Lecture 1: Information System Development

What are the two sides of information 1) Technical Side

systems development? 2) Managerial Side (Business Analysis)

What is business analysis? - Practice of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs

& recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders

What is the importance of business - Allows an enterprise to articulate:

analysis? - needs and the rationale for change
- Describe solutions that can deliver value
- Enables organization to be agile
- Can respond well & rapidly to changing env
- Can meet customer needs

When is an analysis done? - Prior to a project → heart of a project

- Investment of time and money won’t be worth it

What are three components of a good

business analysis?

- Business agility: adaptable and flexible to changes

- Can collect data, make changes, and implement them
(adaptable)

What makes a technological project fail? - Poor communication

- Understand limitations and the spectrum (determines success or
failure)
- Data collect errors
- Integration process
- User perspective
- Business process analysis
What are skills for good business - PM, communication, facilitation
analysis? - Analytical skills
- Problem solving skills
- Creative thinking
- Tech savvy (diagrams & CASE tools)
- Organizational knowledge

What is an IS Project? - A one time, scoped and time endeavour aimed at altering
business processes using one or more technologies

What are the reasons for pursuing IT - Fixing a problem or point of pain
projects? - Pursuing a business opportunity
- Catching up with competition
- Requirement (gov or reg body)
- Automating processes or redesigning them

What is business process management? - Continuous analysis and improvement of business processes
(IT)
- Improves things; continuously monitoring process
- IT is an enabler of it → enhances processes
- Not a project; always happening

What are three BPM Topologies? 1) Business Process Automation

2) Business Process Improvement
3) Business Process Reengineerig

Describe Business Process Automation - Create or adjust electronic workflows to match the improved
process maps

Describe Business process Improvement - Study the business processes

- Create new, redesigned processes to improve the process
workflows
- Utilize new tech enabling new process structure

What is Busines Process Reengineering - Total overhaul of work process

How are IT Systems Built? What are the *** steps and typologies follow steps in a certain order
four components of STEPS?
STEPS
- System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
1) Planning
2) Analysis
3) Design
4) Implementation

- May use repetition cycles; not as linear as it seams

Describe the planning component and it’s - WHY info system should be built
two steps. - HOW the project team will go about building it
 - There are two steps:
1) Project initiation
- System’s business value to the organization is identified
- Will it lower costs or increase rev
2) Project management
- PM creates a work plan, staffs projects, and using techniques to
help project ream control & direct project through entire SDLC

What are the four components of analysis? 1) WHO will use the system
What does the project team do in this 2) What the system will do
stage? 3) Where it will be used
4) When it will be used

- Project team:
- Investigates (any) current systems
- Identifies improvement opportunities
- Develops a concept for new system

Describe what happens in the design - How system operations in terms of the:
phase - Hardware, software, and network infrastructure
- User interface, forms, and reports that will be used
- Specific programs, database, and files that will be
needed

Describe the implementation phase - System is either developed or purchased (in the case of
packaged software) and installed
- Phase is the longest and most expensive part of entire process

**** analysis & design usually takes most of the time

What are the three typologies in SDLC? 1) Structured Systems Development

- Waterfall, parallel development, and V model

2) Rapid Application Development

- Iterative development, system prototyping, throw-away
prototyping

3) Agile

What are the 5 steps of initiating an IT 1) Identify a business need

project? 2) Someone steps up → Project Sponsor
3) Create System Request
4) Approval Committee reviews the system request
5) If approved, the project goes to feasibility analysis then a
project plan is created
What are the 5 elements of a system 1) Project Sponsor
request? 2) Business Need
3) Business Requirements
4) Business Value (always a #)
5) Special Issues or Constrain
6)

Describe the two sides of a system 1) Technical side

analysis - Architect

- Engineer
- Scientist
2) Managerial Side (Business Analysis)
- Business analyst
- Requirements analysis
- Change management analysis (other titles too)
- PM

Lecture 2: Managing Information Systems Projects

What type of questions are asked in Feasibility Analysis

feasibility analysis? - Is this project really worth doing
- Can we do this project
 - Will the organization accept this if we go ahead

What is a feasibility analysis - Detailed business case for the project

- Technical feasibility
- Economic feasibility
- Organizaitonal feasibility
- Compiled into a feasibility study

When is the feasibility analysis completed - You must continue assessing it throughout the project

What are four sources of technical risk? Sources of Technical Risk:

