Week 4: Clear

Among other things, this week we learned about the software lifecycle. First of all, there is a difference between patches, updates and upgrades. Until this week I have not been aware of the fact that these three have different characteristics. But this week it became clear that where a patch corrects bugs and mistakes of a software and performs only minor updates, an update goes a step further by adding new minor features to a software. An upgrade adds even major new features and functionality.

Furthermore, for using a particular software, people might need to be trained. This can happen with the help of different methods. There is e.g. the hands-on method, where people are trained in a practical way, in contrast to the in person, classroom-style. Additionally training can be delivered via the internet or community based, through forums, blogs and web pages.

Last but not least, we learned about different conversion strategies. There are mainly four of them, namely:
1) Parallel
2) Pilot
3) Phased
4) Direct (Cutover)
In the parallel method a new software is run parallel to the old, known one, which minimizes the risk of adopting the new software. By using the pilot strategy, there is firstly a small group using the new software before a whole company might addict to the new software. The phased strategy means that the new software is adopted step by step, whereas the direct/cutover strategy means that you adopt the new software all at once. In this last strategy the risk of failure is biggest, but of course, at the same time, this one is the fastest of all methods.

To further illustrate the differences between these three methods I included some pictures below.

Week 3: Clear

Another lecture dealt with the topic of system software vs. application software. Whereas system software is the collection of programs that are needed for a smooth functioning of a computer and its devices, application softwares are designed to accomplish a specific task. Consider e.g. you want to set up a word file with Microsoft Word. As you only want to perform a specific task (setting up a file) Microsoft Word can be considered as an application software. In contrast to that, Windows XP is a collection of different programs which act as a basis for certain application softwares and can thus be seen as a system software.

I the business environment a bunch of application softwares are used to perform particular tasks. Depending on your business you use different softwares to perform different tasks. These application software are all based on a system software, which in turn is based on specific hardware. If you want to find out more about application and system software you should check out wikipedia, which describes the respective features and characteristics very clearly.