CH2: Systems Analysis and Design

Vocabulary-style practice flashcards generated from lecture notes on project management concepts, feasibility analysis, project planning tools, staffing, and team execution.

Project Sponsor

A key person who proposes the development or adoption of a new information technology system.

Approval Committee

A committee that reviews proposals from various groups and units in an organization to decide which systems to commit to developing.

Project Management

The process of planning and controlling the development of a system within a specified timeframe at a minimum cost with the right functionality.

Project Manager

The individual with primary responsibility for managing and coordinating the hundreds of tasks and roles in a project.

Staffing Plan

A document describing the kinds of people working on a project, including an organizational chart, names, roles, and a mini-resume of team members' expertise.

Project Charter

A document describing the project's objectives, rules, norms, and ground rules.

Functional Lead

A project role responsible for managing a group of analysts.

Technical Lead

A project role responsible for overseeing the progress of programmers and technical staff members.

System Request

A document defining a proposed project, detailing the Project Sponsor, Business Need, Business Requirements, Business Value, and Special Issues or Constraints.

Technical Feasibility

An assessment evaluating technical risk based on familiarity with the application, knowledge of the business domain, familiarity with the technology, extension of existing firm technologies, and project size.

Economic Feasibility

A financial assessment evaluating development costs, annual operational costs, annual benefits, and intangible costs and benefits.

Break-Even Point

The point in time on a cost-benefit analysis graph where total accumulated benefits equal total accumulated costs.

Return on Investment (ROI)

A calculation measuring the financial return of a project, defined as $\text{Return on Investment} = \frac{\text{Total (benefits - costs)}}{\text{Total costs}}$.

Net Present Value (NPV)

A financial calculation evaluating the present value of future cash flows, calculated as $\text{Net Present Value} = \frac{\text{Some amount of money}}{(1 + \text{interest rate})^n}$ where $n$ is the number of periods.

Organizational Feasibility

A stakeholder analysis evaluating how well a proposed system will be accepted by project champions, organizational management, and system users.

Executive Summary

A concise summary containing essential results of the Planning Phase in exact business terms so executives can quickly decide what parts of the plan to review further.

Scope Creep

The uncontrolled growth of project requirements during development, managed using JAD, prototyping, formal change approval, and charging for changes.

Work Plan

A tool created in the Planning Phase for tracking project tasks, start and completion dates, assigned personnel, deliverables, status, priority, and estimated versus actual hours.

Timeboxing

A technique that sets a fixed deadline and prioritizes core system functionality, reducing features or finishing touches if needed to deliver on time.

Gantt Chart

A traditional project management schedule diagram displaying tasks, durations, start/finish dates, assigned resources, and timeline bars across calendar dates.

Kanban

An agile project management visual tool that tracks work using task cards placed in columns such as Stories, To Do, In Progress, Testing, and Done.

Project Reporting Structure

An organizational hierarchy chart showing reporting lines from Analysts to Functional Leads, Programmers to Technical Leads, and Leads to the Project Manager.

Meeting Agenda/Reporting Form

A standardized form used for meeting planning and documentation, capturing group details, attendees, purpose, agenda, major goals, action items, accomplishments, and unresolved issues.

Classic Project Management Mistakes

Common schedule management pitfalls including overly optimistic schedules, failing to monitor schedules, failing to update schedules, and adding people to a late project.