CIS3002
Assignment
Information System Analysis
Part
A
Q-1
a)
Following
are the key responsibilities of Project Manager
Internal
Responsibilities
·
Develop project plan
The project manager
must develop a proper project plan on the basis of which the implementation of
project and the actual activities are done. It is important that the project
plan is accurate and considers all the factors which have influence on the
project. Good project plan has more chances of project getting completed as planned.
·
Manage resources
The manager must also
be able to implement the project as per the project plan. For this, he must be
able to efficiently acquire, deploy and utilize the resources. Managing
resources include managing funds, people and other assets which are required in
the project.
·
Monitor the progress
Project manager must also do the
monitoring of the progress of the project on regular intervals. It means
checking that whether the project is going on as per the plan. If there is any
problem in doing so, manager must also control the activities of project to
ensure that the project follows the schedule. (Blanchard and Fabrycky, 2006)
External Responsibilities
·
Communicate with external stakeholders
A manager must
communicate with the external stakeholders of the project regularly like the
suppliers, customers, government authorities, etc. This is important to keep
them informed about the activities and plans of the organization.
·
Collaborate with business partners
The manager must also
be able to build relationship with the business partners by understanding their
expectations and addressing their concerns. A project manager should be
effective in doing it for the success of project.
·
Comply with the rules and regulations
The manager must plan and conduct
the activities of the project in such a way that they are in accordance with
the regulations of the land where the project is being done. Ensuring that
project is as per the regulations helps in avoiding legal troubles. (Blanchard
and Fabrycky, 2006)
b)
Reasons for Failure of Information
System Projects
·
Selection of inappropriate information
system.
It is important that
the requirements of the project are understood clearly and evaluate the
available information system solutions in detail as per those requirements before
selecting and implementing any information system in the organization. The
managers must avoid using the information system which is being implemented by
everyone but doesn't meet the requirements of project. Only those information
systems should be used which provide the best solution. (Kavanagh, 2004)
·
Inadequate planning and risk analysis.
If the project is not
planned correctly then it is more likely to cause delays and even fail. Thus
manager must ensure that proper scheduling, resource utilization, budgeting is
done. It must also be ensured that the business analyst and technicians being
used for the project are competent to deliver to required solution by
implementing the information system. The manager must also consider all the
risks which the project may face at every step. If he ignores to do this, there
are high chances that the project may fail. (McConnell, 1996)
·
Ignoring the change management.
Whenever an information system is
implemented, the employees resist use of this information system. This is
because they have their concerns on their future and they are also not competent
at using this information system. Thus it is necessary that management does a
proper change management program where the users are trained and their concerns
are addresses. In absence of such a program, the chances of failure of the
project increase substantially. (Jessup, et al, 2008)
c)
Examples of Project Success
·
Appropriate and detailed strategic
planning can ensure successful implementation of information system.
Implementation of SAP ERP by PepsiCo is an example of it.
·
Extensive procedure review including
review of software capabilities, manual processes and standard operating
procedure are important for project success. Implementation of Oracle ERP by
Motorola is an example of it.
·
Correct data collection and converting
the data as per the requirement of new information system results in successful
project implementation. Implementation of SRM information system by P&G is
an example of it.
·
Sufficient training to the users and
exhaustive testing of the information system also ensure success of the
project. Implementation of CRM and SRM information system by Flipkart is an
example of it.
·
Evaluating and monitoring the system
before the go-live phase also make sure that the project gets successfully
implemented. Implementation of CRM information system by Kraft Foods is an
example of it. (Vyhmeister, et al, 2006)
Q-2
a)
Functional and Non Functional
Requirements of Information System
·
Functional
Requirements
Ø The
information system must be able to process the information fed into it and give
back the desired results to users.
§ An
information system can provide details of the level of inventory of raw
materials and finished goods.
§ An
information system can give information on the buying pattern of a particular
customer from his past purchases.
Ø The
information system must be able to integrate the information from business
process of different departments.
§ Through
information system, the status of purchase requisition raised by the production
department is visible though it was forwarded by purchasing department.
§ Through
information system, the level of available stocks is visible to the sales
representatives even though the stocks are maintained by warehouse department.
·
Non-functional
Requirements
Ø The
information system must be reliable for its users.
§ Accurate
and correct information on the scheduled delivery of a stock from a reliable
system helps in taking right decisions on buying.
§ Timely
information and details of customers buying pattern and preferences can help
sell more goods to them.
