CHAPTER 10
Developing
Information Systems
Opening Case:
Canadian Youth Design
Their Own Youth Portal
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Chapter Ten Overview
• SECTION 10.1 – SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
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Information Systems Development
Global Information Systems Development
The Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
Software Development Methodologies
Developing Successful Systems
• SECTION 10.2 – PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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Managing Software Development Projects
Project Management Fundamentals
Understanding Project Planning
Managing Projects
Outsourcing Projects
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Identify the business benefits associated with
successful software development and how the issues
and challenges developing domestic information
systems amplify with global systems development.
2. Describe and understand the relationships between
each of the seven phases of the systems development
life cycle.
3. Summarize and compare different software
development methodologies.
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
4. Realize the importance of good project management
practice.
5. Describe the benefits and challenges of outsourcing
systems development projects.
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SECTION 10.1
SYSTEMS
DEVELOPMENT
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DEVLOPING INFORMATION
SYSTEMS
• Information systems that are built correctly can
transform as the organization and its business
transform
• Information systems that effectively meet
employee needs will help an organization become
more productive and enhance decision making
• Information systems that do not meet employee
needs may have a damaging effect on
productivity and can even cause a business to fail
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DEVELOPING SOFTWARE
• As organizations’ reliance on information
systems grows, so do the businessrelated consequences of software
successes and failures including:
– Increase or decrease revenue
– Repair or damage to brand reputation
– Prevent or incur liabilities
– Increase or decrease productivity
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SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE (SDLC)
Systems development lifecycle –
the overall process for developing
information systems from planning
and analysis through
implementation and maintenance
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SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE (SDLC)
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PHASE 1: PLANNING
• Planning phase – involves
establishing a high-level plan of the
intended project and determining
project goals
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PHASE 2: ANALYSIS
• Analysis phase – involves
analyzing end-user business
requirements and refining project
goals into defined functions and
operations of the intended system
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PHASE 3: DESIGN
• Design phase – involves describing
the desired features and operations
of the system including screen
layouts, business rules, process
diagrams, pseudo code, and other
documentation
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PHASE 4: DEVELOPMENT
• Development phase – involves
taking all of the detailed design
documents from the design phase
and transforming them into the
actual system
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PHASE 5: TESTING
• Testing phase – involves bringing
all the project pieces together into a
special testing environment to test
for errors, bugs, and interoperability,
in order to verify that the system
meets all the business requirements
defined in the analysis phase
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PHASE 6: IMPLEMENTATION
• Implementation phase – involves
placing the system into production
so users can begin to perform
actual business operations with the
system
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PHASE 7: MAINTENANCE
• Maintenance phase – involves
performing changes, corrections,
additions, and upgrades to ensure
the system continues to meet the
business goals
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SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
METHODOLOGIES
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A methodology is a set of policies,
procedures, standards, processes,
practices, tools, techniques and tasks
that people apply to technical and
management challenges.
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SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
METHODOLOGIES
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There are a number of different software
development methodologies including:
– Waterfall
– Agile
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Rapid application development (RAD)
Extreme programming methodology
Rational unified process (RUP) methodology
Scrum methodology
– Participatory design methodology
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Waterfall Methodology
Waterfall
methodology – a
sequential, activitybased process in
which each phase in
the SDLC is performed
sequentially from
planning through
implementation and
maintenance
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Waterfall Methodology
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Agile Software Development
Methodologies
• Iterative development – consists of a series of tiny
projects
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Rapid Application Development
Methodology (RAD)
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Rapid application development
methodology (RAD) – emphasizes extensive
user involvement in the rapid and evolutionary
construction of working prototypes of a system
to accelerate the systems development
process
The prototype is an essential part of the
analysis phase when using a RAD
methodology
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Prototype – a smaller-scale representation or
working model of the users’ requirements or a
proposed design for an information system
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Rapid Application Development
Methodology (RAD)
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Participatory Design
• Participatory design (PD) methodology
promotes the active involvement of users in the
information systems development process
• The people destined to use the system play a
critical role in designing it
• PD Basic Tenets:
– The design process makes a difference for
participants
– Implementation of the results from the design
process is likely
– It is fun to participate
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Participatory Design
• Participatory Design recommendations:
– Create opportunities for mutual learning
– Utilize design tools familiar to users
– Use language familiar to users
– Start the design with current practice
– Encourage users to envision future situations
of working with the final system
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DEVELOPING SUCCESSFUL
SOFTWARE
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Primary principles for successful agile
software development include:
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Slash the budget
If it doesn’t work, kill it
Keep requirements to a minimum
Test and deliver frequently
Assign non-IT executives to software
projects
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OPENING CASE QUESTIONS
Canadian Youth Design Their Own Youth Portal
1. What challenges did the Youth Portal avoid by being a
nation-wide project as opposed to a global systems
development one?
2. If the Youth Portal is any indication, which of the seven
phases of the SDLC is most important to the Government
of Canada? The least important?
3. In what ways did the development and design of
Youth.gc.ca follow participatory design principles?
4. What challenges do you think an organization would face if
it followed a PD approach to information systems design?
5. The Youth.gc.ca example illustrated the various steps and
energy taken to ensure that a wide and representative set
of end-users were involved in the design process. Should
the same philosophy be followed by all organizations in
general? Why or why not?