- Users’ and analysts’ lack of familiarity with the business
application area
- Lack of familiarity with technology
- Project size
- Compability with existing systems

What are considerations made for - Identify costs and benefits

economic feasibility? (4) - Assign values to costs and benefits
- Determine cash flow
- Assess financial viability
- Return on investment
- Break even point
- Net present value
*** determine if economically doable

What are the two types of costs and - Development & operational costs
benefits that should be considered? - Tanginble & intangible benefits

Provide examples of development costs - Development team salaries

- Consultant fees
- Hardware and software
- Vendor installation
- Data conversion costs

Provide examples of operational costs - Software upgrades

- Software licensining fees
- Hardware repair and upgrades
- Cloud storage fees
- User trainining

Provide examples of tangible benefits - Increased sales

- Reductions in staff, inventory, IT costs
- Better supplier costs

Proide examples of intangible benefits - Increased market share

- Increased brand recognition
- Higher-quality products
- Improved customer service
 - Better supplier relations

What is used for the cost-benefit analysis - Discounted cash flow method
using NPV? - NPV

- n= year that cash flow occurs

What is the formula for present value total

costs?

- Assuming we are in 2022, how did we reach 168,743? (There is

a discount rate of 6%)
- 189,000/ (1 + 0.06)^2 = $189,000 (total cost)

What is the focus on strategic alignment - Are project goals aligned with business strategy?
with respect to organizational feasibility? - Close alignment with strategy increases the likelihood of
success

Can stakeholder groups be influenced? - Presentations describing and promoting benefits

How so? - Emphasizing personal benefits as well as organizational
benefits
- Prototypes help prove system concept
- Real user involvement throughout project
 - Essential to continuously review and revise the feasibility
assessment
- How well are we managing the risks we previously
identified? Are adjustments needed?
- Risk is being managed
- Risk is not well managed and needs further
attention
- Are there any new risks that have appeared?
- What actions are needed to address the risks?
What are the budget and schedule impacts?

What are the three typlogies for SDLC? 1) Structured Systems Development
List the methods that fall under these - Waterfall, parallel development and v model
typologies 2) Rapid Application Development
- Iterative development, system prototyping, throw-away
prototyping
3) Agile
- Extreme programming (XP), scrum

What are the two methodologies for 1) Waterfall Model

structured systems development? 2) Parallel Development
3) V Model

Describe the waterfall method (SSD) - Emphasize phase to phase deliverables

Describe the parallel development method - Variation of waterfall model
(SSD). What is it a variation of? - Subdivide to concurrent subprojets
- Independent; wait for one to be complete first

Desfcribe the V-model (SSD). What is it a - Variation of waterfall model

variation of? - Emphasis on system quality through test plan development

- Emphasis on quality & testing

- Test upwards; test separately (unit testing)
- Ex: slowly combine different subinuts
- In a skytain, it could be passengers info system- screen
showing when next train comes
- Take another system (train stoppage) and
 integrate both of them
- Once integration is done, testing is done
by the client (Translink)

Which three models are part of Rapid 1) Iterative development

Application Development? 2) Throwaway prototyping
3) System prototyping

Describe iterative development (RAD) - Series of versions

Describe throwaway prototyping - Experimenting with design options that are thrown away
- Learning is factored into final version
Describe system prototyping - Quick & rough system version that “grows” with repetitive
refinements
- Version is refined

What does the agile methodology focus - Short cycles that produce a complete software product
on? - Highly adaptable in dynamic environments
→ Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, - Cyclical typology
Others

Compare when a Structured System should

be used VS Agile methodology STRUCTURED AGILE

Definitive/ less changing Dynmic requirements

Discournaged Acepted changes in deliverables

Tightly-controlled Flexible scope

Initial Ongoing involvement of

customer

Lengthy, long term, rigit Shorter, dynamic, evolving

projects
 Accurate estimated needed General estimates are fine

Define CASE - Computer Aided Software Engineering

- Helps system

Compare upper CASE with lower CASE → Upper CASE

- Support BA side
- Process models, data models, user stories, IT PM
- Business side of things

→ Lower CASE
- Support technical side
- Implementation side

What are the three components of creating 1) Project estimation

a project plan? 2) Task identification
3) Task assignment

Explain project estimation - Estimate timing for each step in SDLC (and sub steps)
- Use industry-standard %

