1. Why is it important to use systems analysis and design methodologies when building a system? Why not just build the system in whatever way seems to be "quick and easy?" What value is provided by using an "engineering" approach?
2. How might prototyping be used as part of the SDLC?
3. In the section on choosing off-the-shelf software, eight criteria are proposed for evaluating alternative packages. Suppose the choice is between alternative custom software developers rather than prewritten packages. What criteria would be appropriate to select and compare among competing bidders for custom development of an application? Define each of these criteria.
4. How might the project team recommending an ERP design strategy justify its recommendation as compared with other types of design strategies?
1. What are some sources of risk in a systems analysis and design project, and how does a project manager cope with risk during the stages of project management?
2. Suppose that you have been contracted by a jewelry store to manage a project to create a new inventory tracking system. Describe your initial approach to the project. What should your first activity be? What information would you need? To whom might you need to speak?
3. The economic analysis carried out during project identification and selection is rather superficial. Why is this? Consequently, what factors do you think tend to be most important for a potential project to survive this first phase of the life cycle?
4. Assuming monetary benefits of an information system at $85,000 per year, one-time costs of $75,000, recurring costs of $35,000 per year, a discount rate of 12 percent, and a five-year time horizon, calculate the net present value of these costs and benefits of an information system. Also calculate the overall return on investment of the project and then present a break-even analysis. At what point does breakeven occur?
a. How many EMPLOYEES can work on a project?
b. What is the degree of the Used_on relationship?
c. Do any associative entities appear in this diagram? If so, name them.
d. How else could the attribute Skill be modeled?
e. What attributes might be attached to the Works_on relationship?
f. Could TOOL be modeled as an associative entity? Why or why not?
8. The owner of two pizza parlors located in adjacent towns wants to computerize and integrate sales transactions and inventory management within and between both stores. The point-of-sale component must be easy to use and flexible enough to accommodate a variety of pricing strategies and coupons. The inventory management, which will be linked to the point-of-sale component, must also be easy to use and fast. The systems at each store need to be linked so that sales and inventory levels can be determined instantly for each store and for both stores combined. The owner can allocate $40,000 for hardware and $20,000 for software and must have the new system operational in three months. Training must be short and easy. Briefly describe three alternative systems for this situation and explain how each would meet the requirements and constraints. Are the requirements and constraints realistic? Why or why not?
9. Compare the alternative systems from Problem and Exercise 16 using the weighted approach demonstrated in Figure 7-19. Which system would you recommend? Why? Was the approach taken in this and Problem and Exercise 16 useful even for this relatively small system? Why or why not?
10. Imagine the worst possible reports from a system. What is wrong with them? List as many problems as you can. What are the consequences of such reports? What could go wrong as a result? How does the prototyping process help guard against each problem?
11. Given the guidelines presented in this chapter, identify flaws in the design of the Report of Employees shown below. What assumptions about users and tasks did you make in order to assess this design? Redesign this report to correct these flaws.
1. Consider the reasons implementations fail. For at least three of these reasons, explain why this happens, if there is one (or more) type of implementation likely to minimize the occurrence, and if there is one (or more) type of installation more likely to induce failure for this reason
2. Two members of your project development team are disagreeing about the relative importance of training and documentation. Sam strongly believes that training is far more important because it will ensure the successful implementation of the information system and that the early usage is a positive experience. Pat encounters that the user documentation is far more important because its impact can help not only the current users, but also future users. Which do you think is right, and why?
3. Due to advances in technology and widespread computer literacy, many organizations use e-learning extensively to train employees. If you were managing a system implementation and had to train on a limited budget, you may find yourself choosing between e-learning or conducting face to face training with a subset of users who would then train their departments (called train the trainers). Which would you choose and why?
4. Is it good or bad for corporations to rely on vendors for computing support? List arguments both for and against reliance on vendors as part of your answer.