PHASE 1 :
SYSTEM PLANNING
LESSON 2
SYSTEM PLANNING
INTRODUCTION
During the previous lesson, we have introduced what is information system and five classes of
information system. We already stated five main phases in system development life cycle.
System planning is the first phase in the system development life cycle. There are two major
activities performed in this phase. This lesson will introduce and explain activities involved
during system planning phase. System planning is the first phase in system development life
cycle. This lesson consists of four sections :

overview of system planning

identification of the system development project

planning the system development project

feasibility study involved during system planning phase
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lesson, students should be able to :

define and describe two major activities during the system planning

identify the system development project and create a system request

define the steps involved during planning the system development project

define operational feasibility, technical feasibility, schedule feasibility and economic
feasibility
TERMINOLOGY
No
1
Word
Feasibility
Definition
The measure of how beneficial or practical an information
system will be in the organization
2
Gantt Chart
A graphical representation of a project that shows each task
as a horizontal bar whose length is proportional to its time for
completion
3
Project
A sequence of activities that must be completed on time,
within budget, and according to specification
4
Project identification
First activity during system planning when someone identify
the needs for an information either a new system or enhanced
the current one
5
Project planning
Second phase of system planning that focusing on 6defining
the clear activities and the work needed to omplete each
activities
6
System planning
The first phase of the SDLC in which an organization’s total
information needs are identified, analyzed, prioritized and
arranged
7
System
service A formal document propose enhancements for an existing
request
system, the correction of problems, or the development of
entirely new information system
2.1
OVERVIEW OF SYSTEM PLANNING
√ Project Identification
System
Planning
√ Project Planning
System
Analysis
System
Design
System
Implementation
System
Maintenance
Figure 2-1: Two Major Activities Involved In System Planning
Today, the demands for a new or enhancement of the system exceeds the ability and resources
of most organizations to conduct system development projects. System planning is the first
phase in the system development life cycle. System planning is where an organization’s total
information needs are identified, analyzed, prioritized and arranged. Organization creates and
assesses the original goals and expectation of a new system. There are reasons why the
organization need to develop a new or improved system; for example is to add value to the
organization. In this phase, you will learn how information system projects get started and how
the team evaluate a proposed system and determine its feasibility before it will be developed.
Planning phase starts with reviewing the request towards system development. Figure 2-1
shows two major activities involved in system planning:
i.
identifying the system development project
ii. planning the system development project
2.2
IDENTIFYING THE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
There are two ways on how to identify the needs for system development either by top-down
planning and bottom-up planning. Top-down planning is where the top management asks the IT
support or unit within their organization to develop a system. They will identify and assesses if
there is any possible system development projects organization can be done. Bottom-up
planning is also known as a user request planning. User’s request is when users need the
system in order to fulfill or help their daily job easily. For the following discussion, we’ll consider
the second option; the system request is from the user.
The starting point of information system project is called a system service request. A project is
identified when someone in the organization identifies that they need to build a systems for a
certain needs. System service request is a formal way of asking for IT support. A system service
request might propose enhancements for an existing system, the correction of problems or
errors, or the development of entirely new information system (Shelly et. al., 2006).
Normally,
system service request form will be submitted by the user to IT department either manually or
sending through e-mail or web-based request system. Figure 2-2 shows an example of system
request form.
There are several reasons why user sends for the system service request :

Improved services offered
This is the most basic reason why we need a new or enhanced system. A new or
enhanced system is important to improve services for customers or users within the
organization. Allowing students to register subjects online, driving license renewal via
web-based are example on how organization used a system to increase their customer
satisfaction.

Support for new products or new services
New product developed or new services introduced require new types of IT support. For
example, changing the use of punch card to fingerprint recognition in staff attendance is
an example of installation of new products that needs a new system development
project.

