The Business Of IT Flashcards
What 5 domains does IT cover?
- communication
- data collection and management
- information security management
- consumer relationship management
- process improvement
What is a service portfolio?
a list of the services the department offers.
What is IT governance?
the system of processes that ensures the effective and efficient use of IT to enable the organization to achieve its buisness goals and to add value to the key stakeholders in an organization.
What is Insourcing?
assigns a project to employees within the organization.
Generally requires the development of new operations and processes, making it an expensive option.
What do project management frameworks do?
ensure that projects are well defined with clear, attainable goals, and that the resources are in place for successful completion.
What are the 4 phases of an IT project?
- Initiation Phase
- Planning Phase
- Execution Phase
- Project Closure
What is project initiation?
broadly defines the project. Usually begins with a business case, followed by a feasibility study.
What is a feasibility study?
research assesses whether the business case will lead to a reasonable, feasible solution.
What is project planning?
developing a road map that everyone follows.
Project planning starts with what (2) kind(s) of framework(s)?
- SMART
- CLEAR
What is SMART?
Specific: set a goal that answers who, what, when, where, why.
Measurable: Create criteria that can be used to measure success of the goal
Attainable: Ensure goal is attainable given the resources.
Realistic: Assess the willingness to work towards the goal
Timely: Goal should be achievable within the available timeframe
What is CLEAR?
Collaborative: should encourage employees to work together
Limited: goal should be limited in scope and time to keep it manageable
Emotional: goal should tap into the passion of the employees and be something they can form an emotional connection to. This can optimize quality of work.
Appreciable: Break larger goals into smaller tasks that can be quickly achieved.
Refinable: as new situations arise, be flexible and refine the goal as needed.
What 5 documents does a project usually have by the end of the planning phase?
- scope statement
- work breakdown structure
- milestones
- communication plan
- risk management plan
What is a scope statement?
outlines objectives, deliverables, and milestones
What is WBS?
breaks project down into manageable segments for the team
what is a milestones document?
defines high-level goals to meet throughout the projects duration
What is a communication plan?
outlines the frequency and methods of communicating with stakeholders
What is a risk management plan?
identifies foreseeable risks, including cost overruns and delays
What is project execution?
project deliverables are developed and completed.
What kinds of tasks are completed during the project execution? 5
developing a project team
assigning resources
setting up tracking systems
conducting status meetings
monitoring the project timetable
What is project closure?
project is declared complete and the project team is dissolved.
What kind of tasks are performed during project closure?
project managers complete final project documentation, including financial reports.
What are the 3 broad categories of risks a project may encounter?
- Risks in execution
- Risks in integration
- Risks of the unknown
What 5 steps are involved with considering risks during the project planning phase?
- Identify the risks
- Analyze their impact on the project outcome
- Prioritize the risks by severity and likelihood
- Outline a mitigation strategy to minimize potential risks
- Install monitoring systems for anticipated and unanticipated risks.
What are risks in execution?
5
typically revolve around:
1. budget
2. people
3. technology
4. equipment
5. stakeholder support
What are risks of integration?
what other systems and processes might be effected by the outcome of the project?
Name 2 key strategies to successfully identify risks?
- frequent monitoring of project parameters and milestones
- sound communication between project participants
What is scope creep?
uncontrolled change of a projects scope, typically adding tasks and increased, unplanned costs to the project
what is budget risk?
budget control issues such as underestimated or improper allocation of cost
What is resistance to change
departments and individuals resist organizational changes resulting from the project
What are resource risks?
inability to secure sufficient resources for a project
what are contract risks?
a vendor fails to deliver on contractual obligations
what are project dependencies?
tasks that are dependent upon the completion of other tasks
what is project assumptions risk?
when assumptions about the project are invalidated during project development.
What are benefit shortfalls?
project meets the requirements but delivers fewer benefits than outlined in the business case
What are requirements quality risk?
requirements have not been properly validated or documented
What is force majeure risk?
the chance of major negative event beyond human control such as natural disaster.
What are the 4 steps in a System Life Cycle Diagram?
- Requirements Analysis
- Design
- Implementation
- Testing
What are IDE’s? (What do they do?)
