The processing of these forms and documents, the work flows, and the individual steps are easily followed. At their core all systems analysis projects are concerned with the examination of what are, or once were, essentially manual operations. In fact, it is helpful, regardless of the type of project, to view all the activities of the user as if they were still being performed by hand.
This allows the analyst to examine in detail each task being performed, each data operation, each data movement, and each data carrier a data carrier is a piece of paper, a form, a report, a worksheet, a transaction, etc.
The analyst's task in the manual environment is to simplify the work flows, streamline the processes, reduce redundant processing, rearrange the tasks so as to ensure more orderly processing, and ensure that the forms, documents, and reports contain all necessary data. Each task, and each task step, must be examined to determine a if its execution is appropriate and b if it is appropriately defined, positioned, and performed.
The results of the analysis of manual systems are usually new or revised standards and procedures which clearly define the processing sequence for the task to be performed and the rules which govern their performance. In addition the analyst may develop new input forms, control procedures, monitoring procedures, and reports. The output from the analysis may also include new or revised work and data flow diagrams.
Working in this type of environment differs from working in the strictly manual environment in that the analyst's task is to determine whether the manual environment, in whole or in part, can be augmented by automation, and if so, to what extent. The existing environment must be analyzed in the same manner as the purely manual, but as the analysis progresses, the analyst must also find ways of substituting automated processing for manual processing.
To accomplish this, the analyst must break each process and task into its component steps and determine if the rules for performing the step lend themselves to machine automation. The analyst's output for this type of project closely resembles that produced from the strictly manual project. However, here the analyst must also develop a new, input forms suitable to an automated environment, b file content requirements for ongoing master and transaction files, c report layouts, and d a processing flow which intermixes the original and unmodified manual processes, new manual processes, and new automated processes.
The analyst must also make a determination as to the costs involved in the automation process, provide project schedules, and make hardware and software analyses and recommendations.
There have been many attempts to set down analytical and design methodologies for development projects in automated environments. What many of them ignore is that there are different types of automated business environments, which, while seemingly similar, must in fact be treated differently. What distinguishes these environments is the extent and depth of automation. Early analysis methodologies were predicated on a manual environment.
The aim of the analysis was to develop an automated solution to user business problems. In today's environment, most firms of any size have existing levels of automation. Many in fact have gone through two and three rounds of automation and reautomation. Many of the existing processes and procedures are either totally automated or were developed as a result of a partial automation of the user area.
Many of the forms and transaction flows within this type of environment are automated or semi-automated. This prior automation poses a trap for the unwary analyst in that the currently used forms and documents of the business may in fact have been designed to support and accommodate an automated system.
These automated systems may have been designed for the business using a level of technology which is now outdated or inefficient, or for a set of user requirements or a business environment which has since become wholly or partially obsolete. Additionally, these forms and documents are the result of some prior analyst's efforts and may not in fact reflect the natural information or data needs of the firm.
The processing flows themselves may be unnatural, to the extent that they reflect the intrusion of automated processing sequences. These flows may have been structured to accommodate the needs of the then prevalent technology rather than the needs of the business.
Each of the documents, transactions and process flows must be reexamined in the light of the current business environment and the current business processing needs.
They may merely need to be refurbished, or they may need to be scrapped entirely in favor of a new and more streamlined processing flow. The analyst must look with care on batch flows, "processing windows," and transaction holding queues.
These constraints may have been imposed on the processing environment by the requirements of prior automation efforts, most probably implemented under what is now an outdated, or, worse, obsolete technology.
Reautomation is a major type of project which incorporates the following sub-categories. The "system rewrite" is one of the simplest forms of reautomation. A system rewrite usually involves very little analysis of the current business environment and thus entails very little change to that environment from the aspect of functionality or procedure.
It is closely allied with system maintenance in that the goal is not to change the processing flows or to add to system functionality but simply to "clean up" the processing, streamline the existing flows, or rewrite the programs in a more up-to-date language or with more up-to-date file handling technology. As part of the rewrite process, file layouts, report layouts, screens, and transactions may change, but usually the file and report content do not, and neither does the user processing environment.
A rewrite may remove processing anomalies "bugs" , remove unused, obsolete, or outdated code and may add minor new functionality to the system. The emphasis here is on minor. System rewrites are usually done for the benefit of, and are initiated by, the data processing community, either the data processing system developers and system maintenance personnel who need a "cleaner" system to maintain, or the data processing operations personnel who have requested operational changes to streamline the processing or to make it more efficient.
