Browsing by Author "Christian, Budoya"

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    Development of integrated academic information management system: a case study of the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2009) Christian, Budoya
    Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) had a number of fragmented legacy academic systems based on Spread Sheet Application that were used to handle student academic information. These legacy fragmented academic software systems were designed a long time ago and thus they were outdated, and very difficult to extend to provide new functional requirements. Despite the limitations of these systems, they could not simply throw away since they constituted important academic values and rules for the new system requirements. This research started by conducting detailed analysis and investigation of existing installed base of the old systems in order to establish strategies and new requirements of the new system. The study revealed that these systems were not flexible to extend and thus impossible to integrate them since they technically lacked standard interface and documentations. The approach used was to redesign and redevelop a new system (IAIMS) from scratch using flexible technologies and other approaches and strategies such as decomposition of complex subsystems, bottom up design, participatory prototyping, cultivation strategy of installed base, phased interoperability transition from old to new system and tight integration technique. The installed base could not be changed quickly or easily due to its technical, cultural, and historical embeddedness. These challenges were addressed by applying evolutionary and bottom up methods, processes of socio-technical negotiations, and hidden integration from users. The new developed and implemented system (IAIMS) has improved academic data handling and processing academic information. For example, it has made it possible for different departments to share and compare academic information.