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IS371 WEEK 8 Last and Final Assignment
Application Development Alternatives to
Application Development
Instructor Online Evaluations
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Application Portfolio Management
McFarlan
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The Traditional Life-cycle Approach
The Traditional Life-cycle Approach Program
development is subdivided into phases This
makes complex activities easier to understand and
control Skills vary over time and are more
easily managed in phases Interactions between
developers and users are improved Phases permit
systematic management intervention Phases in
Development Life Cycle 1. Initial investigation
4. Development 2. Requirements definition 5.
Installation 3. General design 6.
Post-installation
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Stages of the SDLC
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Major Causes of System Failure

• Lack of project plan and bad project management
• Inadequate definition of project scope
• Lack of communication with end users
• Insufficient personnel resources and associated
  training
• Lack of communication with project team
• Inaccurate estimate
• Scope creep
• Expectation Failure

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Risk Analysis

• Client Activities
• Programming and management skills
• Application characteristics
• Project importance and commitment
• Hardware requirements
• System software requirements

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Risk Management Analysis Primer

• A process for assessing
• threats and determining which ones to
• ignore,
• reduce,
• eliminate
• level of feasible support for efforts to reduce
  and eliminate
• Expected Loss P1 x P2 x L
• where
• P1 Probability of attack
• P2 Probability attack is successful
• L loss occurring is attack is
  successful

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Risk Management Analysis Primer

• A process for assessing
• threats and determining which ones to
• ignore,
• reduce,
• eliminate
• level of feasible support for efforts to reduce
  and eliminate by comparing expected losses to
  prevention costs

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Risk Management Analysis Primer

• Expected Loss or EL P1 x P2 x L
• where
• P1 Probability of attack
• P2 Probability attack is successful
• L Loss occurring is attack is
  successful
• PC Prevention costs
• If EL lt PC then ignore
• If EL gt PC then investing in PC is
  reasonable

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Risk Analysis Steps
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The SPIRIAL MODEL Do a little bit of
requirements gathering, then a little bit of
analysis, design, coding, test and release, and
then use that as the starting point for getting
and clarifying the next small set of requirements
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Release 1
Requirements
Analysis
Design
Code
Test
Release
Release 2
Requirements
Analysis
Design
Code
Release 3
Test
Release
Requirements
Analysis
Design
Code
Test
Release
The problem with a small amount of requirements
is that when you get your next set of
requirements, you find that you did something
wrong, or asked the wrong question when getting
the first set of requirements. By the final
incremental iteration, your system is such a mess
that no-one can understand how it got that way.
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SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION GOOD DESIGN CHECKLIST 1.
WORKS CORRECTLY 2. RELIABLE 3. MAINTAINABLE 4.
EASY TO USE 5. EASY TO IMPLEMENT / TEST 6.
EFFICIENT 7. ON TIME/ON BUDGET
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MEASURES OF IT SUCCESS/FAILURE ON TIME/ON
BUDGET SYSTEMS THAT DONT RESULT IN AT LEAST A
MINIMALLY FUNCTIONING SYSTEM OR HAVE MAJOR COST
OR TIME OVER RUNS WILL BE CONSIDERED
FAILURES CORRESPONDENCE SYSTEMS THAT ARE
JUSTIFIED BASED ON PLANNED BENEFITS THAT ARE NOT
REALIZED WILL BE CONSIDEED FAILURES EXPECTATION SU
CCESS IS MEASURED BY THE ATTITUDE OF THE USER
TOWARD THE SYSTEM. IF THE USER WILL NOT, OR CAN
NOT, USE THE SYSTEM IT WILL BE CONSIDERED A
FAILURE.
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Make or buy decision
Decision Criteria Pressure to Make/Own
Pressure to Buy
Business strategy IT application or infrastructure provides proprietary competitive advantage IT application or infrastructure supports strategy or operations, but is not considered strategic in its own right
Core competence
Information/ process security and confidentiality
Availability of suitable partners
Availability of packaged software or solutions
Cost/benefit analysis
Time frame for implementation
Evolution and complexity of the technology
Ease of implementation
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PACKAGED SOFTWARE EXTERNAL VENDOR IN-HOUSE DEVELOPMENT
BUSINESS NEED STANDARD NON-STRATEGIC STRATEGIC
IN-HOUSE EXPERIENCE IN-HOURSE FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL SKILLS EXIST NO IN-HOUSE EXPERIENCE IN-HOUSE FUNCTIONAL TECHNICAL SKILLS EXIST
PROJECT SKILLS SKILLS ARE STANDARD OUTSOURCING IS A STRATEGIC DECISION IN-HOUSE ONGOING NEED
PROJECT MANAGEMENT ABILITY TO COORDINATE WITH VENDOR ABILITY TO DEFINE OUTSOURCING TERMS IN-HOUSE MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE
TIME SHORT FLEXIBLE FLEXIBLE
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Packaged software PROS Faster implementation Lowe
r maintenance expense the organization need not
redefine requirements for legal or other new
requirements. Instead, this is the vendors job.
Purchased software provides extensive
documentation. CONS Has a tendency to evolve
slowly. May use multiple programming languages.
May be incompatible with users databases.
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SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION TO BUILD OF BUY, THAT IS THE
QUESTION 1. DEFINE YOUR REQUIREMENTS 2.
IDENTIFY YOUR ALTERNATIVES 3. BUY IT IF YOU
CAN CONSIDER REPUTATION OF THE VENDOR LEVEL
OF VENDOR SUPPORT CONTACT CURRENT
CUSTOMERS VERIFY QUANTITIVE MEASURES OF
PERFORMANCE EASE OF CUSTOMIZATION GOOD v.
PERFECT FIT
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Accounting for Information Technology Costs

• Allocated Method Description
  Advantage Disadvantage

• All IS costs are considered an organizational
  expense

• Experiments with technology can occur
• User can request the development of new systems
• IS can develop systems regardless of economic
  benefit.

• Costs can get out of control.
• IS professionals cannot easily allocate their
  budget among conflicting requests.

• Unallocated cost
• center

• IS department allocates costs to departments that
  use its services.

• User request only beneficial services.
• It works well in organization where changes are
  made regularly to all internal customers

• IS can have problems determining allocation of
  costs
• Friction among user departments and between them
  and IS can occur
• IS has no reason to operate efficiently.

• Allocated cost
• center

• IS charges internal and external users the same
  and attempts to get both kinds of business.

• Users can choose who will perform their IT
  service.
• IS department has incentives to operate
  efficiently.

• Outsourcing may become more common.
• Fees may be higher than with other methods.

• Profit center