Chapt 12 how are business processes, IS, and Applications developed

candy time... halloween was yesterday

Activities in a Business Process and the Correlating Information Systems

• Prepare Quotation (CRM)

• Verify Availability (Inventory IS)

• Check Customer Credit (Customer Credit IS)

• Arrpove Special Terms

• Process Order (Shipping IS)

Application

1.) Synonym for application software

2.) A combination of hardware, software, and data that is to be developed for an information system

Relationship of Business Processes and Information Systems

1.) Business processes, information systems, and applications have different characteristics and components

2.) The relationship of business processes to IS is many-to-many, or N:M

3.) Every IS has at least one application b/c every IS has a software component

Business process management (BPM)

1.) a technique used to create new business processes and to manage changes to existing processes

2.) A cyclical process for systematically creating, assessing, and alterning business processes.

Systems development life cycle (SDLC)

1.) a process that can be used to develop both IS and applications

2.) the traditional process used to develop IS and applications

Scrum

a new development process that was created, in part, to overcome the problems that occur when using the SDLC.

Business analyst

someone who is well versed in Porter’s models and in the organization’s strategies and who focuses, primarily, on ensuring that business processes and IS meet the organization’s competitive strategies.

Systems analysts

IS professionals who understand both business and information technology

business process

a network of activities, repositories, roles, resources, and flows that interact to accomplish a business function

activities

collections of relatred tasks that receive inputs and produce outputs

repository

a collection of something; an inventory is a physical ____ and a database is a data ____

Roles

collections of activities

Resources

people or computer applications that are assigned to roles

Two types of flows

1.) Sequence Flow

2.) Data Flow

Sequence Flow

directs the order of activities

Data flow

Shows the movement of data among activities and repositories

Why do Processes Need Management?

1.) Improve Process Quality

2.) Change in Technology

3.) Change in Business Fundamentals

Process Quality

• 2 Dimensions: Efficiency (use of resources) and effectiveness (accomplish strategy)

• Change b/c of efficiency of effectiveness problems

• Problems w/ efficiency

  • Resources used poorly

Change in Technology

• Ex. Delivery arriving faster than credit can be checked - allowing goods to arrive before the person could even pay

Change in Business Fundamentals

Modified business processes:

• Market

• Product lines'

• Supply chain

• Company policy

• Company organization

• Internationalization

• Business environment

BPM Activities

1.) Creating an As-is model

2.) Creating components

3.) Implementing the new or changed process

As-is model

A model that represents the current situation and processes

COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and related Technology)

A set of standard practices, created by the IS Audit and Control Association, that are used in the assessment stage of the BPM cycle to determine how well an IS complies with an organization’s strategy

Object Management Group (OM#) (Hashtaged b/c yes)

A software industry standards org that created a standard set of terms and graphical notations for documenting business processes

Business process modeling notation (BPMN)

standard set of terms and graphical notations for documenting business processes

Swim-lane layout

A process diagram layout similar to swim lanes in a swimming pool; each role in the process is shown in its own horizontal rectangle or lane

Phases in an SDLC

1.) Define system

2.) Determine requirements

3.) Design system components

4. Implement system

5. maintain system

Requirements analyst

The second phase in the SDLC, in which developers conduct user interviews; evaluate existing systems; determine new forms/reports/queries; identify new features and functions, including security; and create the data model

Define System

• Define system goals and scope

• Assess feasibility (cost, schedule, technical, organizational)

• Form a project team

• Plan project

Cost feasibility

is an assessment of whether the anticipated benefits of the system are likely to justify the estimated development and operational costs

schedule feasibility

whether an IS can be developed within the time available

technical feasibility

refers to whether existing IT is likely to be able to meet the needs of the new system

organizational feasibility

concerns whether the new system fits within the orgs customs, culture, charter, or legal requirements

Determine Requirements

• Sources of requirements

• Role of a prototype

• Approve requirements

• Conduct user interviews

• evaluate existing systems

• determine new web pages

• identify new application features and functions

• consider security

• create the data model

• consider all five components

Design system components

• Determine hardware specifications

• Determine software specifications (depends on source)

• Design the database

• Design procedures

• Create job definitions

Implement system

• Build system components

• conduct unit test

• integrate components

• Conduct integrated test

• convert to new system

maintain system

• Record requests for change

  • failures

  • enhancements

• Prioritize requests

• fix failures

  • patches

  • service packs

  • new releases

implementation

2 meanings

• implement the IS components only

• implement the IS and the business processes that use the system

System conversion

The process of converting business activity from the old system to the new

Pilot installation

the organization implements the entire system/business processes on a limited portion of the business, say, a single department

phased installation

A type of system conversion in which the new system is installed in pieces across the organization(s).

parallel installation

the new system/business processes run parallel with the old one until the new system is tested and fully operational

plunge installation (direct installation)

the organization shuts off the old system/business processes and starts the new one

Design for the Five Components

Hardware: Determine hardware specifications

Software: Select off-the-shelf programs. Design alterations and custom programs as necessary

Data: Design database and related structures

Procedures: Design user and operations procedures

People: Develop user and operations job descriptions

Implementation for the five components

Hardware: Obtain, install, and test hardware

Software: License and install off-the-shelf programs. Write alterations and custom programs. Test programs

Data: Create a database. Fill with data. Test data.

