A computer based information system (CBIS) is a set of software packages, which when executed, provides information for decision-

making. Designing and developing a CBIS is one of the most important activities in any organization, as it involves people at different levels in the organization, like any living organism, CBIS also has a life cycle. There are various stages in life cycle of a CBIS. The first and the most important step is to provide a statement of organizational objectives, for the proposed CBIS. This is primarily a responsibility of the top management. The next step is to examine the feasibility of the proposed system. This involves evaluating the costs and benefits of the system. Initially a rough cost-benefit analysis will be sufficient for the top management to take a decision either in favor of or against the proposed CBIS. Costs include costs of design, development, implementation and maintenance of the system. Benefits will be realized from the timely and accurate generation of required information to meet the stated objectives of the organization. It is to be realized that a data base created for a particular CBIS application usually serves other applications a well to certain extent. For, example, a database for pay roll accounting can be used for applications such as Provident Fund. Feasibility study is apart of systems Analysis. Experience has shown that delaying or neglecting feasibility study is one of the major reasons for the failure of a CBIS.

System Analysis: systems analysis is the next stage in the life cycle of CBIS. This
step involves the following

Understanding the organization to identify the flow of information between different levels in the organization. A detailed examination of the proposed system( application area) for CBIS Identifying alternative approaches to meet the stated objectives on the system Evaluating the costs and benefits of each alternative in detail. Choosing the most appropriate alternative.

Systems analysis involves team work and a considerable amount of time. A clearer picture of costs and benefits of alternative approaches will emerge from a detailed study of the proposed system. Involvement of ultimate users of CBIS is very crucial at this stage itself, so that the acceptance of CBIS upon implementation will be relatively easy.

System Design (logical): Providing a logical system design for the chosen
alternative involves:

understanding user requirements identifying data requirements

suggesting a logical organization of data suggesting a logical procedure to produce the desired outputs from available inputs

It is very important that we understand the requirements of various users in the organization. Users at different levels in an organization have different information requirements for decision making. Information requirement can be broadly classified into there groups as follows. Monitoring and control decisions Planning decisions Policy and strategy decisions Detailed discussions between system designers and ultimate users are very essential to estimate users requirements clearly. This includes identifying report contents frequency of reporting, formatting of reports and presentation of reports for each user. After estimating users requirements, a system designer works backwards to identify data requirements. This includes identifying data sources, the nature and type of data that is available, and data gaps. The next step is to establish a processing logic to produce the desired outputs from the available inputs. This step involves a data flow analysis and a data processing analysis. Data flow analysis helps us to arrive at logical organization of data into computer files. A file is collection of similar records; each record has a number of data items of records, each record carrying the necessary data items of information of an employee, like name, designation, department, basic salary. Etc. A logical representation of data flow analysis and data processing analysis in a CBIS can be effectively provided through structured system design tools. These are: Data flow diagrams Data dictionary for data flow analysis Decision tables Structured English for data processing analysis. These tools are highly recommended to present a well documented and self explained logical system design.

System Design (physical): while a logical design provides a estimate of processing

requirements, a physical design involves mapping the logical design on to the physical hardware of a computer system. Upgrading the existing hardware and/or acquiring a new computer system if required to meet the processing requirements is also undertaken at this stage. Subsequently, file organization details are worked out and appropriate file organization methods established for processing and storing data. File organization methods can be

broadly classified into two types- serial access organization and random access organization. A system flow chart is commonly used to present the physical system design. It is to be realized that system flow chart is different from programme flow chart.

Implementation: An actual programming is undertaken at this stage to implement the

proposed CBIS in the available hardware. This activity includes: Programme development Debugging of programmes:i.e spotting and correcting errors in programming Testing of individual programme modules on sample data. Implementing the entire system on the computer Getting acceptance of the CBIS from its users Providing user training Preparing user manuals and documentations This is the most time consuming activity in the life cycle of a CBIS; and is also the costliest activity. Systems analysts have a tendency to lose interests once all the programmes are developed and tested to their own satisfaction, and not necessarily to the satisfaction of the users. This tendency is dangerous and should be avoided at all cost. It is the responsibility of systems analysts to properly document their programmes. Prepare user manuals; provide user training and getting acceptance for the CBIS from its users.

Maintenance: Maintenance follows a successful implementation of CBIS. As users develop faith in CBIS, their demands on the system will grow. The system design should be flexible enough to accommodate future request, refinements, modifications, and changes to suit users requirements. Well documented logical and physical designs of a CBIS will facilitate its maintenance considerably.