1. Acquiring Information Systems and Applications
CHAPTER 13
Acquiring Information Systems and Applications

2. Announcements Wednesday Final Exam Schedule Final Exam Review
10:00 AM Class (Section 001): Mon., 12/9 (8:00 – 11:00)
11:00 AM Class (Section 002): Weds., 12/11 (11:30 – 2:30)

3. CHAPTER OUTLINE 13.1 Planning for and Justifying IT Applications
13.2 Strategies for Acquiring IT Applications
13.3 The Traditional Systems Development Life Cycle
13.4 Alternative Methods and Tools for Systems Development
13.5 Vendor and Software Selection

4. 13.1 Planning for and Justifying IT Applications
Organizations must analyze the need for the IT application.
Each IT application must be justified in terms of costs and benefits.

5. Information Systems Planning

6. the firm’s overall mission
Information Systems Planning: Organization Strategic Plan and Current IT Architecture
the firm’s overall mission
how the org should use info resources to accomplish mission
Includes:
Technical Aspects
Managerial aspects

7. Information Systems Planning: IS Strategic Plan
Long range goals that describe the IT infrastructure and identify IT initiatives.
Must meet three objectives:
Alignment with organizational strategic plan
Architecture must seamlessly network users and applications
Efficiently allocate IS development resources

8. IT Steering Committee
© Image Source/Age Fotostock America, Inc.

9. Information Systems Planning: IS Operational Plan
Contains the following elements:
Mission
IT environment
Objectives of the IT function
Constraints of the IT function
Application portfolio
Resource allocation and project management

10. Evaluating & Justifying IT Investment: Benefits, Costs & Issues
Assessing the costs
Fixed costs
Total cost of ownership (TCO)
Assessing the benefits (Values)
Intangible benefits: Benefits from IT that may be very desirable but difficult to place an accurate monetary value on.
COST VS. BENEFITS

11. Conducting the Cost-Benefit Analysis
Using Net Present Value (NPV)
Return on investment
Breakeven analysis
The business case approach

12. 13.2 Strategies for Acquiring IT Applications
Four fundamental business decisions to make before choosing a strategy:
How much computer code does the company want to write?
How will the company pay for the application?
Where will the application run?
Where will the application originate?

13. Strategies for Acquiring IT Applications
Purchase a Prewritten Application
Customize a Prewritten Application
Lease the applications
Application Service Providers
Software-as-a-Service Vendors
Use Open-Source Software
Outsourcing
Custom Development

14. 13.3 Traditional Systems Development Life Cycle
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
Systems Investigation
Systems Analysis
Systems Design
Programming and Testing
Implementation
Operation and Maintenance
Investigation
Analysis
Design
Programming/Testing
Implementation
Operation & Maintenance

15. The SDLC Major advantages Major drawbacks Control Accountability
Error detection
Major drawbacks
Relatively inflexible
Time-consuming and expensive
Discourages changes once user requirements are gathered

16. SDLC – Systems Investigation
Begins with the business problem (or opportunity) followed by the feasibility analysis.
Feasibility study
Deliverable:
Go/No-Go Decision
Investigation
Analysis
Design
Programming/Testing
Implementation
Operation & Maintenance

17. SDLC – Systems Investigation (cont.)
Feasibility Study
Technical feasibility
Economic feasibility
Organizational feasibility
Behavioral feasibility

18. Operation & Maintenance
SDLC – System Analysis
The examination of the business problem that the organization plans to solve with an information system.
Main purpose:
requirements determination
Deliverable:
set of system requirements
Investigation
Analysis
Design
Programming/Testing
Existing System
New/Improved System
Implementation
Operation & Maintenance

19. Operation & Maintenance
SDLC – Systems Design
Describes how the system will accomplish this task.
Deliverable:
technical design specifying:
System outputs, inputs, user interfaces.
Hardware/software, database, telecommunications, personnel & procedures.
Blueprint of how these components are integrated.
Investigation
Analysis
Design
Programming/Testing
Implementation
Operation & Maintenance

20. SDLC – System Design (continued)
Scope creep is caused by adding functions after the project has been initiated.

21. SDLC – Programming & Testing
Programming involves the translation of a system’s design specification into computer code.
Testing checks to see if the computer code will produce the expected and desired results under certain conditions.
Testing is designed to delete errors (bugs) in the computer code.
Investigation
Analysis
Design
Programming/Testing
Implementation
Operation & Maintenance

22. SDLC – Systems Implementation
The process of converting from the old to the new system
Major conversion strategies:
Direct
Pilot
Phased
Parallel (not used much today)
Investigation
Analysis
Design
Programming/Testing
Implementation
Operation & Maintenance

23. SLDC – Operation & Maintenance
Audits are performed to assess the system’s capabilities and to determine if it is being used correctly.
Types of maintenance:
Debugging
Updating
Maintenance
Investigation
Analysis
Design
Programming/Testing
Implementation
Operation & Maintenance

24. Six-Stage Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) with Supporting Tools
Prototyping
Business Need
Systems Investigation
Deliverable: Go/No Go Decision
Systems Analysis
Deliverable: User Requirement
Systems Design
Deliverable: Technical Specification
Programming and Testing
Implement
The
System
Operation and
Maintenance
Upper CASE Tools
Joint Application Design (JAD)
Lower CASE Tools

25. Tools for Systems Development
Prototyping
Integrated computer-assisted software engineering (ICASE)
Component-based development
Object-oriented development

26. 13.4 Alternative Methods and Tools for Systems Development
Joint application design (JAD)
Rapid application development (RAD)
Agile development

27. 13.5 Vendor & Software Selection
Step 1: Identify potential vendors.
Step 2: Determine the evaluation criteria.
Request for proposal (RFP)
Step 3: Evaluate vendors and packages.
Step 4: Choose the vendor and package
Step 5: Negotiate a contract.
Step 6: Establish a service level agreement.

28. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Define an IS strategic plan, identify three objectives it must meet, and describe one common approach to cost-benefit analysis.

29. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Discuss the four business decisions that companies must make when they acquire new applications.

30. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Identify the six processes involved in the systems development life cycle, and explain the primary tasks and importance of each process.

31. LEARNING OBJECTIVES (continued)
Analyze the process of vendor and software selection.

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