Week 12: IS Development

Question 1

What is systems development?

Answer 1

A process for creating or modifying information systems

Question 2

What are the 5 phases of the SDLC? (Systems Development Life Cycle)

Answer 2

1 - Define the system (objective for new system)
2 - Requirement Analysis (Identify features)
3 - Component Design (hardware, software etc)
4 - Implementation (Purchase, build, test)
5 - System Maintenance (fix or enhance)

Question 3

What does the system definition include?

Answer 3

Defining the system’s goals and scope

Question 4

What are the 4 dimensions of feasibility?

Answer 4

1 - Cost feasibility
2 - Time feasibility
3 - technical feasibility (wether current IT will meet new demands)
4 - Organisational feasibility (does the system fit with customers, culture, legal requirements etc)

Question 5

Who is involved when forming the project team?

Answer 5

• Project manager
• User representatives
• IS professionals

Question 6

What is the user’s role in the requirements phase?

Answer 6

To review and approve requirements

Question 7

What is a system requirement?

Answer 7

A characteristic or feature that must be included in an IS to satisfy the business requirements and be acceptable to users

Question 8

What is involved in the component design phase of the SDLC?

Answer 8

Determining the hardware specifications, program specifications, designing the database, designing the procedures, creating job definitions

Question 9

How are the 5 components of IS designed?

Answer 9

• Hardware: Purchased or leased
• Software: off the shelf/ custom developed
• Database: Conversion of data model to database design
• Procedure: ease of use
• Job Descriptions: ???

Question 10

What are the 4 ways a new system is implemented within a business?

Answer 10

• Direct: There is a an immediate change over to the new system (Low cost, high risk)
• Parallel: Both new and old operate for a period of time (High cost, low risk)
• Pilot: New system is trialled at one branch first (medium risk and cost)
• Phased: New system is implemented in stages (medium risk,/ cost - but higher than pilot method)

Question 11

What are the tasks for system maintenance?

Answer 11

• Record recommended changes due to failures
• Prioritise requests
• Fix failures (patches, new releases etc)

Question 12

What are the 5 keys to managing SDLC projects?

Answer 12

1 - Create work-breakdown structure
2 - Estimate time and costs
3 - Create project plan
4 - Adjust plan via trade-offs
5 - Manage development challenges

Question 13

What are the 3 primary drivers of systems development?

Answer 13

Time, Cost and Scope

Question 14

What is scope?

Answer 14

How large the system needs to be/how many users does the system need to handle

Question 15

What are 4 challenges of development?

Answer 15

1 - Coordinations (organising small groups that each have their own tasks)
2 - Diseconomies of Scale (As a team grows the average contribution per worker decreases)
3 - Configuration Control (Set of management policies, practises and tools to maintain control over a project)
4 - Unexpected Events (Loss of team members, new management, loss of team morale etc)

Question 16

What are some of the problems with the SDLC?

Answer 16

• Business requirements can change

- Time and cost for projects can be dramatically inaccurate

Question 17

What are the 4 alternatives to SDLC?

Answer 17

1 - Rapid Application Development (RAD)
2 - Unified Process (UP)
3 - Extreme Programming (XP)
4 - Scrum

Question 18

What does Scrum development involve?

Answer 18

• Prioritising a list of requirements
• Selecting a group of requirements to tackle over work period (4-8 weeks)
• Dividing tasks between team members
• Meeting each day to discuss progress/problems etc
• Repeating process with new tasks at the end of each cycle

Question 19

What is outsourcing?

Answer 19

The process of hiring another organisation to perform a service

Question 20

What are the advantages of outsourcing?

Answer 20

• Save costs
• Gain expertise
• Free up management time

Question 21

What are the risks of outsourcing?

Answer 21

• Loss of control (You cannot manage another organisations work)
• Potential loss of intellectual capital
• Continual cost as job is never learnt by the business