Chapter 3

Determining Feasibility and

Managing Analysis and Design
Activities

Systems Analysis and Design

Kendall and Kendall
Fifth Edition
Major Topics
 Project initiation
 Determining project feasibility
 Project scheduling
 Managing project activities
 Manage systems analysis team
members

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Project Initiation
 Projects are initiated for two broad
reasons:
 Problems that lend themselves to systems
solutions
 Opportunities for improvement through
Upgrading systems
Altering systems
Installing new systems

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Organizational Problems
 Identify problems by
 Check output against performance criteria
 Too many errors
 Work completed slowly
 Work done incorrectly
 Work done incompletely
 Work not done at all

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Organizational Problems
 Observe behavior of employees
 High absenteeism
 High job dissatisfaction
 High job turnover

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Organizational Problems
 Listen to feedback from vendors,
customers, and suppliers
 Complaints
 Suggestions for improvement
 Loss of sales
 Lower sales

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Project Selection
 Five specific criteria for project selection
 Backed by management
 Timed appropriately for commitment of
resources
 It moves the business toward attainment of its
goals
 Practicable
 Important enough to be considered over other
projects

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 Possibilities for Improvement
 Many possible objectives exist including
 Speeding up a process
 Streamlining a process
 Combining processes
 Reducing errors in input
 Reducing redundant storage
 Reducing redundant output
 Improving system and subsystem integration

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Feasibility Impact Grid (FIG)
 A feasibility impact grid (FIG) is used to
assess the impact of any improvements
to the existing system
 Can increase awareness of the impacts
made on the achievement of corporate
objectives

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Feasibility Impact Grid (FIG)
 Current or proposed systems are listed
on the left
 Objectives are listed on the top
 Red arrows indicate a positive impact
 Green arrows indicate implementation

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Feasibility
 A feasibility study assesses the
operational, technical, and economic
merits of the proposed project
 There are three types of feasibility:
 Technical feasibility
 Economic feasibility
 Operational feasibility

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Technical Feasibility
 Technical feasibility assesses whether
the current technical resources are
sufficient for the new system
 If they are not available, can they be
upgraded to provide the level of
technology necessary for the new
system

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Economic Feasibility
 Economic feasibility determines whether
the time and money are available to
develop the system
 Includes the purchase of
 New equipment
 Hardware
 Software

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Operational Feasibility
 Operational feasibility determines if the
human resources are available to
operate the system once it has been
installed
 Users that do not want a new system
may prevent it from becoming
operationally feasible

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Activity Planning
 Activity planning includes
 Selecting a systems analysis team
 Estimating time required to complete each
task
 Scheduling the project
 Two tools for project planning and
control are Gantt charts and PERT
diagrams
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Estimating Time
 Project is broken down into phases
 Further broken down into tasks or activities
 Finally broken down into steps or even
smaller units
 Estimate time for each task or activity
 May use a most likely, pessimistic, and
optimistic estimates for time

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Gantt Charts
 Easy to construct and use
 Shows activities over a period of time

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Gantt Chart Example
C o n d u c t In te rv ie w s

Q u e s tio n n a ire s

R e a d R e p o rts

A n a ly z e D a ta F lo w s

I n tr o d u c e P r o to ty p e s

O b s e rv e R e a c tio n s

P e rfo rm C o s t/B e n e fit

P re p a re P ro p o sa l

P re se n t P ro p o sa l

1 5  10 15 20
Current Week Weeks

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PERT Diagram
 PERT - Program Evaluation and Review
Technique
 PERT diagrams show precedence, activities
that must be completed before the next
activities may be started
 Used to calculate the critical path, the longest
path through the activities
 This is the shortest time to complete the
project

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PERT Diagram Example
A C o n d u c t In te rv ie w s N one 3
B Q u e s tio n n a ir e s A 4
C R e a d R e p o rts N one 4
D A n a ly z e D a ta F lo w s B , C 8
E I n tr o d u c e P r o to ty p e s B , C 5
F O b s e rv e R e a c tio n s E 3
G P e rfo rm C o s t/B e n e fit D 3
H P re p a re P ro p o sa l G ,F 2
I P re se n t P ro p o sa l H 2

20
A, 3 B, 4

C, 4 D, 8 G, 3 H, 2 I, 2
10 30 50 60 70 80

E, 5 F, 3
40
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PERT Diagram Advantages
 Easy identification of the order of
precedence
 Easy identification of the critical path
and thus critical activities
 Easy determination of slack time, the
leeway to fall behind on noncritical
paths

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Timeboxing
 Timeboxing sets an absolute due date
for project delivery
 The most critical features are developed
first and implemented by the due date
 Other features are added later

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Personal Information Manager
Software
 Personal information manager (PIM)
software is useful for scheduling
activities and includes features such as:
 Telephone and fax number lists
 To-do lists
 Online calendars

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Team Management
 Teams often have two leaders:
 One who leads members to accomplish
tasks
 One concerned with social relationships
 The systems analyst must manage
 Team members
 Their activities
 Their time, and resources

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Goal Setting
 Successful projects require that
reasonable productivity goals for
tangible outputs and process activities
be set
 Goal setting helps to motivate team
members

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Ecommerce Project
Management
 Ecommerce and traditional software
project management differences:
 The data used by ecommerce systems is
scattered across the organization
 Ecommerce systems need a staff with a wide
variety of skills
 Partnerships must be built externally and
internally well ahead of implementation
 Security is of utmost importance

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Project Failures
 Project failures may be prevented by
 Training
 Experience
 Learning why other projects have failed

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