CSUN Information Systems
Systems Analysis & Design
http://www.csun.edu/~dn58412/IS431/IS431_SP16.htm
System
Development
Process
IS 431: Lecture 2
1
System Development
Process
 Value Chain and Innovation Cycle
 Principles of systems development.
 PIECES framework for categorizing problems,
opportunities, and directives.
 Systems development phases: purpose, inputs, and
outputs.
 Alternative “routes” through the basic phases of
system development.
 Computer-aided systems engineering (CASE) and
application development environments (ADEs)
IS 431 : Lecture 2
2
Value Chain & Five
Forces Model
IS 431 : Lecture 2
3
The Value Chain
VALUE
FIRM INFRASTRUCTURE
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
PROCUREMENT
INBOUND
LOGISTICS
OPERATIONS
OUTBOUND
LOGISTIC
MARKETING
& SALES
LOGISTIC
COST
IS 431 : Lecture 2
SERVICE
MARGIN
4
The Value Chain
SUPPORT ACTIVITIES
FIRM INFRASTRUCTURE
HUMAN RESOURCES
TECHNOLOGY
PURCHASING
INBOUND
LOGISTICS
OPERATIONS
OUTBOUND
LOGISTICS
MARKETING
& SALES
SERVICE
PRIMARY ACTIVITIES
Receiving,
Storing,
Distributing
Raw Materials
Manufacturing
Distribution
Order Processing
IS 431 : Lecture 2
Advertising
Selling
Repair
Maintenance
5
Value-Added Activities
 Customer-Value-Added Activity (maximize)
– a business process generating a value (utility) that a
customer is willing to pay for
 Business-Value-Added Activity (minimize)
– a business process that is essential to managing an
organization (cost)
 Non-Value-Added Activity (eliminate)
– customer will not pay; business value will not be
increased (waste)
 Goals of a business system: effective (do right
thing), efficient (do thing right), competitive (do
thing differently).
IS 431 : Lecture 2
6
Information Systems in
Organization
STRATEGIC
EXECUTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS
TACTICAL
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEMS
OPERATIONAL
A
C
C
O
U
N
T
I
N
G
F
I
N
A
N
C
E
H
U
M
A
N
R
E
S
P
R
O
D
U
C
T
I
O
N
S
A
L
E
S
O
T
H
E
R
S
VALUE CHAIN
IS 431 : Lecture 2
7
Emerging Technology in
Business Innovation Cycle
IS 431 : Lecture 2
8
IS 431 : Lecture 2
9
System Development
Process
 System development process – a set of activities, methods,
best practices, deliverables, and automated tools that
stakeholders use to develop and continuously improve
information systems and software
 CMM Requirement
 A consistent process for system development assures
– Efficiencies to allow management to shift resources
between projects (best practices/ thorough procedures)
– Consistent documentation to reduce lifetime costs to
maintain the systems (by other developers/teams)
– Consistent quality across projects
IS 431 : Lecture 2
10
CMM Process
Management Model
Capability Maturity Model (CMM) – a standardized
framework for assessing the maturity level of an
organization’s information system development and
management processes and products. It consists of five levels
of maturity:
– Level 1—Initial: System development projects follow no prescribed
process.
– Level 2—Repeatable: Project management processes and practices are
established to track project costs, schedules, and functionality.
– Level 3—Defined: A standard system development process (a
“methodology”) is purchased or developed. All projects use a version of
this process to develop and maintain information systems and software.
– Level 4—Managed: Measurable goals for quality and productivity are
established.
– Level 5—Optimizing: The standardized system development process is
continuously monitored and improved based on measures and data analysis
established in Level 4.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
11
System Development
Process and Quality
CMM Project Statistics for a Project Resulting
in 200,000 Lines of Code
Organization’
s CMM Level
Project
Duration
(months)
Project
PersonMonths
Number of
Defects
Shipped
Median
Cost ($
millions)
Lowest
Cost ($
millions)
Highest
Cost
($ millions)
1
30
600
61
5.5
1.8
100+
2
18.5
143
12
1.3
.96
1.7
3
15
80
7
.728
.518
.933
IS 431 : Lecture 2
12
Life Cycle vs.Methodology
 System life cycle – the factoring of the lifetime of an
information system into two stages, (1) systems development
and (2) systems operation and maintenance.
