Case Study 1 & Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Preparation for Thursday, 8/28/14

What is the purpose of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)? Designing or re-designing an information system is a big (expensive) project that may involve critical infrastructure for the organization. Improvisation is NOT a good approach!* You must define the project scope and goals, plan tasks and responsibilities, & identify resources. *Although it may be necessary at times.

If you don’t have a plan… How will you know when your plan is in trouble? How will you figure out how to fix it? How will you know when you are finished? How will you know if it’s a success?

3 SDLCs 1.Traditional Waterfall 2.Contextual Design (CD) 3.Agile Waterfall and CD are sometimes called structured approaches, in part because of the defined order of steps and phases. My recommendation: Build your toolbox. – be familiar with multiple approaches – incorporate useful strategies and tools from each, as needed for a specific project

Case Study 1 Jaferian, P., Botta, D., Hawkey, K., & Beznosov, B. (2009). A case study of enterprise identity management system adoption in an insurance organization. Jaferian, P., Botta, D., Hawkey, K., & Beznosov, B. (2009). A case study of enterprise identity management system adoption in an insurance organization. Case study discussion leaders will facilitate discussion for their groups, so discussion topics will differ from group to group. As you read the case study, think about the role that identity management plays in your life (personal, school, professional) – What problems have you encountered as a user? – How would these problems look from the perspective of the organization’s IdM staff?

Batra, D., Xia, W., VanderMeer, D. & Dutta, K. (2010). Balancing Agile and structured development approaches to successfully manage large distributed software projects: A case study from the cruise line industry. This case study describes a hybrid project that combined structured and Agile approaches. The authors compare/contrast the methods and relate their strengths and weaknesses to the characteristics of the project and the organization. As you read, think about the purposes of the SDLC (slide 2). – How did this project address each purpose? – Were they successful? Why or why not? How would you measure the success of the overall project (e.g., what metrics or criteria would you use)? – Was the project successful?