Unit 5 discussion response_MT300

13161Respond or elaborate on the response below:

The user input is a double-edged sword when considering designing a new system. The benefit is the software will be customized to the people which will utilize the system the most, little modification should need to be done when implementation occurs, and training of personnel will be reduced since their involvement during the software development was included in the initial build of the software. The downside is the amount of time and money during the design process will be greatly increased. When end users are included in the design process, they introduce added complexity which may or may not be relevant enterprise wide or may not produce an ROI when completed. In the case of a licensed system user input is valuable, it allows the company to investigate the vendors’ products without the costly task of development. Without user input there is no way to know which options should be investigated and which should be excluded.

The first thing which should be considered before acquiring a new system is if it meets the company’s missions and goals. This includes individuals ranging from C- level personnel, IT professionals, managers and certain end users. The actual implementation of a new system begins with The IT architect, whose goal is to delineate the way an organization should utilize its information resources to accomplish its mission (Rainer & Prince, 2023). This person is responsible for the hardware, networking, data management systems and application software. The next is The IT steering committee which is composed of IT professionals, managers and staff to ensure the functionality is in line with the organization’s needs.

The major advantage for open source software is that it is free. Also, there are many developers that provide updates to fix bugs and sometimes customize software. Users have the ability to change everything except for the source code free of charge. An example of some companies using open source software is Linux in Google. Being free of charge, this allows smaller companies with less resources to adapt the software as needed. Some of the disadvantages or that there is no direct support for the software so if a company is not able to modify it, they have to modify their business to utilize the software. The other option is to pay a company to customize the open source software. With the availability of these companies which offer support for open-source software this becomes a viable option for smaller to mid-range companies.