Ø The
information system must be scalable for the operations of business
§ Information
system when is expandable in its scope can help in avoiding implementation of
other information system and thus save resources.
§ Information
system when is able to accommodate more data to store and process will help in
saving efforts, time and costs. (Sullivan, 2004)
b)
Reasons for use of models by
Business Analysts
§ To understand the relationship
between various business processes and entities.
The models are used by
the analysts in order to understand how the current business process work, how
the different entities are responsible for different entities and how do they
interact with each other. Thus the use of these models help the analysts in
having a clear picture of the current state of factors and people which have
influence on different activities of the operations. The knowledge of the
sequence of processes and relationship help them have better understanding of
the business.
The models are also
used for conducting simulation of the various processes once the required
changes are made in the model. This helps in reducing the risk of directly
going for changes in the actual business process. First the changes are made in
the model and the new behavior of various entities is understood. If the
simulation produces desirable results, then the changes are implemented in the
actual business process. Thus simulation is useful in implementing the proposed
changes after proper understating of risks associated with them.
(Ribeiro & David, 2001)
c)
Models and use in SDLC
·
Logical
Model
Logical model means
creating a model which is aimed at understanding the business requirement by
understanding the business processes, entities and units through the use of
entity relationship diagrams and other types of flow diagrams.
·
Physical
Model
Physical Model means
the schema which translates the business requirement to technical requirement.
It involves design of database of creation of various objects like tables and
columns which confirm to the logical model.
·
Following
are the models used in different phases of SDLC
Ø Project
Planning - Logical Model
This phase of SDLC
requires preparing the plan for the project which means the detailed steps of
to be taken in order to complete the project. The work plan is prepared which
is followed by performing activities according to the plan which can be done by
preparing a logical model of the activities to be done.
Ø Analysis-
Logical Model
This phase means analyzing
the business requirements which includes understanding the logical relationship
between various processes and entities of business. Thus a logical model is
used here.
Ø Design-
Physical Model
This phase includes
preparing the databases and the other relational objects like tables and
columns which fit the business requirement and the entities in the analysis. A
physical model is prepared in this phase.
Ø Implementation-
Physical Model
This phase is actual
implementation of the physical design prepared in the designing phase. This
phase also makes use of physical model for coding, documentation and preparing
the solution.
Ø Maintenance-
Logical and Physical Models
This phase involves upgrading the
existing solution which means changes in the physical design and also includes
replacing the current business process by new processes which means use of
logical design. (Bygstad, 2005)
Q-3
System
developers use two types of approaches for building the software solutions
based on the available information and the understanding of the requirements.
These two types of approaches for system development are called Predictive
Approach and Adaptive Approach. Following is the analysis on the two approaches
through which comparison of them has been done
Predictive Approach of
system development assumes that the project can be planned in advance. This is
used in cases where the requirements of the project are clear and known in
advance. There is low level of uncertainty and lower technical risks in these
projects. The traditional predictive approach of the system development
involves steps like-
·
Project Planning- This step involves
evaluation of the technical, financial and other types of feasibilities of the
project, preparing the schedule in order to carry out the project and ensuring
that the required approvals are available.
·
Analysis- This step involves
understating the requirements of the business which the solution must address
and the processing requirements which must be met by the system under
development.
·
Design- This step involves designing a
solution system which is able to meet the requirements of business and provide
the solution to the client. This includes preparing a blueprint of the software
solution.
·
Implementation- Here the system
developers construct the actual software system based on the design prepared in
the previous step. The step further includes testing of this solution so that
the solution works perfectly in actual environment. It then involves
implementing this solution.
·
Support- This part includes training the
users and ensuring the system keeps running which means if there is any problem
faced during the operation it must be looked after to rectify that problem.
