week 2, ba649, sdlc
DESCRIPTION
systems development life cycle, the predictive model. Grantham University project paper.TRANSCRIPT
Running head: SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE 1
Systems Development Life Style: Predictive Models
James Taubitz
Grantham University
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE 2
Abstract
Information Technology (IT) projects are particularly challenging due to the uncertainty of
what the final product is going to look like and the overabundance of competing standards,
capabilities and possibilities associated with these type of projects. A systems approach is one
way (and very popular way) to deal with how to tackle a large project. This paper discusses a
systems approach to viewing a project, and how the systems development life cycle can provide
a more complete view to project managers in the execution of a project to maximize successful
completion and minimize failure.
keywords: information technology, systems development life cycle, project management
process group, stakeholder, system, holistic,
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE 3
Systems Development Life Style: Predictive Models
Managing projects is a concept that most companies take very serious these days. Due to
numerous failures, increases in cost, excessive extensions in time, and various other factors that
result in difficulty (or total failure) to complete not only complex projects but also much simpler
ones, organizations are going back to school to understand how to best plan and execute a
project. Project failures can be attributed to many different problems and one area, that would
produce a multitude of mechanisms for failure, would be a project manager conducting a project
in his own little bubble without understanding how the organization or business, as a whole,
operates. Schwalbe (2014), stated, "To handle complex situations effectively, project managers
need to take a holistic view of a project and understand how it relates to the larger organization"
(p. 45). Why use this term "holistic"? The Merriam Webster Dictionary (n.d.) has defined
holistic as "relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the
analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts". As you can see this is more of a medical use
for this word. However, if you think about an organization as a complex system that has many
components that must work together to make it operate efficiently, like the human body, you can
see how a systems approach to project management would result in a more complete, and whole,
view such that the conduct of the project will have less chance to leave out crucial components to
successful achievement. A systems development life cycle (SDLC) is the term with how good
project managers encapsulate the needs of all the project stakeholders. A project stakeholder is
meaning the organization as a whole as well as customers and others affected (either positively
or negatively) by the outcome of the project. Even further, these life cycles can be defined as
predictive, adaptive (agile) or extreme. We will discuss further the predictive life cycle
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE 4
management and show how this is a good means to manage a project that is, in the end,
"predictable".
Predictive Systems Development Life Cycles
The first SDLC is the waterfall model. According to Schwalbe (2014), the waterfall
model is one that "has well defined linear stages of systems analysis, design, construction, testing
and support" (p. 60). This cycle has all five project management process groups of initiating,
planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing that all the other predictive (and
agile and extreme) models have. The main determinant in this life cycle is that no process
groups repeat themselves. In fact, Wysocki (2012), described this as a weakness in that
"knowledge gained from one process group, such as Launching [executing], cannot be used to
revise and improve the deliverables from a previously completed process group, such as Scoping
[initiating]. There is no going back to improve deliverables" (p. 42). This type of life cycle is
typically used where you generally know the end goal and the means to reach that goal.
The next predictive model is a modified version of the waterfall model, which is called
the spiral model. This life cycle is more attuned to software development projects. In fact, what
makes this more reasonable for an IT project management solution is the fact that change is
expected and planned for in the process. This change is not encouraged in the strict, linear,
waterfall cycle. The spiral approach "recognizes the fact that most software is developed using
an iterative or spiral approach rather than a linear approach. The project team is open to changes
and revisions later in the project life cycle, and returns to the requirements phase to more
carefully clarify and design the revisions" (Schwalbe, 2014, p. 60).
Another predictive version that is a bit more flexible is the incremental build life cycle.
Like the spiral model, change is expected and planned for such that what is learned on one phase
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE 5
can be applied to further refinement of the final project. The biggest difference here, from the
spiral model, is that a build (or incremental program solution) releases to the public or others.
Then, information is received from these users, testers or others, from that build, and that
information will be input into the next build cycle to achieve a final product (or next increment
of the program). For a business however, this model of "getting a partial solution into the market
is viewed as a way to get an early entry position and therefore create some leverage for
generating increased market share" (Wysocki, 2012, P. 43)
A model that requires a significant amount of user interface and input is the prototyping
life cycle. In an effort to clarify user requirements, prototypes are developed, users then tinker
with the program and report issues to the developers who in turn, "generate functional
requirements and physical design specifications simultaneously" (Schwalbe, 2014, p. 61).
Finally, the RAD life cycle (or Rapid Application Development) is similar to the
prototyping with the exception that RAD software is used to further develop new software and
provide prototypes for the end user to evaluate and provide feedback to the developer.
End Analysis of Predictive SDLC Models
While these are some of the predictive SDLC models, and there are more radical SDLC
models to use when the end-point is unknown, predictive models will get the project
management team to the end-point of a problem even if the solution was not readily apparent or
known. In IT projects, with the fierce competition all around, a project manager may decide to
use a model more agile to get the product to the market and continue to refine it while making
money on the early release. Bottom line however is that all the predictive models include all the
project management process groups. A smart project manager, looking at the whole business as
a system, reaching out to clients and any other stakeholder affected by the project, will have a
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE 6
much better chance at successfully completing any project over someone who willy-nilly tries to
jump from initiating to the closing phase without proper thought at the whole system.
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE 7
References
Holistic. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster Dictionary online. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/holistic
Schwalbe, K. (2014). Information Technology project management (7th ed.).
Boston, MA: Course Technology
Wysocki, R.K. (2012). Effective project management: Traditional, agile, extreme (6th ed.).
Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons