Transcript Information Systems System Analysis 421

Information Systems
System Analysis 421
Class Two
Class Project
• Project start up
– Initial project information gathering worksheet
– Client alignment form
• Executive Summary
• Team alignment
• Project description
• Current situation
• Business objective
• Project scope
• Risk analysis
• Cost benefits
• Project duration and milestones
Learning Objectives
 Describe the project identification and
selection process
 Describe the corporate strategic planning and
information systems planning process
 Explain the relationship between corporate
strategic planning and information systems
planning
5.3
Learning Objectives
 Describe how information systems planning can be used to
assist in identifying and selecting systems development
projects
 Analyze information systems planning matrices to determine
affinity between information systems and IS projects and to
forecast the impact of IS projects on business objectives
 Describe the three classes of Internet electronic commerce
applications:
Internet, Intranets and Extranets
5.4
Project Selection
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Top Management
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Steering Committee (Approval committee)
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strategic
larger project size and duration
cross functional
greater organizational change
larger in size
User Department
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narrow, non strategic focus
faster development
fewer users, management levels and business functions
System Initiation
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Pieces
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Performance
 Throughput – the amount of work performed over some period of
time.
 Response time – the average delay between a transaction or
request and a response to that transaction or request
 Information
 Lack of any information
 Lack of necessary information
 Lack of relevant information
 Economics
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Costs are unknown
Costs are untraceable to source
Costs are too high
N Profits Hew markets can be explored
System Initiations
• Controls
– Too little security or control
– Decision making errors are occurring
– Processing errors are occurring
• Efficiency
– Effort is manual or excessive
– Duplication
• Service
– Inaccurate results
– Inflexible to business changes
– Not coordinated with other systems
– Difficult to use
Project Selection
Perceived
and real need
List of potential
and ongoing
project
Current
Organizational
Environment
Existing and
Available
Resources
Project
Selection
Decision
Evaluation
Criteria
Decision Outcome
Accept
Reject
Delay
Refocus
Proof of Concept
System Request
• Most system requests include four elements:
– Project sponsor
– Business Need
– Functionality
– Expected value
Identifying and Selecting IS Development Projects
• Sources of projects
– Management and business units
– Managers who want to make a system more
efficient or less costly
– Formal planning groups
• Projects are identified by
– Top management
– Steering committee
– User departments
– Development group or senior IS staff
5.10
The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects
• Top-Down Identification
– Senior management or steering committee
– Focus is on global needs of organization
• Bottom-up Identification
– Business unit or IS group
– Don’t reflect overall goals of the organization
5.11
Identifying and Selecting IS Development Projects
• Classifying and Ranking IS Development
Projects
– Performed by top management, steering
committee, business units of IS development group
– Value chain analysis is often used
• Method to analyze an organization’s activities to
determine where value is added and costs are
incurred
5.12
Identifying and Selecting IS Development Projects
• Selecting IS Development Projects
– Process of considering short and long-term projects
– Projects most likely to achieve business objectives are
selected
– Decision requires consideration of:
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5.13
Perceived and real needs
Potential and ongoing projects
Current organizational environment
Existing and available resources
Evaluation criteria
Identifying and Selecting IS Development
Projects
• Selecting IS Development Projects
– Outcomes
• Project Acceptance
• Project Rejection
• Delay
• Refocus
• End-User Development
• Proof of Concept
5.14
Identifying and Selecting IS Development Projects
• Deliverables and Outcomes
– Primary Deliverable
• Schedule of specific IS development projects
– Outcomes
• Assurance that careful consideration was given to
project selection
• Clear understanding of project’s relation to
organizational objectives
5.15
Identifying and Selecting IS Development
Projects
• Knowledge of overall organizational business
strategy
– Improves project selection and identification
process
– Provides sound guidance throughout the systems
development life cycle
5.16
Corporate and Information Systems Planning
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Traditional Project
Identification and
Selection
– Solves isolated problems
– Focuses on business
processes
– Does not easily allow for
organizational change
5.17
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Planning-Based Approach
to Project Identification
and Selection
– Focuses on present and
future information needs
– Information needs change
slower than business
processes
Corporate and Information Systems Planning
• Need for planning
– Improperly planned projects result in systems that
cannot be shared across an organization
– As business processes change, lack of integration
will hamper strategy and business process changes
• Corporate Strategic Planning
– Process of developing and refining models of the
current and future enterprise as well as a transition
strategy
– Planning results in several outcomes
• Mission Statement
• Objective Statement
5.18
• Competitive Strategy
Corporate and Information Systems Planning
• Corporate Strategic Planning
– Mission Statement
• A statement that makes it clear what business a
company is in
– Objective Statement
• A series of statements that express an organization’s
qualitative and quantitative goals for reaching a
desired future position
• Objectives are critical success factors
• Corporate Strategic Planning
– Competitive Strategy
• The method by which an organization attempts to
achieve its mission and objectives
5.19
Corporate and Information Systems Planning
• Information Systems Planning (ISP)
– An orderly means of assessing the information needs of
an organization and defining the systems, databases and
technologies that will best satisfy those needs
– Three key activities:
• Describe the Current Situation
• Describe the Target (or Future) Situation
• Develop a Transition Plan and Strategy
5.20
Corporate and Information Systems Planning
• Information Systems Planning
1. Describing the Current Situation
– Top-down Planning
• Generic methodology that attempts to gain a broad
understanding of the information system needs of the entire
organization
– Bottom-up Planning
• Generic methodology that identifies and defines IS
development projects based upon solving operational
business problems or taking advantage of some business
opportunities
5.21
Corporate and Information Systems Planning
• Information Systems Planning
1. Describing the Current Situation (Continued)
– Planning team is chartered to model existing situation
– Identification of Organizational:
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5.22
Locations
Units
Functions
Processes
Data
Information Systems
Corporate and Information Systems Planning
• Information Systems Planning
1. Describing the Current Situation (Continued)
– Matrices are developed to cross-reference units
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5.23
Location-to-Function
Location-to-Unit
Unit-to-Function
Function-to-Objective
Function-to-Process
Function-to-Data Entity
Process-to-Data Entity
Process-to-Information System
Data Entity-to-Information System
Information System-to-Objective
Corporate and Information Systems Planning
• Information Systems Planning
2. Describing the Target Situation
– Update list of organizational locations, functions, etc.