 System development methodology – a standardized
development process that defines a set of activities, methods,
best practices, deliverables, and automated tools that system
developers and project managers are to use to develop and
continuously improve information systems and software.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
13
A System Life Cycle
IS 431 : Lecture 2
14
System Development
Methodologies
 Architected Rapid Application Development
(Architected RAD)
 Dynamic Systems Development Methodology
(DSDM)
 Joint Application Development (JAD)
 Information Engineering (IE)
 Rapid Application Development (RAD)
 Rational Unified Process (RUP)
 Structured Analysis and Design
 eXtreme Programming (XP)
IS 431 : Lecture 2
15
Principles of System
Development
 Get the system users involved.
 Use a problem-solving approach.
 Establish phases and activities.
 Document throughout the development.
 Establish standards.
 Manage the process and projects
 Justify systems as capital investments.
 Don’t be afraid to cancel or revise scope.
 Divide and conquer.
 Design systems for growth and change.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
16
A  Meeting Transcript
 System Developer:
– “I am going to build a P2P system [???] with killer apps in
PHP and CCC [???] running on cutting-edge technologies
DSL and XYZ [???].”
 System Owner/User:
– “Would YOUR system solve MY problem [in singular] or
it just introduce YOUR %&$# [unprintable term / bleep]
technology and leave ME to figure out the solutions for
new problems [in plural] created by YOU &%$# &c&c…
[again, longer and stronger unprintable terms / louder
bleep-bleep-bleep] ? ”
IS 431 : Lecture 2
17
Principles of System
Development …
 Principle 1: Get the owners and users involved in
all system development phases.
 User Participation/Involvement creates “System
Ownership” and leads to User Acceptance and
User Satisfaction .
 Bottom line: owners and users will live with the
system !!!
 “OUR system [owners + users + developers] will
be effective, efficient, competitive, user friendly
etc, etc [fiddles playing softly in the background…]”
IS 431 : Lecture 2
18
Principles of System
Development …
 Principle 2: Use a problem solving approach
– Study and understand the problem in its context
– Define the requirements of a suitable solution
– Identify candidate solutions and select the best available
– Design and /or implement the solution
– Observe and evaluate the solution impact, and refine the
solution accordingly
 Solve a WRONG problem with a WRONG
solution  !!!
IS 431 : Lecture 2
19
Principles of System
Development …
 Principle 3: Establish phases and activities (define
a process to follow)
– Scope definition
– Problem Analysis
– Requirement Analysis
– Logical Design
– Decision Analysis
– Physical Design and Integration
– Construction and Testing
– Implementation and Delivery
 These phases identify problems, evaluate, design,
and implement solution (Systems Development
Process)
IS 431 : Lecture 2
20
Principles of System
Development …
 Principle 4: Document throughout the system
development process
– Ongoing activity to reveal strength and weakness of the
system during the development process
– Enhance communication and acceptance among
stakeholders
– Agreements and Contracts between Owner/User and
Analyst/Designer on the Scope, Requirements, Resources
of the project.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
21
Principles of System
Development …
 Principle 5: Establish standards for consistency
– System development standards: documentation,
methodology
– Business standards: business rules and practices
– IT standards : common architecture and configuration for
a consistent system development
IS 431 : Lecture 2
22
Principles of System
Development …
 Principle 6: Manage the process and projects
– Process management : ongoing activity that documents,
manages, oversees the use of, and improves an
organization’s chosen methodology (the “process”) for
system development. Process management is concerned
with phases, activities, deliverables, and quality
standards should be consistently applied to all projects.
