Chapter 13

• application portfolio: a prioritized list of both existing and potential IT applications
• IT architecture: delineates the way an organization should utilize its information resources to accomplish its mission
• IT strategic plan: a set of long-range goals that describe the IT infrastructure and identify the major IT initiatives needed to achieve the organization's goals
• the IT strategic plan must meet three objectives:

  1. it must be aligned with the organization's strategic plan
  2. it must provide for an IT architecture that seamlessly networks users, applications, and databases
  3. it must efficiently allocate IS development resources among competing projects so that the projects can be completed on time and within budget and still have the required functionality
• IT steering committee: comprised of a group of managers and staff who represent the various organizational units, and is created to establish IT priorities and to ensure that the MIS function is meeting the organization's needs
• IS operational plan: A plan that describes how the IS will be implemented and the resources needed to achieve the objectives.
• an IS operational plan has the following elements:

  • mission
  • IS environment
  • objectives of the IS function
  • constraints of the IS function
  • the application portfolio
  • resource allocation and project management
• purchase a pre-written application advantages:

  • different types of off-the-shelf software are available
  • the company can try out the software before buying
  • the company can save a lot of tim e
  • the company knows what it is getting before it invests in the product
  • may eliminate the need to hire personnel dedicated to a project
• purchase prewritten application disadvantages:

  • software may not meet companies needs
  • can be difficult or impossible to modify
  • company will not have control over software improvements and new versions
  • purchased software can be difficult to integrate into existing systems
  • vendors discontinue product
  • controlled by another company
• customize a prewritten application:

  • expensive
  • can become obsolete
• lease the application:

  • businesses can lease the software and integrate it into their business
• application service provider: an agent or vendor that assembles the software needed by enterprises and then packages it with services such as development, operations, and maintenance
• software-as-a-service: a method of delivering software in which a vendor hosts the applications and provides them as a service to customers over a network
• outsourcing: acquiring IT applications from outside contractors or external organizations
• continuous application development: the process of steadily adding new computer code to a software project when the new computer code is written and tesed
• systems development life cycle: the traditional systems development method that organizations use for large-scale IT projects
• six processes of systems development life cycle:

  1. systems investigation
  2. systems analysis
  3. systems design
  4. programming and testing
  5. implementation
  6. operations and maintenance
• systems analysts: IS professionals who specialize in analyzing and designing information systems
• programmers: IS professionals who either modify existing computer programs or write new programs to satisfy user requirements
• technical specialists: experts on a certain type of technology, such as databases or telecommunications
• systems stakeholders: include everyone who is affected by changes in a company's information systems
• systems investigation: addresses the business problem by means of the feasibility study
• feasibility study: analyzes which of these three solutions best fits the particular business problem
• technical feasibility: determines whether the company can develop or otherwise acquire the hardware, software, and communications components needed to solve the business problem
• economic feasibility: determines whether the project is an acceptable financial risk and, if so, whether the organization has the necessary time and money to successfully complete the project.
• behavioural feasibility: addresses the human issues of the systems development project
• traditional systems development advantages:

  • forces staff to systematically go through every step in a structured process
  • enforces quality by maintaining standards
  • has lower probability of missing important issues in collecting user requirement
• traditional systems development disadvantages:

  • may produce excessive documentation
  • users may be unwilling or unable to study the approved specifications
  • takes too long to progress from the original ideas to a working system
  • users have trouble describing requirements for a proposed system
• prototyping advantages:

  • helps clarify users requirements
  • helps verify the feasibility of the design
  • promotes genuine user participation
  • promotes close working relationship between systems developers and users
  • works well for ill-defined problems
  • may produce part of the final system
• prototyping disadvantages:

  • may encourage inadequate problem analysis
  • is not practical with large numbers of users
  • users may not want to give up the prototype when the system is completed
  • may generate confusion about whether the system is complete and maintainable
  • system may be built quickly, but can result in lower quality
• joint application design advantages:

  • involves many users in the development process
  • saves time
  • generates greater user support for the new system
  • improves the quality of the new system
  • the new system is easier to implement
  • the new system has lower training costs
• joint application design disadvantages:

  • it is difficult to get all users to attend the JAD meeting
  • the JAD approach is subject to all of the problems associated with any group meeting
• integrated computer-assisted software engineering advantages:

  • can produce systems with a longer operational life
  • can produce systems that closely meet user requirements
  • can speed up the development process
  • can produce systems that are more flexible and adaptable to changing business conditions
  • can produce excellent documentation
• integrated computer-assisted software engineering disadvantages:

  • systems are often more expensive to build and maintain
  • the process requires more extensive and accurate definition of user requirements
  • it is difficult to customize the end product
• rapid application development advantages:

  • can speed up systems development
  • users are intensively involved from the start
  • improves the process of rewriting legacy application
• rapid application development disadvantages:

  • produces functional components of final systems, but not the final systems themselves
• end user development advantages:

  • bypasses the IS department and avoids delays
  • user controls the application and can change it as needed
  • directly meets user requirements
  • promotes increased user acceptance of new systems
  • frees up IT resources
• end-user development disadvantages:

  • may eventually require maintenance from IS department
  • documentation may be inadequate
  • leads to poor quality control
  • system may not have adequate interfaces to existing systems
  • may create lower-quality systems
• object-oriented development advantages:

  • objects real-world entities
  • new systems may be able to reuse some computer code
• object-oriented development disadvantages:

  • works best with systems of limited scope