Time Software : Systems Anaylsis

Systems Analysis

Time Software performs an analysis on your system's requirements and comes up with a proposed solution to them. This solution is laid out in the System Specification along with an analysis of the problem and how best the solution fits into your overall business processes.

Alternatives First

Wherever possible, we try and not reinvent the wheel at the expense of our clients. If we find an off-the-shelf product that can do a substantial amount of the work then we propose interfacing our systems with that product. Furthermore, many software companies, ourselves included, develop components for the various languages. These components are extensively researched and only the most suitable are employed in our code. This also helps keep down development time and costs.

Understanding Your Business

A sound understanding of your business is one of the first steps in an effective analysis of the best system for it. Furthermore, it is the business that must drive systems - not the other way around. It is therefore of paramount importance that your business is first understood by ourselves. Although Time Software offers Business Analysis as a separate service, the information gathered from a general analysis of your business processes and the flows between them is used as the context on which to base the specification of any proposed system. As for the system specification itself, we have an organised systematic methodology that defines the business problem and engineers a complete solution. This is after all the process of systems analysis and design.

Tailor-Made

It's often impossible to find suitable off-the-shelf software that can adequently cater for your software needs. Clients often learn the hard way by purchasing a product that some sales person has made promises about, only to find that these promises simply cannot be met. Besides, all too often a product, though satisfactory to start with, begins to fail to meet more advanced business needs and requirements as and when they present themselves. This is a primary reason for having software custom-developed in the first place.

Bugs & Unwanted Features!

Bugs (errors) or even unwanted features in custom-made software is one major criticism against this type of software, and often a business would rather seek off-the-shelf products that may sport a few minor bugs but that at least meet business needs to some comfortable point. This is hardly an optimal solution, though. But we are sensitive to and do understand these types of concerns.

It is for this reason and others that we have set in place specific design and development methodologies to keep to a minimum the occurrence of bugs and unwanted features. Unwanted features would be ironed out by accurate, detailed specifications where business logic would have already been clearly laid out in exacting terms. Bugs would be kept to a minimum by uncomplicated, bug-free code that has already been fully tested, understood, commented and documented. We also prefer to deploy code that has stood the test of time. Furthermore, extensive testing is conducted by ourselves, yourselves (if you require), and even by machines deployed to test things like program flow and logic, combinations and permutations and ranges and types.

Time Software has specific policies regarding systems analysis and design. They are as follows:

Our Systems Specification is directly based on a clearly-defined Business Specification that outlays your business processes. Software developers are often criticised for not knowing the business of their clients. We make it a specific point.

The determination of how the software and hardware are to be employed in meeting the overall systems solution.