– Project management : the process of scoping, planning,
staffing, organizing, directing, and controlling a project
to develop an information system at a minimum cost,
within a specified time frame, and with acceptable
quality.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
23
Principles of System
Development …
 Principle 7: Justify Systems as Capital Investments
– Strategic Information System Plan fits in and
supports Strategic Enterprise Plan
– There are several possible solutions, the first one is not
necessary the best *
– Feasibility of each solution in terms of
 Cost Effectiveness: Cost/benefit analysis
 Risk management: Identification, evaluation, and
control of potential threat to the completion of a
system
* In fact, there is a saying “ If you have two alternatives to solve a problem,
the third one is the best ” (See Murphy’s Laws)
IS 431 : Lecture 2
24
Principles of System
Development …
 Principle 8: Don’t be Afraid to Cancel and Revise
Scope: Creeping Commitment
– Expectation and scope of a project may be growing up
– Development process has checkpoints for its phases: all
costs committed so far are sunk costs.
 Cancel the project if it is no longer feasible (ORGANIZATION)
 Reevaluate/adjust cost/schedule if the scope expanding
(ANALYST)
 Reduce the scope if budget/schedule shrinking (ANALYST)
IS 431 : Lecture 2
25
Principles of System
Development …
 Principle 9: Divide and Conquer
– Divide a complex system into simpler subsystems
/components
– Problem solving process could be simplified for
smaller problems
– Different subsystems for different stakeholders
IS 431 : Lecture 2
26
Principles of System
Development …
 Principle 10: Design Systems for Growth and Change
– The entropy of a system
– Changes of technology, user requirements
– Flexibility and adaptability should be built into the system
IS 431 : Lecture 2
27
Where Do Systems
Development Projects
Come From?
Problem – an actual undesirable situation that
prevents the organization from fully achieving its
purpose, goals, and/or objectives.
Opportunity – a chance to improve the
organization even in the absence of an identified
problem (using PIECES framework).
Directive - a new requirement that is imposed by
management, government, or some external
influence/parties.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
28
Where Do Systems
Development Projects
Come From?
 Planned Projects
– An information systems strategy plan has examined the
business as a whole to identify those system development
projects that will return the greatest strategic (long-term)
value to the business
– A business process redesign has thoroughly analyzed a
series of business processes to eliminate redundancy and
bureaucracy and to improve efficiency and value added.
Now it is time to design/redesign the supporting
information system for those redesigned business
processes.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
29
Where Do Systems
Development Projects
Come From?
 Unplanned projects
– Triggered by a specific problem, opportunity, or directive
that occurs in the course of doing business.
– Steering committee – an administrative body of system
owners and information technology executives that
prioritizes and approves candidate system development
projects.
– Backlog – a repository of project proposals that cannot
be funded or staffed because they are a lower priority
than those that have been approved for system
development.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
30
PIECES Framework for
Systems Improvement
P
the need to improve performance
I
the need to improve information (and data)
E
the need to improve economics, control costs, or
increase profits
C
the need to improve control or security
E
the need to improve efficiency of people and
processes
S
the need to improve service to customers, suppliers,
partners, employees, etc.
(They are Opportunities for New System Development
Projects)
IS 431 : Lecture 2
31
Classic Project Phases
IS 431 : Lecture 2
32
System Building Blocks
IS 431 : Lecture 2
33
1. Scope Definition
• Purpose: define perceived problems, opportunities,
and directives (POD); assess the risk of project;
establish scope, preliminary requirements and
constraints, participants, budget and schedule
(preliminary study)
• Issues: Is the project worthwhile? (using PIECES
framework) Define the scope of project
• Deliverable: Project charter/plan
•Feasibility check: Cancel project / Approve to
continue / Reduce or expanse the scope with budget
and schedule modification
IS 431 : Lecture 2
34
2. Problem Analysis
• Purpose: to study and analyze the existing system
from the users’ perspectives as they see Data,
Processes, and Interfaces
• Issue: Cost/benefits of building new system to
solve these problems
• Deliverable: system improvement objectives
(business criteria to evaluate the new system)
• Feasibility check: Cancel project / Approve to
continue / Reduce or expanse the scope with
budget and schedule modification
IS 431 : Lecture 2
35
3. Requirement Analysis
• Purpose: discover users’ needs or expectations
out of the new system in terms of Data, Processes,
and Interfaces
• Issue: Specify requirements for the new system
(WHAT TO BE DONE) without prematurely
expressing technical details (HOW)
• Errors and omissions in requirement analysis
result in user dissatisfaction of final system and
costly modifications
• Deliverable: business requirements statement
IS 431 : Lecture 2
36
4. Logical Design
• Purpose: translating business user requirements into
a system model that depicts only WHAT TO DO
without specifying any possible technical design or
implementation of those requirements (conceptual
design).