An
illustration of the predictive approach of system development is the water fall
approach which is shown in the diagram below. In this type of approach each phase of the SDLC is completed in sequence and
the next phase starts only after completion of previous phase. Once a phase is
over and next phase has been started, it is very difficult to go back and make
changes in the previous phase. Thus the decisions made in each phase are final
and get frozen with minimal scope of changes. (Satzinger, et al, 2010)
The
major strengths or the positives of using this approach for system development
are that it can be easily used for designing software solutions for large
projects. The quality assurance is also easier and better since each of the
steps is predefined and the requirements are already known. This approach also
is able to accommodate in changes of scale of operations as the design phase is
properly executed. There are few disadvantages of this approach as well. For
example, the assumption on the basis of which this approach is adopted is that
the requirements of the users have defined completely and have been understood
and there are no significant changes in the user's requirements in the later
phase of the project. If the requirements don't change then this approach works
fine but if there are changes in the requirements, then the built solution may
not correspond to the requirements of the user or differ in some way or the
other. The other major disadvantage of
predictive approach is that the users can't experience the system until the
process is completed. Thus if the project doesn't confirm to the requirements
of the users after the final phase, it will mean repeating the entire process
of developing the solution which means there is high risk of project finishing
over budget and beyond the planned deadline. (Gasson, 1999)
Adaptive Approach of
system development on the other hand is more flexible in its domain and the
assumption behind using this approach by the developers is that the project
can't be planned in advance as the requirements of the users are not fixed and
keep on changing till the completion of the project. In order to accommodate
these new requirements without causing much disturbance to the project and
disruption of work, the developers use adaptive approach of system development
when the user requirement are not clear and are expected to change
significantly in future. There is high level of uncertainty and lower technical
risks in these projects (Satzinger, et al, 2010). There are many models for
using an adaptive approach in a project. The major ones are
·
Spiral Model- In this model, the
emphasis is to reduce the risks associated with the project. The project is
divided into smaller parts which have their own risks. The project starts with
from the center of the spiral. At this stage the project scope is small and the
risks associated are low. The project starts expanding slowly and starts
including more and more parts of the project with gradually including and
addressing the risks associated. After the final step, the system is expected
to address all the risks and include all the things in the scope of the
project.
·
Iterative Model- The model assumes that
no job is done perfectly at the first time and there is need of continuously improving
the development through iteration of various activities involved in software
development. The model is useful where it is difficult to separate the phases
of SDLC and thus the decisions are not frozen at the end of each phase, but are
available for changes until the requirements are satisfied and new requirements
are accommodated.
·
Parallel Model- This model helps in
reducing the delay which happens generally n traditional predictive way of
system development. Though the model uses the same steps as used by predictive
models like Waterfall model but instead of doing them in sequence, the Parallel
model does them in parallel. The main project is also divided into smaller
sub-projects and then they are developed in parallel. Once the sub-projects are
completed, they are integrated to develop the required software solution.
This
approach is useful for designing software solutions for small projects and its
utility increases significantly when the requirements from the users are not
fixed and can change significantly. The quality assurance of this approach is
not as per the standards of predictive approach but the risks associates with
the project reduce greatly by adopting this approach. There is also less chance
of project overshooting the budget and crossing the deadline in comparison to
predictive approach. (Vyhmeister, et al, 2006)
Part
B
Q-1
a)
Stake holders
·
Owner
(Jane Freeburn)
Jane is the owner of
Special Jewelry and has stakes in every decision which is taken in order to
improve the efficiency and make the business operations smoother and effective.
Being the owner, she will be affected by the cost of the project of
implementing an information system and the benefit (monetary as well as
non-monetary) which the system might accrue to her.
·
Sales
persons and Party Plan representatives
These people are the
face of the organization in front of the customers. The representatives are
also one of the stakeholders as implementation of any information system will
effect and change the way they do their job. Such an information system will
force them to work according to prescribed manner and will take away the
autonomy and liberty which they currently enjoy.
·
Staff
Currently some of the
employees of the organization have to exclusively handle the calls from sales
representatives and some do the manual work of stock management and customer
management. In case of implementation of the information system, the
organization will not require such services of these employees or may have to
move these staff members to some other department and assign other
responsibilities. Generally change in duties and responsibilities are not
welcome by employees and they tend to resist such an action.
·
Customers
With such an
information system in place, the customers of the organization will get better
service in terms of the availability of goods due to transparent and easily
available information on the stocks at present and in future. Customers will
also be benefited by a more organized and efficient customer management process
which will come with the information system.
·
Suppliers
With better stock management
through the use of the information system being implemented by the
organization, it is also expected from the suppliers of the organization to
improve their shipping process according to the improved procurement process.
The suppliers also have to become more efficient so as to respond to the more
efficient procurement and stock management process. (Storey, et al, 2004)
b)
Following
are the questions which must be asked from each of the stakeholders to select
the information system.
·
Owner
1.
Do
the benefits (monetary and non-monetary) of implementing such an information
system weigh more than the costs to be incurred?
§ This
question will help the manager understand which of the information system is
appropriate for implementing. If the benefits are less than the cost, then the
use of such a system is only going to cause loss to the organization must be
avoided.
2.
