Chapter 9

Fundamentals

(1) focus initially on creating a prototype that looks and acts like the desired system (2) involve system users in the analysis, design and development phases (3) accelerate collecting the business requirements through an interactive and iterative construction approach

PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) chart

Graphical network model that depicts a projects tasks and the relationships between them

How does SDLC Begin?

It begins with a business need, proceeds to an assessment of the functions a system must have to satisfy the need, and ends when the benefits of the system no longer outweigh its maintenance costs

SMART Criteria

S- specific, M-Measurable, A-agreed upon, R-realistic, T-Time frame

Triple Constraint

Three primary and interdependent variables in any project (Time, cost, and scope, if one changes, at least one other is likely to be affected)

Extreme Programming Methodology

XP- Breaks a project into four phases, and developers cannot continue to the next phase until the previous phase is complete (Planning, designing, coding, testing)

Agile Methodology

aims for customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery of useful software components developed by an iterative process using the bare minimum requirements

Gate one: inception

all stakeholders have shared understanding of proposed system

Outsourcing

an arrangement by which one organization provides a service or services for another organization that chooses not to perform them in-house (it enables companies to keep up with market and technology advances, less strain on human and financial resources)

Testing

brings all the project pieces together into a special testing environment to eliminate errors and bugs, and verify that the system meets all the business requirements defined in analysis phase

Gate three: construction

building and developing

Iterative development

consists of a series of tiny projects

Near shore Outsourcing

contracting an outsourcing arrangement with a company in a nearby country. Often they share borders

Project Management Institute

develops procedures and concepts necessary to support the profession of project management

Rapid Application Development Methodology (RAD)

emphasizes extensive user involvement in the rapid and evolutionary construction of working prototypes of a system, to accelerate the systems development process

Onshore outsourcing

engaging another company within the same country for services

Gate four: transition

ensure that software is available for its end users.

Planning

establishes a high-level plan of the intended project and determines project goals

Critical path

estimates the shortest path through the project ensuring all critical tasks are completed from start to finish

Gate two: elaboration

expands on agreed upon details

Project assumptions

factors considered to be true, real, or certain without proof or demonstration, EX) hours in a work week, time of the year work will be performed

Project management

is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements

Dependency

logical relationship that exists between the project tasks, or between a project task and a milestone

Project objectives

most important areas to define, because they are major elements of project (Quantifiable criteria that must be met for the project to be considered a success→Must include metrics, so success can be measured)

Maintenance

organization performs changes, corrections, additions, and upgrades to ensure the system continues to meet its business goals

Implementation

organization places the system into production so users can begin to perform actual business operations with it

Rational Unified Process Methodology (RUP)

owned by IBM, provides a frame work for breaking down the development of software into four "gates"

What are the Seven distinct phases of SDLC?

planning, analysis, design, development, testing, implementation, and maintenance

Waterfall methodology

sequence of phases in which the output of each phase becomes the input for the next. 10% success rate (In SDLC means steps are performed one at a time, from planning to implementation)

Methodology

set of policies, procedures, standards, processes, practices, tools, techniques, and tasks that people apply to technical and management challenges

Gantt chart

simple bar chart that lists project tasks vertically against the projects time frame, listed horizontally (Shows progress of tasks against planned duration)

Development

takes all the detailed design documents from the design phase and transforms them into the actual systems

Analysis

the firm analyzes its end-user business requirements and refines project goals into defined functions and operations of the intended system (Business requirements are the specific business request the system must meet to be successful)

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

the overall process for developing information systems, from planning and analysis through implementation and maintenance (Determining budgets, gathering system requirements, and writing detailed user documentation)

Design

this establishes descriptions of the desired features and operations of the system including screen layouts, business rules, process diagrams, pseudo code, and other documentation

Scrum Methodology

uses small teams to produce small pieces of software using a series of "sprints" or 30-day intervals, to achieve an appointed goal

Offshore outsourcing

using organization from developing countries to write code and develop systems. Geographically far away