Project Initiation and Planning

Project Initiation and Planning

• During project initiation and planning, projects are either accepted, rejected, or redirected for development.
• Systems analysts start to take on a significant role in the systems development process during this phase.
• Key questions to address include how much effort to spend, who is responsible, and what makes it challenging.
• Project initiation activities organize a team to perform project planning.
• Project planning includes defining discrete activities and the work needed for each.
• The goal of project planning is to develop a Baseline Project Plan (BPP) and a Project Scope Statement (PSS).

Elements of Project Initiation

• Form a project initiation team.
• Establish a relationship with the customer.
• Establish a project initiation plan.
• Put in place established management procedures.
• Create a project management environment and workbook.
• Develop the project charter.

Elements of Project Planning

• Describe the project scope, identify alternatives, and assess feasibility.
• Divide the project into manageable tasks.
• Estimate resources and create a resource plan.
• Develop a preliminary schedule.
• Develop a communication plan.
• Determine project standards and procedures.
• Identify and assess project risks.
• Create a preliminary budget.
• Develop the project scope statement.
• Set a baseline project plan.

Deliverables and Outcomes

• A business case justifies an information system in terms of tangible/intangible economic benefits/costs and technical/organizational feasibility.
• The Baseline Project Plan (BPP) is a major deliverable containing the best estimates of a project’s scope, benefits, costs, risks, and resource needs.
• The Project Scope Statement (PSS) is a document for the customer that specifies the project deliverables and outlines the work needed.

Assessing Project Feasibility

• Feasibility factors include economic, technical, operational, scheduling, legal/contractual, and political aspects.
• Analyzing these factors creates the business case to justify resource expenditure.

Assessing Economic Feasibility

• Economic feasibility involves identifying the financial benefits and costs of a development project.
• A tangible benefit can be measured in dollars and with certainty.
• Categories of tangible benefits include cost reduction/avoidance, error reduction, increased flexibility/speed, improved management planning/control, and new market/sales opportunities.
• An intangible benefit cannot be easily measured in dollars or with certainty.

Determining Project Costs

• Tangible costs are measured in dollars with certainty, like hardware, labor, and operational expenses.
• Intangible costs cannot be easily measured in dollars, such as loss of customer goodwill or employee morale.
• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) includes all costs of owning and operating a system, including acquisition and ongoing maintenance.
• One-time costs are associated with project start-up and development or system start-up.
  • Examples include systems development, new hardware/software, user training, site preparation, and data conversion.
• Recurring costs result from the ongoing evolution and use of a system.
  • Examples include application software maintenance, incremental data storage/communication, new leases and supplies.

Time Value of Money

• Time Value of Money (TVM) posits that money available now is worth more than the same amount later.
• Discount rate is the rate of return used to compute the present value of future cash flows.
• Present value is the current value of a future cash flow.
• Net Present Value (NPV) uses the discount rate to determine the present value of cash outlays and receipts.
• Break-even analysis is a cost-benefit analysis to identify when benefits equal costs.
• The Break-Even Ratio formula is: (Yearly NPV Cash Flow – Overall NPV Cash Flow) / Yearly NPV Cash Flow.

Assessing Technical Feasibility

• Technical feasibility assesses the development organization’s ability to construct the proposed system.
• Failure to assess and manage risks can lead to failure to attain benefits, inaccurate estimates, inadequate performance, and integration issues.

Project Risk Assessment Factors

• Project size affects implementation risk, with more members, longer duration, more departments, larger coding effort, and outsourcing increasing risk.
• Project structure affects implementation risk, with new systems, organizational changes, user involvement, and management commitment being key factors.
• Development and user group familiarity with technology and application areas impact project implementation risk.

Assessing Other Feasibility Concerns

• Operational feasibility assesses how well a proposed system solves business problems or leverages opportunities.
• Schedule feasibility assesses if the project timeline meets organizational deadlines and constraints.
• Legal and contractual feasibility assesses potential legal and contractual ramifications of the system.
• Political feasibility assesses key stakeholders' views on the proposed system.

Baseline Project Plan Sections

• Introduction
  • Provides an overview of the document and recommended actions.
  • Includes project scope definition, depending on organizational units affected, interacting systems, affected people, and potential capabilities.
• System Definition Section
  • Outlines alternative solutions.
  • Web-based online systems and mainframe databases.
• Feasibility Assessment Section
  • Addresses project costs, benefits, and human resource requirements.
• Management Issues Section
  • Encompasses managerial concerns, task responsibilities, and communication matrix samples.

Reviewing the Baseline Project Plan

• Ensures the BPP is logical.
• Walk-throughs are peer reviews, also known as structured walk-throughs, of any product created during system development.
  • They are informal reviews.
  • Roles include coordinator, presenter, user, secretary, standards bearer, and maintenance oracle.
  • Applicable to BPP, system specifications, logical designs, code, test procedures, manuals, and documentation.
  • They ensure formal review points during the project.

Presentation Planning

• Consider your audience to design the most effective presentation.
• Design a presentation with a clear objective in mind.
• Knowledge of the room size, shape, and lighting is valuable information for designing an optimal presentation.

Presentation Design

• Organize the presentation sequence so that like elements or topics are found in one place, instead of scattered throughout the material randomly.
• Do not pack too much information onto a slide so that it is difficult to read.
• Be consistent in font types, sizes, colors, design approach and backgrounds.
• Use both textual and graphical slides to convey information in the most meaningful format.
• Carefully review your presentation for typographical and wording errors.
• Use familiar graphical icons to guide and enhance slides, but make sure that “special effects” don’t distract from your message.
• Take care when using supplemental materials so that they don’t distract the audience.
• At the beginning, introduce yourself and your teammates, acknowledge your audience, and map out what will be covered, then concluding the presentation with a concluding slide is over.