Identifying and selecting system Development project

1. Identifying and selecting system Development project Chapter-4

2. Identifying and selecting system Development project • The first phase of the SDLC is Identifying and selecting system Development project. • During this activity, a senior manger, a business group, an IS manager, or a steering committeeidentify and assess all possible system development projects that an organization unit could undertake.

3. The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS Development Projects • Identifying potential development projects • Classifying and ranking projects • Selecting projects for development

4. Identifying and selecting system Development project • Potential development projects are identified by: • A key member of top management. • CEO of small sized organization • Senior executive in a large organization • A steering Committee: composed of a cross section of manager with an interest in systems • User department • Head of the requesting unit • Committee of from the requesting department • The development group or a senor IS manger

5. Identifying and selecting system Development project • Top-management • Greater strategic focus • Largest project size/duration • Steering Committee • Cross-functional focus • Greater organizational change • Larger and riskier project • User development • Faster development • Fewer user • Development group • Fewer development delays

6. Top-down and bottom-up identification • Top-Down Identification • Senior management or steering committee • Focus is on global needs of organization • Bottom-up Identification • Business unit or IS group • Don’t reflect overall goals of the organization

7. Identifying and selecting system Development project • Classifying and Ranking IS development Projects : • 2nd major activity in the project identification and selection process focuses on assessing the relative merit of potential project. • Performed by top management, steering committee, business units of IS development group • Value chain analysis is often used • Method to analyze an organization’s activities to determine where value is added and costs are incurred

8. Evaluation criteria when classifying and ranking projects • Resources availability:amount and type of resources the project requires and their availability • Project size & duration:number of individuals and the length of time needed to complete the project • Value chain analysis: Extend to which activities add value and costs when developing product/services • Strategic Alignment:Extent to which the project is viewed as helping the organization achieve its strategic objectives and long-term goals. • Technical difficulty/risks:Level of technical difficulty to successfully complete the project which give time and resource constraint • Potential benefits: Extent to which the project is viewed as improving profits, customer service

9. Identifying and Selecting IS Development Projects • Selecting IS Development Projects: project selection decision • Process of considering short and long-term projects • Projects most likely to achieve business objectives are selected • Decision requires consideration of: • Perceived and real needs • Potential and ongoing projects • Current organizational environment • Existing and available resources • Evaluation criteria 5.9

10. Identifying and Selecting IS Development Projects • Selecting IS Development Projects • Outcomes • Project Acceptance • Project Rejection • Delay • Refocus • End-User Development • Proof of Concept 5.10

11. Traditional Project Identification and Selection Solves isolated problems Focuses on business processes Does not easily allow for organizational change Planning-Based Approach to Project Identification and Selection Focuses on present and future information needs Information needs change slower than business processes Information Systems Planning

12. Information Systems Planning • Need for planning • Improperly planned projects result in systems that cannot be shared across an organization • As business processes change, lack of integration will hamper strategy and business process changes

13. Information Systems Planning • Information Systems Planning (ISP) • An orderly means of assessing the information needs of an organization and defining the systems, databases and technologies that will best satisfy those needs • Three key activities: • Describe the Current Situation • Describe the Target (or Future) Situation • Develop a Transition Plan and Strategy 5.13

14. Information Systems Planning • Information Systems Planning 1. Describing the Current Situation • Top-down Planning • Generic methodology that attempts to gain a broad understanding of the information system needs of the entire organization • Bottom-up Planning • Generic methodology that identifies and defines IS development projects based upon solving operational business problems or taking advantage of some business opportunities 5.14

15. Information Systems Planning • Information Systems Planning 1. Describing the Current Situation (Continued) • Planning team is chartered to model existing situation • Identification of Organizational: • Locations • Units • Functions • Processes • Data • Information Systems 5.15

16. Information Systems Planning • Information Systems Planning 1. Describing the Current Situation (Continued) • Matrices are developed to cross-reference units • Location-to-Function • Location-to-Unit • Unit-to-Function • Function-to-Objective • Function-to-Process • Function-to-Data Entity • Process-to-Data Entity • Process-to-Information System • Data Entity-to-Information System • Information System-to-Objective 5.16

