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SDLC Step #1 - Identifying the Problem, Opportunities, and Objectives.

Note: this page corresponds to the SDLC analysis and it leads to the final product in the Appendix. The numbering sequence here follows the Volere analysis, however, the numbering pattern has changed in the final document.

This page is divded up into major two sections. The first section, In a nutshell, is a bulleted listing and summary of the major points for this step. A complete presentation of the data for this step is featured in the second section.

In a nutshell

This section calls for an analysis of the problem, opportunities, and objectives for the system.

1. The problem.

A. The two worldviews of the problem -

• The outcomes problem - defined as the habits, behaviors, and lifestyle choices of individuals and populations that prevent the attainment of optimal levels of health and well-being, that compromise their health status, increase their risk, or that lead to negative consequences for their quality of life.
• The process problem - defined as how to best design a system that will operate optimally, efficiently, and effectively.

B. Six categories of process-related problems (non-prioritized)

1. Design - inadequacies, incompatibilities, and limitations of design theories and models and cross-domain, transdisciplinary, and intradisciplinary questions.
2. Development - project and team management issues and software design issues.
3. Data management and informatics - data integrity, flow, and management, data optimization, user interface and control concepts and overall design issues.
4. Technology - computer science, information technology, and telecommunications domain including software, hardware and issues, and security concerns.
5. Research - theory, study integrity and designs, quantification and replication of results, and exploration of future research topics.
6. Business and evaluation - management, marketing, and economics
   

2. The opportunites - opportunites that may benefit the four stakeholder groups (non-prioritized):

A. Consumers and Users

• To be able to achieve dramatic improvements in health status and quality of life through lifestyle changes.
• To empower users to care for their health.
• To provide access to powerful support networks.

B. Practitioners, agents, and sponsors of the healthcare system

• To address health problems in a more comprehensive and proactive way.
• To fully integrate the healthcare supply chain.
• To streamline the healthcare process.
• To reduce the personal health and economic burden.
• To reengineer the healthcare by integrating technology throughout the healthcare arena.
• To focus the expenditure of resources and explore the pilot testing of new delivery and business models.

C. Technologists and Informaticists

• To provide test beds and a vehicle for pushing the "technology envelope".
• To advance and help in testing open systems concepts.
• To build design and development teams and experts that understand both sides of the problem and the issues related building to viable solutions.

D. Researchers

• To develop systems for testing of effect and efficacy.
• To provide a venue for refining and testing models and theories.

3. The objectives

The mission - the stated mission for developing the health promotion informatic system is to provide a highly innovative, efficient, and effective use of technology for the improvement of the health status and quality of life of Americans.

Since the system will not be built as part of this study, the objectives have been reformulated as goals (non-prioritized):

1. To empower consumers;
2. To progress toward improving and ideally optimizing the health status and quality of life in individuals and target population groups;
3. To work to reduce the level of health-related human burden and economic costs for individuals, organizations, and society;
4. To embed effective dynamic state-of-the-art advanced informatic technologies in a system, that is base on the best and evidence-based practices of the behavioral and informatic sciences, that features a comprehensive array of services, and that is based on a model of optimal wellness and lifelong care;
5. To learn and explore about what is possible and practical from the development and implementation of the next generation of health-enhancing systems.

The whole thing - a draft of the whole text for this stage

Introduction to the System Design Process

The goal of this study was to produce a design for an advanced informatic system that would be capable of helping to improve the health status and quality of life of Americans. The first three chapters focused on the context of the lifestyle-related health problems of Americans, the literature pertaining to the theoretical and scientific base of health, behavior change, and the informatic sciences, and the description of the methodology and process that was used to design the model system.

Chapter four is devoted a presentation and discussion of the results of SDLC design process. The three major products of this chapter are: the results of the Systems Design Life Cycle (SDLC) process, a summary of the most important points from the synthesized data, and a narrative description with illustrations of the system model. A mixed-methodology approach was used at each stage of the data collection and analysis process.

I. Identifying the Problem, Opportunities, and Objectives

A detailed description of the five-step SDLC methodology that was used for the system design process was presented in Chapter 3. The first step of the SDLC process calls for a definition of the problem, an articulation of the opportunities, and a description of the objectives on which the system is based.

A. The Problem

Generally, how an individual or organization views the problem is related to whether the person or entity is involved primarily with outcomes-related activities such as dealing with, addressing, or resolving the health problem; or conversely, is more involved with the process-related activities such looking at potential solutions, systems design, implementation, support, and evaluation issues. In this study, both perspectives of the problem are related to the lack of an advanced health promotion informatic system that is sufficiently capable of improving the health-related lifestyle behavior choices of individuals on a population-wide basis.

The problem from the first perspective, the outcomes worldview, is founded on the theory and concepts of health promotion. In this perspective stakeholders such as consumers, practitioners, providers, or policy makers are primarily concerned with health-related outcomes. These healthcare agents focus on the outcomes problems or the health-related conditions that a model system is designed to target, influence, or improve.

Most health problems and issues are highly complex and have implications and interrelationships throughout the healthcare system. However, in this study the outcomes side of the health problem is defined as the habits, behaviors, and lifestyle choices of individuals and populations that prevent the attainment of optimal levels of health and well-being, that compromise their health status, increase their risk, or that lead to negative consequences for their quality of life. Further, it is worth noting that this perspective is based on and is consistent with the aspirations, goals, and recommendations from a variety of highly-respected taskforces, national bodies, and agencies such as Healthy People 2000, the CDC's disease prevention and promotion guidelines, the Institute of Medicine, the Agency for Health Care Policy Research, the Center for the Advancement of Health, and the Healthy Cities project.

