Chapter 2 Systems software

What is a business case?

The reasons, or justification, for a proposal.

What should a business case do?

Describe the project clearly, provide the justification to proceed, and estimate the project's financial impact.

What five questions does a business case answer?

Why are we doing this project? How much will it cost and how long will it take? Are there risks? How will we measure success? What alternatives exist?

What must an analyst consider when analyzing a business case?

The organization's overall mission, objectives, IT needs, and systems development process.

What is strategic planning?

The process of identifying long-term organizational goals, strategies, and resources.

What time horizon does a strategic plan use?

Five, ten, or more years into the future.

What does strategic planning start with?

A mission statement.

What is a mission statement?

A statement that defines the organization's business, its objectives, and how it will reach those objectives.

What is a vision statement?

A statement detailing where the organization aspires to go.

What must a mission statement reflect?

The firm's vision, purpose, and values.

What is a critical success factor?

A high-priority objective.

What is SWOT analysis?

An examination of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

What resources does SWOT examine?

A firm's technical, human, and financial resources.

Which SWOT factors are internal?

Strengths and weaknesses.

Which SWOT factors are external?

Opportunities and threats.

Give an example of a strength and a weakness.

Strength: an excellent web design staff. Weakness: documentation that needs updating.

Give an example of an opportunity and a threat.

Opportunity: high potential for B2B growth. Threat: aggressive new web competition.

What is a systems request?

A formal way of asking for IT support; the starting point for most projects.

What are the six main reasons for systems requests?

Stronger controls, reduced cost, more information, better performance, improved services, and more support for new products and services.

What does stronger controls mean as a reason?

The system must have effective controls to keep data secure and accurate.

Name three common security controls.

Passwords, levels of user access, and encryption.

What does reduced cost mean as a reason?

The current system is expensive to operate or maintain due to technical problems, design weaknesses, or changing business demands.

What does more information mean as a reason?

The system produces information that is insufficient, incomplete, or unable to support changing needs.

What does better performance mean as a reason?

The current system does not meet performance requirements, such as slow response or inability to support growth.

What does improved services mean as a reason?

The request aims to improve service to customers or to users within the company.

What does more support for new products and services mean?

New products and services require new types or levels of IT support.

Name the six internal factors that affect systems projects.

Strategic plan, top managers, user requests, the IT department, existing systems and data, and company finances.

Name the six external factors that affect systems projects.

Technology, suppliers, customers, competitors, the economy, and government.

Why are top managers an internal factor?

Large-scale projects require significant resources, so top management usually initiates them.

Why is the strategic plan an internal factor?

It sets the overall direction for the firm, and goals needing IT support generate systems requests.

Why are suppliers an external factor?

With the growth of EDI, supplier relationships are critically important to system design.

Why are customers an external factor?

Systems that interact with customers usually receive top priority.

What is CRM?

Customer relationship management systems, which integrate all customer-related events and transactions.

How does government affect systems projects?

Federal, state, and local regulations directly affect the design of corporate information systems.

How does the economy affect systems projects?

During expansion, firms need scalable systems that can handle additional volume and growth.

Who evaluates systems requests?

A systems review committee, also called a computer resources committee.

What are the advantages of a systems review committee?

A broader viewpoint sets priorities more effectively, and one person's bias is less likely to affect decisions.

What are the disadvantages of a systems review committee?

Action waits until the committee meets, members may favor their own departments' projects, and political differences can delay decisions.

What are the qualities of a good systems request form?

Streamlines the process, ensures consistency, is easy to understand, includes clear instructions, indicates required documents, and is submitted electronically.

What are the four types of feasibility?

Operational, technical, economic, and schedule feasibility.

What is operational feasibility?

Whether the proposed system will be used effectively after it has been developed.

What can affect operational feasibility?

Organizational culture. It cannot be accurately measured and requires careful study.

Name questions that predict operational feasibility.

Is the project supported by management and users? Will it result in a workforce reduction? Are there legal or ethical issues?

What is technical feasibility?

Whether the technical resources needed to acquire and use the system are available.

Name questions that assess technical feasibility.

Does the company have the necessary hardware, software, and network resources? The required expertise? Sufficient capacity for future needs? Will a prototype be required?

