STI IT2110 Planning: Initiating and Planning Projects PDF

IT2110 PLANNING: INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 2. Establishing a Relationship with the Customer 3. Establishing the Project Initiation Plan Initiating and Planning Syste...

IT2110 PLANNING: INITIATING AND PLANNING PROJECTS 2. Establishing a Relationship with the Customer 3. Establishing the Project Initiation Plan Initiating and Planning Systems Development Projects 4. Establishing Management Procedures 5. Establishing the Project Management Environment and THE PROCESS OF INITIATING AND PLANNING SYSTEMS Project Workbook DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS 6. Developing the Project Charter DELIVERABLES AND OUTCOME The major outcomes and deliverables from the project initiation and planning phase are the Baseline Project Plan and the Project Scope Statement. Baseline Project Plan (BPP) is the major outcome and deliverable from the project initiation and planning phase that contains the best estimate of a project’s scope, benefits, costs, risks, and resource requirements. The elements of project planning are: 1. Describing the Project Scope, Alternatives, and Feasibility 2. Dividing the Project into Manageable Tasks 3. Estimating Resources and Creating a Resource Plan 4. Developing a Preliminary Schedule 5. Developing a Communication Plan 6. Determining Project Standards and Procedures 7. Identifying and Assessing Risk 8. Creating a Preliminary Budget 9. Developing the Project Scope Statement Figure 1. Systems development life cycle with project initiation and 10. Setting a Baseline Project Plan planning highlighted The Project Scope Statement (PSS) is a short document prepared Project planning is the process of defining clear, discrete activities for the customer that describes what the project will deliver and and the work needed to complete each activity within a single outlines all work required to complete the project. project. The objective of the project planning process is the development of Assessing Project Feasibility a Baseline Project Plan (BPP) and the Project Scope Statement Assessing project feasibility is a required activity for all information (PSS). Analysis of these assumptions and system costs and systems projects and is a potentially large undertaking. benefits forms a business case. Most feasibility factors are represented by the following Business case is the justification for an information system, categories: presented in terms of the tangible and intangible economic benefits - Economic - Scheduling and costs and the technical and organizational feasibility of the - Technical - Legal and contractual proposed system. - Operational - Political The elements of project initiation are: 1. Establishing the Project Initiation Team 04 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 1 of 5  IT2110 Assessing Economic Feasibility o Determining Project Costs The purpose of assessing economic feasibility is to identify the Similar to benefits, an information system can have both financial benefits and costs associated with the development tangible and intangible costs. project. Table 2 provides a summary of common costs associated with the development and operation of an information system. o Determining Project Benefits 1. Tangible benefits refer to items that can be measured in cost of money and with certainty. - Examples of tangible benefits might include reduced personnel expenses, lower transaction costs, or higher profit margins. - Most tangible benefits will fit within the following categories: ▪ Cost reduction and avoidance ▪ Error reduction ▪ Increased flexibility ▪ Increased speed of activity ▪ Improvement of management planning and control Table 2. Possible Information Systems Costs ▪ Opening new markets and increasing sales opportunities 1. Tangible costs. From an IS development perspective, tangible 2. Intangible benefits refer to items that cannot be easily costs include items such as hardware costs, labor costs, and measured in cost of money or with certainty (Table 1). operational costs, including employee training and building - Intangible benefits may have direct organizational renovations. benefits, such as the improvement of employee morale, or 2. Intangible costs can include loss of customer goodwill, they may have broader societal implications, such as the employee morale, or operational inefficiency. reduction of waste creation or resource consumption. 3. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is focused on understanding not only the total cost of acquisition but also all costs associated with the ongoing use and maintenance of a system. 4. One-time costs refer to those associated with project initiation and development and the start-up of the system. These costs typically encompass activities such as systems development, new hardware and software purchases, user training, site preparation, and data or system conversion (Figure 2). Table 1. Intangible benefits from the Development of an Information System 04 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 2 of 5  IT2110 The rate at which money can be borrowed or invested is referred to as the cost of capital, and is called the discount rate or TVM calculations. A discount rate is the rate of return used to compute the present value of future cash flows. A simple formula can be used when figuring out the present value. A present value is the current value of a future cash flow. PVn = Y *1 (1 + i)n Assessing Technical Feasibility Figure 2. One-time costs for Customer Tracking System (Pine Valley