Chapter 3

Identifying and Selecting

Systems Development Projects
 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

Chapter 3 ASM653 2
 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects

1. Identifying potential development projects

0 Identification from a stakeholder group
0 Top-down source are projects identified
by top management or by a diverse
steering committee.
0 Bottom-up source are project initiatives
stemming from managers, business units,
or the development group.
Chapter 3 ASM653 3
 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

2. Classifying and ranking IS development

projects
0 Using value chain analysis or other evaluation
criteria
0 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

Chapter 3 ASM653 4
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.

Chapter 3 ASM653 5
 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

Chapter 3 ASM653 6
 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

3. Selecting IS development projects

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

Chapter 4 ASM653 7
 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.
Chapter 3 ASM653 8
 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

0 One method for deciding among different

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

Chapter 4 ASM653 9
 The Process of Identifying and Selecting IS
Development Projects (Cont.)

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

Chapter 3 ASM653 10
 Deliverables and Outcomes
0 Primary deliverable from the first part of the
planning phase is a schedule of specific IS
development projects.
0 Outcome of the next part of the planning
phase—project initiation and planning—is
the assurance that careful consideration was
given to project selection and each project can
help the organization reach its goals.

Chapter 3 ASM653 11
 Deliverables and Outcomes
(Cont.)
0 Incremental commitment:
0 a strategy in systems analysis and design in
which the project is reviewed after each phase
and continuation of the project is re-justified

Chapter 4 ASM653 12
 Deliverables and Outcomes
(Cont.)

Figure 4-5
Information systems development projects come
from both top-down and bottom-up initiatives.
Chapter 4 ASM653 13
Corporate and Information Systems
Planning
0 To benefit from a planning-based approach for
identifying and selecting projects, an organization
must:
0 Analyze its information needs thoroughly.
0 Plan its projects carefully.

Chapter 4 ASM653 14
 Reasons for Importance of
Improved Planning
0 Increasing cost of information systems (40% of
organizational expense)
0 Lack of cross-organizational applications and
systems
0 Systems don’t address critical strategic problems
0 Too much data redundancy, lack of data quality
0 High system maintenance costs
0 Long application backlogs

Chapter 4 ASM653 15
 Corporate Strategic Planning
0 Ongoing process that defines
mission, objectives, and
strategies of an organization
0 Corporate strategy involves:
0 Mission statement
0 Objective statements
0 Description of competitive
strategy Figure 4-6
Corporate strategic
planning is a three step
Process.
Chapter 3 ASM653 16
 Corporate Strategic Planning (Cont.)
0 Mission statement: a statement that makes it clear
what business a company is in

Figure 4-7
Mission statement
(Pine Valley
Furniture)

Chapter 3 ASM653 17
Corporate Strategic Planning (Cont.)
0 Objective statement: a series of statements that
express an organization’s qualitative and
quantitative goals for reaching a desired future

FIGURE 4-8
Statement of
Corporate
Objectives
(Pine Valley
Furniture)

Chapter 3 ASM653 18
Corporate Strategic Planning (Cont.)

0 Competitive strategy: the method by which

an organization attempts to achieve its
mission and objectives
0 Main types:
0 Low-cost producer
0 Product differentiation
0 Product focus or niche

Chapter 4 ASM653 19
 Corporate Strategic Planning
(Cont.)

Chapter 3 ASM653 20
Information Systems Planning (ISP)

0 An orderly means of assessing the

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

Chapter 3 ASM653 21
 Information Systems Planning
(Cont.)

FIGURE 4-10
Parallel activities
of corporate
strategic
planning and
information
systems
planning

Chapter 4 ASM653 22
 Information Systems Planning
(Cont.)
0 Top-down planning:
0 attempts to gain a broad understanding of
information system needs of the entire
organization and offers:
0 Broader perspective.
0 Improved integration.
0 Improved management support.
0 Better understanding.

Chapter 4 ASM653 23
 Information Systems Planning
(Cont.)
0 Bottom-up planning:
0 identifies IS development projects based
on solving specific operational business
problems or taking advantage of specific
opportunities.
0 Can be faster and less costly, so may be
beneficial in certain circumstances.

Chapter 3 ASM653 24
 Information Systems Planning
(Cont.)

FIGURE 4-11
Information systems planning
information
(Pine Valley Furniture) 25
Chapter 3 ASM653
 Information Systems Planning
(Cont.)
0 Functional Decomposition:
0 breaking high-level abstract information into
smaller units for more detailed planning

Chapter 3 ASM653 26
 Information Systems Planning
(Cont.)
FIGURE 4-12
Functional
decomposition
of information
systems
planning
information
(Pine Valley
Furniture)

(Source:
Microsoft
Corporation.)

Chapter 3 ASM653 27
 Information Systems Planning
(Cont.)
0 IS planning matrices describe relationships
between pairs of organizational elements
(location, function, business unit, objective,
process, data, information system).

Chapter 3 ASM653 28
 Types of Planning Matrices
0 Location-to-Function 0 Process-to-Data Entity
0 Location-to-Unit 0 Process-to-
0 Unit-to-Function Information System
0 Function-to-Objective 0 Data Entity-to-
0 Function-to-Process Information System
0 Function-to-Data 0 Information System-
Entity to-Objective
Chapter 3 ASM653 29
 Information Systems Planning
(Cont.)

FIGURE 4-13
Data Entity-to-Function matrix (Pine Valley Furniture)
Chapter 3 ASM653 30
 IS Plan Components
0 Organizational Mission, Objectives, and
Strategy
0 Brief description of mission, objectives,
and strategy of the organization
0 Information Inventory
0 Summary of processes, functions, data
entities, and information needs of the
enterprise

Chapter 3 ASM653 31
 IS Plan Components (Cont.)
0 Mission and Objectives of IS
0 Primary role IS will play in the organization
to transform enterprise from current to
future state
0 Constraints on IS Development
0 Limitations imposed by technology and
current levels of financial, technical, and
personnel resources

Chapter 3 ASM653 32
 IS Plan Components (Cont.)
0 Systems Needs and IS Strategy
0 Summarize overall information systems
needs in the company and set long-term (2-
5 year) strategies for filling the needs
0 Short Term Plan
0 Detailed inventory of present projects
and systems and detailed plan for the
current year

Chapter 3 ASM653 33
 IS Plan Components (Cont.)
0 Conclusions
0 Unknown but likely events that can affect
the plan, presently known business change
elements and their impact on the plan

Chapter 3 ASM653 34
Information Systems (IS) Plan

FIGURE 4-16
Systems development projects flow from the information systems plan.

Chapter 3 ASM653 35
 Electronic Commerce Applications
and Internet Basics
0 Internet: a large worldwide network of networks
that use a common protocol to communicate with
each other
0 Electronic Commerce (EC): Internet-based
communication to support day-to-day business
activities
0 Business-to-consumer (B2C): electronic
commerce between businesses and consumers

Chapter 3 ASM653 36
 Electronic Commerce Applications
and Internet Basics (Cont.)
0 Business-to-business (B2B): electronic commerce
between business partners, such as suppliers and
intermediaries
0 Business-to-employee (B2E): electronic commerce
between businesses and their employees
0 Electronic data interchange (EDI): the use of
telecommunications technologies to transfer
business documents between organizations

Chapter 3 ASM653 37
 Electronic Commerce Applications
and Internet Basics (Cont.)

Chapter 3 ASM653 38