The New Century Clinic offers preventive medicine and traditional medical care .

Question

The New Century Clinic offers preventive medicine and traditional medical care . In your role as an IT consultant , you will help New Century develop a new information system.

The New Century clinic associate accepted your interface, output, input , and date designs and your recommendations to install a server and four personal computers as clients on a local area network. The network will include a tape backup unit and Internet access via a modem that can exchange data with insurance companies . A high speed laser printer and an impact printer for mulitpart forms wil be accessible by an y of the four computers. Now you will determine system architecture for the New Century System.
When you created ERD's and record designs for New Century Clinic during the data design process in Chapter 9 , you considered whether to use file-processing or database approach. As you know, each strategy has advantages and disadvantages,depending on the specific hardware and software environment and business requirements. At this point, you must decide which way to proceed ,and Dr. Jones will accept your recommendation. You should start by reviewing the DFD's and object-oriented diagrams that your prepared in the system analysis phase, and the ERD's and table designs that your entered in the systems design phase. The, review the system architecture checklist at the beginning of this chapter.
Assignments
1.What would the advantages of selecting an Internet based architecture for the New Century system?
2.Should the New Century be based on file-server or client/server architecture?why?
3.Could the New Century system use both online and batch processing?How?
4.Prepare an outline for a system design specification and describe the contents of each section.

Explanation / Answer

1. What would be the advantages of selecting an Internet-based architecture for the New Century system? Examples of advantages for Internet-based architecture include the following: ? If New Century Health Clinic opens another clinic, the ability to access patient information is just a click away. ? With Internet-based architecture, doctors can access patient information from any site — home, hospital, or elsewhere. ? With new advances in technology, doctors now have the ability to teleconference with their patients using video. ? Using Internet-based architecture will avoid many of the connectivity and compatibility problems arising from different hardware environments. ? New Century will have the ability to connect to many, if not all, insurance companies for billing purposes. This will allow much faster billing/payment ability. 2. Should the New Century system be based on file-server or client/server architecture? Why? Based on all the facts presented thus far, it seems clear that the new system should be based on client/server architecture. Students might base their recommendation on the following advantages of a client/server design: ? Network loads are reduced — only information requested is sent to the client, everything else remains on the server ? Faster performance due to less network traffic ? More flexibility and support for changing business operations ? Easily upgradeable ? Lower initial cost ? Lower maintenance costs 3. Could the New Century system use both online and batch processing? How? Answers will vary. It is desirable for New Century to use online data entry and retrieval for minute-to-minute data concerning patients, appointments, procedures, and charges. But other functions, such as posting charges, submitting claims, preparing statements, and printing reports can and should be done on a scheduled basis. The ATM example in the chapter illustrates how online processing also can be used with a file-oriented system. Note that after verifying the customer information, the ATM system accesses the account master file, retrieves the customer’s record, and prints the balance. Students should understand that a batch processing system collects and processes data in groups, or batches. When immediate data input and output is not necessary, batch processing can be a simple and efficient solution. At New Century, batch processing would work well for posting charges and handling claim information. Another advantage of batch processing is that the IT staff can run the batch programs on a predetermined schedule, without user involvement. Also, batch processing involves a simpler form of backup and recovery compared to online processing. While it is true that online data always is up-to-date, online processing is more expensive, and the effects of computer system downtime or slowdown while transactions are processed causes far more disruption than batch processing. 4. Prepare an outline for a system design specification and describe the contents of each section. Responses will vary depending on the amount of information you supply to students during the preliminary investigation and enterprise modeling portions of the project. You can ask students to follow the system design specification layout suggested on page 480, or you might want to require other sections or topics. A typical system design specification would include the following sections: ? Management Summary. The management summary provides a brief overview of the project for company managers and executives. It outlines the development efforts to date, provides a current status report, summarizes current project costs and costs for the remaining phases, reviews the overall benefits of the new system, presents the systems development phase schedule, and highlights any issues that management will need to address. ? System Components. This section contains the complete design for the new system, including the user interface, outputs, inputs, files, databases, and network specifications. You should include source documents, report and screen layouts, DFDs, and all other relevant documentation. You also should include the requirements for all support processing, such as backup and recovery, startup processing, and file retention. If the purchase of a software package is part of the strategy, you must include any interface information required between the package and the system you are developing. If you use a CASE design tool, you can print design diagrams and most other documentation directly from the tool. ? System Environment. This section describes the constraints, or conditions, affecting the system, including any requirements that involve operations, hardware, systems software, or security. Examples of operational constraints include transaction volumes that must be supported, data storage requirements, processing schedules, reporting deadlines, and online response times. ? Implementation Requirements. In this section, you specify startup processing, initial data entry or acquisition, user training requirements, and software test plans. ? Time and Cost Estimates. This section provides detailed schedules, cost estimates, and staffing requirements for the systems development phase and revised projections for the remainder of the SDLC. You also present total costs-to-date for the project and compare those costs with your prior estimates. ? Appendices. Supplemental material can be included in appendices at the end of the system design specification. In this section, you might include copies of documents from the first three phases if they would provide a helpful reference for readers.

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