedure. We thoroughly study the problem, define needs evaluate options, design the system and its interfaces, and only then we begin programming" Jeannine replies, "Wait a minute. I only bought a microcomputer. It's not the same as your mainframe computer. I didn't see the need for going through the ritual you guys use for mainframe applications. Besides, I didn't have the time to do all those steps" Jeff's parting words are philosophical, "you didn't have the time to do it right. Where will you find the time to do it over?" What principles did Jeannine violates? Why do so many people today fall prey to the belief that the life cycle for an application is somehow different when using PC? What conclusion can you draw from (overview of SAD) that can heal Jeannine learn from her mistakes? What would you recommend to Jeannine if she were to decide to approach her manager with a plan to salvage the system?

Note: Principles of SAD:

a) Get the Owners and Users Involved

b) Use a problem-solving Approach

c) Establish Phases and Activities

d) Establish standards for consistent development and documentation

e) Justify systems as capital investment f) Don't be afraid to cancel or revise Scope g) Divide and Conquer Design system for Growth and Change