• Issue: using graphical model of a system to
represent user requirements in terms of Data,
Processes and Interfaces, and to facilitate improved
communication between system stakeholders.
•Caution: Analysis paralysis – excessive system
modeling dramatically slows progress toward
implementation of the intended system solution.
•Deliverable: Logical Systems Models (DFD, ERD
etc)
IS 431 : Lecture 2
37
5. Decision Analysis
• Purpose: identify all candidate solutions, analyze
the feasibility of each candidate, recommend a
candidate system as the target solution
• Issue: Feasibility analysis in terms of technical,
operational, economic, schedule (TOES), and risk
•Deliverable: approved system proposal
•Feasibility check: Cancel project / Approve system
proposal with budget and schedule modification /
Reduce the scope of proposed solution with budget
and schedule modification
IS 431 : Lecture 2
38
Decision Analysis Preview
 Candidate solutions evaluated in terms of TOES and Risks:
– Technical feasibility – Is the solution technically practical? Does
our staff have the technical expertise to design and build this
solution?
– Operational feasibility – Will the solution fulfill the users’
requirements? To what degree? How will the solution change the
users’ work environment? How do users feel about such a solution?
– Economic feasibility – Is the solution cost-effective?
– Schedule feasibility – Can the solution be designed and
implemented within an acceptable time?
– Risk feasibility – What is the probability of a successful
implementation using the technology and approach? (Risk
Management)
IS 431 : Lecture 2
39
6. Physical Design
• Purpose: to transform business requirements into
technical design specifications for construction
• Issue: HOW technology will be used to build the
system in terms of Data, Processes, and Interfaces
• Design by Specifications vs. Design by Prototyping
• Deliverable: System design specifications
(blueprints)
•Feasibility check: Continue/ Reduce or expanse the
scope with budget and schedule modification
IS 431 : Lecture 2
40
7. Construction Phase
• Purpose: to build and test a system that fulfill
business requirements and design specs; implement
interfaces between new and existing systems
• Issue: Construct database, application programs,
user/system interfaces, implement purchased or
leased software
• Deliverable: proposed system within budget and
schedule
IS 431 : Lecture 2
41
8. Implementation Phase
• Purpose: deliver the production system into
operation
• Issue: Train users, write manuals, load files,
populate database, final test
• Conversion plan: parallel systems, switch point
• Deliverable: system up and running
IS 431 : Lecture 2
42
Operation and Support
• Ongoing system support would be provided until
the system becomes obsolete and is replaced by a
new one
• Issues: technical support for user, fixing bugs,
recovering plan, adapt to emerging requirements
• When a system has reached entropy, new project
for new system should be initiated
IS 431 : Lecture 2
43
Summary: Systems
Development Process
 Scope Definition Phase: What Business Problem
 Problem Analysis Phase: What System Issues
(Info/Data, Processes, Communications/Interfaces)
 Requirement Analysis Phase: What User Needs
 Logical Design: Conceptual Model – What to Do
 Decision Analysis Phase: What Solution
 Design Phase: Physical Model: How to Do
 Construction Phase: Do It
 Implementation Phase: Use It
IS 431 : Lecture 2
44
Systems Development
Process in Practice
IS 431 : Lecture 2
45
System Development
Documentations
IS 431 : Lecture 2
46
Cross Life-Cycle
Activities
Cross life-cycle activity – any activity that overlaps
many or all phases of the systems development process.