Provide more information
The system might produce information which is not enough in order to support the
organization’s changing information needs. For example, lecturer can obtain students
results, but he/she can’t generate a report to analyze student performance.
Figure 2-2: System Service Request Form
2.2.1
Exercises
Answer TRUE or for FALSE for each of the questions below.
1. System planning is the first phase of the systems development life cycle. TRUE
2. Requirements gathering and structuring is the first activity of the project identification and
selection phase. FALSE
3. Project planning and initiation concentrates on activities that will help organize a team to
conduct project planning TRUE
4. The System Service Request is the primary deliverable from the project identification and
planning activities. TRUE
5. When identifying and selecting projects, the development group is not concentrates with
cost-benefit analysis. TRUE
2.3
PLANNING THE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Some other methodologies refer it as preliminary investigation phase, initial study phase, or
planning phase. Systems analysts always conduct a preliminary investigation to study the
system service request and recommend the specific action base on that. This activity is
important to initiate the project. After getting the approval from the management, the analysts
interact with the stakeholders involved such as system owner, project managers and system
user to gather information shown in the model in Figure 2-3. The analyst responsibility is to
gathers the information about the problems or opportunity, project scope and constraints,
project benefits, and budget for development time and costs. Then, analyst will prepare a report
to the management.
Scope and
constraints
Problems or
opportunity
Fact-finding
Benefits
Development time
and costs
Figure 2-3: Information Gathered from Fact-finding Techniques
During the preliminary investigation, a system analyst typically follows a series of steps. System
analyst might use tool such as Microsoft Project to plan and manage his/her task in this phase.
A proper plan of system development is important to make sure that the system is within the
scope, within the budget, and finish at the specific time. Usually, Gantt chart will be used to
represent all the activities involved during the system development. Figure 2-4 shows a basic
Gantt chart.
Figure 2-4: Gantt Chart
2.3.1
Understanding the problem or opportunity
From the system service request, we’ll know either the project is a new information system
development or upgrading the current information system. The important task in this step is
establishing an initial problems, opportunities and directives that triggered the project.
The team needs to learn about the current system. System owner, system analyst and system
user have a different level of understanding from the system. After learning the entire system,
the project team will sit together to analyze the problem and opportunities arise. During this
session, project team ask the system owner and system users several type of questions to gain
more understanding to leads to possible new system. They analyzed the problems based on
cause-and-effect analysis.
2.3.2
Define the project scope and constraints
Determining the project scope means defining the specific boundaries of the project. It’s
important to define the project scope because it will limit the project development scope. Scope
definition activity is concerned primarily with system owners’ view of the existing system and
what are the problems or opportunities that come out with the interest of system service
request. Scope is the boundaries of a project – the areas of a business that a project may (or
may not) address (Bentley et. al., 2007).
Along with the project scope, system analyst needs to identify if there is any possible constraints
on the system. A constraint is a requirement or condition that the system must satisfy or an
outcome that the system must achieve. A constraint can be derived from hardware, software,
time, organization policy and others.
After defining the project scope, the team can establish the system development objectives.
Normally, system objectives can be derived after identifying the problem and scopes. System
objectives is important because by the end of the system development, a measurement will be
conducted to validate either the project has meets the objectives or not.
2.3.3
Perform fact-finding
Fact-finding involves several techniques depends on what types of information will be gathered.
It can take several hours or maybe up to several weeks. Examples of fact-finding techniques are
interview, telephone call, e-mail, review the document and others. During this activity, factfinding techniques are required to gather basic information about the future system. In the next
lesson, we’ll discuss various techniques on fact-finding.
2.3.4
Evaluate feasibility
We have analyzed the problem and opportunity, define the system scope, and perform the factfinding to gather useful information. Now, after completing the entire task, system analyst must
assess the project. The assessment covers on the feasibility study on operational, technical,
economic and schedule. A system service request must succeed several feasibility study before
continue the project. A feasibility study is a preliminary study undertaken to determine a
project's viability. Most system development project should be developed within budget and time
constraints defined. This means that assessing the project feasibility is a required activity in all
information system development. There are SIX main feasibility that need to be considered :

Operational Feasibility
The purpose of assessing operational feasibility is to gain an understanding of the
degree to which the proposed system will solve the problems. It concerns with how the
organizational changes will affect the working lives of those affected by the system.
Meaning that a proposed system will be used effectively after it has been developed. If
users have difficulty with a new system, it will not produce the expected benefits to its
organization operational.

Technical Feasibility
The purpose of assessing technical feasibility is to gain an understanding of the
organization’s ability to construct and implement the proposed system. This feasibility
assesses the details of how we will deliver a product or service for example; materials,
labor, transportation, where your business will be located, technology needed, and
others.