to reflect desired locations, functions, etc.
– Matrices are updated to reflect future states
– Planners focus on differences between current lists
and matrices and future lists and matrices
5.24
Corporate and Information Systems Planning
• Information Systems Planning
3. Developing a Transition Strategy and Plans
– Broad, comprehensive document that looks at both
short and long-term organizational development
needs
– Consists of a series of projects
5.25
Electronic Commerce Applications
• Development process for Internet projects is
no different than other projects
• Special issues need to be taken into account
• Electronic Commerce (EC)
– Internet based communication designed to support
business activities
5.26
Internet Development
• Internet
– Worldwide network of networks used for electronic
commerce
• Intranet
– Internet-based communication to support business
activities within a single organization
• Extranet
– Internet-based communication to support business-tobusiness activities
5.27
Internet Development
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
– The use of telecommunications technologies to
transfer business documents directly between
organizations
• Internet vs. Intranet/Extranet Apps
– Intranet/Extranet – Developer knows how
application will be run and used
– Internet – Developer faces various unknowns
5.28
Summary
• Project Identification and Selection
– Identifying Potential Development Projects
– Classifying and Ranking Projects
– Selecting Projects for Development
• Top-down and Bottom-up identification process
• Corporate strategic planning
– Process of identifying the mission, objectives and
strategies of an organization
5.29
Summary
• Information Systems Planning
– Orderly means for assessing the information needs of an
organization and defining the systems and databases
that will best satisfy those needs
– Top-down process
• Electronic Commerce
– Internet
– Intranets
– Extranets
– Electronic Data Interchange
5.30
System Initiations
• Requests for a system study can come from a
variety of sources:
– External consulting team
– Internal client community
– Internal but external to the area (Top
management,Internal Auditors, Information Systems)
Government
– Within Systems department
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Why are Systems project originate
– Solve a business problem
– Capitalize on an opportunity
– Comply with Government regulations
– Address complaints
Project Selection Criteria's
• Management backing
• Appropriate timing
• Appropriate resource exists
• Cost benefit analysis
• Priority meetings - top ==> down
– Enterprise Priorities - Top projects
– Functional top projects
– Department top projects
• Must do projects
• Support projects
• Discretionary projects
Justify Systems as Capital Investments
• Information systems are capital investments.
• When considering a capital investment, two issues must
be addressed:
– for any problem, there are likely to be several possible solutions
– after identifying alternative solutions, the systems analyst
should evaluate each possible solution for feasibility, especially
for cost-effectiveness.
– Cost-benefit analysis is an important skill to be mastered.
Don’t Be Afraid to Cancel or Revise
Scope
• A significant advantage of the phased approach
to systems development is that it provides
several opportunities to reevaluate feasibility.
• In the long run, canceled projects are less costly
than implemented disasters!
• Most analysts fail to adjust estimated costs and
schedules as scope increases. As a result, the
analyst frequently and needlessly accepts
responsibility for cost and schedule overruns.
Don’t Be Afraid to Cancel or Revise Scope
• The creeping commitment approach:
– Build multiple feasibility checkpoints.
– At each checkpoint, all costs are considered sunk (meaning
irrecoverable) and irrelevant to the decision.
– reevaluate at each checkpoint to determine if the project is
still feasible.
– At each checkpoint, the analyst should consider:
• cancellation of the project if it is no longer feasible
• reevaluation of costs and schedule if project scope is to be
increased
• reduction of scope if the project budget and schedule are
frozen, but not sufficient to cover all project objectives.
Divide and Conquer
• All systems are part of larger systems (called
super-systems).
• Virtually all systems contain smaller systems (called
subsystems).
• We divide a system into its subsystems in order to
more easily conquer the problem and build the
larger system.
– By dividing a larger problem (system) into more easily
managed pieces (subsystems), the analyst can simplify the
problem-solving process.
– Know the bounds and scope of your system!
Design Systems for Growth and Change
• Many systems analysts have fallen into the trap
of developing systems to meet only today's user
requirements.
– When the cost of maintenance exceeds the costs of
starting over – the system has become obsolete.
• Systems designed to meet only current
requirements are difficult to modify in response
to new requirements.
– Flexibility and adaptability do not happen by accident –
they must be built into a system.