Jake Amiel Cepillo Hernandez

BSCPE 5201

1.Last Chance Securities Situation:

The IT director opened the department staff meeting today by saying “I’ve got some good news and
some bad news. The good news is that management approved the payroll system project this morning.
The new system will reduce clerical time and errors, improve morale in the payroll department, and
avoid possible fines and penalties for noncompliance. The bad news is that the system must be installed
by the end of December in order to meet new federal reporting rules, costs must be within the
budgeted amount, the new system must interact with existing systems, and the vice president of finance
insists on approving the final design.”

1. Name the constraints and indicate whether each is

present, future, internal, external, mandatory, or
desirable.

CONSTRAINTS CHARACTERISTIC

 The system must be installed by January Future, external, and mandatory

1st in order to meet new federal
reporting rules

 The system should have a modular design Future, internal, and desirable
if possible
 All expenses from now on must be Future, external, and mandatory
approved in advance

 The vice president of finance wants to Future, internal, and desirable

announce the new system in her year-
end report if it is ready by mid-December

2. Explain why it is important to define the payroll project’s scope. Explain how to define project scope.

It is important to define the payroll project scope because it is very necessary to define the boundaries of
this project for knowing its benefits as well as limitations. It is also helpful in knowing the requirements of
the system

Project scope is related to the specific boundaries for the particular project. According to some business
analyst is very helpful to determine the scope of the project by the list of following which are as follows:

 Must Do
 Should Do
 Could Do
 Wont Do

This list is reviewed during system analysis phase when user is developing the system requirement
document

3. Identify tangible and intangible benefits of the new payroll system.

Tangible benefits for the payroll are as follows:

 Increase the revenue

 Decrease the expenses

Intangible benefits for the payroll areas follows

  Increase customer satisfaction
 Increase the transparency and responsibility of the organization

4. What topics should be included in a report to management at the end of the preliminary
investigation?

 Introduction
 System request summary
 Findings
 Cause for action
 Project role
 Time and cost estimate
 Expected benefits
 Appendix

2.Way Out Bikes Situation:

The owner of Way Out Bikes asked you for advice about acquiring an information system for her business.
The company specializes in helping customers select exactly the right bicycle for their needs and lifestyles.
Way Out cannot compete on price with mass merchandisers, but it seeks to offer value and expertise for
which customers are willing to pay. You ask the owner whether she has long-range plans for the company,
and she replies that she has not really thought beyond a one-year time frame.

1.Explain the concept of strategic planning to Way Out’s owner.

Strategic planning is defined as the process for identifying the strategies, long term goals and the
resources of the business. The IT team will be able to focus on the implementation of the new system by
understanding strategies planning process.

Strategic planning firstly use SWOT analysis for finding the strength, weakness, opportunity and threats
to the a system and then clarify the mission statement for the new system and also define the goals for
the new system. The Way Out's owner had no long term plan for their company. When the owner of the
Way Out was asked about their long term plan then she replied that she is not thinking beyond one year
time frame.

2. Decide what else you might want to know about Way Out. Consider the internal and external factors
described on pages 59 to 61, and make a list of questions to ask the owner.

This question can be asked:

 What are Key lines of market segments.

 Are there any products within market segment that can be identified and described separately?
 What are characteristics of various company supplier?
 What are the characteristics of company’s competitors?
 What are the forces that can impact the company?
 Define various customer types and identify their characteristic?

3. Draft a mission statement for Way Out.

Mission statements describe the purpose of an organization and are considered an

important part of strategic planning. The mission statement should include a brief
description of the company’s overall purpose, products, services, and values. Mission
statements are often grouped with vision statements and statement of values and
considered to be guiding principles for companies and organizations

4. Make a list of Way Out’s stakeholders.

Way out is a small firm but its stakeholder comprises of all people who gets affected by company
performance same as multinational company. stakeholders are employee, shareholder, customers,
suppliers, and community, members.