Economic Feasibility
The purpose of assessing economic feasibility is to identify the financial benefits and
costs related with the development project. It’s also referring to cost-benefit analysis.
In any project, it’s important to identify the benefits and cost related a project.

Schedule Feasibility
The purpose of assessing the schedule feasibility is to gain an understanding of the
likelihood that all potential time frames and completion date schedules can be met and
that meeting these dates will be sufficient for dealing with the needs of the organization
(Hoffer et. al., 2005). This involves questions such as how much time is available to
build the new system, when we can build it, type and amount of resources required,
and any others related.

Cultural feasibility
This is related to operational feasibility. Cultural feasibility deals with how the end
users feel about the proposed system. In this stage, the project development is
evaluated for their impact on the local and general culture.

Legal Feasibility
Legal feasibility determines whether the proposed system conflicts with legal
requirements. Possible considerations that need to be considered are about the
copyright, labor laws, and disclosing the information. When an organization has either
internal or external legal counsel, such reviews are typically standard. However, a
project may face legal issues after completion if this factor is not considered at this
stage.
2.3.5
Estimate project development time and cost
If the project is worthy to continue, we can now plan the project in more detail. This activities
involved estimate the cost of money needed to run the project development. The team also
plans a project schedule to make sure that they do the task in time and finish the project within
the time given. Gantt Chart and Pert Diagram is an example of techniques that can be used to
represent the project schedule with the direction of tasks, and time needed to complete the task
and others.
2.3.6
Present results and recommendation to management
At the end of this activity, a baseline project plan is prepared and presents it to the
management. This task is triggered by the completion of the project plan. The project team will
write a report and present the result and recommendation to the management. The decision will
be made after this presentation either one from this decision:

authorize the project to be continued

make an adjustment such as the scope, time, budget and schedule

cancel the project.
If the project will be continued, it may proceed to the next step; system analysis. If the project
should be cancel, they will stop the task. There are several reasons why the project should be
cancelled such as lack of resources, realization that the problem is not too important, or
realization that the cost of the development is too high.
2.3.7
Exercises
Answer TRUE or for FALSE for each of the questions below.
1. The objective of project initiation and planning is to transform a system service request
document into a tangible project description. TRUE
2. The Systems Service Request reflects the best estimate of the project’s scope, benefits,
costs, risks, and resource requirements, given the current understanding of the project.
FALSE
3. Assessing project feasibility is a required activity for all information systems projects. TRUE
4. During project initiation and planning, no need to define all benefits and costs related to a
particular project. FALSE
5. After the completing the first phase, the management will decide either the project can be
continued or cancel. TRUE
SUMMARY
This is the end of lesson Two. In this lesson, we have learned :

two major activities involved during system planning phase

identifying and preparing a system service request

planning for a system development

conducting a feasibility study
In the next lesson, we will discuss the second phase involved in system development life cycle;
system analysis. System analysis is important in order to analyze the system requirements
based on planning. There are two major activities involved during system analysis:

requirements gathering

data and process Modeling
SELF ASSESSMENT
Fill in with the correct answer
1
_________________________ is the first phase in the system development life cycle.
System planning is where an organization’s total information needs are identified, analyzed,
prioritized and arranged. System planning
2
There are two ways on how to identify the needs for system development either by
__________________________ or __________________________ top-down planning;
bottom-up planning.
3
A __________________________ might propose enhancements for an existing system, the
correction of problems or errors, or the development of entirely new information system.
system service request
4
Systems analysts always conduct a __________________________ to study the system
service request and recommend the specific action base on that. preliminary investigation
5
__________________________ will be used to represent all the activities involved during
the system development. Gantt chart
6
Determining the __________________________ means defining the specific boundaries of
the project. project scope
7
__________________________ refers to the number of individuals and the length of time
needed to complete the project. Project/size duration
8
__________________________ is the process of identifying the financial benefits and costs
associated with a development project. Economic feasibility
9
__________________________
is
the
process
of
assessing
the
development
organization’s ability to construct a proposed system. Technical feasibility
10 At the end of planning activity, the team will write a report and present the result. The
decision will be made regarding the project either to __________________________,
__________________________ or __________________________ the project. authorize;
adjust; cancel.