Modern Systems Analysis

and Design

Chapter 4
Identifying and Selecting
Systems Development Projects
 Identifying and Selecting Systems
Development Projects

FIGURE 4-1
Systems development life cycle with
project identification and selection
highlighted

Chapter 4 Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2

The Process of Identifying and
Selecting IS Development Projects
1. Identifying potential development
projects
Identification from a stakeholder group.
Each stakeholder group brings their own

perspective and motivation to the IS decision.
 Top-down source are projects identified by top
management or by a diverse steering committee.
 Bottom-up source are project initiatives stemming
from managers, business units, or the
development group.
 The process varies substantially across organizations.

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The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

2. Classifying and ranking IS development

projects
 Using value chain analysis or other evaluation criteria
 Value chain analysis: the process of analyzing an
organization’s activities for making products and/or
services to determine where value is added and costs
are incurred

Chapter 4 Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 4

The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

3. Selecting IS development projects

 Based on various factors
 Both short- and long-term projects considered
 Most likely to achieve business objectives
selected
 Is a very important and ongoing activity

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Deliverables and Outcomes
 Primary deliverable from the first part of the
planning phase is a schedule of specific IS
development projects.
 Outcome of the next part of the planning phase
– project initiation and planning – is the
assurance that careful consideration was given
to project selection and each project can help
the organization reach its goals.

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Deliverables and Outcomes
 Incremental commitment: a strategy in
systems analysis and design in which the
project is reviewed after each phase and
continuation of the project is rejustified.

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Corporate Strategic Planning
 Ongoing process that defines mission,
objectives, and strategies of an organization
 Corporate strategy involves:
 Mission statement: A statement that makes it clear
what business a company is in
 Objective statement is a series of statements that
express an organization’s qualitative and quantitative
goals for reaching a desired future position

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Corporate Strategic Planning
(Cont.)
 Competitive strategy: the method by which an organization
attempts to achieve its mission and objectives
 Main types:
 Low-cost producer
 Product differentiation
 Product focus or niche

Chapter 4 Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 9

Corporate Strategic Planning
(Cont.)

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Information Systems Planning (ISP)

 An orderly means of assessing the

information needs of an organization and
defining systems, databases, and
technologies that will best meet those
needs
 ISP must be done in accordance with the
organization's mission, objectives, and
competitive strategy.

Chapter 4 Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 11

Information Systems Planning
(Cont.)
 Top-down planning attempts to gain a
broad understanding of information system
needs of the entire organization and
offers:
 Broader perspective.
 Improved integration.
 Improved management support.
 Better understanding.

Chapter 4 Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 12

Information Systems Planning
(Cont.)
 Bottom-up planning identifies IS
development projects based on solving
specific operational business problems or
taking advantage of specific opportunities.
 Can be faster and less costly, so may be
beneficial in certain circumstances.

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IS Plan Components
 Briefly describe mission, objectives,
and strategy of the organization.
 Provide summary of current and
future processes, functions, data
entities, and information needs of the
enterprise.

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IS Plan Components (Cont.)
 Describe primary role IS will play in
the organization to transform
enterprise from current to future state.
 Describe limitations imposed by
technology and current levels of
financial, technical, and personnel
resources.

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IS Plan Components (Cont.)
 Summarize overall information
systems needs in the company and
set long-term strategies for filling the
needs.
 Show detailed inventory of present
projects and systems and detailed
plan for the current year.

Chapter 4 Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 16

IS Plan Components (Cont.)
 Describe unknown but likely events
that can affect the plan, presently
known business change elements
and their impact on the plan.

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Information Systems (IS) Plan

FIGURE 4-16
Systems development projects flow from the information systems plan

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 Modern Systems Analysis
and Design

Chapter 5
Initiating and Planning Systems
Development Projects
Learning Objectives
 Describe the steps involved in the project
initiation and planning process.
 Explain the need for and the contents of a
Project Scope Statement and Baseline Project
Plan.
 List and describe various methods for assessing
project feasibility.
 Describe the differences between tangible and
intangible benefits and costs and between one-
time vs. recurring benefits and costs.

Chapter 5 20
Learning Objectives (Cont.)
 Perform cost-benefit analysis and describe what
is meant by the time value of money, present
value, discount rate, net present value, return
on investment, and break-even analysis.
 Describe the general rules for evaluating
technical risks associated with a systems
development project.
 Describe the activities and participant roles
within a structured walkthrough.

Chapter 5 21
Initiating and Planning Systems
Development Projects
 What must be considered when making the
decision on the division between project
initiation and planning (PIP) and analysis?
 How much effort should be expended on the PIP
process?
 Who is responsible for performing the PIP process?
 Why is PIP such a challenging activity?

Chapter 5 22
The Process of Initiating and
Planning IS Development Projects

FIGURE 5-1
Systems development life cycle
with project initiation and
planning highlighted

Chapter 5 23
The Process of Initiating and Planning IS
Development Projects (Cont.)
 Project initiation focuses on activities designed to assist in
organizing a team to conduct project planning.
elements of Project Initiation
 Establishing the Project Initiation Team.
 Establishing a Relationship with the Customer.
 Establishing the Project Initiation Plan.
 Establishing Management Procedures.
 Establishing the Project Management Environment and
Project Workbook.
 Developing the Project Charter.