Is
the information system friendly for new users and easy to learn for them?
§ This
question will help in selecting a friendly information system for the use. This
is because the use of such information system is always resisted by the end
users management must always look for system which is easier to use and learn
for them.
·
Sales
Team
1.
What
are the key activities which you do when you approach the customers and make a
deal with them?
§ This
question will tell us how regularly the sales team keeps track of the
information from the customers and provides it to the staff of the
organization. It will help in selecting an information system which will cause
minimum damage to the autonomy of the work of sales team while also making the
process standard.
2.
How
often and what information do you require from the stocks department and
customer management department?
§ This
will also tell that which all information is required most by the sales team
and which information system is most able to give them the required information
and assistance. It will also tell about which one of the available systems has
the option of the customization required to get that information.
·
Staff
1.
What information and data do you maintain
about the stocks and customers?
§ This
question will help in selecting an information system which can quickly
generate the required details on the status of stocks and the required customer
information and communicate it directly to the sales team. This will remove the
need of excess staff which is working on stock and customer management.
2.
Do
you have any prior experience of working on any information system?
§ This
question will help in determine which information system should be implemented.
This is because if the staff has some experience on an information system, it
is easier for them to adapt their work according to this system and there will
be minimal resistance from their end. (House, 1983)
·
Customers
1.
Which
information system have you implemented in your organization?
§ It
is important that the information system of the customers must be compatible
with the information system implemented by Special Jewelry. Only those
information systems must be considered which can communicate with customer's
information system.
2.
What
functionalities do you expect from the information system of Special Jewelry?
§ It
is important that the information system not only provided functionality
required by the staff of Special Jewelry but also the functionality and
information required by the customers such as accurate expected date of
delivery and the quantity available. The information system which is capable of
providing it must be selected.
·
Suppliers
1.
Which
information system have you implemented in your organization?
§ The
information system which the organization will implement must be able to
interact with the information system of suppliers. So that the sales order
which the Special Jewelry gets are communicated to its suppliers as purchase
orders. This question will help in selecting an information system which can
communicate with the suppliers.
2.
When
and what information do you require in order to provide delivery of shipments
to the Special Jewelry on time?
§ It
is important that the information which the organization implements is able to
provide timely and accurate information to the suppliers so that the correct
delivery can't be made on time. This question will help in understanding which
information system is able to extract the required information for the
suppliers. (Gerhard and Teufel, 1998)
c)
Open Ended Question and
Closed Ended Questions
§ Open Ended Questions
Open Ended Questions
are those where the respondents are not given any option to choose from for
giving the response. This means that the respondent has the freedom to express
his views and opinion on the topic of question. The advantages of the open-ended questions are that it helps in
finding out the responses which the individuals give spontaneously which means
that there is no influence on the answers of individual from the interviewer.
It is important that open ended questions are asked when the interviewer wants
to understand how the respondent feels about any topic. The example of open
ended question is
"What
functionalities do you expect from the information system of Special
Jewelry?"
It can be observed that
there are no alternatives given to the respondent in this question and he is
free to express his views.
§ Close Ended Questions
Close Ended Questions
are those where the respondents are given few options to choose from for giving
the response when they are asked the question. This means that the respondent
is bound to select the answer from the alternatives provided to him, thus
restricting the domain of response to the few alternatives available. The advantages of the close-ended questions
are that it they are quick and easier for the respondents as they have to
select the answer only from the given options. It is important that close ended
questions are asked when the interviewer knows that the alternatives he gives
are only important to understand a topic. The example of open ended question is
"Which information system among the
following do you prefer to implement in your organization?"
1.
SAP
2.
Oracle
3.
Microsoft
It can be observed that the
respondent have to give the answer only from the limited alternatives given to
the respondent in this question. (Royce, 1970)
Q-2
To
: Jane Freeburn
From
: ABC (Business Analyst)
Date
: 23/03/2012
Re:
Information system implementation project- Analysis of factors affecting
feasibility of the project
Following
are the factors which have significant influence on the feasibility of this
project of implementing an information system for making the process more
organized and efficient.
