Information Systems:
Creating Business Value
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mark Huber, Craig Piercy, and
Patrick McKeown
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Chapter 6:
Creating IS Solutions
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
What We Will Cover:
• The Big IS Development Questions
• The Stages and Activities of System
Development
• The People Who Develop IS
• IS Methodology
• Managing the IS Project
• IS Tools for IS Development
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Student ROI (Return on Investment)
Your investment of time and effort in this course will result in
your being able to answer these questions:
1. What major decisions do organizations make in
obtaining an IS?
2. What important activities must an organization consider
within each of the seven stages of an IS life cycle?
3. What considerations are important when creating an IS
project team?
4. What methods do organizations use to ensure that they
obtain the best IS to help meet their goals?
5. How do organizations provide effective and efficient
management of IS projects?
6.
What IT tools do many organizations rely on to obtain
an IS that best meets its objectives?
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Big IS Development
Questions
• In order to support a complex organization,
businesses need complex information systems
that must be obtained in some way.
• Questions that must be asked:
–
–
–
–
?
?
?
?
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The Big Questions
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IS Project Feasible?
• If it is decided that an IS is needed, then the next step is
a __________ _______ which is a detailed investigation
and analysis of a proposed project.
• Is the project __________ _______ , that is, the
technology is available to solve the IS problem and the
company is technically capable of acquiring and using
the technology.
• IS the project __________ _______ , that is, is the
company is able to pay for the project, and the project
represents a good use of financial resources.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Determining Financial Feasibility
• Organizations use financial measures to determine
financial feasibility. Examples of these include
– return on investment (ROI) – net present value (NPV) – internal rate of return (IRR) – payback period • Some costs and benefits are ________ and some are
________.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Using Spreadsheets to Determine Financial
Feasibility
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Make or Buy/Lease
•
Organizations usually choose one of three primary
options for obtaining an IS:
1.
2.
3.
Acquisition
Lease
Build
•
Building an IS from scratch often ensures the best
match of IS with an organization’s requirements and is
the best option for obtaining competitive advantage.
•
Building an IS can also be a long and costly process.
•
When time and cost are most important criteria,
organizations then pursue acquisition or leasing.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Acquisition, Leasing, or Building
Development Advantages
Choice
Disadvantages
Acquisition
Leasing
Building
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
In-House or Outsource
If an organization chooses to build a new system, the next
question is to whether to use its own staff (in-house
development) or hire another company to do it
(outsourcing).
IS Development Advantages
source
Disadvantages
In-house Development
Outsourcing
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Stages and Activities of System
Development
Information systems go through a life cycle
composed of 7 seven phases:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Pre-inception
Inception
Elaboration
Construction
Transition
Production
Retirement
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Life Cycle of an IS
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Seven Phases of IS Development
1. Pre-Inception:
2. Inception:
3. Elaboration:
4. Construction:
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Seven Phases of IS Development (cont.)
5. Transition:
6. Production:
7. Retirement:
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
IS Development Disciplines
• Development disciplines - the group of activities that are
focused on ____________________________.
– Examples include business modeling, requirements gathering,
analysis and design, implementation, testing and deployment.
• Support disciplines - support the system over the
__________________________________________.
– Examples include configuration and change management,
project management, environmental scanning, and operations
and support.
• Enterprise disciplines - most active prior to the
______________________________.
– Examples include readiness to use IS to improve their
processes, create a promising environment for an IS project.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Systems Analysis and Design
(SAD)
•
•
The process of completing an IS project
is known as systems analysis and
design (SAD).
Any SAD project involves four essential
ingredients:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Pillars of IS Development
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
People Who Develop IS
• The size of an IS development team varies with
specific characteristics of the project.
• Most IS development teams possess the
following skills:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Project strategy
Project management
Account management
Architecture and design
Programming
Specialists
Client interface
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Project Team Skill Requirements
• Project strategy:
• Project management:
• Account management:
• Architecture and design:
• Programming:
• Specialists:
• Client interface:
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IS Project Team Technical Roles
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Stakeholder Analysis
• Stakeholder attitudes toward the project can dramatically
impact the project’s eventual success or failure.
• A stakeholder analysis should begin as part of the
feasibility study and should be continued during the
course of the project.
• A stakeholder analysis begins with a list of stakeholders,
including what each has at stake, as well as the degree
of impact each stakeholder can have on the project.
• The analysis should also to identify each stakeholder’s
attitude toward the project and any risks.
• A project manager should assign team members to
different stakeholders with an anticipated strategy for
dealing with each one.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Example Stakeholder Analysis
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
IS Methodology
• A methodology provides a framework for both the
management and technical processes of an IS project
• A methodology, sometimes known as a development
life cycle, provides a project team with structure to
ensure that everyone is working towards the same
project goals.
• The methodology will define most of the development
activities that are part of the plan developed by the
project manager.
