System Analysis and Design(SAD)

Chapter – Two

Information System Development project

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Contents

• Managing information system project

• Information systems projects phase
• Representing and scheduling project plans
▪Representing project plans
▪Calculating Expected Time Duration using PERT
▪Constructing a Gantt chart and Network Diagram
• Using Commercial project Management Software
• Sources of software
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Managing the Information Systems Project
• Management: - process of working with and through people to achieve the objective in the changing environment through
efficient use of distributed resource.
• Project:-
o Temporal, non repetitive, goal oriented activities that has measurable output and particular set of constraints.
o Unique process consisting of coordinated, controlled activities which has starting and ending time under taken to
achieve an objective concerning to specific activities including constraints of time cost and resource.
• Project management:-the process of initiating, planning, executing, directing and controlling the resource (people,
equipment and information), time and costs of the project.
• Focus of project management is to ensure that information system projects meet customer expectations by;
✓ Delivered in a timely manner
✓ Meet time constraints and requirements
• Project Manager:- a person (Systems Analyst)who is responsible for project accomplishment.
• Project manger should have the skills include :
o Management o Conflict management
o Leadership o Customer relations
o Technical o Team-management
o Problem solving o Risk and Change management
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Project Management Process
• Project Management Process involves Four Phases:
1) Initiation
2) Planning
3) Execution
4) Closing down
• Project manger is responsible for the above project management process.
• Project Initiation:
▪ The first phase of the project management process in which activities are performed to assess the size, scope, and
complexity of the project.
▪ Establish procedures to support later project activities
▪ Activities Performed during Project Initiation:
o Establishing the project initiation team
o Establishing a relationship with the customer
o Establishing the project initiation plan
o Establishing management procedures
o Establishing the project management environment and project workbook
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Project Management Process (cont.….)
• Project workbook: An on-line or hard-copy repository for all project correspondence, inputs,
outputs, deliverables, procedures, and standards used by all team members useful for project audits,
orientation of new team members and performing post project reviews.
• Project Planning:
▪ Defining clear, discrete activities and work needed to complete the project of each activity.
▪ Planning Project activities include:
▪ Describe project scope, alternatives and feasibility
▪ Understand the project
- What problem is addressed
- What results are to be achieved
- Measures of success
- Completion criteria
▪ Divide the project into manageable tasks (Work breakdown structure):-
-Work breakdown structure :
o The process of dividing the project into manageable tasks and logically ordering them to
ensure a smooth evolution between tasks. 5
Project Management Process (cont.….)
▪ Divide the project into manageable tasks(by using Gantt chart):-
- Gantt chart:
o A graphical representing of a project showing each task as a horizontal bar whose length is proportional
to its time for completion.
o Do not show how tasks must be ordered but simply shows when an activity must begin and end.
o Different colors, shades, shapes can be used to highlight each kind of task.
▪ Estimate resources and create a resource plan
o Estimate resource requirements for each project activity
o Resource plan helps assemble and deploy resources in most effective way
o People are most important and expensive part of resource planning
o Assign tasks to people that suit their skills and allows to learn new skills
▪ Develop a preliminary schedule(by using PERT and Gantt charts)
o Assign time estimates to each activity in work breakdown structure, time estimates allows creating target
starting and ending dates for project
o Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) Chart: A diagram that shows project tasks and their
relationships, ordering of tasks is shown by connecting tasks with its predecessor and successor tasks ;only
individual tasks are drawn and no summary tasks.
▪ Develop a communication plan
▪ Determine project standards and procedures: -Specify how deliverables are tested and produced.
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Project Management Process (cont.….)
▪ Identify and assess risk
- Identify sources of risk
- Estimate consequences of risk
▪ Create a preliminary budget
- Outline planned expenses and revenues of the project to study cost-benefit analysis
▪ Develop a statement of work:- Occurs near the end of the project planning phase
▪ Set a Baseline Project Plan:- Estimate of project’s tasks and resource requirements that guides the
next project phase – execution.
• Project Execution:
▪ Plans created in prior phases are put into action,
▪ It occurs during analysis, design, implementation phases of SDLC.
▪ Execute Baseline Project Plan
– Acquire and assign resources
– Train new team members
– Keep project on schedule - as tasks are completed, mark them as completed by percent
▪ Monitor project progress
– Adjust resources, budget and/or activities if project gets ahead or behind schedule.
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Project Management Process (cont.….)
• Project closedown :
▪ Bring project to an end,
▪ It ooccurs after implementation phase of SDLC.
▪ Closing Down the Project or termination:
o Types of termination
- Natural:-Requirements have been met – project is completed successfully
- Unnatural:- Project stopped before completion – due to running out of time or money
▪ Conduct post-project reviews
o Determine strengths and weaknesses of:
- Project deliverables
- Project management process
- Development process
▪ Close customer contract.
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Representing and scheduling project plans
• Both Gantt Chart and PERT are used for project management tools.
• Constructing a Gantt Charts
o Useful for depicting simple projects or parts of large projects scheduling and planning.
o Break projects into smaller pieces of tasks.
o Show start and completion dates for individual tasks by horizontal bar graph.
o Horizontal bar length is proportional to its time for completion.
o Shows task dependencies, duration of each task and percent complete.