What is needed in the project plan - Identify tasks with durations

- WBS
- Data from previous projects
- Consider methodologies

What is task assignment - Skill match

- Training needed
- Interpersonal skill
- Teamwork and project charters
 Lecture 3: Requirements Analysis

What are the three requirements for process - Small Improvements

improvements? (small, moderate, major) - Problem analysis
- Root-cause analysis
- BPA- Business Process Automation

- Moderate Improvements
- Duration analysis
- Activity-based costing
- Information benchmarking
- BPI- Business Process Improvement

- Major Improvements
- Outcome Analysis
- Technology Analysis
- Activity elimination
- BPR- business process re-engineering

Describe what problem analysis is & explain a - Ask users to identify problems & solutions
drawback - Improvements tend to be small & incremental
- Rarely find improvements with significant business
value

Describe what root cause analysis is - Challenge assumptions about why problem exists
- Trace symptoms to their causes to discover “real
problem”
- 5 Whys
- Don’t want to miss the cause and only
see symptom

Fish-Bone Diagram for Problems

What is the goal when analysis for moderate - Goal is to improve efficiency & effectiveness
improvements is done and what can be - Expect moderate changes to existing systems
expected? - Expect moderate impact and value to organization
- Types of activities:
What are the three types of activities? - Duration analysis
- Analyze how long each step is taking
& if they can be reduced
- Activity-based costing
- Bottleneck in terms of money
- Informal benchmarking
- Compare yourself to best in the market
& see which changes can be made to
current processes

What are the three types of activities in analysis - Duration analysis

to identify moderate improvements? - Analyze how long each step is taking & if
they can be reduced

- Activity-based costing
- Bottleneck in terms of money

- Informal benchmarking
- Compare yourself to best in the market & see
which changes can be made to current
processes

What is the goal when analysis for major - Goal is to redesign of business process
improvements is done and what can be - Expect significant impact & value to an
expected? organization
- Activities focus on envisioning the business in new
What are the three types of activities and what ways
do they focus on? - Outcome analysis
- Focus on desirable outcomes from
 customer POV
- Technology analysis
- Brainstorm opportunities fro important
& intersting technologies
- Activity elimination
- Challenge the importance of each
activity in process
- What if its removed?

What are the three types of activities to identify - Outcome analysis

major improvements & what do they focus on? - Focus on desirable outcomes from customer
POV
- Ex: car accident → what is driver looking for
from ICBC? For a fixed car
- ICBC will have partnerships with
maintenance companies

- Technology analysis
- Brainstorm opportunities fro important
& intersting technologies

- Activity elimination
- Challenge the importance of each
activity in process
- What if its removed?

What is requirement determination? - Created a detailed precise list of what system should
do & system characteristics

List 5 different types of requirements 1) Business requirements

determination - What the business needs are

2) User requirements
- What the user needs to do

3) System requirements
- How the system should be built

4) Functional requirements
- What the software should do

5) Non-functional requirements
- Characteristics system should have

Describe what the two types of functional 1) Process-oriented

requirements are - Process system must perform / do
- Helps user do an activity
 2) Information oriented
- Information system must contain
- Ex: system must include budgeted & actual
sales for current year and previous 3 years

What are the four non-functional requirements? 1) Operational

- Physical and technical environments that system
operates
- System works on Android & iOS

2) Performance
- Speed, capacity, and reliability of system
- System should support 300 simultaneous users
from 9- 11 am, and 150 all other times

3) Security
- Who has authorized access to system under what
circumstances
- Only direct managers can see staff personnel
records

4) Cultural and political

- Cultural and political factors and legal requirements
that affect system
- Data Persons Act
- Having English & French for CAD

What is requirements definition? - Scope of the system

- Clear statement of what system should do to achieve
objectives in systems request
- Establishes user expectations
- Requirement has unique number thats is linked
- Can be presented in Word, Excel or CASE tools

Compare upper CASE with lower CASE Upper CASE

- Business side

Lower CASE
- IT side
What does a requirements definition report look
like?

