Chapter 6
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
Phases, Tools, and Techniques
OPENING CASE STUDY
• Developing Enter the Matrix
• It took over four years to develop Enter the
Matrix videogame based on the movie The
Matrix
• New technological features include motion
capture, virtual modeling, action, and
zoom
• The movie industry is releasing video
games on the same date as movies
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OPENING CASE STUDY
• Building new systems, such as Enter the
Matrix, is the focus of this chapter
• Information systems are developed using
the systems development life cycle
• Information systems are developed
through either insourcing, selfsourcing, or
outsourcing
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INTRODUCTION
• Information systems are the support
structure for meeting the company’s
strategies and goals
• Information systems help knowledge
workers perform their jobs
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INSOURCING AND THE SYSTEMS
DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE
 Systems development life cycle (SDLC)
- a structured step-by-step approach for
developing information systems
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INSOURCING AND THE SYSTEMS
DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE
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INSOURCING AND THE SYSTEMS
DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE
• Three choices for building a system
include:
– IT specialists within your organization insourcing
– Knowledge workers such as yourself –
selfsourcing
– Another organization – outsourcing
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INSOURCING AND THE SYSTEMS
DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE
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Phase 1: Planning
•
•
Planning phase - involves determining a
solid plan for developing your information
system
Three primary planning activities:
1. Define the system to be developed
•
Critical success factor (CSF) - a factor simply
critical to your organization’s success
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Phase 1: Planning
2. Set the project scope
•
•
Project scope - clearly defines the high-level
system requirements
Project scope document - a written definition of
the project scope and is usually no longer than a
paragraph
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Phase 1: Planning
3. Develop the project plan including tasks,
resources, and timeframes
•
Project plan - defines the what, when, and who
questions of system development
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Phase 1: Planning
• Your role during planning
– Defining which systems to develop
– Developing the project plan
• Project manager - an individual who is an expert
in project planning and management, defines and
develops the project plan and tracks the plan to
ensure all key project milestones are completed on
time
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Phase 1: Planning
• Keys to Success
– Manage your project plan
– Project milestones - represent key dates for which you
need a certain group of activities performed
– Scope creep - occurs when the scope of the project
increases
– Feature creep - occurs when developers add extra
features that were not part of the initial requirements
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Phase 2: Analysis
• Analysis phase - involves end users and
IT specialists working together to gather,
understand, and document the business
requirements for the proposed system
• The primary analysis activity:
1. Gather the business requirements
• Business requirements - the detailed set of
knowledge worker requests that the system must
meet in order to be successful
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Phase 2: Analysis
• Joint application development (JAD) knowledge workers and IT specialists meet,
sometimes for several days, to define or review
the business requirements for the system
• Requirements definition document –
prioritizes the business requirements and places
them in a formal comprehensive document
• Sign-off - the knowledge workers’ actual
signatures indicating they approve all of the
business requirements
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Phase 2: Analysis
• Your role during analysis
– Perform detailed review of business
requirements
• Keys to success
– Find errors early
– The later in the SDLC you find errors, the
more expensive they are to fix
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Phase 2: Analysis
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Phase 3: Design
• Design phase - build a technical
blueprint of how the proposed system will
work
• Two primary design activities:
1. Design the technical architecture required to
support the system
• Technical architecture - defines the hardware,
software, and telecommunications equipment
required to run the system
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Phase 3: Design
2. Design system models
•
•
•
Modeling - the activity of drawing a graphical
representation of a design
Graphical user interface (GUI) - the interface to
an information system
GUI screen design - the ability to model the
information system screens for an entire system
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Phase 3: Design
• Your role during design
– Decreases as business process expert
– Increases as quality control analyst
• Keys to success
– Determine future requirements
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Phase 4: Development
•
•
Development phase - take all of your
detailed design documents from the
design phase and transform them into an
actual system
Two primary development activities:
1. Build the technical architecture
2. Build the database and programs
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Phase 4: Development
• Your role during development
– Confirm changes to business requirements
– Track task progress
• Keys to success
– Take advantage of changing technologies
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Phase 5: Testing
• Testing phase - verifies that the system
works and meets all of the business
requirements defined in the analysis
phase
• Two primary testing activities:
1. Write the test conditions
• Test conditions - the detailed steps the system
must perform along with the expected results of
each step
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Phase 5: Testing
2. Perform the testing of the system
•
•
•
•
Unit testing – tests individual units of code
System testing – verifies that the units of code
function correctly when integrated
Integration testing – verifies that separate
systems work together
User acceptance testing (UAT) – determines if
the system satisfies the business requirements
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Phase 5: Testing
• Your role during testing
– Quality assurance expert
• Keys to success
– Always complete the testing phase
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Phase 6: Implementation
•
•
Implementation phase - distribute the
system to all of the knowledge workers
and they begin using the system to
perform their everyday jobs
Two primary implementation activities
1. Write detailed user documentation
•
User documentation - highlights how to use the
system
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Phase 6: Implementation
2. Provide training for the system users
•
•
Online training - runs over the Internet or off a
CD-ROM
Workshop training - is held in a classroom
environment and lead by an instructor
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Phase 6: Implementation
• Your role during implementation
– Attend training
– Perform training
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Phase 6: Implementation
• Keys to success
– Choose the right implementation method
• Parallel implementation – use both the old and new system
simultaneously
• Plunge implementation – discard the old system completely
and use the new
• Pilot implementation – start with small groups of people on
the new system and gradually add more users
• Phased implementation – implement the new system in
phases
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Phase 7: Maintenance
• Maintenance phase - monitor and
support the new system to ensure it
continues to meet the business goals
• Two primary maintenance activities:
1. Build a help desk to support the system
users
• Help desk - a group of people who responds to
knowledge workers’ questions
2. Provide an environment to support system
changes
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Phase 7: Maintenance
• Your role during maintenance
– Ensure all knowledge workers have the
support they require to use the system
• Keys to success
– All knowledge workers and IT specialists must
work together
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SELFSOURCING AND
PROTOTYPING
• Selfsourcing (also called knowledge
worker development or end user
development) - the development and
support of IT systems by knowledge
workers with little or no help from IT
specialists
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The Selfsourcing Process
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The Selfsourcing Process
• The advantages of selfsourcing
– Improves requirements determination
– Increases knowledge worker participation and
sense of ownership
– Increases speed of systems development
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The Selfsourcing Process
• Potential pitfalls and risks of selfsourcing
– Inadequate knowledge worker expertise leads
to inadequately developed systems
– Lack of organizational focus creates
“privatized” IT systems
– Insufficient analysis of design alternatives
leads to subpar IT systems
– Lack of documentation and external support
leads to short-lived systems
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