What is economic feasibility?

Whether the projected benefits of the proposed system outweigh the total cost of ownership.

What is total cost of ownership (TCO)?

Ongoing support and maintenance costs plus acquisition costs.

What does a TCO cost analysis cover?

People, hardware and equipment, software, training, licenses and fees, consulting expenses, and facility costs.

What is schedule feasibility?

Whether the project can be implemented in an acceptable time frame.

Name issues that affect schedule feasibility.

The interaction between time and cost, whether the team controls the relevant factors, whether management set a firm timetable, and whether an accelerated schedule poses risks.

What are tangible costs?

Costs that can be measured in dollars, such as hardware, software, salaries, and licenses.

What are intangible costs?

Costs that affect organizational performance but have no immediate dollar impact, such as low employee morale.

What are tangible benefits?

Benefits resulting from a decrease in expenses or an increase in revenue, such as a scheduling system that reduces overtime.

What are intangible benefits?

Benefits important to the company but not measurable in dollars, such as a system that improves employee job satisfaction.

What is a discretionary project?

A project where management has a choice about implementing it.

What is a nondiscretionary project?

A project where management has no choice about implementing it.

Give examples of nondiscretionary projects.

Annual updates to payroll, tax percentage changes, and quarterly changes.

What is the first step in evaluating feasibility?

Identify and weed out systems requests that are not feasible.

What factors affect project priority?

Will it reduce costs, increase revenue, produce better information or results, serve customers better, serve the organization better, be implemented in a reasonable time, and are resources available?

What are the six steps of a preliminary investigation?

Understand the problem or opportunity; define scope and constraints; perform fact-finding; analyze usability, cost, benefit, and schedule data; evaluate feasibility; present results to management.

What happens in Step 1 of the preliminary investigation?

Develop a business profile and identify the departments, users, and business processes involved.

What tool is suggested for Step 1?

A fishbone diagram.

What happens in Step 2 of the preliminary investigation?

Define the specific boundaries of the project and identify constraints.

How do you define project scope?

Create a list with sections called must do, should do, could do, and won't do.

What is project creep?

The process by which projects with very general scope definitions expand gradually, without specific authorization.

What is a constraint?

A requirement or condition the system must satisfy, or an outcome the system must achieve.

What happens in Step 3 of the preliminary investigation?

Perform fact-finding to gather data about project usability, costs, benefits, and schedules.

What activities make up fact-finding?

Analyzing organization charts, conducting interviews, reviewing documentation, observing operations, and conducting a user survey.

What is a fishbone diagram?

An analysis tool that represents the possible causes of a problem as a graphical outline.

What must you do when using a fishbone diagram?

Dig deeper to identify actual causes rather than just symptoms.

What is a Pareto chart?

A chart that displays the causes of a problem in priority order.

What is an XY chart?

A scatter diagram that shows correlation between variables.

What does a lack of correlation on an XY chart suggest?

The variables are independent and the cause lies elsewhere.

What happens in Step 5 of the preliminary investigation?

Evaluate operational, technical, economic, and schedule feasibility.

What happens in Step 6 of the preliminary investigation?

Present results and recommendations to management in a report.

What does the Step 6 report include?

An evaluation of the systems request, an estimate of costs and benefits, and a case for action.

What is a case for action?

A summary of the project request and a specific recommendation.

Name the eight sections of a preliminary investigation report.

Introduction, systems request summary, findings, recommendations, project roles, time and cost estimates, expected benefits, and appendix.

What goes in the findings section of the report?

The results of the preliminary investigation, including project scope, constraints, and feasibility.

What goes in the expected benefits section?

Anticipated tangible and intangible benefits and a timetable showing when they occur.

How should you interact with managers and users during a preliminary investigation?

Meet with them to describe the project, explain responsibilities, answer questions, and invite comments.

What should a preliminary investigation focus on when talking to users?

Improvements and enhancements, not problems.

Which SDLC phase does Chapter 2 cover?

Systems planning, the first phase of the systems development life cycle.

How does the SDLC serve as a framework for systems development?

Its phases give every project a common structure of activities and deliverables regardless of the development method used.