42
officia lly
st arts t he
p
roject . Things
exp ect ed from t he
soft w are
includin g al l t he funct ionalit y
is
exp lained
in t his
document, such
as:
deliv ery
dat e,
p
rice/budget , or any
sp ecial milest ones.
Wit hout
t
his
document ,
there is a
major
risk.
If a company
doesn’t
have an
agr eem ent on what
is
to
be
done,
somet hing
called
“
requirem ent
creep”
or
“funct ional cr eep ” may st art
t
o expand
t
he
project
(Helgeson,
2010).
2.8.
Data Conversi on
In a
sy stem installation, data
conversion is an important
p
art. Dat a
conversion
basically is
load ing
e
xist in g
dat a
into t he
new
sy st em. Dat a
conversion
can
be done
b
efore,
durin g,
or
aft er
t
he op erat onal
ional
environment is
comp lete;
dep ending
on
t
he
sy st em. D ata
conversion p an
lan
should
be develop ed as early as p ossible, and t he
conversion
process
should
be t est ed w hen the t est
environment is developed
(Shelly , 2010).
Dat a
conversions
were
an important p art
of
t
he
merger p rocess.
Dat a
conversion
becom es difficu lt w hen t here are many
complex
conversions
t
o
do,
because
t
he exist ing st ructures
of dat a w ere
difficult
t
o
fit
into
t
he new
systems (Broek,
2010).
2.8. 1. Data Conversi on Techni ques
Dat a conversion p rocess should be
done
in
an aut omated
way
w
henever
possible,
esp ecially
if t he old sy st em
is
cap able of
exp ort ing dat a
in
an a ccep table format
for t he new
sy st em
or
in a
standard format, such as ASCII
or OD BC;
ot herwise,
a cust om
program is
needed t o
ext ract t he
dat a
and convert it
t
o
an
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