Chapter 5 24
The Process of Initiating and Planning IS
Development Projects (Cont.)
 The key activity of project initiation is the
development of the project charter.
A short document that is prepared for both internal
and external stakeholders
 Provides a high-level overview of the project
 Useful communication tool that helps to assure that
the organizations and other stakeholders understand
the initiation of a project

Chapter 5 25
The Process of Initiating and Planning IS
Development Projects (Cont.)
 A project charter typically contains:
 Project title and date of authorization
 Project manager name and contact information
 Customer name and contact information
 Projected start and completion dates
 Key stakeholders, project role, and responsibilities
 Project objectives and description
 Key assumptions or approach
 Signature section for key stakeholders

Chapter 5 26
The Process of Initiating and Planning IS
Development Projects (Cont.)
 The key activity of project planning is the
process of defining clear, discrete
activities and the work needed to complete
each activity within a single project.
 The objective of the project planning
process is the development of a Baseline
Project Plan (BPP) and the Project Scope
Statement (PSS).

Chapter 5 27
Elements of Project Planning
 Describe project scope, alternatives, feasibility.
 Divide project into tasks.
 Estimate resource requirements and create resource
plan.
 Develop preliminary schedule.
 Develop communication plan.
 Determine standards and procedures.
 Identify and assess risk.
 Create preliminary budget.
 Develop a statement of work.
 Set baseline project plan.
Chapter 5 28
Deliverables and Outcomes
 Business Case
 Justificationfor an information system
 Presented in terms of the tangible and
intangible economic benefits and costs
 The technical and organizational feasibility of
the proposed system

Chapter 5 29
Deliverables and Outcomes (Cont.)

 Baseline Project Plan (BPP)

A major outcome and deliverable from the PIP
phase
 Contains the best estimate of a project’s
scope, benefits, costs, risks, and resource
requirements

Chapter 5 30
Deliverables and Outcomes (Cont.)

 Project Scope Statement (PSS)

A document prepared for the customer
 Describes what the project will deliver
 Outlines at a high level all work required to
complete the project

Chapter 5 31
Assessing Project Feasibility
most feasibility factors are:
Economic
Technical
Operational
Scheduling
Legal and contractual
Political

Chapter 5 32
Assessing Project Feasibility
(Cont.)
 Economic feasibility: a process of
identifying the financial benefits and costs
associated with a development project

Chapter 5 33
Determining Project Benefits
 Tangible benefits refer to items that can
be measured in dollars and with certainty.
 Intangible benefits are benefits derived
from the creation of an information system
that cannot be easily measured in dollars
or with certainty.

Chapter 5 34
Determining Project Costs
 Tangible cost: a cost associated with an
information system that can be measured in
dollars and with certainty
 Intangible cost: a cost associated with an
information system that cannot be easily
measured in terms of dollars or with certainty
 One-time cost: a cost associated with project
start-up and development or system start-up
 Recurring cost: a cost resulting from the ongoing
evolution and use of a system

Chapter 5 35
Assessing Technical Feasibility
 Technical feasibility: a process of
assessing the development organization’s
ability to construct a proposed system

Chapter 5 36
Assessing Technical Feasibility
 The potential consequences of not assessing
and managing risks can include the following:
 Failure to attain expected benefits from the project,
 Inaccurate project cost estimates,
 Inaccurate project duration estimates,
 Failure to achieve adequate system performance
levels, and
 Failure to adequately integrate the new system with
existing hardware, software, or organizational
procedures.

Chapter 5 37
Project Risk Factors
 Project size
 Team size, organizational departments, project duration,
programming effort
 Project structure
 New vs. renovated system, resulting organizational changes,
management commitment, user perceptions
 Development group
 Familiarity with platform, software, development method,
application area, development of similar systems
 User group
 Familiarity with IS development process, application area, use
of similar systems

Chapter 5 38
Assessing Technical Feasibility
(Cont.)
 Risk can be managed on a project by:
 Changing the project plan to avoid risky
factors.
 Assigning project team members to carefully
manage the risky aspects.
 Setting up monitoring methods to determine
whether or not potential risk is, in fact,
materializing.

Chapter 5 39
Assessing Technical Feasibility
(Cont.)
 The four primary factors associated with the
amount of technical risk on a given project are:
 Project size,
 Project structure,
 The development group’s experience with the
application and technology area, and
 The user group’s experience with systems
development projects and the application area (see
also Kirsch, 2000).

Chapter 5 40
Assessing Technical Feasibility
(Cont.)
 Four general rules emerged as technical
risk assessments:
 Larger projects are riskier than smaller
projects.
 A system in which the requirements are easily
obtained and highly structured will be less
risky than one in which requirements are
messy, ill structured, ill defined, or subject to
the judgment of an individual.

Chapter 5 41
Assessing Technical Feasibility
(Cont.)
 The development of a system employing
commonly used or standard technology will
be less risky than one employing novel or
nonstandard technology.
 A project is less risky when the user group is
familiar with the systems development
process and application area than if
unfamiliar.

Chapter 5 42
Assessing Other Feasibility
Concerns
 Operational
 Does the proposed system solve problems or take
advantage of opportunities?
 Scheduling
 Can the project time frame and completion dates
meet organizational deadlines?
 Legal and Contractual
 What are legal and contractual ramifications of the
proposed system development project?
 Political
 How do key stakeholders view the proposed
system?
Chapter 5 43
Building the Baseline Project
Plan
 Baseline Project Plan (BPP) is a
document intended primarily to guide the
development team.
 Sections:
 Introduction
 System description
 Feasibility assessment
 Management issues

Chapter 5 44
Building the Baseline Project
Plan (Cont.)
 Project Scope statement is part of the BPP
introduction.
 Sections:
 Problem statement
 Project objectives
 Project description
 Business benefits
 Deliverables
 Expected duration

Chapter 5 45