Planning

Part 1 - Identifying and Selecting Systems

Development Projects

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 Learning Objectives

After completing this lesson, students should be able to:

Describe the project identification and selection process.
Describe corporate strategic planning and information systems planning process.
Explain the relationship between corporate strategic planning
and information systems planning.
Describe how information systems planning can be used to assist in identifying and
selecting systems development projects

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 Identifying and Selecting Systems
Development Projects
Three main steps:
1. Identifying potential development projects
2. Classifying and ranking IS development projects
3. Selecting IS development projects

FIGURE 4-1
Systems development life cycle with project identification and
selection highlighted
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 The Process of Identifying and
Selecting IS Development Projects

1. Identifying potential development projects

 Identification from a stakeholder group
 Each stakeholder group brings their own perspective and
motivation to the IS decision
 Top-down source are projects identified by top management
or by a diverse steering committee.
 Bottom-up source are project initiatives stemming from
managers, business units, or the development group.

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The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

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 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

2. Classifying and ranking IS development projects

 Using value chain analysis or other evaluation criteria
 Value chain analysis: Analyzing an organization’s activities to determine where value
is added to products and/or services and the costs incurred for doing so; usually also
includes a comparison with the activities, added value, and costs of other
organizations for the purpose of making improvements in the organization’s
operations and performance

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 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

FIGURE 4-2
Organizations can be thought of as a value chain, transforming raw materials into
products for customers.

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The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

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 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

3. Selecting IS development projects

 Based on various factors
 Both short- and long-term projects considered
 Most likely to achieve business objectives selected
 A very important and ongoing activity

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The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

FIGURE 4-3
Project selection decisions must
consider numerous factors and can
have numerous outcomes.
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 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

 One method for deciding among different projects or

alternative designs:
 For each requirement or constraint: Score = weight X rating
 Each alternative: sum scores across requirements/constraints
 Alternative with highest score wins

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 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

FIGURE 4-4
Alternative projects and system design decisions can be assisted using weighted
Multi criteria analysis.

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 Deliverables and Outcomes

 Primary deliverable from the first part of the planning phase is a schedule of
specific IS development projects.

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 Deliverables and Outcomes (Cont. )

Figure 4-5
Information systems development projects come
from both top-down and bottom-up initiatives.
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 Corporate and Information Systems Planning

To benefit from a planning-based approach for identifying and

selecting projects, an organization must:
 Analyze its information needs thoroughly.
 Plan its projects carefully

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 Reasons for Importance of Improved Planning

Increasing cost of information systems (40% of organizational expense)

Lack of cross-organizational applications and systems
Systems don’t address critical strategic problems
Too much data redundancy, lack of data quality
High system maintenance costs
Long application backlogs

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 Corporate Strategic Planning

 Ongoing process that defines mission, Figure 4-6

Corporate strategic planning is
a three step Process.
objectives, and strategies of an organization
 Corporate strategy involves:
 Mission statement
 Objective statements
 Description of competitive strategy

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 Corporate Strategic Planning (Cont.)

Mission statement: a statement that makes it clear what business a company is in

Figure 4-7
Mission statement (Pine Valley Furniture) 18
 Corporate Strategic Planning (Cont.)

Objective statement: a series of statements that express an organization’s qualitative

and quantitative goals for reaching a desired future position

FIGURE 4-8
Statement of Corporate Objectives (Pine Valley Furniture)
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 Corporate Strategic Planning (Cont.)

Competitive strategy: the method by which an organization

attempts to achieve its mission and objectives
Main types :

Low-cost producer
Product differentiation
Product focus or niche

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Corporate Strategic Planning (Cont.)

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 Information Systems Planning (ISP)

An orderly means of assessing the information needs of an organization

and defining the systems, databases, and technologies that will best meet
those needs
ISP must be done in accordance with the organization’s mission,
objectives, and competitive strategy.

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 Information Systems Planning (Cont. )

Top-down planning attempts to gain a broad understanding

of information system needs of the entire organization and
offers:
Broader perspective.

Improved integration.

Improved management support.

Better understanding.

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 Information Systems Planning (Cont. )

Bottom-up planning identifies IS development projects based on

solving specific operational business problems or taking advantage of
specific opportunities.
 Can be faster and less costly, so may be beneficial in certain circumstances.

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 Information Systems Planning (Cont. )

Functional Decomposition: breaking high-level abstract information

into smaller units for more detailed planning

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 Information Systems Planning (Cont. )

FIGURE 4-11
Information systems planning information
(Pine Valley Furniture)

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 Summary

In this chapter you learned how to:

Describe the project identification and selection process.
Describe corporate strategic planning and information systems planning.
Explain the relationship between corporate strategic planning and IS planning.

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