Week2 Chapter Questions

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Chapter 2 1. Review the criteria for selecting off-the-shelf software presented in this chapter. Use your experience and imagination and describe other criteria that are or might be used to select off-the-shelf software in the “real world.” For each new criterion, explain how use of this criterion might be functional (i.e., it is useful to use this criterion), dysfunctional, or both. In the text, it states the standards of off-the-shelf software as: Cost, Functionality, Vendor Support, Viability of Vendor, Flexibility, Documentation, Response Time and Ease of Installation. Because I’m not a huge tech type person a major plus for is that it would have to be easy to use or user friendly. Because I may not know each of my employees personally I wouldn’t want to purchase any software that was hard to learn how to use. I would also consider and attempt to try to find software that was already very similar to the one that is currently being used. Doing so the transition does not take as long and the employees may have a better starting understanding of the chosen software. 2. In the section on choosing off-the-shelf software, eight criteria are proposed for evaluating alternative packages. Suppose the choice was between alternative custom software developers rather than prewritten packages. What criteria would be appropriate to select and compare among competing bidders for custom development of an application? Define each of these criteria. When trying to decide which software a developer is going to go with we would want to follow pretty much the same criteria they we followed when going with an off-the-shelf software. Regardless if it’s a off-the-shelf or custom made I would still want the software to have the same features. Will the software developer have some sort of warranty; will they stand behind their product? Will it be easily installed?
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