Coit20248 Information Systems Analysis : Assessment Answers

Task 1:

Approaches to Systems Development

• How would Data Science School go about developing its information systems? Which approach would Data Science School take?
• Justify your choice of your selected approach/ methodology to systems development.

Task 2:

Systems Requirements

• List all the critical primary functional requirements for the system in the case study.
• List all the non-functional requirements for the system in the case study and justify why would you like to have these non-functional requirements.

Task 3: 

Project Cost Benefit Analysis

• Discuss your Project Cost Benefit Analysis.
• Provide an excel spread sheet with details in a Project Cost Benefit Analysis.

Task 4:

Project Schedule

• Show a work breakdown structure which follows your choice of approach/ methodology and a project schedule as a Gantt Chart. Explain both of them and discuss how they relate to each other.
• Given the system goals, requirements, and scope as they are currently understood, is the project schedule reasonable? Why or why not?

Task 5: 

System Information Requirement Investigation Techniques

• Who are the stakeholders involved?
• Explain your choice of the 3 most useful investigation techniques.
• Justify the usefulness of these 3 investigation techniques

Introduction

Data Science School which is abbreviated as DSS is a private organization that is a Registered Training Organization (RTO). The major sets of processes that are used in DSS are mainly manually in nature and the same cause various problems and issues in terms of processing and speed. In order to overcome the issues, automated systems have been proposed and the details and approach associated with the same has been discussed in the report.

The system development approaches that have been recommended for DSS are adaptive in nature. It is because of the reason that the requirements may face certain changes due to change in expectations and technology.

System Development Approaches

Adaptive system development would make it convenient to incorporate the changes in the expectations and specifications.

It would be essential for DSS to list out all the issues and loopholes associated with the existing system. These issues are primarily associated with the bottlenecks that come up during the accessing of the information by the users. The next step that shall be followed by DSS shall be the analysis of the issues and designing of the functional and non-functional system aspects. The mapping of the user types and their expectations shall then be performed.

The adaptive approach of system development that shall be applied would be agile methodology for the development of the system for DSS (Li, 2017). The reasons for the selection of the approach have been described and explained below.

Reasons behind Selection of Approach

The adaptive methodology for system development as agile methodology has been chosen for the development of the system of Data Science School. There are multiple reasons that are present behind the decision and the prime reason includes the convenience of re-work and inclusion of changes in the expectations that would come along with this methodology. The methodology would allow the development process to be carried out in a series of sprints and feedback from the representatives of DSS and other third parties will also be taken at every step. Such a practice will bring out the end product without any deviations from the expectations of the customer (Szalvay, 2014).

System Requirements

Functional Set of Requirements

• Development and implementation of the login functionality in the DSS system to allow the several types of users to access the system in an authenticated manner. The user types and roles shall include students, recruitment agents, admin and staff members.
• Students shall be provided with the capability to register online by filing an online application form for the admission.
• Agents and staff shall be provided with the capability to register online by filing an online application form.
• Recruitment agents shall be able to perform tracking of the status of the form through the online medium(Paech, 2015).
• Online claims shall be filed and commissioned by the users through the aid of the system.
• The system shall be linked with the back end for information storage and processing.
• Billing, payments management and accounting tasks and invoicing shall be included in the system.

Non-Functional Set of Requirements

• Easy of usage, simple layouts, consistent navigation and avoidance of whitespaces shall be implemented to enhance the system usability.
• Valid and adequate response against every user request shall be retrieved by the portal for the enhancement of system reliability.
• Response and throughput time of the application shall be kept very low for enhancement of system performance (Chung, 2013).
• System of DSS shall have the features of scalability and supportability implemented in it.
• System shall be available and accessible to the users at all times and from all the locations as well.

Cost Benefit Analysis

There are a number of costs that are associated with the project of DSS. These costs include the one-time costs such as the ones associated with the tools and equipment required for project activities, cost in setting up the environment and likewise. There would also be costs that would be involved in the design and development works along with cost for the resources engaged with the project. Maintenance costs will also be required along with the costs for project closure. Maintenance cost that would be involved in the project would be $500.

A budget for the project has been designed keeping all the project costs and the benefits in to consideration. The budget estimation is necessary to make sure there are no unnecessary expenditures during the project timeline. Also, keeping a track of the costs and expenses is also made easy with an estimated budget in place. There are several techniques and methods that have been defined for the estimation of project budget and the bottom-up estimation approach has been used in this case.