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SECTION 10.2
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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MANAGING SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
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Project management interdependent variables
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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Common reasons why IT projects fall
behind schedule or fail
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
FUNDAMENTALS
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Project – a temporary endeavor
undertaken to create a unique product or
service
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Project management – the application
of knowledge, skills, tools, and
techniques to project activities in order to
meet or exceed stakeholder needs and
expectations
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
FUNDAMENTALS
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Project deliverable – any measurable, tangible,
verifiable outcome, result, or item that is
produced to complete a project or part of a
project
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Project milestone – represents key dates when
a certain group of activities must be performed
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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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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
FUNDAMENTALS
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Project management role
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CHOOSING STRATEGIC
PROJECTS
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Organizations must determine which
projects to pursue
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Three common techniques for selecting
projects
1. Focus on organizational goals
2. Categorize projects
3. Perform a financial analysis
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Project Charter
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Project charter – is a document issued by the
project initiator or sponsor that formally
authorizes the existence of a project and
typically includes:
– Project scope
– Project objectives
– Project constraints
– Project assumptions
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Setting The Project Scope
Project scope – defines the work that must be completed
to deliver a product with the specified features and
functions, and typically includes:
SMART criteria are
useful reminders
on how to ensure
that the project has
created
understandable
and measurable
objectives
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Project Plan
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Project plan – a formal, approved document
that manages and controls project execution
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A well-defined project plan should be:
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Easy to understand and read
Communicated to all key participants
Appropriate to the project’s size, complexity, and
criticality
Prepared by the team, rather than by the individual
project manager
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Project Plan
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Two primary diagrams used in project
planning include PERT and Gantt charts
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PERT (Program Evaluation and Review
Technique) chart – is a graphical network model
that depicts a project’s tasks and the relationships
between those tasks (Dependencies and Critical
paths are found in PERT charts)
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Gantt chart – a simple bar chart that depicts
project tasks against a calendar
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Project Plan
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PERT Chart EXPERT – PERT Chart Example
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Project Plan
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MS Project – Gantt Chart Example
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MANAGING PROJECTS
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A project manager must focus on
managing three primary areas to ensure
success:
1. People
2. Communications
3. Change
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OUTSOURCING
• Insourcing (in-house-development) – a
common approach using the professional
expertise within an organization to develop and
maintain the organization's information
technology systems
• Outsourcing - is an arrangement by which one
organization provides a service or services for
another organization that chooses not to
perform them in-house.
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OUTSOURCING
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OUTSOURCING
• Reasons companies outsource
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OUTSOURCING
• Factors driving outsourcing growth
include:
– Core competencies
– Financial savings
– Rapid growth
– Industry changes
– The Internet
– Globalization
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OUTSOURCING
• Outsourcing opportunities:
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Outsourcing Benefits
• Outsourcing benefits include:
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Increased quality and efficiency
Reduced operating expenses
Focusing on core profit-generating competencies
Reduced exposure to risk
Service providers economies of scale, expertise, and
best practices
Access to advanced technologies
Increased flexibility
Avoid costly outlay of capital funds
Reduced headcount and associated overhead expense
Reduced frustrations and expense related to
hiring/retaining employees
Reduced time to market for products or services
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OUTSOURCING OPTIONS
• Onshore outsourcing –
engaging another company
within the same country for
services
• Nearshore outsourcing –
contracting an outsourcing
arrangement with a
company in a nearby
country
• Offshore outsourcing –
using organizations from
developing countries to
write code and develop
systems
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THE CHALLENGES OF
OUTSOURCING
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Outsourcing challenges include
– Contract length
1. Difficulties in getting out of a contract
2. Problems in foreseeing future needs
3. Problems in reforming an internal IS department
after the contract is finished
– Competitive edge
– Confidentiality
– Scope definition
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OPENING CASE QUESTIONS
Canadian Youth Design Their Own Youth Portal
6. To what extent could PD design projects, like
Youth.gc.ca, benefit from project management principles
and techniques? To what extent could all software
development methodologies benefit from project
management principles and techniques?
7. Would project planning be necessary in a PD design
project like Youth.gc.ca? why or why not?
8. To what extent would PD projects, like Youth.gc.ca
benefit from a change management system? Would a
change management system be more beneficial to a
different type of systems design methodology? Explain.
9. To what extent would outsourcing be useful of
appropriate in PD design projects like Youth.gc.ca?
Would outsourcing be more suitable to another systems
development methodology? If so, which one(s)?
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CLOSING CASE ONE
HP’s Software Problems
1. Which one of the seven phases of the systems
development life cycle is least important to HP? The
most important? Why?
2. Which of the different software development
methodologies should HP use to implement successful
systems? Why?
3. Identify the primary reasons for systems project failure
and explain which ones HP experienced on its ERP build.
4. Review the buy versus build decision and explain why HP
chose to buy its ERP system.
5. Review the project charter and explain how HP could
benefit by using one.
6. Review the three outsourcing options and identify the
pros and cons HP should consider if it chooses to
outsource its system development effort.
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CLOSING CASE TWO
Reducing Ambiguity in Business Requirements
1. Why are ambiguous business requirements the
leading cause of systems development failures?
2. Why do the words and and or tend to lead to
ambiguous requirements?
3. Research the Web and determine other reasons
for “bad” business requirements.
4. What is wrong with the following business
requirement: “The system must support
employee birthdays since every employee
always has a birthday every year”?
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CLOSING CASE THREE
Staying on Track – Toronto Transit
1. How is project management software being used
by the TTC for better project management?
2. Describe Gantt charts and explain how the TTC
could use one to communicate project status.
3. Describe PERT charts and explain how the TTC
could use one to communicate project status.
4. Using this case study of the TTC as a guide,
under what circumstances should organizations
utilize project management software to help
manage projects?
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