Chapter 13: Acquiring Information Systems and Applications Flashcards
What are some problems associated with assessing the costs of IT?
One of the major challenges that companies face is to allocate fixed costs among different IT projects
Another complication is that the costs of a system do not end when the system is installed. Rather, costs for maintaining, debugging, and improving the system can accumulate over many years.
define Application portfolio and IT strategic plan
Application portfolio: When a company examines its needs and performance, it generates a prioritized list of both existing and potential IT applications
IT strategic plan: is a set of long-range goals that describe the IT infrastructure and identify the major IT initiatives needed to achieve the organization’s goals
Why are the intangible benefits from IT so difficult to evaluate?
Benefits may be more difficult to quantify, especially because many of them are intangible (for example, improved customer or partner relations and improved decision making)
- ex. Companies may actually implement the technology at one or more locations to verify that the technology functions effectively and is accepted by consumers
Describe the NPV, ROI, breakeven analysis, and business case approaches.
Conducting the Cost–Benefit Analysis
- Analysts use the net present value (NPV) method to convert future values of benefits to their present-value equivalent by “discounting” them at the organization’s cost of funds. To determine whether the benefits exceed the costs.
- Return on investment (ROI) measures management’s effectiveness in generating profits with its available assets. ROI is a percentage, and the higher the percentage return, the better.
- Breakeven analysis determines the point at which the cumulative dollar value of the benefits from a project equals the investment made in the project.
- In the business case approach, system developers write a business case to justify funding one or more specific applications or projects.
- describe what you do, how you do it, and how a new system could better support you.
Describe the four fundamental business decisions that organizations must make when they acquire information systems.
1. How much computer code does the company want to write?
○ A company can choose to use a totally prewritten application (write no computer code), to customize a prewritten application (write some computer code), etc.
2. How will the company pay for the application?
○ With prewritten applications or customized prewritten applications, companies can buy them or lease them.
3. Where will the application run?
○ the company can employ either a software-as- a-service vendor or an application service provider
4. Where will the application originate?
○ Prewritten applications can be open-source software, or they can come from a vendor.
Discuss each of the seven development methods in this section with regard to the four business decisions that organizations must make.
Application service provider (ASP), Software-as-a-service (SaaS), Use Open-Source Software, Use Outsourcing, Employ Continuous Development, Customize a Prewritten Application, Purchase a Prewritten Application, Lease the Application
Application service provider (ASP): is an agent or a vendor that assembles the software needed by enterprises and then packages it with services such as development, operations, and maintenance.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS): is a method of delivering software in which a vendor hosts the applications and provides them as a service to customers over a network, typically the Internet.
SaaS eliminates the need for customers to install and run the application on their own computers
Use Open-Source Software
Organizations obtain a license to implement an open-source software product and either use it as-is, customize it, or develop applications with it
Use Outsourcing
Outsourcing: Acquiring IT applications from outside contractors or external organizations.
Employ Continuous Development
Continuous application development: is the process of steadily adding new computer code to a software project when the new computer code is written and tested.
Customize a Prewritten Application
Customizing existing software is an especially attractive option if the software vendor allows the company to modify the application to meet its needs
Purchase a Prewritten Application
Lease the Application
Describe the feasibility study.
Feasibility study: analyzes which of these three solutions best fits the particular business problem.
* Technical feasibility — determines whether the company can develop or otherwise acquire the hardware, software, and communications components needed to solve the business problem
* Economic feasibility — determines whether the project is an acceptable financial risk and, if so, whether the organization has the necessary time and money to successfully complete the project.
* Behavioural feasibility — addresses the human issues of the systems development project. You will be heavily involved in this aspect of the feasibility study.
What is the difference between systems analysis and systems design?
Systems analysis: is the process whereby systems analysts examine the business problem that the organization plans to solve with an information system.
Systems design: describes how the system will resolve the business problem.
The deliverable of the systems design phase is the set of technical system specifications
- System outputs, inputs, calculations or processing, and user interfaces
- Hardware, software, databases, telecommunications, personnel, and procedures
- A blueprint of how these components are integrated
define Systems development life cycle (SDLC)
and its six processes
Systems development life cycle (SDLC): is a structured framework that consists of sequential processes by which information systems are developed
Systems investigation
- addresses the business problem (or business opportunity) by means of the feasibility study.
Systems analysis
- is the process whereby systems analysts examine the
business problem that the organization plans to solve with an information system
Systems design
- describes how the system will resolve the business problem.
Programming and testing
- involves translating the design specifications into computer code
Implementation
- (or deployment) is the process of converting from an old computer system to a new one
Operation and maintenance
- Run and maintain the system, making necessary updates and improvements to ensure continued effectiveness
Describe programming.
Programming: involves translating the design specifications into computer code
What are the four conversion methods?
also at the beg. define Implementation
Implementation: (or deployment) is the process of converting from an old computer system to a new one.
Direct conversion: the old system is cut off, and the new system is turned on at a certain point in time
Pilot conversion: introduces the new system in one part of the organization, such as in one plant or one functional area
Phased conversion: introduces components of the new system, such as individual modules, in stages
Parallel conversion: in which the old and new systems operate simultaneously for a time
Describe the tools that augment the traditional SDLC:
Prototyping, Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) Engineering Tools, Component-Based Development, Object-oriented development, Containers
Prototyping: approach defines user requirements, builds a model of the system, and then refines the system based on users’ feedback.
Prototype: smaller version of the system
* Can contain some components of the new system
Integrated Computer-Assisted Software Engineering Tools
Computer-aided software engineering (CASE): refers to a group of tools that automate many of the tasks in the SDLC.
Component-Based Development
Component-based development: uses standard components to build applications
Object-oriented development: is an approach to software development that models real-world entities as objects, each with defined properties and operations.
Containers: are a method of developing applications that run independently of the base operating system of the server.
- Containers allow application providers to develop, test, and deploy technology that will always run in practice exactly like it does in testing
Describe the alternate methods that can be used for systems development other than the SDLC: Joint Application Design, Rapid Application Development, Agile Development, End-User Development, DevOps
Joint Application Design
Joint application design (JAD): is a group-based tool for collecting user requirements and creating system designs.
* used within the systems analysis and systems design stages of the SDLC.
Rapid Application Development
Rapid application development (RAD): is a systems development method that can combine JAD, prototyping, and integrated computer-assisted software engineering (ICASE) tools to rapidly produce a high-quality system
Agile Development
Agile ‘breaking down project into phases’
Agile development: is a software development methodology that delivers functionality in rapid iterations, which are usually measured in weeks
* Ex. Scrum approach — a key principle of scrum is that during a project, users can change their minds about what they want and need. Scrum acknowledges that a development problem cannot be fully understood or defined from the start
- It prioritizes delivering small, functional increments of software in short, time-boxed iterations/it builds small aprts of the system in a small amount of time
End-User Development
End-user development “Shadow IT”: is an approach in which the organization’s end users develop their own applications with little or no formal assistance from the IT department
DevOps
Combination of “Development” and “Operations”
DevOps is a form of software development that brings the developers and the users (operations) together
