The organisation you work for has hired a software engineer to develop a suite of software to manage your payroll application system. As the financial...

      

The organisation you work for has hired a software engineer to develop a suite of
software to manage your payroll application system. As the financial manager, you
are working closely with the software engineer to ensure that the software quality
assurance standards are attained.
Required:
(i) List any four data validation checks that the software engineer should incorporate into
the program.
(ii) Why is it important to test the software before implementing it?
(iii) Suggest two measures that the software engineer must take in order to simplify user
training and support that is fundamental to the success of the information systems
project.

  

Answers


gregory
(i) Validation
This refers to the process by which a computer system identifies and reports incorrect data
items. Validation occurs during data processing.
Validation checks that should be incorporated into the program:
1.Sequence checks e.g. checking whether employee numbers are in sequence
2.Limit checks. For instance, salaries of employees should be checked within a
certainlimit e.g. not more than Ksh 2,000,000
3.Range checks- could be used to check the correctness of processed salaries.
4.Validity checks for coded data. For instance, marital status of employees could
bechecked for M (i.e. married) or S (i.e. single) and anything else should be rejected.
5.Reasonableness check. For instance, a processed pay slip, which indicates a
negativesalary, should be investigated for error.
6.Existence check to ensure that all fields of a file contain an entry after data entry
iscomplete.
7.Check digits- to detect transcription and transposition errors.
(ii) Testing enables errors in the software to be identified and corrected before the software is
implemented. This testing ensures that the implemented system is highly reliable and free from
error.
(iii) Measures that must be taken to simplify user training and support:
1. Use of an online training and support system
Online training and support would be easily available to users at any time. The training and
support could be provided at a specific site in the intranet (Organizationā€˜s computer network)
with multimedia (Text, sound and graphics) used to enhance understanding.
1. Training schedules could be supplied to system users so that they know in advance
howlong the training is supposed to take and what is expected of them during the
training. This would improve user cooperation and thus simplify the training.
2. Training should be carried out in phases so that users are gradually familiarized with
theinformation system. A general timing approach to be used could be as follows:
o Before the feasibility study whereby the users are given a general explanation
ofcomputer systems and their relevance in function application and reason for the
desire to introduce a computer in the specific functions on the organization.
o Before investigation where users are explained about the impact of the new
systemand the importance of their involvement in development.
o During fact finding so that they can cooperate and provide useful information
toguide the system developer during the analysis phase of SDLC.
o Before programming so that they can prepare themselves for specific roles at
theimplementation stage. These may include testing activities or roles.
o Before implementation to enable users cooperate and play their roles as assigned
tothem.
o After implementation in order to assist in evaluation of system performance.
gregorymasila answered the question on November 21, 2017 at 09:04


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