Although the two sub-categories are usually separated, they are sufficiently similar, from an analysis viewpoint, to be examined together. Applications maintenance and enhancement projects differ from development projects in one substantial way: The analysis and design personnel assigned to these projects must also assess the impact of the proposed change on an existing system. These maintenance or enhancement projects usually leave large parts of the base system intact.
The remaining parts are either modified or "hooks" are added to the additional code which support the added functionality. The requests for maintenance or enhancement changes normally originate with the user, although they may originate with the development team itself. There are numerous reasons for these system modification requests; among them are changes to the business environment, user-requested additional functionality, correction of erroneous processing, and user-requested refinements, or cosmetic changes to the existing system.
Those changes which originate from alterations to the business environment are the most difficult to implement, followed closely by those which add new functionality.
The implementation difficulties arise because these types of changes not only require new analysis of the user area but also re-analysis of the original system design to determine where and how the changes can and should be made. Maintenance or enhancement which is necessitated by correction of erroneous processing, user-desired refinements, or other cosmetic changes usually requires little in the way of new analysis.
The analysis and redesign efforts required by business environment changes and additions of new functionality can be almost as extensive as those which were required in the original systems development. The most difficult aspects of changing an application system are those which are directed either toward changes in underlying system design and the resulting processing logic, or toward changing the structure and contents of the system files or database.
When the maintenance or enhancement project is directed at a system in a database environment and the database must be changed, the analysis must not only cover the application in question, but also any other applications which use the same database and in particular the same data records or data elements. In some cases, the immediate enhancement or maintenance project will require data which should logically be captured by a different, unrelated application.
The "chain reaction" or "cascade" of changes can increase the scope and impact of the initial request by orders of magnitude. Use of database technology encourages integrated and interdependent systems designs. The greater the integration or interdependence, the greater the potential impact of any change.
The most difficult of these data-directed changes occurs when the structural logic of the database must be modified.
Even minor changes here can have major impact. The more extensive the use of the database, the more thorough and painstaking the analysis that is required. Reporting, retrieval, or other file access facilities may be severely impacted by these data structure, content, or processing logic changes. The system redesign and redevelopment project is the most comprehensive and difficult type of reautomation.
It involves not only the traditional activities of the "new" development project but also the additional activities of file conversion. The system redesign and redevelopment requires a start-from-scratch analysis, which must at the same time acknowledge the presence of the existing system. This type of project is usually undertaken when an organization "migrates" from one hardware or software technology to another. Automated systems allow you to monitor your processes in real time and identify problems as they arrive, enabling quick adjustments along the way.
While manual systems can be difficult to coordinate, similar to the old cliche that "the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing," automated systems work in tandem on their own.
For instance, according to hotels, they could experience significant gains after automating their inventory and procurement systems. First, there are big cost savings and shorter fulfillment cycles. Second, hotels could experience significant time savings that free up staff to do more client-centric functions that enhance the overall business. Third, an automated system could bring better accuracy because staff members are no longer required to reenter data from paper documents.
This dramatically reduces clerical errors. Fourth, automation would deliver an increased ability to negotiate better deals with suppliers. In any negotiation, it's essential to know exactly how much volume of supply is needed, allowing the purchaser to more accurately estimate volumes and purchase accordingly. The bottom line is that informed buyers have more leverage.
The main difference between manual and computerized systems is speed. Accounting software processes data and creates reports much faster than manual systems. Calculations are done automatically in software programs, minimizing errors and increasing efficiency.
Once data is input, you can create reports literally by pressing a button in a computerized system. Another difference between manual and computerized systems is cost. Manual accounting with paper and pencil is much cheaper than a computerized system, which requires a machine and software. Other expenses associated with accounting software include training and program maintenance. Expenses can add up fast with costs for printers, paper, ink and other supplies.
A third difference between manual and computerized systems is the ease of backup of a computerized system. All transactions can be saved and backed up, in case of fire or other mishap. You cannot do this with paper records, unless you make copies of all pages--a long and inefficient process. In manual information systems, no mechanical or electronic devices are used to perform any task, all are done manually.
All tasks can be broken down into three stages: input, process and output. An example of a manual information system is a telephone directory. Suppose you have a friend whose phone number and surname you know but whose address you need to find. Once the phone number has been found you can read off the address. The input data were surname and telephone number; the processing activities were search and locate; and the output was address.
As you can conclude, there is no universal answer as to which type of control is considered better. Internal controls are derived from the management process and the way the business is run.
Small companies may implement controls differently than large ones, yet a small company can still have an effective internal control environment.
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