IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/ Chapter 9 Information Systems Development and Acquisition

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Systems Development Life Cycle 10-2 Describes the life of an information system from conception to retirement Have the following phases: 1) system planning & selection, 2) system analysis, 3) system design, 4) system implementation & operation, 5) system maintenance Arrows flowing down represent flow of information.

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Phase 1: Systems Planning and Selection 10-3 Needs to identify and select potential projects suggested by sources, which have their own focus. Selection must be based on organization’s evaluation criteria and is done by the selection committee. This process varies among organizations. Some have formal others has ad hoc process Planning is done to determine the next stage once a project is selected for implementation (who, what, how, when and where?)

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Evaluation Criteria for Systems Projects 10-4 Different criteria may be used to evaluate projects  Usually multiple criteria examined for each project

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Systems Analysis 9-5 The process in which the current ways of doing business are studied and alternative replacement systems are proposed. Includes: 1) collecting system requirements; 2) modeling data; 3) modeling process and logic

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Collecting System Requirements 10-6 Arguably the most important activity Requirements collected from:  Users  Managers  Business processes  Documents System requirements collection techniques:  Interviews  Questionnaires  Observations  Document analysis

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Critical Success Factors Methodology 10-7 Critical success factor (CSF)  Something that must go well to ensure success Systems analyst interviews individuals to identify their CSFs Organization-wide CSFs are identified

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Joint Application Design (JAD) 10-8 Special type of group meeting with all potential users to get their input on what required from system Reduced time for requirements collection

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Modeling Organizational Data 10-9 The process of identifying what data is needed and how the data is related to each others to fulfill the system requirements One way is to do data model via Data modeling tools (e.g. Entity-relationship diagram

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/ Modeling Organizational Processes the process of identifying data flows for the proposed system requirements Data flows: Movement of data through an organization, system or value chain, which describe what, how, and when data is transformed

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Modeling Processing Logic The process of ensuring the proposed data flow in ‘modeling of the organizational process’ is correct and logical

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Phase 3: System Design The process in which the details of the chosen approach are developed. Involves the processes of designing: 1) forms & reports 2) interfaces & dialogues 3) databases & files 4) processing & logic 10-12

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Designing Forms/Report Forms are business documents that contain some data and is used to collect additional data. Can be in form of hard or softcopy Reports are business documents that contain predefined data that are organized and produced in printed format

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Designing Interfaces and Dialogues Dialogues- feedback provided by the computer to the user for each interaction via interface Interface- The way in which the user interacts with the computer. E.g., text-based, menu-driven, Graphical user interface (GUI

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Designing Databases and Files Database- A collection of related data organized in a way that facilitate search. File- computer program that store data. E.g. doc., ppt., jpg.

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Designing Processing and Logic Steps and procedures that transform raw data inputs into new or modified information. Process can be done using following method:  Pseudocode-Textual notation in comprehensible language that describe programming code. Quite similar to actual programming code.  Structure charts- diagram that show system configuration or process to the lowest manageable levels. E.g. process-flow-chart.  Decision trees- graph or model that show decisions and their possible consequences. E.g.  Actual program code- e.g. COBOL, BASIC, FORTRAN

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Phase 4: System Implementation and Operation The process of transforming the system design into a working information system. Sub-processes include: software programming & testing, system conversion, documentation, training & support

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Software Programming and Testing Programming- Transforming the system design into a working computer system. Performed by programmer Processing and testing should occur in parallel Tests conducted before system completion

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 System Conversion the process of decommissioning the current system and installing a new system into an organization

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Documentation Documentation- process of describing the detail inner working of a system or information for reference or training, installation and trouble-shooting. Involved two types: Information system documentation  Details of the inner workings of the system  Written by programmers User-related documentation  Written by professional technical writers  User and reference guides  User training and tutorials  Installation procedures and troubleshooting suggestions

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 User Training and Support Process of making the future users familiar with the use and procedures of using an IS

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 System Maintenance The process in which an IS is systematically repaired and improved.

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/ External Acquisition Purchasing an existing system is similar to the process of deciding which car best meets your needs Competitive bid process (find the best system for lowest possible price) Includes the following steps 1.System identification, selection and planning 2.Systems analysis 3.Development of a request for proposal 4.Proposal evaluation 5.Vendor selection

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Development of a Request for Proposal A report detailing system requirements sent to prospective vendors Areas covered in an RFP

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Proposal Evaluation An assessment of proposals received from vendors  May include system demonstrations  System benchmarking  Standardized tests to compare different proposed systems  Common system benchmarks

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Vendor Selection Usually more than one system will meet the criteria Need to prioritize/rank the proposed systems  Best ranking system is chosen

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/ Outsourcing Turning over responsibility for some or all of an organization’s IS development and operations to an outside firm: 1) Your IS solutions may be housed in their organization, 2) Your applications may be run on their computers, 3) They may develop systems to run on your existing computers (within your organization) Why outsourcing: 1) Cost and quality concerns—higher quality or lower cost systems may be available through outsourcing, 2) Problems in IS performance—IS departments might have problems meeting acceptable standards, 3) Supplier pressure—aggressive sales force convinces senior management to outsource IS functions, 4) Simplifying, downsizing, and reengineering— focusing on core competencies, 5) Financial factors—liquidation of IT assets, 6) Organizational culture—external IS groups devoid of political ties, 7) Internal irritants—external IS group may be better accepted by other organizational users

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Managing the IS Outsourcing Relationship Ongoing management of an outsourcing alliance needed 1. Strong, active CIO and staff 2. Clear, realistic performance measurements of the system 3. Multiple levels of interface between customer and outsourcer Full-time relationship managers should be assigned Outsourcing relationships  No longer just a legal contract  Different types of outsourcing relationships  Basic relationship—“Cash & Carry”  Preferred relationship—Set preferential pricing  Strategic relationship—Share risks/rewards

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/ End-User Development Allowing the actual users developing the system themselves. Benefits: 1) Cost of labor-Cost can be reduced by just giving the required tools to the users to develop their own applications; 2) Cut down long development time: User needs may change between the request for proposals and implementation of system. System becomes obsolete before implementation. End-user development may “skip” the queue. Provide more timely systems; 3) Modifications and updates: End-user system development may be better at responding to changing needs. No need to wait for IS staff to make updates; 4) Reduce work overload- Increase “development staff” by shifting work load to end users

IS Today (Valacich & Schneider) Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Published as Prentice Hall 1/11/2016 Encouraging End-User Development Fourth-generation development (4GL) tools have made end-user development easier. Categories includes: