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Systems Analysis and Development Approaches

The software crisis and the need for systems development

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 1

Overview

Two consequences for an organisation whose software project fails and legacy system.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Explain why poorly written software stays expensive long after it is delivered.

Numbers

Where was the term ‘software crisis’ first used?

Key term

Give three symptoms of the software crisis.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What does the term ‘software crisis’ describe?

    Model answer

    The software crisis describes the period in which software projects routinely ran late, cost far more than planned and delivered unreliable systems, because software development could not keep pace with rapidly growing hardware power.

  2. 2

    Where was the term ‘software crisis’ first used?

    Model answer

    The term ‘software crisis’ was first used at a NATO conference on software engineering held in Germany in 1968.

  3. 3

    Give three symptoms of the software crisis.

    Model answer

    Projects overran their deadlines, projects exceeded their budgets, and the software delivered was often unreliable or did not do what the user had asked for.

  4. 4

    Why did more powerful hardware make the software crisis worse?

    Model answer

    Cheaper and faster hardware allowed far more ambitious systems to be attempted, and the informal methods that worked for small programs could not manage the complexity of the much larger systems that became possible.

  5. 5

    How did the software crisis lead to the discipline of software engineering?

    Model answer

    The scale of the failures showed that building software needed the same disciplined, planned approach as other branches of engineering, so lifecycle models, documented methods and formal project management were introduced.

  6. 6

    State two consequences for an organisation whose software project fails.

    Model answer

    The organisation loses the money already spent on the project and must carry on running an inadequate existing system, and it may lose customers to competitors whose systems work.

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Systems Analysis and Development Approaches
Design, Development and Testing
Implementation and System Security
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