Systems Analysis & Design and Project Management - Flashcards
Introduction to Systems Analysis & Design Information Systems
Information Systems Fundamentals
Information System (IS): A combination of technology, people, and data designed to support business functions.
System: A set of related components that work together to produce specific results.
Five Main Components of an Information System:
Hardware: Physical components such as servers, computers, and networking devices.
Software: Programs that control hardware and generate desired information or results.
Data: Raw material that the IS transforms into useful information.
Processes: Tasks and business functions performed by users, managers, and IT staff to achieve specific results.
People: Individuals with an interest in an IS, known as stakeholders, who are crucial to its success.
Internet Business Strategies
Modern business is influenced by trends like increasing globalization, technology integration, and the growth of cloud computing.
Two Main Types of Internet Business Strategies:
B2C (Business-to-Consumer): Customers use the Internet to research, compare, and purchase products/services directly from a company.
B2B (Business-to-Business): Transactions between businesses (e.g., manufacturers selling components). Essential for global market reach. Many large firms utilize Supply Chain Management (SCM) software for this purpose.
Business Profiles and Models
Modeling: The creation of a graphical representation of a concept or process for analysis, testing, and modification by developers.
Business Profile: A high-level overview of a company's mission, functions, organization, and products.
Business Model: Describes the specific information a system must provide.
Business Process Modeling (BPM): Utilizes models to document business operations. Analysts may use tools incorporating Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), which includes symbols for events, processes, and workflows.
Types of Information Systems
Enterprise Computing: Systems supporting company-wide operations and data management. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems offer cost-effective support across departments.
Transaction Processing (TP) Systems: Process data from day-to-day business operations (e.g., sales, payroll).
Business Support Systems: Provide job-related information support to users at all company levels.
Knowledge Management Systems: Use a knowledge base to help users find information via keywords or questions.
User Productivity Systems: Examples include email, word processing, and spreadsheets. Also includes groupware, which enables data sharing and collaboration.
Digital Assistants: Combine knowledge management and user productivity with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Systems Integration: Most large companies require systems that combine features from transaction processing, business support, knowledge management, and user productivity systems.
Systems Development Methods
Structured Analysis: Uses the systems development life cycle (SDLC), a set of phases including planning, analysis, design, implementation, and support.
Object-Oriented Analysis: Combines data and the processes acting on that data into discrete objects.
Agile Methods: Develop a system incrementally through a series of prototypes, constantly adjusting to user requirements. A potential disadvantage is weak documentation and blurred accountability.
The Role of the Systems Analyst
A key member of the IT department, responsible for planning, developing, and maintaining information systems.
Acts as a translator between managers and programmers, converting business needs into technical requirements.
Requires strong communication skills and the ability to interact with people at all levels.
Strategic Planning and Project Initiation
Strategic Planning
Definition: The process of identifying long-term organizational goals, strategies, and resources.
Begins with a mission statement reflecting a company's vision, purpose, and values.
SWOT Analysis: A common strategic planning tool applicable to products, projects, or entire companies. It analyzes:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Systems Analyst's Interest: Involvement in strategic planning demonstrates a higher level of project direction ownership and is crucial for IT project success.
Other Strategic Planning Tools: CASE tools (integrate statements, entities, data elements), mind maps, balanced scorecards, and gap analysis.
The Business Case
Definition: The reasons or justifications for a proposed project.
Key Questions a Good Business Case Should Answer:
Why are we undertaking this project?
What is the project's scope and objective?
How does the proposed solution address core business issues?
What are the estimated costs and timelines?
Will there be productivity loss during the transition period?
Systems Requests
Definition: A formal request for IT support.
Six Main Reasons for a Systems Request:
Stronger Controls: Ensuring data security and accuracy through measures like passwords, user access levels, encryption, and biometric devices.
Reduced Cost: A new system's potential for greater cost-effectiveness.
More Information: The current system's inability to provide sufficient information for managerial decision-making.
Better Performance: The current system failing to meet performance requirements.
Improved Customer Service: Aiming to enhance service for customers or internal users (e.g., Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, Electronic Proof of Delivery (EPOD)).
More Support for New Products and Services: New offerings often necessitate new types or levels of IT support.
Processing Systems Requests: Often handled by a systems review committee or computer resources committee to establish priorities and reduce individual bias. These committees typically consist of the IT director and managers from other departments.
Factors Affecting Systems Projects
Factors can be either internal or external.
Internal Factors:
A company's strategic plan.
Top management directives.
Users needing more IT services.
IT staff members' insights or issues.
Problems identified within existing systems.
A company's financial status.
External Factors:
Technology: Rapid changes such as Electronic Product Code (EPC) with RFID tags, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain.
Suppliers.
Customers.
Competitors.
The Economy: Requires scalable systems to handle growth during expansion.
The Government: Regulations (e.g., IRS reporting requirements) directly affecting systems design.
PESTEL Framework: Can be used to assess external factors: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal.
Processing Systems Requests (Reiteration and Committee Goals)
Systems review committees or computer resources committees are crucial for evaluating requests, reducing project creep (unauthorized project expansion), and ensuring alignment with strategic goals.
Assessing Feasibility and Prioritizing Requests
Feasibility Study: A key part of the preliminary investigation, examining a systems request against four main measures:
Operational Feasibility: Will the proposed system be effectively used after development?
Economic Feasibility: Do projected benefits outweigh estimated costs, including the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)?
Technical Feasibility: Are necessary technical resources available for development, purchase, installation, or operation?
Schedule Feasibility: Can the project be implemented within an acceptable timeframe?
Setting Priorities: Committees consider several factors:
Impact on the company's financial results.
