Garner MIS exam 2 Chp. 5-6 & programming

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.

The Process of Initiating and Planning IS Development Projects

-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

Factors in Determining Scope

-Organizational units affected by new system -Current systems that will interact with or change because of new system -People who are affected by new system -Range of potential system capabilities

Outline of a Baseline Project Plan

1. Introduction 2. System Description 3. Feasibility Assessment 4. Management Issues

Four general rules of risk assessment

1. Larger projects are riskier than smaller projects 2. 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 judgement of an individual 3. The development of a system employing commonly used or standard technology will be less risky than one employing novel or nonstandard technology 4. A project is less risky when the user group is familiar with the systems development process and application area than if unfamiliar

system description simple examples

1. Web-based online system 2. Mainframe with central database 3. Local area network with decentralized databases 4. Batch data input with online retrieval 5. Purchasing of a prewritten package

Tangible benefits

A benefit derived from the creation of an information system that can be measured in dollars and with certainty.

Intangible benefit

A benefit derived from the creation of an information system that cannot be easily measured in dollars or with certainty.

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.

Baseline Project Plan (BPP)

A major outcome and deliverable from the project initiation and planning phase that contains the best estimate of a project's scope, benefits, costs, risks, and resource requirements.

Technical feasibility

A process of assessing the development organization's ability to construct a proposed system.

Economic Feasibility

A process of identifying the financial benefits and costs associated with a development project

Break-Even Analysis (BEA)

BEA finds the amount of time required for the cumulative cash flow from a project to equal its initial and ongoing investment.

User Group

Familiarity with IS development process, application area, use of similar systems

Development Group

Familiarity with platform, software, development method, application area, development of similar systems

In the feasibility assessment high level project specifications utilize what

Gannt chart , and network diagrams

Net Present Value (NPV)

NPV uses a discount rate determined from the company's cost of capital to establish the present value of a project. The discount rate is used to determine the present value of both cash receipts and outlays.

Project Structure

New vs. renovated system, resulting organizational changes, management commitment, user perceptions

Present Value Equation

PV = FV/(1+r)^t

Project Risk Factors

Project Size, Project Structure, Development group, User Group

project initiation

Project initiation focuses on activities designed to assist in organizing a team to conduct project planning.

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI is the ratio of the net cash receipts of the project divided by the cash outlays of the project. Trade-off analysis can be made among projects competing for investment by comparing their representative ROI ratios

Project Size

Team size, organizational departments, project duration, programming effort

_________________ contains all information collected and analyzed during project initiation and planning

The Baseline Project Plan (BPP)

Legal and contractual feasibility

The process of assessing potential legal and contractual ramifications due to the construction of a system.

operational feasibility

The process of assessing the degree to which a proposed system solves business problems or takes advantage of business opportunities.or take advantage of the opportunities outlined in the System Service Request or project identification study.

schedule feasibility

The process of assessing the degree to which the potential time frame and completion dates for all major activities within a project meet organizational deadlines and constraints for affecting change.

v

The process of assessing the degree to which the potential time frame and completion dates for all major activities within a project meet organizational deadlines and constraints for affecting change.

Political feasibility

The process of evaluating how key stakeholders within the organization view the proposed system.

discount rate

The rate of return used to compute the present value of future cash flow

standards bearer

The role of this person is to ensure that the work product adheres to organizational technical standards. Many larger organizations have staff groups within the unit responsible for establishing standard procedures, methods, and documentation formats. These standards bearers validate the work so that it can be used by others in the development organization.

One-Time Cost examples

These costs typically encompass activities such as systems development, new hardware and software purchases, user training, site preparation, and data or system conversion

user

This person (or group) makes sure that the work product meets the needs of the project's customers. This user would usually be someone not on the project team.

presenter

This person describes the work product to the group. The presenter is usually an analyst who has done all or some of the work being presented.

coordinator

This person plans the meeting and facilitates a smooth meeting process. This person may be the project leader or a lead analyst responsible for the current life cycle step.

Maintenance oracle

This person reviews the work product in terms of future maintenance activities. The goal is to make the system and its documentation easy to maintain.

secretary

This person takes notes and records decisions or recommendations made by the group. This may be a clerk assigned to the project team or it may be one of the analysts on the team.

Intangible benefits refer to

items that cannot be easily measured in dollars or with certainty. Intangible benefits may have direct organizational benefits, such as the improvement of employee morale, or they may have broader societal implications, such as the reduction of waste creation or resource consumption.

Tangible costs refer to

items that you can easily mea- sure in dollars and with certainty. From an IS development perspective, tangible costs include items such as hardware costs, labor costs, and operational costs including employee training and building renovations.

Intangible costs can include

loss of customer goodwill, employee morale, or operational inefficiency.

The final section of the Baseline Project Plan is what

management issues

Examples of tangible benefits

might include reduced personnel expenses, lower transaction costs, or higher profit margins.

Introduction section components

often limited to only a few pages, sequenced as the first section of the BPP it is often the final section to be written, activity that should be performed initially is the definition of project scope.

Initiation

one or more analysts are assigned to work with a customer—that is, a member of the business group that requested or will be affected by the project—to establish work standards and communication procedures.