3.The Monday IT Department Staff Meeting Situation:

Your boss, the IT manager, was ready to explode. “Why can’t we get our priorities straight?” he fumed.
“Here we go again, working on a low-value project, just because it’s a favorite of the marketing group. I
wish we could get away from departmental politics! I want you to draft a memo that proposes a systems
review committee for this company. Explain the advantages, but don’t step on anyone’s toes!”

1.Write a draft of the proposal, as your boss requested.

SYSTEMS REVIEW COMMITTEE PROPOSAL

To be competitive, we must use all corporate resources, including IT resources, to produce the greatest
possible benefit for our company and our stakeholders. We believe that the best strategy is to create a
systems review committee (SRC), with one representative from each major department. The SRC will work
as a team to review systems requests, set priorities, and oversee IT projects across the company. In order
to avoid any departmental bias, the committee will select a chair, who will report directly to the president

2.Write a memo to your boss explaining potential disadvantages of the committee approach.

You should explain to your boss, even where a systems review committee is in place there are
disadvantages that have to be considered. The IT director usually serves as a technical consultant to
ensure that committee members are aware of crucial issues, problems, and opportunities. Action on
requests must wait until the committee meets to discuss. To avoid delay, committee members use
memos, e-mail, and teleconferencing to communicate with each other. Another potential disadvantage
of a committee is that members might favor projects requested by their own departments, and internal
political differences can delay important decisions.

3.Draft a set of ground rules for committee meetings. Try to suggest rules that will minimize political
differences and focus on the overall benefit to the company.

System request requires the information that help to identify the issue, specify the priority order, and
define initial feasible solution. We need to set the following rules the question should specify the need of
change in current system and urgency of the request. The requester should explain the problem and try
specify feasible solution.

4.Most people serve on a committee at some point in their lives. Write a brief memo describing your
committee experiences, good or bad.

Ineffective, unproductive or simply “bad” committee meetings are very easy to recognize because they
have some or all of the following characteristics:

 they feel like the meeting goes forever but nothing was actually achieved

 conversations drag on, bouncing from one point to another with little focus on the issue to be
discussed

 conflict occurs regularly with committee members often being accused of having their “own
agendas”

 nobody really understands what each other is doing and often feel they are the only person
doing any work
  nobody, except the Treasurer, has any idea on the financial position of the club and no matter
how many times people request financial information it doesn’t appear, or if it does it is simply a
bank balance

 people turn up to the committee meetings with little idea on the topics to be discussed

 a small majority of the committee members dominate conversations

 anybody with a contrary view to the dominant committee members are made to feel like they
are trouble makers

 new ideas and concepts are rarely listened to or embraced

4. The Friday IT Department Staff Meeting Situation:

By the end of the week, things quieted down. The IT staff discussed how to prioritize IT project
requests, taking into account technical, operational, economic, and schedule feasibility. The IT
manager asked for suggestions from the group.
1.Provide three sample questions to determine whether a project has technical feasibility.

 Will the system interface properly with external systems operated by customers and suppliers?
 Does the combination of hardware and software supply adequate performance?
 Does the proposed system have clear expectations and performance specifications?
 Will the system be able to handle future transaction volume and company growth?

2.Provide three sample questions to determine whether a project has operational feasibility.

 Will customers experience adverse effects?

 Is there a risk to the company’s image and goodwill?
 Is the development schedule reasonable?
 Have legal and ethical issues been considered?

3.Provide three examples of why a project might lack economic feasibility

 Will expensive training be required?

 Will licenses, fees, consulting expenses, and facility costs add substantially to project cost?
 Do other, less expensive alternatives exist, and is the estimated risk of not developing the
system or postponing the project unreasonable?

4. Provide three sample questions to determine whether a project has schedule feasibility.

 Will the new hardware be available before the deadline date for the project?
 Is the network going to be ready do system development can start working on the project?
 Is there anything that will cause an unacceptable delay in the launch date for the project?