– Fact-finding
 Fact-finding - the formal process of using research, interviews,
meetings, questionnaires, sampling, and other techniques to collect
information about system problems, requirements,and preferences.
– Documentation and presentation
 Documentation – the ongoing activity of recording facts and
specifications for a systems for current and future reference.
 Presentation – the ongoing activity of communicating findings,
recommendations, and documentation for review by interested users
and mangers.
 Repository – a database and/or file directory where system
developers store all documentation, knowledge, and artifacts for one
or more information systems or projects.
– Feasibility analysis
– Process and project management
IS 431 : Lecture 2
47
System Analysis &
Design Approaches
 DEVELOPMENT
• Modeling
• Prototyping (RAD)
 IMPLEMENTATION
• Build (In-house)
• Buy (COTS)
IS 431 : Lecture 2
48
Model-Driven
Development
IS 431 : Lecture 2
49
Model-Driven
Development
Model-driven development – a system development strategy
that emphasizes the drawing of system models to help
visualize and analyze problems, define business requirements,
and design information systems.
– Process Modeling – a process-centered technique popularized by the
structured analysis and design methodology used models of
business process requirements to derive effective software designs for
a system.
– Data Modeling – a data-centered technique to model business data
requirements and design appropriate database systems.
– Object Modeling – a technique to merge the data and process
concerns into singular constructs called objects. Object models are
diagrams that document a system in terms of its objects and their
interactions.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
50
Model-Driven
Development …
 Advantages:
– Planning ahead
– Extensive modeling current system and requirement
analysis
– Analyze many alternative technical solutions
– Suitable for well understood systems
IS 431 : Lecture 2
51
Model-Driven
Development …
 Disadvantages:
– Long duration
– Passive participation of user as they don’t see the product
– Requirements in each phase should be fully addressed:
impractical and/or inflexible
IS 431 : Lecture 2
52
Rapid Application
Development
IS 431 : Lecture 2
53
Rapid Application
Development
 Rapid application development (RAD) techniques
emphasize extensive user involvement in the rapid and
evolutionary construction of working prototypes of a system
to accelerate the system development process.
RAD is based on building prototypes that evolve into finished
systems (often using time boxing)
– A prototype is a smaller-scale, representative or working model of
the users’ requirements or a proposed design for an information
system.
– A time box is a non-extendable period of time, usually 60-120 days,
by which a candidate system must be placed into operation.
Improvements will be released in later versions
IS 431 : Lecture 2
54
Rapid Application
Development …
 Advantages:
– Handle uncertain or imprecise user requirements
– Active user participation in building physical product:
increase enthusiasm, support
– Early detection of errors and omissions: with testing and
modifying prototype
– Reduce risk with iterative prototyping
IS 431 : Lecture 2
55
Rapid Application
Development …
 Disadvantages:
– Increase lifetime costs to operate, support, and maintain
the system (constantly doing and fixing)
– Short problem analysis may result in solving wrong
problems
– Discourage an analyst from considering other technical
alternatives than the one being used in prototyping
IS 431 : Lecture 2
56
Commerce
Application Package
IS 431 : Lecture 2
57
Commerce
Application Package
 Commercial application package – a software
application that can be purchased and customized to
meet the business requirements of a large number of
organizations or a specific industry. A synonym is
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) system.
– Request for proposal (RFP) for all potential vendors
– Request for quotation (RFQ) for some selected vendors
– Gap analysis – a comparison of business and technical
requirements against the capabilities and features of a
specific commercial application package for the purpose of
defining the requirements that cannot be met.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
58
Commercial Off-the-Shelf
Software …
 Advantages
– Fast implementation of new system (many functions are
similar across businesses, no need to build them from
scratch.)
– No need for expertise and staff for in-house development
– Low development costs (but expensive to customize and
implement !!!)