The purpose of assessing technical feasibility is to gain an Furniture) understanding of the organization’s ability to construct the proposed system. Technical feasibility is a process of assessing the development organization’s ability to construct a proposed system. This analysis should include an assessment of the development group’s understanding of the possible target hardware, software, and operating environments to be used, as well as system size, complexity, and the group’s experience with similar systems. All projects have risk and that risk is not necessarily something to avoid. Risks need to be managed in order to be minimized. The potential consequences of not assessing and managing risks can include the following: Figure 3. Recurring costs for Customer Tracking System (Pine Valley - Failure to attain expected benefits from the project Furniture) - Inaccurate project cost estimates 5. Recurring costs refer to those costs resulting from the ongoing - Inaccurate project duration estimates evolution and use of the system (Figure 2). Examples of these - Failure to achieve adequate system performance levels costs typically include the following: - Failure to adequately integrate the new system with ▪ Application software maintenance existing hardware, software, or organizational procedures ▪ Incremental data storage expenses The amount of technical risk associated with a given project is ▪ Incremental communications contingent on four primary factors (Table 3): ▪ New software and hardware leases 1. project size, ▪ Supplies and other expenses (e.g., paper, forms, data 2. project structure, center personnel) 3. the development group’s experience with the application and technology area, and 6. The time value of money (TVM) reflects the notion that the 4. the user group’s experience with systems development money available today is worth more than the same amount projects and the application area. tomorrow. 04 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 3 of 5  IT2110 Assessing Other Feasibility Concerns Assessing Operational Feasibility The first relates to examining the likelihood that the project will attain its desired objectives, called operational feasibility. Operational feasibility is the process of assessing the degree to which a proposed system solves business problems or takes advantage of business opportunities. Its purpose is to gain an understanding of the degree to which the proposed system will likely solve the business problems or take advantage of the opportunities outlined in the System Service Request or project identification study. Assessing Schedule Feasibility Another feasibility concern relates to project duration and is referred to as assessing schedule feasibility. Schedule feasibility is the process of assessing the degree to which the potential time frame and completion dates for all major activities within a project meet organizational deadlines and constraints for affecting change. Table 3. Project risk assessment factors The purpose of assessing schedule feasibility is to gain an understanding of the likelihood that all potential time frames and When using these factors for conducting a technical risk completion date schedules can be met and that meeting these assessment, four general rules emerge: dates will be sufficient for dealing with the needs of the organization. 1. Large projects are riskier than small projects. 2. A system in which the requirements are easily obtained and Assessing Legal and Contractual Feasibility highly structured will be less risky than one in which A third concern relates to assessing legal and contractual feasibility requirements are messy, ill-structured, ill-defined, or subject to issues. This is to gain an understanding of any potential legal the judgment of an individual. consequences due to the construction of the system. 3. The development of a system employing commonly used or Legal and contractual feasibility is the process of assessing standard technology will be less risky than one employing novel potential legal and contractual ramifications due to the construction or nonstandard technology. of a system. 4. A project is less risky when the user group is familiar with the systems development process and application area than if the Possible considerations might include copyright or nondisclosure user group is unfamiliar with them. infringements, labor laws, antitrust legislation (which might limit the creation of systems to share data with other organizations), foreign trade regulations (e.g., some countries limit access to employee data by foreign corporations), and financial reporting standards, as well as current or pending contractual obligations. 04 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 4 of 5  IT2110 Assessing Political Feasibility A final feasibility concern focuses on assessing political feasibility to gain an understanding of how key stakeholders within the organization view the proposed system. Political feasibility is the process of evaluating how key stakeholders within the organization view the proposed system. References: Kendall, K and Kendall J. (2020). Systems analysis and design (10th ed.). Pearson Education Limite Sajja, P. (2017). Essence of systems analysis and design: A workbook approach. Springer Nature. Satzinger, J. et al. (2016). Systems analysis and design in a changing world (7th ed.). Cengage Learning. Valacich, J. & George, J. (2017). Modern systems analysis and design (8th ed.). Pearson Education Limited. 04 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 5 of 5