The planning phase setting project objectives,”in the planning phase broad goals of the entire project are set. In particular it most be determined if the system or only part of the system needs to be replaced. Whilst this does not seem to be significant step, it if very important to the overall project. It is through the setting of these broad system goals that the measurments of success can be determined. That is at the completion of the planning phase, a clear picture of what the problem is has been established and equally important, a clear pictyre of what outcome will resolve the process has also been established. It should be noted here that we have not identified what needs to built into the computer based information system there is a very good reason for this- at this stage it is not relevant. In the problem solving phase, the focus is on identifying the problem and what would solve not how the problem has arisen and how it should be so,ved. The solution is linked through the problem and trhough this a process for solving it developes. A computer based information system should never be created for the sake of creating it-it should be created to solve the problem that was identified. too often a computer based information system will be created but will not solve the problem that it was intended to solve. This can ussually be traced back to the initial planning phase. When the outcomes to solve the problem were established, they would focus on what the system could be made to do
rather then what it actually needed to do to solve the problem. Consequently the system that was built even though it achieved its goals did not solve the intitial problem. -The quality of the initial planning will have a significant influence on the ability of the final product to solve the problem”