ACQUIRING AND

MANAGING RESOURCES
INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURES
 GROUP MEMBERS

• Livison Sisco Ndaremba R219415Q

• Tadiwanashe Chiwome R216368N
• Runakorwashe Padera R216414P
• Gilbert Tatenda Mushayi R217545X
• Tribute Ayla Mhaka R2110530A
• Rejoice Chivasa R219661Q
• Munashe Tshuma R219669B
• Takudzwa Chumachaenda R2110754V
• Praise Daure R2111549B
• Tadiwanashe Basil Mpupuni R219534J
 OUTLINE

• Acquisition from external resources

• Internal information systems development
 Acquiring Resources
• Information systems are a major corporate asset, with respect both to the
benefits they provide and to their high costs.
• Once the need for a specific information system has been established, the
system has to be acquired.
• The acquisition of information systems can either involve external
sourcing or rely on internal development or modification.
• With today’s highly developed IT industry, companies tend to acquire
information systems and services from specialized vendors.
 Acquisition from external resources
• This refers to a firm’s efforts (activities) to access technological
knowledge that lies outside its boundaries (Vanhaverbeke et al., 2002).
• There are several principal ways to acquire an information system from
outside the organization. 
• Many firms have resorted to outsourcing their information systems.
• Outsourcing entails transferring the major components of the firm’s
systems and operations—such as data centres, telecommunications,
and software development and maintenance—to a specialized company
that provides its services under long-term contracts specifying the service
levels
 Acquisition from external resources

• In some cases the outsourcing entails moving the services abroad i.e., offshoring in
pursuit of the cost or expertise advantages.
• In other cases the company may outsource just the development or maintenance of
their information systems, with the outside company being a systems developer.
• Cloud computing is increasingly being adopted as a source of information services.
• Companies may choose to acquire an application by leasing a proprietary package
from a vendor under a license and having the software customized internally or
externally by the vendor or another outside contractor. 
• The principal tasks of information systems specialists involve modifying the
applications for their employer’s needs and integrating the applications to create
a coherent systems architecture for the firm. 
 Advantages of Acquisition from external resources
• It allows firms to acquire the best technology available
• Thus helps firms catch up with competitive moves or fill market gaps.
• Helps firm to overcome limitations of their internal resources and
capabilities.
• Allows firms to specialize deeper in their core competences while relying
on outside firms that are specialized in other fields for complementary
expertise and skills.
Disadvantages of Acquisition from external resources
• Heavy reliance on external technology acquisition may have
disadvantageous consequences.
• Available resources and capabilities for technological sourcing are limited
hence the more resources firms invest externally the less they are able to
invest internally
• Cannot be easily transferred and applied to different domains and often
firm fails to successfully create innovation from it
• The costs of the transfer process may also reduce the efficiency of the
external technological sourcing.
 Internal information systems development

• When an information system is developed internally by an organization,

one of two broad methods is used: life-cycle development or rapid
application development (RAD).
  System life cycle
• Consists of six stages: feasibility study, system analysis, system design,
programming and testing, installation, and operation and maintenance.
• The first five stages are system development proper, and the last stage is
the long-term exploitation.
• Following a period of use (with maintenance as needed), the information
system may be either phased out or upgraded
 Life-cycle development
• The principal objective of a feasibility study is to determine whether the system is
desirable on the basis of long-term plans, strategic initiatives, and a cost-benefit
analysis.
• System analysis provides a detailed answer to the question, What will the new system
do?
• System design, results in an extensive blueprint for how the new system will be
organized.
• During the programming and testing stage, the individual software modules of the
system are developed, tested, and integrated into a coherent operational system.
• Further levels of testing ensure continuing quality control.
• Installation includes final testing of the system in the work environment and conversion
of organizational operations to the new system, integrating it with other systems
already in place.
• The later stages of development include such implementation activities as training
users and modifying the organizational processes in which the system will be used.
• Life-cycle development is frequently faulted for its long development times and
voluminous documentation requirements—and, in some instances, for its failure to
 Rapid Application Development (RAD).
• In various RAD methodologies a prototype is built quickly and
inexpensively, albeit imperfectly.
• This prototype is turned over to the users, their reactions are collected,
suggested modifications are incorporated, and successive prototype
versions eventually evolve into the complete system.
RAD Model
 RAD Model
• Requirements Planning - In this phase, the overall requirements for the system are
defined, a team is identified, and feasibility is determined. 
• User Design. In this phase, representatives of the users work with the system analysts,
designers, and programmers to interactively create the design of the system. JAD is an
acronym for joint application development. A JAD session gets all of the stakeholders
together to have a structured discussion about the design of the system. Application
developers also sit in on this meeting and observe, trying to understand the essence of the
requirements.
• Construction. In the construction phase, the application developers, working with the
users, build the next version of the system. This is an interactive process, and changes
can be made as developers are working on the program. This step is executed in parallel
with the User Design step in an iterative fashion, until an acceptable version of the
product is developed.
• Cutover. In this step, which is similar to the implementation step of the SDLC, the
system goes live. All steps required to move from the previous state to the use of the new
system are completed here.
THANK YOU