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The acquisition of information systems: Issues, choices, activities MBA 501 Week 5.
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Transcript of The acquisition of information systems: Issues, choices, activities MBA 501 Week 5.
The acquisition of information systems: Issues, choices, activities
MBA 501Week 5
Objectives of today’s class...
• To distinguish between the typical stages involved in the development of a BIS (the SDLC) and explain their purpose and main deliverables
• To examine the management issues related to how BIS are acquired
• To examine some of the management issues related to the use of open source software
• To examine some of the management issues related to the “real time enterprise”
Stages of the Systems Development Life CycleInitiationInput: evaluation of IT problems/needs
Output: Ideas for new system
Requirement (systems) analysisInput: Terms of reference from feasibility report
Output: Detailed requirements / system specification. DFDs, ERDs etc
System designInput: Requirements specification
Output: Detailed design specification (database, interface, data capture and storage etc)
System buildInput: Requirements and design specifications
Output: working software, manuals, documentation
Feasibility studyInput: Ideas for new system
Output: feasibility report and go/no go recommendation
ImplementationInput: Working system not tested by users
Output: signed-off operational system installed in all locations
MaintenancePost implementation review
System improvement
Kill
The sequence of phases in the SDLC
• Structured analysis and design provides a systematic approach to developing systems: – The model indicates that each step should be satisfactorily
completed before the next begins• Each step also has a link back to the previous stage, to correct
errors/problems (eg. at the build stage, design errors or oversights may need to be corrected
• Analysis and design errors detected in the later phases of the SDLC cost more to fix than if detected in earlier phases
• Problems with highly structured methodologies has given rise to alternative models of systems development eg.– Rapid Application Development and Extreme Programming – also
known as Agile methods
Failure points for traditional “structured” methods of systems development
• Gap of understanding between users and developers• Tendency of developers to isolate themselves from
users• Quality measured by closeness of product to
specification rather than comparing deliverables to requirements
• Long development times• Business needs change during the development
process• What users get isn’t necessarily what they want
Reasons for the development of Rapid Application Development (RAD) / Agile
• RAD was launched in the early 90’s in response to 2 conditions– increased speed and turbulence of doing business– the ready availability of high-powered, computer-based
tools to support systems development and maintenance• Problems with traditional waterfall method
– long cycles - system may be obsolete before it is built• RAD and similar systems based on prototyping
became increasingly legitimate and are widely used in the mainstream– “Flavours” of RAD: Agile, Extreme Programming (XP), Joint
Application Development (JAD), Scrum, Lean Software Development
Business Information Systems. Bocij et al. Prentice Hall. 2005
InitiationFeasibility analysis, project planning,
Change and Risk Management
PROTOTYPING (analysis and design)
ANALYSIS
DESIGN
DEVELOP
TEST ANDREVIEW
Design, test,
specification
Prototype produced
Requirements specificationChange requests
Final implementationSystem and acceptance testingData migration and changeover
MaintenanceMonitoring and enhancing
The role of prototyping within the SDLC
MANAGEMENT ISSUES RELATED TO HOW BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS ARE ACQUIRED
So you need some new software?Drivers for information systems acquisition
Information system needs (requirements)
Business strategy
and policies
External business
environment
Internal business
processes
Typical software acquisition alternatives that must be evaluated
Bespoke development
In-house
Outsourced
Off-the-shelf(on-premise or
SaaS)
Standard
Tailored
User-developed
Bespoke development
• Where an information system is developed from scratch by an IS professional (or team) to suit the business requirements of the application– Can be either in-house or outsourced
• Benefits– Can be tailored to the precise business need– Proprietary system – may be a core business asset that competitors
cannot match• Difficulties
– Cost - the most expensive way to develop a new BIS– Time - notorious for time overruns, especially when using formal
structured methodologies (but Agile methodologies help to mitigate this problem)
– Quality – may be buggy (insufficient testing) or may not meet business requirements - often due to poor analysis of system requirements
Purchasing ‘off-the-shelf’ software (can be on-premise or SaaS)
• Direct purchase of a pre-written application used by more than one company– written to offer broad functionality to suit a wide range of
businesses– Fewer bugs because software developed for commercial market– Cheaper than bespoke
• Difficulties– May offer features not needed– Requires business processes to be organized in a particular way– May have inflexible/unsuitable features (eg. specified # of
characters for customer code)• Some packaged software can be tailored to some extent
to suit particular business requirements (usually done by the vendor)
End-user developed software
• Written by non-IS professionals - ie. the business users themselves for “end-user applications”
• These apps are personal or departmental in nature and tend to be output or report-oriented
• Examples: spreadsheets, small databases, websites• Advantage is that there will be good fit between the user’s
requirements and the system• Disadvantages
– there may be the use of inappropriate software tools– hard to maintain (didn’t work to standards)– buggy software because of
• lack of knowledge• little or no design, planning or documentation
Factors affecting software acquisition: evaluation of alternatives
Acquisition option
Delivery time
Cost Quality: Bugs
Quality: Fits business need
Bespoke in-house
Poor Poor Poor Good
Bespoke software house
Good Very poor Medium Medium
End-user development
Poor Medium Poor Good
Tailored - off the shelf
Good Good Good Medium
Standard - off the shelf
Very good Very good Very good Poor
Other factors affecting software acquisition
• Where the software is generic (such as office productivity packages) organizations will purchase off-the-shelf
• Where the function of the software is at the “Unique” stage of the Software Maturity Model – more likely to be acquired via bespoke development
• Where niche software is needed for particular purposes or to create business advantage, then the bespoke approach is more common
• Organization size• In-house IS/IT expertise• IS/IT expertise among end-users• Linkages with existing applications software - amount of
integration required• Complexity of the required system• Uniqueness of the required system
Application complexity versus uniqueness
HIGH
HIGHLOW
LOW
Complexity of application
Off-the-shelf package
Bespokedevelopment
Off-the-shelf package or end-user development
Bespoke or end-userdevelopment
Uniqueness of application
High complexity
Low uniqueness
Low complexity
Low uniqueness
High complexity
High uniqueness
Low complexity
High uniqueness
Business Information Systems. Bocij et al. Prentice Hall. 2005
In-class exercise: Decision model for selecting a method of information system acquisition
Software trends that impact the
acquisition decision• Open source software
• “Real-time” enterprise software
• Software is becoming much more network-centric. – “Cloud computing” and “Software-as-a-
Service” (We will look at these next week)
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
Open source software
• A definition (from the Open Source Initiative (OSI))• "Open source promotes software reliability and quality by
supporting independent peer review and rapid evolution of source code. To be OSI certified, the software must be distributed under a license that guarantees the right to read, redistribute, modify, and use the software freely."
