Systems Development and Project Management Notes

Fundamental Rules of System Design

• Users are the designers.
• Must be of value to all who touch the system.
• Simple, intuitive, and easy to use.

System Development

• Process of creating and maintaining information systems.
• Requires establishing system goals, setting up the project, and determining requirements.
• Needs business knowledge and management skills.

Functional Applications

• Computer programs that support or automate major activities in a functional process.
• Examples include CRM, ERP, and SCM.

Development Personnel

• Business analysts, systems analysts, programmers, database designers, test personnel, hardware specialists.

Project Success Factors

• Good team, solid development process, clear roadmap.
• Requires both technical and business knowledge.

Project Breakdown Causes

• Poor planning, weak sponsorship, mismanaged resources, scope creep, over promising, changing technology, office politics, human behavior.

Choosing Projects

• Strategic improvements, ROI, mandatory requirements.

Team Structures

• Traditional functional silos vs. integrated agile teams.
• Core project team: 5-9 members, cross-functional, accountable, empowered, co-located.

Software Development Methodologies

• SDLC (Sequential), RAD (Rapid Prototyping), RUP (Framework for iterative development), Agile (Scrum) (Iterative and incremental).

Five Component Framework

• Hardware, software, data, procedures, people.

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

• Overall process for developing information systems: Planning, Analysis, Design, Development, Testing, Implementation, Maintenance.

Waterfall Methodology

• Sequence of phases with heavy planning and high documentation; output of each phase becomes the input for the next.

Agile Development

• Iterative and incremental development, adaptive planning, evolutionary development, rapid response to change.

Agile vs. SDLC

• Agile: Adaptable, self-organizing teams, customer collaboration.
• SDLC: Fixed plan, top-down control, prescribed detail.

Agile Scrum Framework

• Product backlog, sprint planning, daily scrum meetings, sprint review, sprint retrospective.

Agile Leadership

• Manage teams with autonomy and flexibility; focus on customer value.

Time Boxing/Sprints

• Agile activities in 2-4 week sprints; avoid postponing cycles.

Agile Methods

• Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Rapid Application Development (RAD).

Daily Standup Meeting

• Team member commitments and problem-solving.

Project Management Tools

• Wikis, Pivotal Tracker, Iteration Board.

Version Control

• Git/Subversion is a MUST for managing code changes

SDLC Principle

• Errors found later in the SDLC are more expensive to fix.

Phase Gates

• Project phase decision points: Go, Hold, Kill.

Implementation Methods

• Parallel, Direct, Phased, Pilot.

Major Project Management Challenges

• Coordination, diseconomies of scale, configuration control, unexpected events, human factors.

Brooks’ Law

• Adding more people to a late project makes the project later.

Mitigating Risk

• Define success criteria, project plan, plan for change, manage risk, learn from experience, share knowledge, focus on people.

Keys to Success

• Define stakeholder needs, emphasize user involvement, build prototypes, work in parallel, use Agile, plan for success.