A summary of the project costs and benefits has been provided below with a discount rate of 5% applied on the same.

Costs and Benefits – Summary

Project Schedule of DSS System

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Work Breakdown Structure and Gantt chart of the project are the tools that are used for estimating and tracking the schedule of the project. There are numerous activities that are involved in the project and WBS lists all of these activities in the form of a hierarchical diagram. These activities are then included in the project schedule to estimate their durations and effort that is required. A Gantt chart providing a graphical representation of the project schedule is then made out of the project activities, their durations, resources and costs.

Gantt chart

The project activities as stated in the WBS above are included in the project schedule to estimate their durations and effort that is required. A Gantt chart providing a graphical representation of the project schedule is then made out of the project activities, their durations, resources and costs. It represents the activities in the form of a timeline.

Reasonability of the Project Schedule

The schedule of the project is based upon a number of different factors such as scope of the project, requirements of the project along with the goals and business objectives.

The project would be aimed at the accomplishment of all the aspects of the system along with the features, functionalities and behavior. The success of the project will also depend upon the number of disputes, defect and risks. The lower the number, the higher would be the success quotient that would be associated with the project. The schedule has therefore been designed in such a manner that there is optimum utilization of all the resources and there are no risks encountered as well (Hassan, 2014).

DSS System - Information Requirements Investigation Techniques

Stakeholders of the Project

• Project Owner/Client
• Project Manager
• End Users – Students, Staff, Agents and Admin
• Senior System Developer
• Senior System Designer
• UI/UX Designer
• Implementation Associate
• Testing Analyst

Investigation Techniques along with their Usefulness 

Interviews

Identification of the adequate people for maximum extraction of relevant information would be essential. The identification process shall be carried out in accordance with the system phases and system activities with people targeted for every activity in the project. Specifications of the DSS system shall be listed in the form of several different aspects and the objectives that shall be covered during the interviews shall be mapped accordingly (Valenzuela, 2014). The interview questions shall be designed in the categories such as basic and general questions along with specific questions. Attendees for the interviews shall be made available with the interview invitation and acknowledgement shall also be received for the same (Parry and Lind, 2016). The interview location such as meeting room or tele-conference channel shall be set up. The response provided by the individuals and groups during the interviews shall be recorded and the key points shall be noted down for further analysis (Heller, 2005).

Document Review

• The internal and external documents associated with the DSS system would be studied and analyzed using this technique to identify important information.

Questionnaires and Surveys

• There will many entities that will be associated with the DSS system in terms of the internal project team along with the external stakeholders.
• Questionnaires and surveys would allow the system experts and analysts to easily compile the information associated with the DSS system (Baars, 2006).

Conclusion

Adaptation of automation and associated techniques are very essential in the present times as the information that is associated with a particular organization cannot be managed by manual processes any longer. DSS system is also one such step to incorporate automation in the routine business activities. The recommended approach is the adaptive agile methodology for development of the system. Investigation of the information would also be every essential and would be easily done by interviews, document review and questionnaires. These techniques would allow the system experts and analysts to gain maximum knowledge about the system and to develop the strategies and approach accordingly.

References

Baars, W. (2006). Project Management Handbook. [online] Available at: https://www.projectmanagement-training.nl/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/book_project_management.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017].

Chung, L. (2013). Non-Functional Requirements. [online] Available at: https://www.utdallas.edu/~chung/SYSM6309/NFR-18-4-on-1.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017].

Hassan, A. (2014). Project Scheduling (PERT/CPM). [online] Available at: https://research.cs.queensu.ca/home/ahmed/home/teaching/CISC322/F08/slides/CISC322_09_Scheduling.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017].

Heller, J. (2005). Corporate Investigations Training Manual: A Sample. [online] Available at: https://apps.americanbar.org/labor/lel-aba-annual/papers/2005/010.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017].

Li, J. (2017). Agile Software Development. [online] Available at: https://www.snet.tu-berlin.de/fileadmin/fg220/courses/WS1112/snet-project/agile-software-development_li.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017].

Paech, B. (2015). Functional requirements, non-functional requirements, and architecture should not be separated –A position paper. [online] Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/322f/5199bbf08f9b1b442b50ae961672277e52dd.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017].

Szalvay, V. (2014). An Introduction to Agile Software Development. [online] Available at: https://www.danube.com/docs/Intro_to_Agile.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017].

Valenzuela, D. (2014). Interview as a Method for Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research. [online] Available at: https://www.public.asu.edu/~kroel/www500/Interview%20Fri.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017].