Procedures: Document procedures. Create training programs. Review and test procedures

People: Hire and train personnel

Maintenance

1.) To fix the system to do what it was supposed to do in the first place

2.) To adapt the system to a change in requirements

5 Keys for Successful SDLC Projects

• Create a work breakdown structure

• Estimate time and costs

• Create a project plan

• Adjust the plan via trade-offs

• Manage development challenges

Deliverables

Work products that are the result of the completion of tasks in a development project

Work breakdown structure (WBS)

a hierarchy of the tasks required to complete a project; for a large project, it might involve hundreds of thousands of tasks.

Gantt chart

A timeline graphical chart that shows tasks, dates, dependencies, and possibly resources

critical path

The sequence of activities that determines the earliest data by which the project can be completed

critical path analysis

The process by which project managers compress the schedule by moving resources, typically people, from noncritical path tasks onto critical path tasks

trade-off

is a balancing of three critical factors:

• requirement

• cost

• time

diseconomies

1.) The situation that occurs when adding more resources creates inefficiencies

2.) A principle that states as development teams become larger, the average contribution per worker decreases

Brook’s Law

states that adding more people to a late project makes it later

Baseline WBS

The initial work breakdown structure that shows the planned tasks, dependencies, durations, and resource assignments

Four Critical Factors / Challenges to large-scale project management

• Coordination

• Diseconomies of scale

• Configuration control

• Unexpected events

Configuration control

a set of management policies, practices, and tools that developers use to maintain control over the project’s resources. Such resources include documents, schedules, designs, program code, test suites, and any other shared resources needed to complete the project.

Agile development

An adaptive project management process based on certain principles listed in Figure 12-20.

Can be used for the management of many types of projects, including processes, information systems, and applications

The certain principles include:

• Expect, even welcome, changes in requirements

• Frequently deliver working version of the product

• Work closely with the customer for the duration

• Design as you go

• Test as you go

• Team knows best how it’s doing/how to change

• Can be used for business processes, information systems, and applications development (Generic)

***Important Note*** Thought to be done by small orgs working on small projects, but a 2020 study by VersionOne Inc. noted that this trend reversed

Scrum is a agile methodology and conforms to the principles shown in figure 12-20

Just-in-time design

Rather than design the complete, overall system at the beginning, only those portions of the design needed to complete the current work are done. Common for agile development techniques such as scrum

Scrum Process

• Is an agile development methodology developed by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland and extended by others over the past 15 years

• ____ is a rugby term and was first used for teamwork in a Havard Business Review article written by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonake

Scrum Essentials

• Process is driven by a prioritized list of requirements that is created by the users and business sponsors of the new system

• Can be as short as 1 week but, as with all agile processes, never longer than 8

• Two to 4 weeks is recommended

• Each workday begins with a stand-up, which is a 15-minute meeting in which each team member states:

  • What he or she has done in the past day

  • What he or she will do in the coming day

  • Any factors that are blocking his or her progress

stand-up

In scrum, a 15-minute meeting in which each team member states what he or she has done in the past day, what he or she will do in the coming day, and any factors that are blocking his or her progress

Paired programming

The situation in which two computer programmers share the same computer and develop a computer program together

When Are We Done?

Work continues in a repeating cycle of scrum periods until one of three conditions is met:

• The customer is satisfied with the product created and decides to accept the work product, even if some requirements are left unsatisfied

• The project runs out of time

• The project runs out of money

How do Requirements Drive the Scrum Process

• Creating Requirements Tasks

• Scheduling Tasks

• Committing to Finish Tasks

• Hocus-Pocus?

Example Requirement and Tasks

Req:
“As a doctor, I want to view the patient’s exercise records so I can make sure she is following her prescription.”

Tasks:

1.) Authenticate the doctor

2.) Obtain patient identifying data from doctor

3.) Determine this doctor is authorized to view this patient’s records

4.) Read the database to obtain exercise records

5.) Read the database to obtain most recent prescription record

6.) Format the data into a generic format

7.) Determine the type of mobile device the doctor is using

8.) Format the generic report into a report for that mobile device

Velocity

In scrum, the total number of points of work that a team can accomplish in each scrum period

Summary of Scrum Estimation Techniques

1.) Team assigns 1 point to the simplest task

2.) Times to deliver working tasks are compared to each other and assigned points (points are Fibonacci numbers). Use:

• team estimation

• planning poker

• other

3.) Using past experience, team computes its velocity… number of points it can accomplish per scrum period

4.) Working with product owner, team selects tasks for the upcoming scrum period, constrained by its velocity