Fig. Sample scheduling task using Gantt chart, from MS Project 9

Representing and scheduling project plans(cont.….)
• PERT
o A technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the
individual activity duration estimates.
o Uses probabilistic(predict) time estimates based on optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic
estimates of activity durations but Gantt Chart provide accurate time duration and percent
complete(deterministic).
o It is a probabilistic technique: it allows us to find the probability of the entire project being
completed by any given date.
o To answer questions such as when will the entire project be completed?
o Shows the sequence of dependencies(interrelationships) between tasks/activities in a project.
o For planning and scheduling large and complex projects. N.B. Scheduling is more important in
projects than in production.
o Schedules are based on Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
o Represented with flowchart (Network diagram).
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Representing and scheduling project plans(cont.….)
• The following PERT Chart example shows Website Creation tasks.

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Representing and scheduling project plans(cont.….)
• Calculating the expected time duration using PERT Charts: Show order of activities.
• Steps required for developing the PERT network
1. Identify the activities needed to be done in the project
2. Determine the sequence of each activities
3. Make an estimate time for the activity
• PERT Formula
ET = (o + 4r + p)/6
Where:
o ET = expected time for the completion of an activity
o O = optimistic time completion time for an activity, the minimum reasonable time the activity
can be completed.
o r
= realistic completion time for an activity ,Most probable time or the most likely time under
normal condition, the best given time required.
op = pessimistic completion time for an activity, Possibility of the project encounter significant
breakdown/delayed. 12
Representing and scheduling project plans(cont.….)
• PERT example 1:
PERT weighted average ,
ET= 8 workdays + 4 X 10 workdays + 24 workdays = 12 days
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Where 8 = optimistic time,
10 = Most probable , and
24 = pessimistic time
• PERT example 2:
o Suppose that your instructor asked you to calculate an expected time for the completion
of an upcoming SAD assignment. For this assignment, you estimate an optimistic time of
2 hours, a pessimistic time of 8 hours, and a most likely time of 6 hours. Using PERT, the
expected time for completing this assignment is ___ hours. (Show the steps? )

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Representing and scheduling project plans(cont.….)

• PERT example 3:
o Calculate the expected time for each activity by using the above formula
Activity O R P ET
A 4 5 1.2
B 1 1.5 5
C 2 3 4
D 3 4 11
E 2 3 4
F 1.5 2 2.5
G 1.5 3 4.5
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Drawing Activity-On-Arrow (AoA) Network diagram
• An activity carries the arrow symbol, . This represent a task or
subproject that uses time or resources.
• A node (an event), denoted by a circle , marks the start and completion
of an activity, which contain a number that helps to identify its location. For
example activity A can be drawn as:

A 2
1
3 days

• This means activity A starts at node 1 and finishes at node 2 and it will takes
three days
Drawing Activity-On-Arrow (AoA) Network diagram (cont.….)
Project Network diagram (AOA) Example 1

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Drawing Activity-On-Arrow (AoA) Network diagram (cont.….)
Project Network diagram (AOA) Example 2

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Drawing Activity-On-Arrow (AoA) Network diagram (cont.….)
Project Network diagram (AOA) Example 3

Immediate
Activity Predecessor time (days)
A -- 6
B -- 4
C A 3
D A 5
E A 1
F B,C 4
G B,C 2
H E,F 6
I E,F 5
J D,H 3
K G,I 5
Drawing Activity-On-Arrow (AoA) Network diagram (cont.….)

o Develop the network(PERT diagram)for the following activities and immediate

predecessors.
Immediate
Activity Predecessor
A _
B _
C _
D A
E B
F C
G E
H F
I D
J G,H
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Sources of software
• It service firms
• Packaged Software Producers : e.g Microsoft
o Focus on prepackaged software (not customized software but it is off- the- shelf software)
• ERP vendors: e.g SAP business one
o Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): systems that integrate individual traditional business functions into modules
enabling a single seamless transaction to cut across functional boundaries.
• Inhouse development
o If sufficient system development expertise with the chosen platform exists in-house, then some or all of the system can be
developed by the organization’s own staff.
• Open source
• Cloud computing
• Criteria for Choosing Off-the-Shelf Software
o Cost o Flexibility
o Functionality o Documentation
o Vendor support o Response time
o Viability of vendor o Ease of installation

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