1 Managing the development and purchase of information systems (Part 3) BUS Abdou Illia, Fall 2005 (Week 12, Wednesday 11/16/2005)

2 LEARNING GOALS  Explain Purchase of IS process

3 Purchasing Software  Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software Less expensive May not contain all the needed features  Phases in COTS SDLC System planning Systems analysis Request for proposals Proposal evaluation Implementation Maintenance } here is the difference

4 Request for Proposals (RFP)  Details the requirements for the new systems and invites interested parties to submit a proposal for the system  Sections in an RFP Summary of existing systems Specific description of the features of the new system Proposal evaluation criteria Budget constraints Timetable for deliverables Details of other miscellaneous information

5 Request for Proposals (RFP)  Summary of existing systems Internal business processes Type of computers used etc.  Description of the features of the new system Requirements for hardware Requirements for software Requirements databases Requirements for network How many transactions per minutes? etc  Proposal evaluation criteria Features, reliability, speed, etc.  Budget constraints Maximum budget vs. No budget information  Details of other miscellaneous information Vendor’s past projects, client references, etc.

6 Evaluating Proposals  Usually using a point-system Number of points for each requirement More points to more important requirements  Evaluation approaches Specific requirements  Eliminate proposals that don’t meet requirements  Compare remaining proposals Demonstrations  At vendor’s location vs. At client site Benchmarks  Running system with sample data to see how it performs

7 Summary Questions MalagaNotes 1) What is a COST software? How does the Traditional SDLC SDM differ from COST SDLC? In what kind of situations Prototyping might be the best SDM to use? 2)What are the common sections found in a Request For Proposals? What is a point-system for evaluating proposals? What are the common proposal evaluation approaches?