System PlanningPreliminary investigation
 Information System Strategic Planning
 Is a set of long term goals that describe the information
architecture and major IS initiatives needed to achieve
the goals of the org
 Must be aligned with overall org’s strategic plan
 Must efficiently allocate resources among competing
systems so the projects can be completed on time ,
within budget and with required functionality
 Should identify specific areas to be given priority
because of resource constraints.
 Priorities must be set to ensure maximum return is
obtained for funds invested in dveloping IS
 Information System Operational Plan
 Is a set of projects that will be executed by the IS dept
and the functional areas managers in support of the IS
strategic planning
 Is responsible for identifying hardware component and
configuration that allow software o operate
 Typical IS operational plan contains:
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Mission and objectives of IS function
Summary of info needs of the functional areas and org as a
whole
Constraints of the IS function in terms of technological and
personnel limitation
Long term plan indicating summary of the system needed by
the company to reach org goals
Short term listing the current IS projects and a detailed plan
of projects to be developed or continued during current year
 System Request
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Is a written request from mgt or end users which triggers the
start of the SDLC
Includes 5 considerations:
 Project Sponsor
 Business needs
 Functionality
 Expected value
 Special issues
 Project sponsor
 Is the person who usually initiates the proposed system
project having an interest in seeing that the new system
succeeds
 Could be the person who work throughout SDLC to ensure
project in right direction
 Business needs
 Describes why the IS should be developed explaining to the
information steering committee why org should fund the
project concerned
 Functionality of the system
 Describes what the proposed IS will do.
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Eg. What features and capabilities the IS will need to have
 Expected values
 System request will include expected value to be gained from
the proposed system
 Specify rough estimations of tangible and intangible benefits
 Special issues
 Include determining the system constraints that must
be met for the proposed systems project to be viable
 Proposed systems project needs to be completed within
specific deadline and budget
 Information System Steering Committee
 Developing IS must get support from top mgt
 A good approach is to have IS steering committee that
represents top mgt and all functional areas within org
 Responsible for overall planning and control of system
development
 Existing IS should be reviewed on a regular basis to assess it
adequacy
 The committee may receive request to investigate such as
error in payroll , request to design new inventory system etc
 They will need to review these system requests and determine
which one should be considered for further study
 Other than evaluates system request, they also provide
guidance throughout the SDLC
Preliminary Investigation
 The first step in SDLC is to do survey or preliminary
investigation of existing system
 It is important t understand existing system before
proposing for changes or modifications
 It is important to establish relationship with the users
because the success of a system depends on users
acceptance
 In order for a system to serves the needs of the org, the
development team must:
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Find out and analyze causes of business problems rather than
just deal with symptom
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Ensure that needs of all affected by new system are considered
Consider how the new system will integrate with other system
in the org
 Nature of problem
 In preliminary stage, the nature of problem must be
determined
 Sometimes what appears to be a problem only a
symptom. The problem should be treated and not the
symptom
 Scope
 Establishing scope is important because problems tends
to expand if no firm boundaries are established
 It is necessary to stay within budget and schedule
 If scope is too broad , the project will never finished. If
the scope is too narrow, user needs may not be met
 The scope will define:
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Part of system to be changed
Part that is outside its control
Restriction on the project if any
Resources to be made available
Resource limitations
 Goal
 Must be developed within practical bounds of the org
 One way to ensure this is to break down project goal into
more detailed sub- goal that consider org constraints
 These sub- goals will be used in later phases to guide
detailed analysis and design
 Another guideline for goal definition is the
identification of deficiencies in the existing system
 The project goal is to remove such deficiencies
 The project goal , scope and constraints are also known
as term of reference
 Organization Chart
 A good starting point to find out who is who and who is
doing what
 Help to determine appropriate individuals to interview
during preliminary investigation
 Should verify that the chart is updated and accurate
 Obtaining Information
 When investigating IS, we should gather info. Through
some means. Eg.interview
 Note that preliminary investigation is not designed to
learn everything in detail
 Prepare a Preliminary Investigation Report
 After conducting preliminary investigation, the findings
must be reported to the Information System Committee
or top mgt
 Preliminary investigation is a brief phase and should
result in some recommendations suggesting:
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Drop the matter
Fix the problem immediately (if it is simple )
Authorize to go on the next phase for a closer look
 Typical preliminary investigation report should include:
 What is found concerning the operation of the system in
question
 The problems that present or appear to present in the system
 Recommendations for future action