Part 1:
Question 1: "Planning and budgeting processes are notorious for their rigidity and irrelevance to management action." How can planning be made relevant to the challenges facing a business?
Question 2: Why has prototyping become a popular way to develop business applications? What are prototyping's advantages and disadvantages?
Question 3: What does SDLC stand for? What are the phases of the SDLC? Explain in one or two sentences of your own words what happens in each phase. If problems occur during the SDLC, is it better to identify and solve those problems near the beginning or the end of the SDLC process?
Question 4: What is the difference between the parallel, direct (or plunge), phased, and pilot forms of IS conversion? Which conversion strategy is best? Explain why?
Part 2: Read the Analysis Exercise at the end of the chapter and complete the questions after the summary.
End-User Software Development Managing Nonprofessionals Various office productivity suites with word processing and spreadsheet applications such as Google Docs, Open Office, and Microsoft Office allow users to create their own macros, func- tions, and even programs. These features are open to end users to help them improve their own productivity--especially with spreadsheets. Although this sounds great in principle, most users aren't professional developers, and their mistakes can be costly.
Assume the role of an IT director for a mid-sized company and answer the following questions:
Question 1: Would you ban end-user development as too risky? Why or why not?
Question 2: Search the Internet for risks associated with end user development and list what you find.
Question 3: What could you do to help support end-user development in your organization?