– Vendors are responsible for software improvements and
error corrections
IS 431 : Lecture 2
59
Commercial Off-the-Shelf
Software …
 Disadvantages
– Dependent on the vendors
– Future upgrade/customization is expensive
– A COTS rarely reflects ideal solution developed in-house
– Changing current business processes to fit the COTS
IS 431 : Lecture 2
60
Hybrid Strategies
IS 431 : Lecture 2
61
Hybrid: Multiple
Implementation
IS 431 : Lecture 2
62
Hybrid: Staged
Implementation
IS 431 : Lecture 2
63
System Maintenance
IS 431 : Lecture 2
64
Automated Tools and
Technology
 Computer-aided systems engineering (CASE)
 Application development environments (ADEs)
 Process and project managers
IS 431 : Lecture 2
65
Computer-Assisted
Software Engineering
Computer-aided systems engineering (CASE) – the
use of automated software tools that support the
drawing and analysis of system models and associated
specifications. Some CASE tools also provide
prototyping and code generation capabilities.
– CASE repository – a system developers’ database where
developers can store system models, detailed descriptions and
specifications, and other products of system development.
Synonyms include dictionary and encyclopedia.
– Forward engineering – a CASE tool capability that can
generate initial software or database code directly from
system.
– Reverse engineering – a CASE tool capability that can
generate initial system models from software or database
code.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
66
CASE Tool Architecture
IS 431 : Lecture 2
67
Application Development
Environments
Application development environments (ADEs) – an
integrated software development tool that provides all the
facilities necessary to develop new application software with
maximum speed and quality. A common synonym is integrated
development environment (IDE)
– ADE facilities may include:







Programming languages or interpreters
Interface construction tools
Middleware
Testing tools
Version control tools
Help authoring tools
Repository links
IS 431 : Lecture 2
68
Process and Project
Managers
 Process manager application – an automated tool that helps
document and manage a methodology and routes, its
deliverables, and quality management standards. An
emerging synonym is methodware (e.g., Visio, Visible
Analyst, Rational Rose etc.).
 Project manager application – an automated tool to help
plan system development activities (preferably using the
approved methodology), estimate and assign resources
(including people and costs), schedule activities and
resources, monitor progress against schedule and budget,
control and modify schedule and resources, and report project
progress (e.g., MS Project etc.).
IS 431 : Lecture 2
69
Strategic Management
IS 431 : Lecture 2
70
Strategic Management
IS 431 : Lecture 2
71
Strategic Planning
 Creative and interactive ongoing process to
determine what an organization wants to be in the
future and how it will get there.
 Development of a comprehensive long-range plan
for guiding the activities and operations of an
organization.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
72
The Mission
 Purpose for the organization’s existence
 Represents fundamental and unique aspirations that
make the organization different from others: who we
are, what we do
 Guides the planning process
 All sub-units should be focused on the organization’s
mission and how they contribute toward
accomplishments.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
73
Scope of the Mission
 Defines the type of activities and services that will
be performed
 Should be clearly identified in details to help
employees and customers understand the priorities
of the organization
 Serves as basis for development of certain goals and
objectives
IS 431 : Lecture 2
74
The Vision
 A future view of what an organization would like to
become
– Be national recognized as a best producer,
service provider, etc…
IS 431 : Lecture 2
75
Goals and Objectives
 Goals—explains how the mission will be realized ;
describes what is to be accomplished
 Objectives—specify how and when goals will be
met
IS 431 : Lecture 2
76
The Strategy
 Strategy is a comprehensive plan on how its
mission, goals, and objectives will be achieved.
 Understanding the endpoint (mission, goals, and
objectives) is critical to the development of the plan.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
77
Strategic Management
IS 431 : Lecture 2
78
Strategic Planning
Process
 Define the corporate vision and mission.
 Specify achievable goals and objectives.
 Develop strategies.
 Set policy guidelines.
 Determine products, services, and markets.
 Supporting technology (IS) must be factored into
the strategic plan.
IS 431 : Lecture 2
79