Selecting the Best Alternative Class 19

SDLC Project Identification & Selection Project Initiation & Planning Analysis *** Logical Design Physical Design Implementation Maintenance

Analysis Steps 1. Requirements Determination 2. Requirements Structuring 3. Alternative Generation & Selection 3a. Functional requirements 3b. Environment 3c. Implementation 4. Review Recommendations with Management

Deliverables Usually three different alternatives for building the replacement or new information system The alternative judged most likely to lead to the most desirable information system A Baseline Project Plan for turning the most likely alternative into a working information system

Step 3a: Prioritize Requirements Refine scope Determine level of automation

Step 3a: Generate and evaluate Functional Requirement alternatives Generate more than one alternative based on functional requirements Typically 3 chosen Bare Bones solution Mid-level solution Bells & Whistles solution

Choosing the alternatives Reevaluate feasibility Consider constraints:

Step 3a: Generate and evaluate Functional Requirement alternatives Propose 3 alternatives Select Best On a related note, why might a company decide to end the project at this point?

Step 3b: Generate and evaluate Environment alternatives Hardware, System software, Networks Development tools

Step 3c: Generate and evaluate implementation alternatives Outsourcing / Custom-built Packages, Turnkey, ERP In-house

Outsourcing / Custom built The practice of turning over responsibility of some to all of an organization’s information systems applications and operations to an outside firm Examples:

Outsourcing: What to consider

Choosing Off-the-Shelf Software ______________

How Can We Get Information About a Software Package? _______________________

In-house development Advantages 1. Disadvantages 1.

Why are we worrying about implementation alternatives now? Training users Cost Support User acceptance

Step 4: Review with management How formal? How to compile, organize, and present