Chapter-4
Identifying and selecting
system Development project
1
Identifying and selecting system
Development project


The first phase of the SDLC is Identifying and
selecting system Development project.
During this activity, a senior manger, a business
group, an IS manager, or a steering committee
identify and assess all possible system development
projects that an organization unit could undertake.
2
The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects
1.
2.
3.
Identifying potential development projects
Classifying and ranking projects
Selecting projects for development
3
Identifying and selecting system
Development project

Potential development projects are identified by:

A key member of top management.
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A steering Committee: composed of a cross section of manager with
an interest in systems
User department
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CEO of small sized organization
Senior executive in a large organization
Head of the requesting unit
Committee of from the requesting department
The development group or a senor IS manger
4
Identifying and selecting system
Development project

Top-management
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Steering Committee
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Cross-functional focus
Greater organizational change
Larger and riskier project
User development
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Greater strategic focus
Largest project size/duration
Faster development
Fewer user
Development group

Fewer development delays
5
Top-down and bottom-up identification

Top-Down Identification
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Senior management or steering committee
Focus is on global needs of organization
Bottom-up Identification
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Business unit or IS group
Don’t reflect overall goals of the organization
6
Identifying and selecting system
Development project

Classifying and Ranking IS development Projects :


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2nd major activity in the project identification and selection process focuses
on assessing the relative merit of potential project.
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
7
Evaluation criteria when classifying
and ranking projects
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Resources availability: amount and type of resources the project
requires and their availability
Project size & duration: number of individuals and the length of time
needed to complete the project
Value chain analysis: Extend to which activities add value and costs
when developing product/services
Strategic Alignment: Extent to which the project is viewed as helping
the organization achieve its strategic objectives and long-term goals.
Technical difficulty/risks: Level of technical difficulty to successfully
complete the project which give time and resource constraint
Potential benefits: Extent to which the project is viewed as improving
profits, customer service
8
Identifying and Selecting IS Development
Projects

Selecting IS Development Projects: project selection
decision

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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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5.9
Perceived and real needs
Potential and ongoing projects
Current organizational environment
Existing and available resources
Evaluation criteria
9
Identifying and Selecting IS Development
Projects

Selecting IS Development Projects

Outcomes
 Project Acceptance
 Project
Rejection
 Delay
 Refocus
 End-User
Development
 Proof of Concept
5.10
10
Information Systems Planning

Traditional Project
Identification and
Selection

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Solves isolated problems
Focuses on business processes
Does not easily allow for
organizational change

Planning-Based
Approach to Project
Identification and
Selection


Focuses on present and future
information needs
Information needs change slower
than business processes
11
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

12
Information Systems Planning

Information Systems Planning (ISP)
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
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:
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5.13
Describe the Current Situation
Describe the Target (or Future) Situation
Develop a Transition Plan and Strategy
13
Information Systems Planning
Information Systems Planning
1. Describing the Current Situation

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Top-down Planning
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Bottom-up Planning

5.14
Generic methodology that attempts to gain a broad understanding
of the information system needs of the entire organization
Generic methodology that identifies and defines IS development
projects based upon solving operational business problems or
taking advantage of some business opportunities
14
Information Systems Planning

Information Systems Planning
1. Describing the Current Situation (Continued)
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Planning team is chartered to model existing situation
Identification of Organizational:
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Locations
Units
Functions
Processes
Data
Information Systems
5.15
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15
Information Systems Planning

Information Systems Planning
1. Describing the Current Situation (Continued)

Matrices are developed to cross-reference units
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5.16
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
16
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

17
Description of three process that play significant
role in project selection

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Value chain analysis
Corporate Strategic Planning
Information System Planning
18
Value chain analysis


Value Chain Analysis consists to analyse an
organisation’s activities to determine where value is
added to products and or to services and the costs
generated for doing so.
Purpose


It enables to select projects that offer more support to key
activities with high costs
Criteria can differ from organisation to
organisation

E.g. criteria used by the EC
19
Corporate Strategy Planning (CSP)


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Effective deployment of resources require clearly
understanding of organisational missions,
objectives & strategy
Corporate Strategy Planning is a top-down process
of three steps
CSP is an ongoing process that defines the mission,
objectives and strategies of an organisation


CSP is a process that is frequently subject to change
It requires constant surveillance
20
Process of corporate strategy
planning
Analysis of strategic position:
what is the current position?
Desired strategic
position: what are the objectives
Design of the possible strategies
to achieve desired goals
21
Advantages of IS planning
1.
2.
3.
4.
Allow to construct ISs that support the whole
organisation
Allow integration of different tools
Avoid data redundancy (process oriented
approach vs data oriented approach)
Reduce maintenance costs because planned
system will require less revision
22
Information system planning (ISP)
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Information system planning” is different from
“project planning”
Information System Planning (ISP) is the process
by which a company (organisation) analyses its
information needs and plan its project carefully
ISP is an orderly means of assessing the
information needs of an organisation and defining
the systems, databases, and technologies that will
best satisfy those needs
ISP is a top-down process that takes into account the
outside forces that drive the business (need
vigilance)
23
ISP and Corporate Strategy
Planning
Current
enterprise
Current situation for informational needs
•Listing of manual & automated processes
•Listing of manual & automated data
•Technology inventory
•Human resources inventory
Desired situation for informational needs
Future enterprise
Strategic plan
•Listing of manual & automated processes
•Listing of manual & automated data
•Technology inventory
•Human resources inventory
Schedule of projects to transit from current to desired
Project 1
Project 2
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Information System Planning

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ISP requires support of top management and
itscommitment to reach desired objectives
Description of the current requires a planning team
Techniques used to capture information system needs,
include
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Interviewing managers and executives
Reviewing corporate documents
Analysing competitors, markets and products
There are two approaches to describe current situation
needs


Top down planning
Bottom-up planning
25
Step 1: describing the current needs


Top down planning is a generic methodology that
attempts to gain a broad understanding of the IS
needs of the entire organisation
Bottom-up planning is a generic IS methodology
that identifies and defines IS development project
based upon solving operational business problem
or taking advantages of some business opportunities
26
Information collected about current
situation

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Locations where the company operates
Business unit that operate within a company
Functions = cross organisational collection of
activities used to perform day-to-day business
operation.
Processes of a company
Data underlying processes
Information system represent automated and non
automated systems used to support business
processes.
27
Outcome = mMatrix of Information
systems (IS) * objectives
Information systems (IS)/
Objectives
Objective 1
IS1
IS2
…
X
X
Objective 2
IS3
ISn
X
X
Objective 3
…
Objective j
X
X
28
Matrix of Information systems (IS)
* processes
Information systems (IS)/
Processes (P)
P1
IS1
IS2
…
Pj
…
ISn
X
P2
P3
IS3
X
X
X
X
X
Several techniques of multi-criteria decision could be applied
to select IS that satisfies the company’s current needs
29
Step 2 and 3 of ISP

Step 2: describing the target situation and constraints

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Define situation of location, units , functions, processes, data and
information system taking into account the trends and constraint of the
organisation
Target situation could also be described in term of matrix
Step 3: developing a transition strategy and plans



Plans reflect both short-term and long-term organisational development
needs
Plans include organisational mission, information inventory, mission and
objectives of IS, constraints, long-term plans and short-term plans
Selected projects are those derived from ISP and that fulfil the gap
between current and desired situation
30