In the second perspective, the process perspective, stakeholders would be members of a design and development team that would traditionally be involved in a project of this type would view the problem from a design, process, development, technology, or solution orientation. Systems and software designers and developers, computer, telecommunications, and IT specialists, data managers and informaticists, and researchers are among the stakeholders that would be part of a design and development team. Managers of the business side of systems development and implementation process would also play a key roll in the design process.

From the process perspective, the problem is defined as how to best design a system that will operate optimally, efficiently, and effectively. Process-related problems were identified, described, and discussed throughout the data collection process as well as in great detail in the literature. However, because of the nature and complexity of the system that is envisioned, it is impractical to provide a detailed listing of all of the issues, elements, and subproblems that are within the scope of this study. Therefore, only a few of the most significant problems and issues that are prominent at one or more of the decision-making stages of the design process are highlighted below.

A non-prioritized shortlist of the process problems that were considered during the design process can be grouped into six broad categories. Many of the elements that are listed below overlap across several categories.

1. The design category includes problems and issues such as inadequacies, incompatibilities, and limitations of design theories and models and cross-domain, transdisciplinary, and intradisciplinary questions.

2. The development category problems and issues, many of which are shared with several other categories, include project and team management issues as well as system and software design issues such as standardization, portability, and interoperability of code and systems, modularization, and prototyping.

3. Data management and informatics is a category that includes many issues and problems such as data integrity, flow, and management, data optimization, user interface and control concepts, as well as overall design issues.

4. There are many problems in the computer science, information technology, and telecommunications domain including software, hardware and issues such as cross-platform performance, interoperability, extensibility, portability, as well as security concerns.

5. The research concerns include theory, study integrity and designs, quantification and replication of results, and exploration of future research topics.

6. The business and evaluation problems and issues are most often very influential for the ultimate success of projects.

The list of problems and issues cited above is neither exhaustive nor validated on a single framework. However, each of the problems and issues were considered during the design and decision making process. The breadth of problems on the list does help to illustrate how difficult it is to address such a diverse array of difficulties and balance them in designs that are simple, comprehensive, and complete. The problems are reflected in the main themes for the system design that are presented in the following sections.

B. Opportunities

A host of opportunities were identified during the data collection process. The data were collected from multiple sources including reviews of the literature, brainstorming and critiquing sessions, case studies, pilot testing of products and systems in the market place, and interviews with leaders in the field. The non-prioritized shortlist of opportunities and benefits that could be realized from the development and deployment of an advanced health promotion informatic system have been grouped according to four stakeholder groups who are the targets of the opportunities.

1. Consumers and Users

• To be able to achieve dramatic improvements in health status and quality of life through lifestyle changes.
• To empower users to care for their health.
• To provide access to powerful support networks.

2. Practitioners, agents, and sponsors of the healthcare system

• To address health problems in a more comprehensive and proactive way.
• To fully integrate the healthcare supply chain.
• To streamline the healthcare process.
• To reduce the personal health and economic burden.
• To reengineer the healthcare by integrating technology throughout the healthcare arena.
• To focus the expenditure of resources and explore the pilot testing of new delivery and business models.

3. Technologists and Informaticists

• To provide test beds and a vehicle for pushing the "technology envelope".
• To advance and help in testing open systems concepts.
• To build design and development teams and experts that understand both sides of the problem and the issues related building to viable solutions.

4. Researchers

• To develop systems for testing of effect and efficacy.
• To provide a venue for refining and testing models and theories.

In short, there are ample opportunities to begin addressing the problems and achieve the mission and goals that are listed below by engaging in the process of designing a model system. This novel system design would fill part of the void that currently exists.

C. Objectives

The Mission

In this study, the objectives and goals emanate from a core mission. In the opinion of the researcher, the stated mission for developing a health promotion informatic system is to provide a highly innovative, efficient, and effective use of technology for the improvement of the health status and quality of life of Americans. Several additional benefits from the proposed system may accrue for individuals, organizations, and society such as empowering consumers, improving the overall access to and quality of service and care, as well as improved efficiency and savings in all aspects of the healthcare system.

The Goals

Since this is a design study and the measurement of objectives is beyond the scope of this investigation, the objectives were stated as a set of goals. The five goals formed a set of fundamental principles for the proposed system. The non-prioritized list of goals that were derived from the mission statement is:

1. To empower consumers;

2. To progress toward improving and ideally optimizing the health status and quality of life in individuals and target population groups;

3. To work to reduce the level of health-related human burden and economic costs for individuals, organizations, and society;

4. To embed effective dynamic state-of-the-art advanced informatic technologies in a system, that is base on the best and evidence-based practices of the behavioral and informatic sciences, that features a comprehensive array of services, and that is based on a model of optimal wellness and lifelong care;

5. To learn and explore about what is possible and practical from the development and implementation of the next generation of health-enhancing systems.

In summary, in the first step of the SDLC process, the two types of problems that are to be addressed in the model system design are the health-related outcomes problems and the technology and design process problems. Goals for the system were generated from two sources, the opportunities that are possible because of the development and implementation of the system that is envisioned and the mission statement that is related to the design of the model system. The problems, opportunities, and objectives served as the basis for the second step in the SDLC process that follows, the system requirements stage.

On to SDLC 2 - Determining the requirements for the proposed system.

This page was designed by John Studach and is maintained by the NCHF webmaster. Last updated on December 29, 2000.

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