Systems Life Cycle Approach Research Articles

A systems life cycle approach to managing the radiology profession: an Australian perspective.

Although the medical system has expanded considerably over the past two decades in almost all countries, so too has the demand for health care. The radiology specialisation may be an early system indicator, being especially sensitive to changes in supply and demand in both rural and urban environments. The question is whether the new policies of increasing the number of radiologists can be a proper long-term solution for the imbalance of workforce supply and demand or not. Using system dynamics modelling, we present our integrated descriptive models for the supply and demand of Australian radiologists to find the actual gap. Followed by this, we pose a prescriptive model for the supply in order to lessen the identified imbalance between supply and demand. Our system dynamics models compare the demand and supply of Australian radiologists over 40 years between 2010 and 2050. The descriptive model shows that even if the radiology training program grows at a higher rate than the medical training growth rate and its own historical growth, the system will never be able to meet demand. The prescriptive model also indicates that although changing some influential factors (e.g the intake rate) reduces the level of imbalance, the system will still stay unstable during the study period. We posit that Australia may need to design a new system of radiology provision to meet future demands for high-quality medical radiation services. We also suggest some strategies, such as greater development of radiographers' role, are critical for enabling sustainable change over time. What is known about the topic? Long-term workforce planning for medical services at the national level has been very challenging for policy makers of the 21st century. The current demographic imbalance in the supply and demand of the Australian radiologist workforce makes it difficult to plan the effects of extra inflow of radiology students over time.

Where is My Pay? Critical Success Factors of a Payroll System – A System Life Cycle Approach

Majority of firms deploy technologies in HR administrative applications. While payroll processing is a routine transactional activity, poor design and implementation of payroll system can cause immense harm to employee and organizational well-being. Based on the case study of a flawed payroll system in a large and complex public sector organization in Australia, we highlight the key success factors using the system life cycle approach underpinned by the agile philosophy. It highlights the critical importance of strategic organizational review, user involvement and ongoing communication with diverse stakeholders during the planning, analysis, design, implementation and review stages of a payroll project. It reinforces the need for the adoption of and adherence to sound project and change management methodologies. We also explore the limitations of shared service center approach.

Reliability and measurement accuracy of a condition monitoring system in an extreme climate: A case study of automatic laser scanning of wheel profiles

The Iron Ore Line (Malmbanan) is a 473 km long track section located in northern Sweden and has been in operation since 1903. This track section stretches through two countries, namely Sweden and Norway, and the main part of the track runs on the Swedish side, where the owner is the Swedish Government and the infrastructure manager is Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration). The ore trains are owned and managed by the freight operator and mining company LKAB. Due to the high axle load exerted by transportation of the iron ore, 30 tonnes, and the high demand for a constant flow of ore and pellets, the track and wagons must be monitored and maintained on a regular basis. The condition of the wagon wheel is one of the most important aspects in this connection, and here the wheel profile plays an important role. For this reason an automatic laser-based wheel profile monitoring system (WPMS) has been installed on this line using a system lifecycle approach that is based on the reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) approach for railways. The system was prepared and installed and is being operated in a collaborative project between the freight operator and infrastructure manager. The measurements are used to diagnose the condition of the wheels, and to further optimize their maintenance. This paper presents a study of the concepts and ideas of the WPMS, and the selection, installation and validation of the equipment using a system lifecycle approach that is based on RAMS for railways. Results from the profile measurements and validation are shown. The system’s reliability during performance in extreme climate conditions, with severe cold and large quantities of snow, is presented. Then the benefits, perceived challenges and acquired knowledge of the system are discussed, and an improved V-model for the lifecycle approach is presented.

Public–private partnership in the water sector in Romania: success or failure?

The paper is focused on analyzing the public–private partnerships (PPP) in the water sector in Romania. A methodology based on the system lifecycle approach of ISO/IEC 15288:2008 is proposed to study the challenges in designing and implementing this type of policy instrument. The authors use structured approaches for investigating key issues related to PPP projects and they also illustrate the application potential of the concept by comparing two categories of projects, through a case study. One of the studied project categories refers to successful implementations of PPP, whilst the other refers to failures, thus showcasing the power of abstractization of systems engineering in understanding the real issues involved in these undertakings and allowing for improvement opportunities to be discovered.

