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Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chapter: 3
This first phase of the systems development life cycle deals with the process of
identifying, selecting, initiating, planning projects and assessing project feasibility.
The first step is to identify the need for a system, which can be the result of
o Problems in existing system or process
o New feature required in an existing system
o A new idea for which in Information System is required
o A requirement to improve efficiency in the organization
o Compulsory standards or bench marks by an external organization Ex.
Government
o The need to keep up with competitors
During this activity a senior manager, a business group, an Information System
manager or a steering committee identifies and assess all possible systems
development projects, which are all may yield significant organizational benefits.
The requests for developing information system can come from three key sources
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Managers and business units who want to replace or extend and existing
system in order to gain needed information or to provide a new service to
customers.
Information Systems mangers who want to make a system more efficient,
less costly to operate or want to move a system to a new operating
environment.
Formal planning group that want to improve an existing system in order to
help the organization meet its corporate objectives, such as providing
better customer service.
The Selection Process may vary in different organizations, but the general process
is discussed below.
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The primary deliverable or end product form the project identification and
selection phase is a schedule of specific IS development projects.
These projects may come from both top down and bottom up sources
The selected project move into the second activity called Project initiation and
planning
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The BPP is an internal document used by the development team but not shared
with customers
The BPP contains all information collected and analyzed during the project
initiation and planning activity.
The BPP reflects the best estimate of the project’s scope, benefits, costs, risks and
resource requirements.
The BPP specifies detailed project activities for the next life cycle phase- Systems
analysis and less detail for subsequent phases.
The SOW is a short document prepared for the customers that describes what the
project will deliver and outlines all work required to complete the project
The SOW is a useful communication tool that assures that both system analysts
and customers have a common understanding of the project.
Most Information System projects have budgets and deadlines, the analysis of
factors for feasibility forms the business case (analysis of the assumptions like
resource availability and potential problems and system cost and benefits) that
justifies the expenditure of the resources on the project. The feasibility factors are
in six categories
Economic Feasibility
- Concerned with assessing the financial benefits and costs associated with
the project. To do this, it is necessary to quantify the monetary value of the
costs and benefits of the project. This is also called a cost-benefit
analysis.
- Benefits and costs can be tangible or intangible
- Tangibles are items which can be quantified in monetary terms and with
certainty. Ex. equipment costs, staff/personnel costs, materials costs,
conversion costs, training costs.
- Intangibles are items for which a value cannot be precisely determined,
and where the value may be the result of subjective judgment. Ex.
Customer goodwill, employee morale. Operational efficiency
- The sum value of all costs identified for the project gives the cost of the
system
- The sum value of all the benefits identified for the project gives the benefit
of the systems
- These are then used to determine if the project is economically feasible.
There are two methods for doing this are work sheet method and
present value method
Operational Feasibility
- This process examines whether the new project will attain its desired
objectives.
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- The goal of this study is to understand the degree to which the proposed
system will likely solve the business problems or take advantage of the
opportunities specified in the Systems requirement documents.
Technical Feasibility
- The goal of this study is to understand the organization’s ability to
construct the proposed system.
- This analysis also includes an assessment of the development group’s
understanding of the possible target hardware, software and operating
environments as well as the size, complexity and the group’s experience
with similar systems
Schedule Feasibility
- The process of assessing the degree to which the potential time frame and
completion dates for all major activities within a project meet
organizational deadlines and constraints for affecting change.
Legal and Contractual Feasibility
- The process of assessing potential legal and contractual ramification due
to the construction of a system
- Considerations may include copyright or nondisclosure violation, labor
laws, antitrust legislation, foreign trade regulations and financial reporting
standards as well as current or pending contractual obligations.
Political Feasibility
- The process of evaluating how key stakeholders within the organization
view the proposed system
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Gantt charts and PERT charts are useful tools for visualizing and communicating
information about projects, but they have a number of limitations. In addition, the ease
with which they can be created using software applications makes them open to misuse
and misinterpretation.
Gantt chart:
is a bar chart with a bar for each project activity that shows passage of time
it provides a standard format for displaying project schedule by listing project
activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format.
provides visual display of project schedule
Network Diagrams
Network diagram refers to a graphical representation of the tasks/activities
necessary to complete a project.
Network visualizes the flow of tasks & their relationships. In network diagram,
each task labeled with an identifier (usually by a letter), Task duration expressed
in standard unit like days and time goes from left to right.
The two common known Network Diagrams are:
1. Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
developed by U.S. Navy (1958) for missile program
handles multiple task time estimates (probabilistic nature)
especially good for non-repetitive jobs (R & D work)
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