L545 Systems Analysis & Design

Week 4: September 23, 2008

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Tools for Group Work

Oncourse Group Spaces Discussion forum

Team Project Assignment Draft #1 due next week – project scheduling/info gathering

Project Management Basics

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PM Main Processes Decision-making Communication Coordination …all support controlling the:

Deliverables

Quality

Schedule (time)Budget

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All Team Members Have Project + Project Management Duties

Project activities focus on producing the deliverable(s)

Project management activities focus on control of project: Decision-making, communication,

coordinating, planning, monitoring, assessing, controlling, changing

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Project Management Areas

Common

Sense

Project Management Institute “Areas”

WhoWhatWhenWhereHowWhy

HR—human resources

Scope, cost, quality, objectives, risk mgt

Time (schedules, milestones, due dates)

Coordination

Integration & coordination, communication

Quality control

http://www.pmi.org/info/default.asp

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Comparison of PM Models’ Phases

Lewis Model Haney Model PMI Model

1. Define 1. Start (set up) 1. Initiate

2. Plan Strategy 2. Do (middle) 2. Plan

3. Plan Implementation

3. Execute

4. Execute & Control

4. Monitor

5. Learning 3. Close out (finish)

5. Closing

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PM Phases and Activities Start (set up)

Define project goals: deliverables, due dates, quality Plan project: roles & responsibilities, schedules,

norms Do (middle)

Project tasks: interview, analyze, write report, etc PM tasks: monitor, assess, change

Close out (finish) Project tasks: deliver report & presentation Project management tasks: “lessons learned”

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PMI Model (2004)

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PMI Model (2004)

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PMI Model (2004)

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Project Management Process (Performance Knowledge Inc.)

Communicate Lead Build Team Negotiate Manage Conflict

Planning and Proposal

People

ProjectEvaluation

And Wrap-UpWork

Management

FinancialManagement

Client Relations

Plan Execute

MeasureUpdate

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Project Management Tips Spend more time (LOTS of time) on defining and

planning in the beginning Spend a lot of time on team process aspects

(expectations, rules of behavior, conflict mgt processes, etc.) in the beginning

Do not let problems build up—deal with them Set a schedule and stick to it Plan on ending all project activities before final

due date Communicate with the instructor about problems

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Project Team Formation

You have three chances to choose a project Rules:

You can stay in the same project for all the three times, if you’d like

Discuss everyone’s schedule If a person who wrote the project is there,

she/he will clarify questions about the project Otherwise, everyone will discuss the project

The third time is the final round

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Topics to Discuss as a Group

Process Regular meeting schedule Group norms Conflict resolution

Project Project objectives Deliverables Constrains Boundaries/scope Milestones

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PMI Model (2004)

Work Breakdown Structure

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Scheduling: Network Diagram (Information Gathering Plan/Scheduling)

Decide a project

Identify members’ expertise

Interview the client

Identify informants

Estimatetimeline

Write up the informationGathering plan

Identify observation occasions

Produce Gant chart or Network diagram

Identify documents

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Scheduling: Network Diagram (Sales Promotion Tracking System)

1

2

3

4

5

6 7

8

Requirementscollection

Screen design

Report design

Databasedesign

Userdocumentation

Programming Testing

Installation

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Scheduling: Sequence of Activities (Sales Promotion Tracking System)

ACTIVITY PRECEDING ACTIVITY

1. Requirements collection

--

2. Screen design 1

3. Report design 1

4. Database design 2, 3

5. User documentation 4

6. Programming 4

7. Testing 6

8. Installation 5, 7

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Scheduling: Gantt Chart (Sales Promotion Tracking System)

Getting the Data

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Determining System Requirements (Valacich, et al., 2004)

Types of Deliverables

Specific Deliverables

Information collected from users

Interview transcripts

Questionnaire responses

Notes from observations

Meeting notes

Existing documents and files

Business mission & strategy statement

Sample business forms/reports/ computer displays

Procedure manuals

Flowcharts/documentations of existing systems

Training manuals

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23Mainstream of Collecting System Requirements (Table 4-2, p. 122, Valacich, et al., 2004)

Interviews with individuals Questionnaires Observations of workers Document reviews Your own experience (see Block, Ch

11)

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Example of an Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4OvQIGDg4I&feature=related

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Interviews May want to use an interview guide:

Figure 4-2, p. 124, Valacich, et al., 2004 An example, p. 194, Block, 2000

Use an interview as a joint learning event Be personal (contextualized) –it’s helpful to

conduct observations first Pay attention to layers

(Block, 2000, p. 200)

General

specific

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Who to Interview—how many?

1-2 people in each role you identified as important to the focus

Collect data from 5-15 people in all

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Interviews (cont.) Guidelines for effective interviewing (Table

4-3, p. 123, Valacich, et al., 2004) Type your notes within 48 hours May want to send the notes back to the

interviewee (member checking) Thank the person Obtain a variety of perspectives

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Questionnaires Choosing questionnaire respondents

Convenient sampling Random sampling Purposeful sampling Stratified sampling

Designing questionnaires Reduce ambiguity (c.f., example on the Q about

backup)

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Interviews & Questionnaires

Pros Cons

Interviews

Questionnaires

Fill out the chart below

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Observation

Remember “Contextual Inquiry?”

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Document Reviews

Useful documents: A written work procedure (a ka. Job Aid)

May find needs for reorganization A formal system vs. an information system (c.f.,

work-to-order strike in France) A business form (c.f., artifact model) A report generated by current systems Documents that describe the current

information systems

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Modern Methods for Determining System Requirements

Join Application Design (see Figure 4-6, p. 135, Valacich, et al., 2004)

Prototyping Business process reengineering (BPR) See the checklist by Block (p. 203-206)

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Remember This!

“The resource the consultant has to offer is to clarify issues—layers of the problem—not to offer solutions” (Block, 2000, p. 200)