Ch. 10: Managing Development

Q1: What is systems development?

Systems development, also known as systems analysis and design is the process of creating and maintaining information systems. Systems development has a broader scope than computer program development. The most important criterion for information systems success is for users to take ownership of their systems.

Q2: Why is systems development difficult and risky?

Systems development is difficult and risky because requirements are difficult to determine and besides that, requirements change as well.  Scheduling and budgeting difficulties and changing technology are also something that makes systems development difficult.  Another problem is diseconomies of scale, or as Brooks Law points out: Adding more people to a late project makes the project later.

Q3: How do businesses use the systems development life cycle (SDLC) process?

The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is the process used to develop information systems. The five-phase process is:

1.       System definition-define the goals and scope of the new information system. Once the projects goals have been defined, the next step is feasibility. Feasibility has four dimensions: cost, schedule, technical, and organizational feasibility. Then a project team is formed.

2.       Requirements analysis-determine requirements. This is the most important phase because if the requirements are wrong, the whole project is wrong. Once the requirements are established, the users must review and approve them before the project continues.

3.       Component design-Each of the five components is designed in this stage: Hardware program, database, procedure, and design of job descriptions.

4.       Implementation-Once developers have constructed and tested all of the components, they integrate the individual components and test the system. A test plan consists of sequences of actions that users will take when using the new system. Beta testing is the process of allowing future system users to try out the new system on their own. Once the system has passed integrated testing, the organization installs the new system. The term system conversion is often used for this activity. Pilot installation is when the organization implements the entire system on a limited portion of its customers. Phased installation is when the new system is installed in phases across the organizations. Final stage is plunge/direct installation when the organization shuts off the old system and starts the new system.

5.       System maintenance (fix or enhance)-record requests for change: failures or enhancements. Prioritize requests. Fix failures: patches, service packs, and new releases.

Q4: How does systems development vary according to project scales?

Small-scale projects have relatively simple requirements. Large-scale projects have many more requirements. They vary in duration, budget, and personnel.

Q5: What are the trade-offs among requirements, schedule, and cost?

Systems development projects, especially large ones, require the trade-offs or balancing of three critical drivers:  requirements, cost, and time.  We can trade-off requirements against time and against cost. The relationship between time and cost is more complicated. Normally we can reduce time by increasing cost only to a point. For example, to cut down on time more laborers can be hired, but at some point it will create diseconomies of scale. In some projects, costs can be reduced by increasing time.  In most projects, trade-off decisions cannot be made without a plan called the baseline.

Q6: What are the major challenges when planning IS projects?

The key strategy for any project is to break up large tasks into smaller tasks and continue breaking up the tasks until they are small enough to manage, thus enabling you to estimate time and costs. Each task should culminate in one or more results or deliverables such as documents, designs, prototypes, data models, etc. Without a deliverable it is impossible to know if the task was accomplished.  Teams create a work-breakdown structure (WBS), which is a hierarchy of the task required to complete a project. A Gantt chart shows tasks, dates, and dependencies.  The critical path is the sequence of activities that determine the earliest date by which the project can be completed. Critical path analysis is the process by which project managers compress the schedule by moving resources, typically people, from noncritical path tasks onto critical path tasks.

Q7:  What are the major challenges when managing IS projects?

1.       Coordination-coordinating the work of independent groups can be difficult, especially if they’re not geographically in the same place.
2.       Diseconomies of scale-the number of possible interactions among team members rises exponentially with the number of team members. Ultimately, no matter how well managed a project is, diseconomies of scale will set in.
3.       Configuration control-AS the project proceeds, controlling the configuration becomes more difficult. For example, the development team produces an initial statement of requirements.  Meetings with users produce an adjusted set of requirements. And then soon there are multiple sets of requirements and if the changes to the requirements are not managed, the versions will get mixed up, and confusion will result.
4.       Unexpected events-The larger and longer the project takes to complete, the greater the chance of disruption due to an unanticipated event.

Q8: 2020?

Requirements creep is the process by which users agree to one set of requirements, then add a bit more, add a bit more, and so forth. Over time, the requirements creep so much that they describe a completely new project. But the development team is left with the budget and plan of the original project.

Kroenke, David. "Chapter 10: Managing Development." Using MIS. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. 370-397. Print