Section 7: The Business of IT Flashcards
What is IT governance?
The system of processes that ensures the effective and efficient use of IT to enable an organization to achieve its business goals and to add value to key stakeholders in an organization
What is the software development life cycle?
The cycle includes the following 6 steps:
1) Planning
2) Design
3) Implementation
4) Testing
5) Deployment
6) Maintenance
What is project management frameworks?
It is to ensure that projects are well defined, with clear, attainable goals and that resources are in place for successful completion (SMART & CLEAR)
What are the project management cycle steps?
1) Initiation
2) Planning
3) Execution
4) Closure
What are strategic goals?
Long term, organizational aspirations determined by management that detail things such as eventual service and product offerings and social and economic impacts
What are tactical goals?
Short term goals. Plans how to operate w/ maximum efficiency
What are operational goals?
Similar to tactical goals, except operational plans are long term. (Long term goals to operate at max efficiency)
What does IT governance provide the company’s IT function with?
1) Strategic management
2) Realizations of benefits to the organization
3) Risk optimization
4) Resource optimization
What is the Project Initiation phase?
Broadly defines the project.
Starts with business case which is followed by a feasibility study.
What is a feasibility study?
Determines if the business case is a reasonable and feasible solution
What is the Project Planning phase?
Developing a road map that everyone follows.
Defines scope and drafts a project management plan (identify resources, cost and time estimations)
Setting goals using SMART or CLEAR
What is the Project Execution phase?
Project deliverables are developed and completed.
Kick off meeting to determine tasks, develop the team, assign resources, setting up tracking systems, conducting status meetings and monitoring the project timetable
What is the Project Closure phase?
Project is declared complete and the project team is dissolved.
Complete documentation, include financial reports. Project team members reflect on strengths and opportunities for improvement
What doe the letters of SMART goals mean?
S- Specific (Who, what, where, when, why)
M- Measurable (can be objectively measured)
A- Attainable (Attainable given resources)
R- Realistic (Assess willingness to work toward goal)
T- Timely (achievable within the available timeframe)
What doe the letters of CLEAR goals mean?
C- Collaborative (Encourage teamwork)
L- Limited (Limited in scope and time to keep it manageable)
E- Emotional (Taps into the passion of the employees)
A- Appreciable (Break large goals into smaller tasks)
R- Refinable (Be flexible and refine the goal as needed)
What are some project planning documents?
Scope Statement - Outlines objectives, deliverables, and milestones
WBS - Work Breakdown Structure - Breaking project into manageable segments for the team
Milestones - High-level goals to meet throughout the project’s duration
Communication Plan - Outlining the frequency and methods of communication w/ stakeholders
Risk Management Plan - identify foreseeable risks, including cost overruns and delays
What are the different types of risks?
Risk in Execution - Revolve around budget, people, tech, equipment, and stakeholder support
Risks in Integration - Affects other systems and processes in an organization
Risks of the Unknown ????
How do you mitigate the different types of risk?
Risk in Execution: Planning in advance
Risk in Integration - Assessing potential disruptions, proper support, and having a shared understanding of the project’s complexity
What is Scope Creep?
Uncontrolled change of a project’s scope
What is Resource Risk?
Inability to secure sufficient resources for the project
What are Project dependencies?
When completion of some tasks is dependent on the completion of other tasks
What are project assumptions risk?
When assumptions about the project are invalidated during project development
What is Benefit shortfall?
Meets the requirements but delivers fewer benefits than outlines in business case
What is Requirements quality risk?
Requirements have not been properly validated or documented
What is Force Majeure Risk?
Chance of a major negative event beyond human control (natural disaster)
What are the phases of the system development life cycle?
1) Requirements Analysis
2) Design
3) Implementation
4) Testing
What is CASE?
Computer-Aided Software Engineering (software that helps with different tasks)
What are IDEs?
Integrated Development Environments - Combine tools (editing, compiling, debugging tools, into a single package)
What is requirement analysis?
Requires input from stakeholders, such as potential users, as well as those w/ other ties, such as legal or financial interests
What are the 3 steps of the requirements analysis process?
1) Compiling and analyzing the needs of the system use
2) Negotiating w/ project stakeholders on trade-offs between wants, needs, costs and feasibility
3) Developing a set of requirements identifying the necessary features and services of the complete system
What is the SRS?
System Requirement Specification - Written agreement between all parties that records the system requirements and guides system development
What is the difference between Requirements Analysis and Design?
Requirements Analysis - Describes the system
Design - Creates a plan for constructing the system
What are the 4 primary categories of software maintenance?
1) Corrective Maintenance - Remove errors
2) Adaptive Maintenance - Organizational changes affect system requirements
3) Perfective Maintenance - Performed when new components are introduced or improved.
4) Preventative Maintenance - Changes made to increase the life span of systems
What is the Pareto Principle?
80% of errors come from 20% of the system, meaning most errors can be identified by testing carefully selected groups of samples
What is Bases Path Testing?
Develops a set of test data that ensures each instruction in the software is executed at least once
What is Glass-box Testing?
Includes having developers test internal structures of software
What is Black-box testing?
Focused on user experience (UX)
What are the stages of testing?
Alpha - Developers and/or internal UX team test a preliminary version of the software, providing feedback about performance and functionality
Beta (Pilot Testing) - Given to a segment of end users for similar testing
User Acceptance - Users test the system in an operational setting to make sure the system continues to align w/ business objectives and meets the goals of the stakeholders
What is the Waterfall Model?
Sequential development process
- Requirements analysis
- Design and implementation
- Testing
What is Rapid prototyping?
Quickly constructing a simple sample that may consist of only a few screen images, indicating how the system would function
What is the Agile Model?
Proposes incremental implementations, respond to rapidly changing requirements, and reduce the emphasis on rigorous requirements
What is Scrum?
Hands-on system consisting of simple steps:
1) System owner makes a wish list
2) Selects an item at the top and plans the implementation during a “sprint”
3) Completes the list of objectives while assessing progress in daily meetings called scrums
4) Sprint ends w/ the system ready to be released
5) New sprint starts, using another item on the wish list
6) Continues until the prioritized wish list is clear
What is the extreme programming (XP) model?
Developed by a small team in a small workspace where ideas are freely shared.
What are strategies for disaster recovery and business continuity?
Data Mirroring - Involves setting up the operating system to simultaneously write copies of the data on several storage devices
Data Backups - Stored on any data storage device
Off-Site Storage
Hot-Storage - Involve the latest and greatest storage equipment and the fastest protocols (Expensive). Can be located close to client for quick retrieval
Cold-Storage - Less frequent access and maintained on minimal equipment. Low performance and slow but cheap
What are the 5 criteria for assessing off-site storage?
1) Accessibility
2) Cost
3) Environment - Storage facility conditions (temp, humidity, fire prevention, power management control)
4) Geographic area - Distance from org.
5) Security
What is Globalization?
Growing interdependence of the world’s economies and cultures brought about by the trade of goods and services and the flow of information and people