• Open source software is developed through public collaboration between programmers
Videos – What is Open SourceUpStart Workshop - Episode 23 - What is Open Source Software?
– http://youtu.be/qyiUv7fCrjU• UpStart Workshop - Episode 24 - What does
it mean for open source software to be viral? – http://youtu.be/cHel8oES68s
• Two other videos by Computer Floss on the same topic– http://youtu.be/QfXkxkybQ4Q– http://youtu.be/IF2Tg6k0Qa0
Open Source Software
• Open Source is about how software is developed, enhanced, and managed
• The detailed Open Source definition (Open Source Initiative)– The complete (uncompiled) source code must be
distributed with any and all distributions– Anyone can modify and redistribute the code for anyone
else to use– Licensed for these purposes (eg. under a GPL)– It is the opposite of proprietary software, which is sold
only in its compiled state – that is indecipherable by humans
So, is it free?• It depends……• UpStart Workshop - Episode 27 - Is Open
Source Software Cost-Free? – http://youtu.be/19Bf7VczqgE
• Definition of free software• Customization, integration, installation,
support, maintenance, training– Definitely not free – Red Hat’s revenue stream
comes from subscriptions to services that support the use of Linux (Open Source OS)
Drivers towards Open Source adoption
– Report from The Standish Group (registration needed)1. Fashion2. Community3. Security4. Quality and reliability5. Initial cost6. Development speed7. Vendor initiative8. Support9. Skills10. Ongoing costs
What are the risks and benefits of using open source software?
• UpStart Workshop - Episode 25 - What are the risks and benefits of using open source software?
• http://youtu.be/xJaRQL8xl6w
Business issues re Open Source• Now seen as “disruptive technology”• Viability was underestimated
– Stats showing Server OS (Netcraft, January 2014 survey)– Stats for browsers and desktop OS (W3Counter, December 2013)
• Microsoft underestimated the threat – normal rules of competition don’t apply– Not possible to undercut the price– Not possible to “buy the company” to get rid of competition– Probably not possible to “buy the people”– Negotiations / arguments are all done in public forums
• Better way is to find ways to work together and co-operate– IBM is a prime example of an established company working within the open source
movement
• Forrester’s 5 stages of open source adoption (Video of CodePlex panel) 6m
THE REAL-TIME ENTERPRISE
The Real-Time Enterprise
• “The essence of the “real-time enterprise” is that organizations can know what they are doing at the moment, rather than waiting days, weeks or months for the information, as has been the case”
• Without a real-time feedback loop it is like driving a car without being able to see the road
McNurlin, Sprague & Bui. Information Systems Management in Practice. Pearson.
2008
Some uses of real-time technology• Enterprise nervous systems: to coordinate company
operations eg. A car arrives on a dealer’s lot – data is instantly available
• Straight-through processing: to reduce distortion in supply chains
• Communicating objects: to gain real-time data about the physical world (rg. RFID)
• Vigilant information systems: to move to a sense-and-respond culture (not just receiving, but acting)
• Real time customer relationship management: to automate decision making about customers
McNurlin, Sprague & Bui. Information Systems Management in Practice. Pearson.
2008
Real-time CRM
• Real-time response between a firm and its customer eg.– Via web site
• Collaborative filtering (automated) – amazon.com• Sense and respond (automated)• Customer service (two-way, always-on)• Advertising networks
– Via call centre• Information needs to be available in real-time to call-
centre workers (HUDS etc)McNurlin, Sprague & Bui. Information
Systems Management in Practice. Pearson. 2008
So why don’t all organization go “real-time”?
• Getting closer...• But not so easy to achieve
– Expensive: sophisticated technology and a seamless integrated platform needed
– Assessment needed to decide what really needs to be real-time and what metrics should be used to help make automated decisions
– Needs care and attention from employees – “real-time expectations”
– Privacy considerations
McNurlin, Sprague & Bui. Information Systems Management in Practice. Pearson.
2008