Systems thinking in the planning of military operations

AbstractThe execution of a Military operation has an analogy to a development project which has the objective to develop a complex product system (victory). This product Performance (victory) must be delivered within a certain time, cost and operational context. Vital to any successful development project is planning, and for complex development projects, good planning is imperative.The result of a complex product development planning cycle, results usually in projects with tasks which resembles a systems life cycle approach. Similarly a complex military operation has the characteristics of delivering a product within time cost in an operational context. Just as a complex product is developed by means of a systems approach, planning could be performed by means of the application of systems thinking.

GIST: A Model for Design and Management of Content and Interactivity of Customer-Centric Web Sites

Customer-centric Web-based systems, such as e-commerce Web sites, or sites that support customer relationship management (CRM) activities, are themselves information systems, but their design and maintenance need to follow vastly different approaches from the traditional systems lifecycle approach. Based on marketing frameworks that are applicable to the online world, and following design science principles, we develop a model to guide the design and the continuous management of such sites. The model makes extensive use of current technologies for tracking the customers and their behaviors, and combines elements of data mining and statistical analyses. A case study based on a financial services Web site is used to provide a preliminary validation and design evaluation of our approach. The case study showed considerable measured improvement in the effectiveness of the company's Web site. In addition, it also highlighted an important benefit of the our approach: the identification of previously unknown or unexpected segments of visitors. This finding can lead to promising new business opportunities.

In search of information technology productivity: Assessment issues

Despite the massive investments in Information Technology (IT) in the developed economies, the IT impact on productivity and business performance continues to be questioned. The paper critically reviews this ‘IT productivity paradox’ debate. It suggests that important elements in the uncertainty about the IT payoff relate to deficiencies in measurement at the macroeconomic level, but also to weaknesses in organisational evaluation practice. The paper reports evidence from a 1996 UK survey pointing to such weaknesses. Focusing at the more meaningful organisational level, an integrated systems lifecycle approach is put forward as a long term way of strengthening evaluation practice. This incorporates a cultural change in evaluation from ‘control through numbers’ to a focus on quality improvement. The approach is compared against 1995–96 research findings in a multinational insurance company, where senior managers in a newly created business division consciously sought related improvements in evaluation practice, and IT productivity.

Beyond the IT productivity paradox

Despite the massive investments in Information Technology in the developed economies, the IT impact on productivity and business performance continues to be questioned. The paper critically reviews this IT productivity paradox debate and finds that an important part, but by no means all, of the uncertainty about the IT payoff relates to weaknesses in measurement and evaluation practice. Based on extensive research by the authors and others, an integrated systems lifecycle approach is put forward as a long term way of improving evaluation practice in work organizations. The approach shows how to link business and IT/IS strategies with prioritizing investments in IT, and by setting up a set of interlinking measures, how IT costs and benefits may be evaluated and managed across the systems lifecycle, including consideration of potential uses of the external IT services market. An emphasis on a cultural change in evaluation from ‘control through numbers’ to a focus on quality improvement offers one of the better routes out of the productivity paradox. Improved evaluation practice serves to demystify the paradox, but also links with and helps to stimulate improved planning for management and use of IT, thus also reducing the paradox in practical terms - through the creation of greater business value.

Strategic Technology Management

ABSTRACTThe explosion in the literature in the area of technology management indicates a need for some integration of concepts and issues. This article defines and discusses a Strategic Technology Management System (STMS), which meets this need. The STMS delineates a systems life cycle approach to technology management, which includes eight phases: creation, monitoring, assessment, transfer, acceptance, utilization, maturity, and decline. Each phase includes critical issues that must be managed in order for a firm to successfully control its product/service and process technology projects and programs. These critical issues are defined, and a number of industry examples are given to substantiate the STMS life cycle concept. Finally, several key performance factors for STMSs are discussed.

Selecting the appropriate application development methodology

This paper synthesizes many of the recent articles about prototyping and contrasts prototyping with the more traditional systems life cycle approach to application development. As some projects are more suited to one methodology than the other, this paper presents a contingency approach, based on project size and project uncertainty, to selecting the most appropriate application development methodology for a given project.