For very large projects

one-time costs may be staged over one or more years. In these cases, a separate one- time cost worksheet should be created for each year. This separation will make it easier to perform present value calculations

Assessing Operational Feasibility, The first relates to examining the likelihood that the project will attain its desired objectives, called

operational feasibility

Management Issues

outlines a number of managerial concerns related to the project

Management issues section

outlines a number of managerial concerns related to the project.

feasibility assessment section

outlines issues related to project costs and benefits, technical difficulties, and other such concerns

System description section

outlines possible alternative solutions

Contractual obligations may involve

ownership of software used in joint ventures, license agreements for use of hardware or software, nondisclosure agreements with partners, or elements of a labor agreement

Project Scope sections

problem statement project objectives project description business benefits deliverables expected duration

The PSS

produced by the team clearly outlines the objectives and constraints of the project for the customer.

The amount of technical risk associated with a given project is contingent on four primary factors:

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

scheduling trade-offs

project team size, availability of key personnel, subcontracting or outsourcing activities, and changes in development environments may all be considered as having a possible impact on the eventual schedule

Another feasibility concern relates to project du- ration and is referred to as assessing

schedule feasibility.

The second section of the BPP is the

system description

During project initiation and planning, the most crucial element of the design strategy is the

systems scope

The PSS ensures what?

that both you and your customer gain a com- mon understanding of the project.

The major outcomes and deliverables from the project initiation and planning phase are

the Baseline Project Plan and the Project Scope Statement

The BPP becomes

the foundation for the remainder of the development project

The Feasibility Assessment Section of the Baseline Project Plan is also called

the work break down structure

One-time costs refer to

those associated with project initiation and development and the start-up of the system

Recurring costs refer to

those costs resulting from the ongoing evolution and use of the system.

Most techniques used to determine economic feasibility encompass the concept of the____________________

time value of money (TVM)

One goal of a cost-benefit analysis is to accurately determine the

total cost of ownership (TCO) for an investment

TCO is focused on

understand- ing not only the total cost of acquisition but also all costs associated with ongoing use and maintenance of a system

It is not uncommon, however, to define project scope

using diagrams such as data flow diagrams and entity-relationship models.

Examples of Recurring Cost

• Application software maintenance • Incremental data storage expenses • Incremental communications • New software and hardware leases • Supplies and other expenses (e.g., paper, forms, data center personnel)

Most tangible benefits will fit within the following categories:

• Cost reduction and avoidance • Error reduction • Increased flexibility • Increased speed of activity • Improvement of management planning and control • Opening new markets and increasing sales opportunities

most feasibility factors are represented by the following categories:

• Economic • Technical • Operation • Scheduling • Legal and contractual • Political

_______________ is often referred to as cost-benefit analysis

Economic feasibility

Further, numerous assumptions about resource availability and potential problems will have to be made. Analysis of these assumptions and system costs and benefits forms a

business case

roles of structured walk throughs

coordinator, presenter, user, secretary, standard-bearer, maintenance oracle

Possible considerations of legal and contractual feasibility might include

copyright or nondisclosure infringements, labor laws,antitrust legislation (which might limit the creation of systems to share data with other organizations), foreign trade regulations (e.g., some countries limit access to employee data by foreign corporations), and financial reporting standards, as well as current or pending contractual obligations

The rate at which money can be borrowed or invested is referred to as the _______________

cost of capital

cost of capital is called what in TVM calculations

discount rate

The objective of the break-even analysis is to

discover at what point (if ever) benefits equal costs (i.e., when breakeven occurs).

In the third section, _____________________, issues related to project costs and benefits, technical dif- ficulties, and other such concerns are outlined.

feasibility assessment

tangible costs include items such as

hardware costs, labor costs, and operational costs including employee training and building renovations.

The purpose of assessing economic feasibility is to

identify the financial benefits and costs associated with the development project

Objective of project planning

is the development of a Baseline Project Plan (BPP) and the Project Scope Statement (PSS)

key activity of project initiation

is the development of the project charter

Project Planning

is the process of defining clear, discrete activities and the work needed to complete each activity within a single project.

The purpose of the Introduction of the BPP

is to provide a brief overview of the entire document and outline a recommended course of action for the project.

Tangible benefits refer to

items that can be measured in dollars and with certainty.

Break Even Analysis

A type of cost-benefit analysis to identify at what point (if ever) benefits equal costs.

____________________ is a short document prepared for the cus- tomer that describes what the project will deliver and outlines all work required to complete the project.

The Project Scope Statement (PSS)

Time value of money (TVM)

The concept that money available today is worth more than the same amount tomorrow

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

The cost of owning and operating a system, including the total cost of acquisition, as well as all costs associated with its ongoing use and maintenance.

Present value

The current value of a future cash flow.

business case

The justification for an information system, presented in terms of the tangible and intangible economic benefits and costs and the technical and organizational feasibility of the proposed system.

structured walk throughs

a peer group review of any product created during the system development process

system description contains

an outline of possible alternative so- lutions in addition to the one deemed most appropriate for the given situation

Fixed costs

are costs that are billed or incurred at a regular interval and usually at a fixed rate (a facility lease payment)

Variable Cost

are items that vary in relation to usage (long-distance phone charges