Combine tools such as editing, compiling, and debugging tools into a single package.
What is Appery.io an example of?
IDE
TheAppBuilder is an example of what?
IDE
AppMachine is an example of what?
IDE
Name 3 organizations that provide guidelines for developing integrated systems and establishing standards for measuring the quality of system and software development.
- ISO
- ACM
- IEEE
What are the 6 phases of SDLC
- Planning
- Design
- Implementation
- Testing
- Deployment
- Maintenance
What is requirements analysis?
Determines what services the system will provide, identify any conditions (such as time constraints and security) and defines how users will interact with the system
The requirements analysis process consists of what 3 steps?
- Compiling and analyzing the needs of the system use
- Negotiating with project stakeholders on trade-offs between wants, needs, costs, and feasibility
- Developing a set of requirements identifying the necessary features and services of the completed system
What is SRS?
Written agreement between all parties that records the system requirements and guides system development.
SRS also helps resolve disputes that arise during development.
What should the SRS do?
Clearly define the objectives to determine a systems success.
What should an organization have at the end of the design phase?
A detailed description of the system structure
What are the 4 primary categories of software maintenance?
- Corrective
- Adaptive
- Perfective
- Preventive
What is corrective maintenance?
Removes errors to ensure functionality of the system.
What is adaptive maintenance?
Performed when organizational changes affect system requirements such as changes in organizational procedures, forms, or system controls and security needs.
What is Perfective maintenance?
Performed when new components are introduced or existing components are improved to enhance overall system performance.
What is preventive maintenance
Refers to changes made to increase the life span of systems and could include restructuring, optimizing code, or updating documentation that impacts the scalability, stability, and maintainability of the system.
What is the ISO 9000
Series of standards adresses industrial activities such as design, production, installation, and servicing.
What is the ISO/IEC 15504
A set of standards developed jointly by the ISO and the IEC.
What is the Pareto Principle?
The theory that 80% of errors come from 20% of the system, meaning most errors can be identified by testing carefully selected groups of samples.
What is basis 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/White-box testing
Having developers test internal structures of software.
What is black-box testing?
Doesn’t rely on the testers knowledge of the systems structure but is foxed on the user experience.
What are the 3 types of system documentation?
- User documentation
- System documentation
- Technical documentation.
What is user documentation?
Explains the system to users and may include information such as how to access certain features, FAQ’s and contact information for customer support
What is system documentation?
Describes the systems internal configuration so the system can be maintained later in its life cycle. A major part of software development is documentation of software code.
What is versioned code?
It allows developers to track modifications and reverse any changes that have been problematic.
What is technical documentation?
Describes how to install and maintain the system, including information about installing updates and providing feedback to the development team.
What is the waterfall model? (4)
An early approach to system engineering. Followed the development process sequentially.
- Requirement analysis
- Design
- Implementation
- Testing
What is the increment model?
System is constructed in increments. The first increment is a simplified version of the final product. As tests are completed, more features are added and tested incrementally until the system is complete.
Name two examples of agile methodologies
- Scrum
- Extreme programming
What is scrum? (Steps, 6)
An agile method of system development with 6 steps.
- The system owner makes a prioritized wish list
- Scrum team selects an item toward the top of the wish list and plans the implementation during an event called “sprint”
- Team completes the list of objectives while assessing progress in daily meetings called scrums
- Sprint ends with the system ready to be released.
- A new sprint starts using another item on the wish list.
- Process continues until the prioritized wish list is clear.
What is extreme programming?
Systems are developed by small teams under a dozen people working in a communal workspace where they freely share ideas and assist each other in the development project.
What are the five 9’s?
A common requirement for regulated industries is uptime, the amount of time client data and resources are available on the servers, often measured in the number of 9’s found in a %. 99.999% uptime.
This means the organization is required to have an average of less than approximately 3seconds of downtime per week.
Name 3 strategies of disaster recovery and business continuity.
- Data mirroring
- Data backups
- Off-site storage
What are the 5 main suggested criteria for assessing off-site storage of data?
- Accessibility
- Cost
- Environment
- Geographic area
- Security