Support for the overall business plan.
Potential for financial benefits (e.g., increased revenue, reduced costs).
Project's time frame for completion.
Project feasibility (operational, economic, technical, schedule).
Highest Priority: Projects offering the most significant benefit at the lowest cost in the shortest time.
Project Classification:
Discretionary: Management has a choice in implementation.
Nondiscretionary: No choice exists; implementation is mandatory.
Feasibility analysis and priority setting are ongoing tasks.
The Preliminary Investigation
Purpose: Conducted by a systems analyst to study a systems request and recommend a specific action.
Five Main Steps:
Understand the Problem or Opportunity: Utilize tools like a fishbone diagram for cause-and-effect analysis.
Define the Project Scope and Constraints: Establish specific project boundaries. Be vigilant about project creep.
Perform Fact-Finding: Gather data through organizational charts, interviews, documentation review, operational observation, and surveys.
Analyze Project Usability, Cost, Benefit, and Schedule Data: Develop time and cost estimates for the next SDLC phase.
Evaluate Feasibility: Reassess the four types of feasibility.
Preliminary Investigation Report: Summarizes findings and recommendations. Typically includes sections on Introduction, Systems Request Summary, Findings, Recommendations, Project Roles, Time and Cost Estimates, and Expected Benefits.
Managing Systems Projects
Project Management Fundamentals
Project Management: The process of planning, scheduling, monitoring, controlling, and reporting on information system development.
Project Manager: A senior systems analyst or IT department manager who breaks projects into tasks, determines task order, and estimates durations.
Project Coordinator: Handles administrative responsibilities for larger projects.
Project Triangle: Represents the choices between cost, scope, and time. Only two of the three can be optimally achieved simultaneously (e.g., fast and cheap usually means poor quality).
Task Management
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): Breaking a project into smaller, manageable tasks.
Task/Activity: Any work unit with a defined beginning and end, requiring company resources.
Event/Milestone: A recognizable reference point for monitoring project progress.
Person-day: Represents the work one person can complete in one day.
Factors Affecting Task Duration: Project size, human resources, experience with similar projects, and constraints.
Common Project Charts:
Gantt Chart: A bar chart simplifying complex projects by combining activities into task groups with subsidiary tasks.
PERT/CPM Chart: Analyzes a project as a series of individual tasks, shown as rectangular boxes in their required execution sequence.
Task Patterns: Tasks can be arranged as:
Dependent tasks.
Multiple successor tasks.
Multiple predecessor tasks.
Critical Path: A series of tasks where any delay will impact the project's overall completion date.
Slack Time: The amount of time a task can be delayed without affecting the project completion date.
People Management
Communication: Systems analysts must communicate clearly, concisely, and translate technical jargon into plain language.
Key Elements:
Fostering effective collaboration and navigating team dynamics.
Nurturing growth through learning and development opportunities.
Providing support during transitions and change.
Building trust as a fundamental management aspect.
Addressing and managing resistance to change and skill gaps.
Communications Management
Key Issues: Miscommunication or misinterpretation of requirements is common.
Best Practices:
Facilitate open, clear, and regular communication among all parties.
Regularly communicate project status to team members and stakeholders via meetings and status reports.
Use clear communication protocols and change management procedures for requirement changes.
Be mindful of cultural and language barriers.
When problems arise, communicate actions being taken to handle and monitor the issue.
Technology Management
Definition: Strategic selection, implementation, and review of technology resources throughout the SDLC.
Selection Criteria:
Functionality: Tools must possess features required for intended tasks.
Scalability: The tool's ability to grow with the project.
Cost-effectiveness: The tool's value relative to its cost.
Implementation and Maintenance: Involves acquiring, installing, integrating, and training the team on new software. Regular updates and security checks are essential.
Financial Management
Key Areas of Concern:
Budgeting: Consideration of labor, hardware, software, training, and maintenance costs.
ROI Analysis: Weighing projected system benefits against projected costs to clarify its value.
Financial Risk Assessment: Identifying and mitigating financial risks (e.g., cost overruns, inaccurate forecasting) regularly.
Risk Management
Definition: The process of identifying, assessing, and prioritizing uncertainties that could impact a project. Crucial for reducing uncertainty, improving planning, enhancing stakeholder confidence, and facilitating decision-making.
Sources of Risk: Technological complexities, evolving stakeholder requirements, team dynamics, external factors, and system complexity.
Risk Management Tasks:
Risk Identification: Systematically identify potential threats using techniques like the Delphi technique and SWOT analysis. The result is a risk register detailing identified risks and characteristics.
Risk Analysis: Assess identified risks based on likelihood and impact (qualitative or quantitative).
Risk Response Planning: Create a plan using four strategies:
Risk Avoidance
Risk Transfer
Risk Mitigation
Risk Acceptance
Issues: Common issues include inadequate risk identification, poor risk assessments, and ineffective responses.
Project Management Software
Benefits: Helps plan, execute, monitor, and control all project activities. Automates tasks like scheduling, resource allocation, and progress tracking, allowing managers to adjust to real-world events.
Functions: Supports planning, scheduling, resource management, collaboration, risk management, and issue tracking. Includes tools for collaboration, document management, issue/bug tracking, and project portfolio management.
Examples: Microsoft Project, GitHub, Google Workspace.
Managing for Success
Requires attention to three key areas:
Project Monitoring and Control: Continuously track, review, and regulate progress.
Managing Issues: Recognize and effectively deal with emerging issues related to business, people, technology, budget, or schedule.
Adopting an Agile Mindset: Be flexible and ready to accept changes, promoting collaboration and constructive conflict resolution.