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| Case Study Building The Unbelievable – The Hoberman Arch Have you ever looked at a 100-story skyscraper or a professional football stadium and wondered how in the world was that enormous structure created? Who comes up with the brilliant ideas to build these impossible structures and how do they actually go about building them? Think about the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty. Imagine how those ideas probably began on a piece of paper and were transformed into larger than life structures. The Hoberman Arch is a prime example of how one individual pushed the technological envelop and created a new unbelievable structure. The Hoberman Arch is the world’s largest unfolding structure to date at 36 feet high and 72 feet in diameter. The 30,000 pound arch is a semi-circular aluminum curtain that towered over the Olympic Medals Plaza in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Every night during the games the 96 aluminum panels – each approximately nine feet by five feet – spiraled outwards and upwards in a radial motion forming a ring to reveal the Olympic medals stage. The transforming motion of the structure was similar to the iris in your eye. Throughout the Olympics 65 medals ceremonies seen by over 3.5 billion people worldwide watched the unbelievable unfolding aluminum structure transform its size and shape. The arch, constructed of 16,000 pounds of aluminum, is named after Chuck Hoberman, the world-renowned inventor and toy designer whose best-known invention is the plastic expanding and contracting geometric ball known as the Hoberman Sphere. The Hoberman Sphere's unique link system is based on a mathematical principle that allows a structure to expand while keeping its shape. We bet you are wondering how did Chuck Hoberman analyze, design, and build the Hoberman Arch. How did he take an idea he applied to children’s toys and transform it into a 16,000 pound giant structure? The process you use to take an idea and make it a reality is similar whether you’re building a skyscraper, an information system, or baking a cake. In the most general of terms you literally follow the same steps including plan, analysis, design, develop, test, implement and maintain. Following these steps is how Chuck Hoberman designed and built the Hoberman Arch and how information systems are developed. It’s easy to be impressed by a large structure built by a talented individual, but have you ever been impressed by a large information system? The answer to this question is probably no because an information system is difficult to see with the human eye. Just imagine the type of talent and creativity it takes to develop an on-line banking system, a telecommunication billing system, or an airline reservation system. If you’re the least bit curious about how information systems are built then we welcome you to the glorious and challenging world of systems development. We think you’ll enjoy this chapter as it provides a high level overview of how many wonderful and brilliant information systems are developed and brought to life by following the systems development life cycle. Industry Perspective Gizmos and Gadgets The imaginations of the world’s gizmo and gadget inventors are incredibly active and continually creating new and exciting inventions. The Consumer and Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year provided an incredible amount of ingenious products developed by incredibly creative and brilliant people. Digital displayed its new Cookware’s Smart Pan, the world’s first digital skillet with an LCD temperature display in the handle. Casio displayed its wristwatch camcorder, which can capture and show up to a few seconds of low-quality video. Danger Research introduced the Hiptop, a brilliant handheld communications and information device including a wireless phone, portable Internet terminal with a continuous connection to the Net, e-mail, and instant messaging. What do you think all of these products have in common? They all started as ideas and became real products by traveling through the systems development life cycle. Every single one of these products started in the planning phase and ended in the maintenance phase. You’re going to run into the systems development life cycle throughout your career regardless of the company or the industry where you choose to work and learning about it in this chapter will help contribute to your success as a knowledge worker. Industry Perspective Failed Systems Can Lead to Big Lawsuits There are so many reasons why systems fail that it’s impossible to list them all. The bottom line is systems do fail costing some companies millions of dollars. One of the top outsourcing companies in the United States has had several lawsuits filed against it for failure to build and deliver information systems. The most recent lawsuit was for $350 million by a federal agency. Elizabeth Ready, the auditor of accounts for Vermont, said that significant problems cropping up in the state tax department’s new automated system are causing her to consider investigating the $14 million system created by this company. Ready said she was aware of the $185 million settlement following the failed implementation of Mississippi’s tax system, and she has been following the developments in Ohio, where the same company has been named as a defendant in a class action lawsuit over the processing of child support payments. “Whenever you see the magnitude of problems we’ve had here in Vermont, you want to look at everything,” Ready said. “It would not be right to blame the company for any of these problems at this point, but surely it would be appropriate to take a look.” Creating solid information systems that meet knowledge worker’s needs is an incredibly difficult task. We can’t promise that following the SDLC will automatically build a perfect system, but it’s a great way to start and ensure you are on the path to success. Industry Perspective The Bank of Montreal goes Wireless Veev is the name that the Bank of Montreal (BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc.) has given to its corporate wireless strategy. “It’s an exciting and fun name for a new fun service,” explains Mark Dickelman, vice-president for m-commerce and wireless at the Bank of Montreal. It is the ability to access services any time, any place, anywhere across a variety of devices which includes Palm devices and about 50 varieties of digital cell phones. When it was first introduced in 1999, the service provided wireless access only to traditional banking services including confirming balances, transferring money between accounts, and the payment of bills. Since then, the Bank of Montreal has expanded the service to include wireless trading and investing and even the purchasing books from Indigo.ca. With Veev, the Bank of Montreal is confident that it has addressed consumer privacy concerns regarding wireless transactions. Wireless technology means that no magnetic card is present. As such, many merchants and consumers have expressed security concerns about transferring credit-card information to pay for purchases using wireless technology because anyone ‘listening’ could intercept the information. Veev has successfully appeased this unease by storing credit card numbers and shipping information at the bank. Transactions are authorized only if the system recognizes the calling phone number and after the user enters a unique PIN. The bank’s move to wireless technology has not stopped there. It has equipped its employees with wireless devices to increase their productivity, enable e-mail and trading when on the road anywhere in North America. Today, employees are connected and have access to e-mail anywhere they go. “I can send a message to direct reports at 9 p.m. at night and get a response right back. Because people have [the devices] on their body all the time, I get responses very fast” says Mark Saunders, senior vice-president and CIO for BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. “The productivity gains for individuals and for the organization have been tremendous", he adds. Source: Casselman, G. (2001). Sold on Wireless, available at http://www.casselman.net/artlist/Sold%20on%20Wireless.htm |