• Initially, systems developers used an ad hoc approach
called the build-and-fix model in which the system was
built based on customer interview and then tested. It
often did not meet customer needs.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Importance of Methodology to IS
Development
Advantages
Disadvantages
•Development fundamentals—methodologies help •Bureaucratic—Some
team use best practices.
methodologies can be overly
•Avoiding rework—process should avoid repeating rigid and bureaucratic
tasks in the event of changing requirements.
•Risk management—process helps to identify and
manage risks.
•Assures quality—helps detects errors earlier,
when they are easier to correct.
•Customer orientation—focuses on customers’
needs and desires
•Improved planning—makes it easy to identify and
organize the project activities
•Targeting resources—helps target resources
toward activities that need them.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Traditional IS Methodology: the
Waterfall Model
• The first life cycle model to gain acceptance was
the Waterfall Model.
• Phases –
• Problems –
• Development activities -
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Traditional Waterfall Methodology
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Evolutionary Development Life Cycle
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Prototyping
• One approach to the evolutionary life cycle is to use
prototyping.
• What is prototyping?
• The prototyping process helps team members and users
better understand requirements.
• What problems can be associated with an evolutionary
life cycle approach?
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Agile Development
• What is agile development?
• Each cycle may include all of the primary phases of the process.
• Agile Development Methods
• Extreme Programming • Crystal Family • Rational Unified Process (RUP) • Scrum Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Agile Development
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Agile Software Development Methods
• Extreme Programming –
• Crystal Family –
• Rational Unified Process (RUP) –
• Scrum Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
IS Modeling
• You can think of a model as a simplified representation
of something real
– Examples of models in common use?
• Also, a model can be a set of mathematical equations, a
computer simulation, a graph or chart, or any of many
other types.
• For IS development, a model usually includes one or
more diagrams that developers use to examine,
evaluate, and adjust in order to understand the system
requirements and performance.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ERDs and Logical Data Models
Two types of models are commonly used to
designing the organization of relational
database:
• The Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) …
• The Logical Data Model …
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Partial (a) ERD and (b) Data Model for an
E-voting System
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Data Flow Diagrams
• A Data Flow Diagram is traditional IS
model that depicts how data move or flow
through a system.
• It includes
–
–
–
–
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Data Flow Diagram
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Unified Modeling Language (UML)
• A very popular modeling tool in industry.
• The UML is made up of several graphical
elements that are combined to form a set
of diagrams.
• As a language, the UML has a grammar or
rule for combining these elements into
diagrams.
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
UML: Use Case Diagram
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
UML: Sequence Diagram
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Managing the IS Project
•
•
Project Management - “the application of knowledge
skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet
project requirements.”1
For IS development, a project manager oversees three
main project elements:
1.
2.
3.
1A
Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) 2000 Edition,
Chapter 1, p. 4, (2000)
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Elements of Project
Management
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Project Management Tasks
Four core functions lead to specific project
objectives:
1. Project scope management:
2. Time management:
3. Cost management:
4. Quality management:
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A Project Management
Framework
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Project Integration
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Project Time Management
Controlling the project schedule is second only to budgeting in
importance. The main activities of project time management
include:
– Activity definition:
– Activity sequencing:
– Activity duration estimating:
– Schedule development:
– Schedule control:
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Gantt Chart
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Risk Management
The job of risk management is to recognize,
address, and eliminate sources of risk before they
become a threat to the successful completion of the
project.
Common Areas of Project Risk
•Feature Creep
•Shortchanged quality
•Requirements gold-plating
•Overly optimistic schedule
•Inadequate design
•Silver-bullet syndrome
•Research-oriented
development
•Weak personnel
•Friction with customers
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Risk Management Matrix
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Responses to Risk
• Risk Transfer:
• Risk Deferral:
• Risk Reduction:
• Risk Acceptance:
• Risk Avoidance:
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Project Management Software
Project management (PM) software is designed to support and
automate the tasks of project management and to help project
managers make decisions.
•Low level packages: for entry-level users, include tools for basic
scheduling, project control, reporting, filtering and sorting.
Examples –
•Mid level packages: adds resource leveling, resource allocation,
cost control and flexible charting. For large projects with up to about
2,000 tasks.
Examples –
•High level packages: adds advanced functions including
scheduling by user-defined rules, programming languages, resource
management for multiple projects, and risk management.
Examples –
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
PERT Chart
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Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
Combines several important programming tasks into the same
package
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Modeling Tools and Code Generators
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Authoring Software Categories
Category
Description
Representative
Software
Database
(DBMS)
Oracle Database;
InterSystems
Caché, MySql, MS
Access
Web
Development
Macromedia
Dreamweaver; IBM
Websphere
Animation/video
Macromedia Flash
and Shockwave
Graphics
Adobe Photoshop
Audio Content
Adobe Audition
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
CASE Tools
• What is Computer aided software
engineering (CASE)?
• CASE tools are integrated into a complete
package known as a CASE environment.
• A CASE environment can provide a
shared database, messaging system, and
support for consistent development style.
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CaseWise CASE Tool with Repository
Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.