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SYS366

Week 3 Lecture 1Introduction to

Requirements Gathering: Part 1

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Today Business Systems Projects Why do Projects Fail? The importance of Stakeholders

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What is a system? A combination of hardware and

software that meets the needs of a business.

A collection of inter-related components that collect, process, store and provide as output the information needed to complete business tasks and to make business decisions.

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Types of systems? Office Systems

Productivity tools available to employees on a desk top.

Electronic Mail, Word Processing, Database Management, Spreadsheets, Desktop Publishing, Presentation Graphics and so on.

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Types of systems? Operational (Transaction

Processing) Systems Take care of the day-to-day

processing of the business Information about the transactions

that affect the organization are captured and recorded

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Types of systems? Management Information Systems

Uses operational systems’ information to give management the information needed to make management decisions

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Types of systems? Executive Information Systems

Provide information to executives on how their company is doing relative to the industry

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Types of systems? Decision Support Systems

Systems that allow a user to explore the impact of available options or decisions

‘What if’ analysis

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Types of systems? Expert Systems

Simulate human reasoning and decision-making.

Artificial Intelligence.

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Types of Systems

Information systems Collection of interrelated

components that collect, process, store, and provide as output the information needed to complete business processes

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Flow of Information Horizontally - information flows

across departments Vertically - information needs of

clerical staff, middle management, and senior executives

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Information Systems

IS PlanningLevel

Type of planning Typical IS applications

Organizational Unit

Responsible for Developing

Strategic Strategies in support of organizational long-term objectives

Market and sales analysis, Product planning, Performance evaluation

Senior Management/ Executives

Tactical Policies in support of short-term goals and resource allocation

Budget analysis, Salary forecasting, Inventory scheduling, Customer service

Middle Management

Operational Day-to-day staff activities and production support

Payroll, Invoicing, Purchasing, Accounting

Lower Management; Operational

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Today Business Systems Projects Why do Projects Fail? The importance of Stakeholders

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What is a Project? Sequence of unique, complex,

connected activities having one goal and that must be completed by a specific time, within a specific budget and according to spec

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Project Initiation: How are Projects Chosen?

Long-term information systems strategic plan (top-down)

Department managers or process managers (bottom-up)

Response to outside forces Legislative changes Market forces Competition

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Strategic Planning Strategic Planning involves

determining long-term objectives by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, studying opportunities and threats in the business environment, predicting future trends, and projecting the need for new products and services.

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Strategic Plan Helps determine which projects go

ahead

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How do you get projects justified?

Understand the relationship to the Strategic Plan

Support from Stakeholders Understand and quantify hard &

soft benefits Understand and calculate one-time

and ongoing costs

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Some IT Examples

Software/system development Package implementation Selection of a turnkey solution Technology implementation Business process re-engineering Component assembly

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Hard vs Soft Benefits Hard- quantifiable in terms of

dollars Soft - Intangible

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Justification based on benefit Cost Savings New Services to clients Mandatory changes Strategic advantage Technical reasons

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Project Parameters

Scope Quality--product and process Cost Time Resources Scope and Quality ARE DIRECTLY

IMPACTED BY Cost, Time, Resources

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What is project scope? A definition of the boundaries of the project

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When do you define scope? You define scope at the beginning of the project

You manage and control scope throughout the life of the project

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How do you define scope? You talk to your stakeholders!

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How do you define scope? In addition to talking to your stakeholders!, You research and clarify You document Identify expected capabilities of new

system Develop Business Use Case Diagrams Develop textual Business Use Case

descriptions Ask, “Is problem understood?”

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Today Business Systems Projects Why do Projects Fail? The importance of Stakeholders

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Why is scope important?

One of the biggest factors in project success Good scope definition = good client and IT

understanding of what will be delivered and when

Ensures you understand WHERE you are going, HOW you will get there and WHEN you will arrive

This is where most projects start to fail!

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What defines project success?

On time Within budget Expected results achieved

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The evil truth

Only 16.2% of all IT projects succeed! Fully functional, on time, within

budget Some studies show this as low

as 10%.

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The evil truth

52.7% are “challenged” --less than fully functional, over budget, late

The remaining 31.1% get cancelled before they are fully implemented

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The evil truth

Estimated cost of challenged and cancelled projects in 1 year?

$140 billion

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More evil truth The average project:

exceeds planned budget by 90% exceeds schedule by 120%

How to estimate: take your best, most honest

guess multiply that by 4

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Why do projects fail? Objectives not fully specified (51%) Poor planning/estimating (48%) New technology (45%) Poor or no project management

discipline (42%) Inadequate skills (42%)

and so on…

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Today Business Systems Projects Why do Projects Fail? The importance of Stakeholders

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To A Avoid Disaster “The team must

Establish a good understanding of the stakeholder community

Demonstrate an understanding of the problem to be solved…”*

*Use Case Modeling by Bittner and Spence, p. 50.

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To A Avoid Disaster “The team must

Capture the real needs of the stakeholders and the system features required to fulfill them

Ensure that the views of the stakeholder community are actively and appropriately represented throughout the project” *

*Use Case Modeling by Bittner and Spence, p. 50.

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Who is a Stakeholder? “An individual who is materially affected by

the outcome of the system or the project (s) producing the system” *

Or the people who suffer from the problem being addressed *

*Use Case Modeling by Bittner and Spence, p. 51.

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Categories of Stakeholders

Five primary categories Users Sponsors Developers Authorities Customers

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User Stakeholders Those who actually use the system Technology Adopters

Interested in using all of the features of the system; in pushing it to the limit of its capabilities

Standard Users Not interested in using all of the

features of the system. Rather they want a system that allows them to perform their business processes simply and in the same way that they are used to performing them

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Standard Users Those in day-to-day business

operations use and change information

Those using queries view calculated/collected information

Management use reports, statistics demand controls

Executives strategic issues

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User Stakeholders Non-human users

Mechanical devices that the system must interact with

Other business areas Other systems

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Sponsor Stakeholders Indirect users Or those actually paying for the

development of the system Or those affected only by the business

outcomes that the system influences

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Developer Stakeholders Those involved in the production and

maintenance

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Authority Stakeholders Those who are expert in a particular

aspect of the problem or solution domain Ministries Technical experts Domain experts

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Customer Stakeholders Those doing business with the company

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Over to You Let’s get started on Work Package

1 In-Class Exercise 5