For security and control reasons, system flowcharts, logic flowcharts, and program code listings should not be part of the operator documentation. We saw in chapter 2 that the activities of programmers and operators should be separated. Consistent with this segregation of duties of duties issue, operators should not have access to the details of a system’s internal logic
User Documentation. Users need documentation describing how to use the system User tasks include such things as entering as entering input for transactions, making inquiries of account balances, updating accounts, and generating output reports. The nature of user documentation will depend on the user’s degree of sophistication with computers and technology. Thus, before designing user’s degree of sophistication with computers and technology. Thus, before designing user documentation the systems professional must assess and classify the user’s skill level. The following is one possible classification scheme:
Novices have little or no experience with computers and are embarrassed to ask questions .Novices also know little about their assigned tasks. User training and documentation for novices must be extensive and detailed.
Occasional users once understood the system but have forgotten some essential commands
And procedures. They require less training and documentation than novices.
Frequent light users are familiar with limited aspects of the system although functional they tend not to explore beneath the surface and lack depth of knowledge this group knows only what it needs to know and requires training and documentation for unfamiliar areas
Frequent power users understand the existing system and will readily adapt to new system they are intolerant of detailed instruction that waste their time they like to find shortcuts and use macro commands to improve performance this group requires only abbreviated documentation
User handbook with these classes in mind user documentation often takes the form of a user handbook as well as online documentation the typical user handbook will contain the following items
An overview of the system and its major functions
Instructions for getting started
Descriptions of procedures with step-by-step visual references
Example of input screens and instructions for entering data
A complete list of error message codes and descriptions
A reference manual of commands to run the system
A glossary of key terms
Service and support information
Online documentation will guide the user interactively in the use of the system.
Some commonly found online features include tutorials and help features
Tutorials online tutorials can be used to train the novice or the occasional user the success
Of this technique is based on the tutorial’s degree of realism tutorials should not restrict the user from access to legitimate functions
Help features online help features range from simple to sophisticated a simple help
Feature may be nothing more than an error message displayed on the screen the user must walk through the screens in screens in search of the solution to the problem more sophisticated
Help is context-related when the user makes an error the system will send the message do you need help? The help the feature analyzes the context of what the user is doing at the time of the error and provides help with that specific function(or command)
Converting the databases
Database conversion is a critical step in the implementation phase this is the transfer of data from its current form to the format of medium required by the new system the data of conversion depends on the technology leap from the old system to the new one some conversion activities are very labor intensive requiring data to be entered into new database manually for example the move from a manual system to a computer system will require converting files from paper to magnetic disk or tape in other situations data transfer may be accomplished by writing special conversion programs a case in point is changing the file structure of the databases from sequential direct access files in any case data conversion is risky and must be carefully controlled the following precautions should be taken
1 validation the old database must be validated before conversion this requires analyzing each class of data to determine whether it should be reproduced in the new database
2 reconciliation after the conversion action the new database must be reconciled against the original sometimes this must be done manually record by record and field by field in many instances this process can be automated by writing a program that will compare the two set of data
3 backup copies of the original files must be kept as backup against discrepancies in the converted data if the current files are already in magnetic form they can be conveniently backed up