·
Organizational
Culture
The staff has negligible experience
of using computers and any information system. The staff has been using manual
process to maintain data and extract information for business. This means that
there will be some resistance from the employees when they will be asked to the
old way of working they used to do it and adopt the new way of working. The
staff has some apprehensions on whether they will lose their job and will there
be change of responsibilities, which is normal for any staff whenever there is
such a big change in the way of work they do. The inexperience of working on an
information system coupled with the changes, it will bring with it may result
in loss of productivity of the employees and the organization. (Satzinger, et
al, 2010)
But
these concerns of the employees can be addressed by having a proper change
management process introduced. This will mean that the employees will be
explained the benefits of using the information system and how its use is going
to make their work easier. As far as the change in responsibilities and nature
of work is concerns, they will be explained the need to do so and they will be
given adequate training on the new work they are expected to do. Thus the
resistance of the employees can be avoided if we have an appropriate change
management process which will make the project more feasible.
·
Schedule
The
project has been planned to complete in 4 months' time. The schedule of
implementing the information system will include the major five steps- Project
Preparation, Preparing Business Blueprint, Project Realization, Final
Preparation and Go Live. Each of these steps is important and must be carried
out carefully so that the mistakes in one step don't cascade to the other steps
of implementation (Gerhard and Teufel, 1998).
On the first look of things, it seems that each of the steps will take at least
a month for the scale of the implementation we need in the organization. The
time taken for the implementation can further increase due to busy schedule of
the staff because of which they will be unable to devote much of their time in
contribution towards the this project.
However,
if the resources working on the project and are associated with the project can
be convinced to work extra time, then the project might finish in time. For
more accurate estimation of the feasibility of the project based on the
schedule, it is required that more detailed analysis of the each step and the
expected time to complete each of the steps is done. Currently it seems
difficult to complete the project with-in 4 months and it requires that the
schedule to be revised as per the estimation of time taken for completion of
each of the steps involved. It is also suggested, that as a contingency measure
a buffer period of 1-2 months is also allocated to take into account the
uncertainty of future events.
·
Resources
The
resources allocated for completing the project are two programmers and one
business analyst. The success of a project which involves implementing an
information system requires active participation from systems analysts, system
technicians, and users. Though it seems that one system analyst
for this project is enough, this project requires two more technicians or
programmers because the project involves integration of activities done in various
departments like stock management and customer management and further testing
of the solution developed. The current number of programmers will not be
adequate for this task. The success of project will also depend on active
user's contribution in explaining the requirements and reviewing solution which
is not easy for them as they are also engaged in their day to day activities.
This
means that the project's feasibility on resources front can be increased by
assigning two more programmers who will test the solution developed by the
first two programmers and making the end users take out some of their time for
contributing in implementation of the information system. If these things can
be ensured, then the project can be successfully completed as per the
requirement of business with good quality (Satzinger, et al, 2010). The other
important resources which are required for completing this project are access
to computers with network connectivity. The resources on that front seem
sufficient and project can be completed with these other available resources.
The
development cost of the project which involves implementation of the
information system is estimated to be $50000. I believe that the funds
allocated for this purpose are sufficient considering the cost of purchase of
the license to use the information system and the amount paid to the
programmers and the analyst for completing this project. The maintenance cost
of the project every year will be about $5000 which is not substantial and
seems acceptable. However there can be other uncertain events which may take
place during the course of implementing the information system which means that
the management should keep $10000 as contingency funds which may be required in
such situations.
The
benefits of implementation of this information system are more than the costs
associated. The use of the information system is supposed to generate the
monetary benefit of $20000 a year which means that the cost of the
implementation will be recovered in the third year. The recovery period can be
more or less depending on the business condition in the next few years (Satzinger,
et al, 2010). One issue which needs to be addressed is that the amount for
funding the project is to be taken from the cash flows of two months which may
disturb the regular operations for two months. Rather the management should
distribute $50000 funds in 4 months period of implementation which will avoid
undue burden of cash unavailability in those 2 months.
Following
are the assumptions based on which the above comments were made
·
The staff has little knowledge and
experience of working on information system and it will resist using
information system and prefer to do the work manually.
·
Each of the five steps of implementing
the information system will take at least a month to get completed and the 4
months schedule doesn't include any contingency period which must be included
in the plan.
·
The project will need 2 programmers to
develop the solution and 2 programmers to test the solution. There is
sufficient number of computers and network access available for implementation.
·
10% of the development cost goes in
maintenance of information system per year. 20% of the development cost is kept
aside as contingency funds. 40% of the development cost is recovered through
benefits each year.
Sincerely,
ABC,
Business Analyst.
References
·
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Prentice Hall.
·
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·
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·
House, W. C. (1983).
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·
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·
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·
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·
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·
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·
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·
Satzinger, J., Robert, J. and Burd, S.
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·
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·
Sullivan, L. (2004).
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·
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