What are standards for writing requirements? - IEEE, ISO

- Document structure/ templates exist
- Traceable
- Clear/ unique numbering

What are important things to keep in mind when - Use word “shall”
writing requirements? - The system shall open the train doors once
the train speed is at 0
- Verifiable
- Smallest testable unit
- Note difference between validation and
verification
- Unambiguous- simple English
- One interpretation
- Consistent- no set of requirements in conflict
Quick Quiz 1) Non- verifiable → can’t define whats good
1) Is this requirement verifiable: “This 2) Non-verifiable → what does usually mean?
system shall have a good human 3) Non-verifiable → what’s an infinite loop? cant verify
interface” 4) Non-functional
2) Is this a verifiable requirement: “The 5) Functional → system should be able to do that
report shall usually be generated within
10 seconds”
3) Is this a verifiable requirement: “The
program shall never enter an infinite
loop”
4) The system shall operate in a Linux
environment
5) The system shall display current
inventory levels in each store location

Requirements Traceability Matrix

List the 5 requirement elicitation techniques 1) Interviews

2) Joint Application Design (JAD)
3) Questionnaires
4) Document Analysis
5) Observation

Compare the 5 requirements elicitation

techniques

- JAD season requires a well trained facilitator

 - Many arguments & different POV
- E-JAD is online & anonymous

Describe what JAD is and its main goal - GOAL: produce complete requirements definition
document
- Extensive, structured group process
- Directly involves project sponsor, key managers, key
users
- Requires trained facilitator
- Expensive but valuable

Describe what e-JAD is - Electronic JAD

- Any group activity may experience problems with
group dynamics
- e-JAD helps group overcome group dynamic issues
- Status, dominance
- Anonymous
- Requires a trained e-JAD facilitator

What are some tips for JAD? - Obtain training as a facilitator

- Top management support needed to enable the right
people to commit to JAD sessions
- After JAD sessions are complete, send requirements
definition document to group for confirmation and
correction
 Lecture 4: Use Case Analysis

What are Use Cases used for? - Express user requirements → interactions
- Users POV
- All tasks users need to perform during system

What is event-driven modelling? - How an event triggers system actions

What is the external (functional) view? - Include most functional requirements if well
constructed

Does a use case include a single or multiple - Multiple scenarios

scenarios? - Each scenario represents a specific path
through use case
- Scenario can be successful or failure model

What are four benefits of use cases? - Derive functional requirements and also test cases
- User activities and system’s response to them
- Places user at center- heavy user involvement
- Analysts better understand application
domain
- Permits early drafting of functional tests
- Helps implement priorities
- Avoids unnecessary functionality
- Useful to identify
- Exceptions
- Special cases
- Error handling

Can there be different scenarios in different use - Yes

cases? Provide an example - Even failure model is a scenario
- User makes a payment but couldn;t do it
because credit info was incorrect
- It's an acceptable scenario even though
credit card didn’t go through

Enter one functional requirement for McDonald’s - System shall store information (x minutes) until
self-order kiosk employee customer finishes entering order
- System shall transmit orders to back end for other
employees to access
- System shall authenticate payment method
- User shall add items to cart
- User shall confirm payment

What is included in Use Case Elements? - Name and Description

 - Number (ID)
- Priority
- Actor (agent)
- Trigger: external or temporal (internal)

What are the two formats of use cases? 1) Casual format

2) Fully dressed format

How should you name a use case? - Reflect actor’s goal from actor’s perspective
- Describe a valuable transaction

→ Active verb + object

- Generate usage report NOT usage report generation

- Examples:
- Reserve rental car
- Print invoice
- Register for payroll deduction

Explain what a precondition, normal course, and Preconditions

post condition is. - State before the use case
- Connect with previous use cases in sequence

Normal course
- Main steps of the use case

Post conditions
- State after the use case
- Connection with subsequent use cases in sequence

When should you use a fully dressed format? - User reps are not engaged throughout whole
development process
- Complex/ high risk applications
- Teams need detailed & shared understanding of
user requirements

What are other sections that can be added in use - Frequency of use
cases? - Business rules
- Assumptions
- Notes/ issues

Explain use case in sequence?

What are Use Case Models/ Diagrams useful for? - Define functional requirements/ use cases
 - System context and basic flow of events

- Process model shows steps of model

- One data is flowing from one process to another
- Data model shows organization of data
- Fields, relationship,
- Process is shown as a round edge rectangle w number on process
- Data flow diagram is show with arrow
- Sharp edge recetnage is external entitycommunitying with system

- 4 data stores
- Aystem 0: system leve
- Decompose system 0 into context 0?? MC DFD Decoomposition
- At level 0, its an integer
- Process number 34- its level 0
- If its 3.1 then its level 1
- Its if 3.1.2 then its level 2