17. Corporate and Information Systems Planning • Information Systems Planning 2. Describing the Target Situation • Update list of organizational locations, functions, etc. to reflect desired locations, functions, etc. • Matrices are updated to reflect future states • Planners focus on differences between current lists and matrices and future lists and matrices

18. Description of three process that play significant role in project selection • Value chain analysis • Corporate Strategic Planning • Information System Planning

19. Value chain analysis • Value Chain Analysis consists to analyse an organisation’s activities to determine where value is added to products and or to services and the costs generated for doing so. • Purpose • It enables to select projects that offer more support to key activities with high costs • Criteria can differ from organisation to organisation • E.g. criteria used by the EC

20. Corporate Strategy Planning (CSP) • Effective deployment of resources require clearly understanding of organisational missions, objectives & strategy • Corporate Strategy Planning is a top-down process of three steps • CSP is an ongoing process that defines the mission, objectives and strategies of an organisation • CSP is a process that is frequently subject to change • It requires constant surveillance

21. Analysis of strategic position: what is the current position? Desired strategic position: what are the objectives Design of the possible strategies to achieve desired goals Process of corporate strategy planning

22. Advantages of IS planning • Allow to construct ISs that support the whole organisation • Allow integration of different tools • Avoid data redundancy (process oriented approach vs data oriented approach) • Reduce maintenance costs because planned system will require less revision

23. Information system planning (ISP) • Information system planning” is different from “project planning” • Information System Planning (ISP) is the process by which a company (organisation) analyses its information needs and plan its project carefully • ISP is an orderly means of assessing the information needs of an organisation and defining the systems, databases, and technologies that will best satisfy those needs • ISP is a top-down process that takes into account the outside forces that drive the business (need vigilance)

24. Future enterprise • Desired situation for informational needs • Listing of manual & automated processes • Listing of manual & automated data • Technology inventory • Human resources inventory Strategic plan • Schedule of projects to transit from current to desired • Project 1 • Project 2 • ---- ISP and Corporate Strategy Planning Current enterprise • Current situation for informational needs • Listing of manual & automated processes • Listing of manual & automated data • Technology inventory • Human resources inventory

25. Information System Planning • ISP requires support of top management and itscommitment to reach desired objectives • Description of the current requires a planning team • Techniques used to capture information system needs, include • Interviewing managers and executives • Reviewing corporate documents • Analysing competitors, markets and products • There are two approaches to describe current situation needs • Top down planning • Bottom-up planning

26. Step 1: describing the current needs • Top down planning is a generic methodology that attempts to gain a broad understanding of the IS needs of the entire organisation • Bottom-up planning is a generic IS methodology that identifies and defines IS development project based upon solving operational business problem or taking advantages of some business opportunities

27. Information collected about current situation • Locations where the company operates • Business unit that operate within a company • Functions= cross organisational collection of activities used to perform day-to-day business operation. • Processesof a company • Data underlying processes • Information system represent automated and non automated systems used to support business processes.

28. Information systems (IS)/ Objectives IS1 IS2 IS3 … ISn Objective 1 Objective 2 Objective 3 X X X … X Objective j X X Outcome = mMatrix of Information systems (IS) * objectives

29. Information systems (IS)/ Processes (P) IS1 IS2 IS3 … ISn P 1 P 2 P 3 X … X X P j X X X Several techniques of multi-criteria decision could be applied to select IS that satisfies the company’s current needs Matrix of Information systems (IS) * processes

30. Step 2 and 3 of ISP • Step 2: describing the target situation and constraints • Define situation of location, units , functions, processes, data and information system taking into account the trends and constraint of the organisation • Target situation could also be described in term of matrix • Step 3: developing a transition strategy and plans • Plans reflect both short-term and long-term organisational development needs • Plans include organisational mission, information inventory, mission and objectives of IS, constraints, long-term plans and short-term plans • Selected projects are those derived from ISP and that fulfil the gap between current and desired situation