ARQ_CH12_Januka_Dahal_Pandey

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Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 Q12-1 How are business processes, IS, and applications developed? Using your own words, explain the differences among business processes, information systems, and applications. State the components of each. Business processes are the series of activities that an organization does to achieve its goal. The business process consists of one or more activities. For example, Figure 12-1 shows activities in an ordering business process: A quotation is prepared, and, assuming the customer accepts those terms, the order is processed. Inventory availability is verified, customer credit is checked, special terms, if any, are approved, and then the order is processed and shipped. Each of these activities includes many tasks, some of which involve processing exceptions (only part of the order is available, for example), but those exceptions are not shown. Information systems encompass the hardware, software, data, people, and procedures that enable the efficient management of information within the organization. Each of these information systems contains a software component. Developing software nearly always involves the data component, and it often involves the specification and characteristics of hardware (e.g., mobile devices). Consequently, we define the term application to mean a combination of hardware, software, and data components that accomplish a set of requirements. In Figure 12-1, the Customer Credit IS containing an application that processes a customer database to approve or reject credit requests. Using the terminology from Chapter 5, describe the relationship between business processes and IS. One business process uses four different ISs. In general, we can say that a single business process relates to one or more information systems. However, notice that not all process activities use an IS; some require just manual tasks. In Figure 12-1, the Approve Special Terms activity uses no IS. Instead, as stated, salespeople walk down the hallway to ask their manager if the terms are acceptable. In some cases (not in this example, however), it is possible for none of the activities to use an IS, in which case the entire business process is manual. Name three development processes and state which processes are used for the development of business processes, information systems, and applications. Explain the primary roles of business and systems analysts. Over the years, many different processes have been tried for the development of processes, IS, and applications. Business process management is a technique used to create new business processes and to manage changes to existing processes. Except for startups, organizations already have processes, in one form or another, in varying levels of quality. If they did not, they wouldn’t be able to operate. Therefore, BPM is, in most cases, used to manage the evolution of existing business processes from one version to an improved version. The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is a process that can be used to develop both information systems and applications. The SDLC achieved prominence in the 1980s when the U.S. Department of Defense required that it be used on all software and systems development projects. It is common, well-known, and often used but, as you’ll learn, frequently problematic. You need to know what it is and when and when not to use it. 1

Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 Scrum is a new development process that was created, in part, to overcome the problems that occur when using the SDLC. Scrum is generic enough that it can be used for the development (and adaptation) of business processes, information systems, and applications. Personnel that take the most active and important role for each of these processes are shown in Figure 12-4. A business analyst is someone who is well versed in Porter’s models (see Chapter 2) and in the organization’s strategies and who focuses, primarily, on ensuring that business processes and information systems meet the organization’s competitive strategies. As you would expect, the primary focus of a business analyst is business processes. Systems analysts are IS professionals who understand both business and information technology. They focus primarily on IS development but are involved with business analysts on the management of business processes as well. Systems analysts play a key role in moving development projects through the SDLC or scrum development process. Q12-2 How do organizations use business process management (BPM)? State the definition of business process used in this chapter and define roles, resources , and data flows . A business process as a network of activities, repositories, roles, resources, and flows that interact to accomplish a business function. As stated in Chapter 2, activities are collections of related tasks that receive inputs and produce outputs. A repository is a collection of something; an inventory is a physical repository and a database is a data repository. The new terms in this definition are roles , which are collections of activities, and resources , which are people or computer applications that are assigned to roles. Finally, a flow is either a control flow that directs the order of activities or a data flow that shows the movement of data among activities and repositories. Explain three reasons why business processes need to be managed. Improve Process Quality For example, according to Figure 12-1, salespeople verify product availability before checking customer credit. If checking availability means nothing more than querying an information system for inventory levels, that sequence makes sense. But suppose that checking availability means that someone in operations needs not only to verify inventory levels but also to verify that the goods can be shipped to arrive on time. If the order delivery is complex, say, the order is for a large number of products that have to be shipped from three different warehouses, an hour or two of labor may be required to verify shipping schedules. After verifying shipping, the next step is to verify credit. If it turns out the customer has insufficient credit and the order is refused, the shipping verification labor will have been wasted. So, it might make sense to check credit before checking availability. Similarly, if the customer’s request for special terms is disapproved, the cost of checking availability and credit is wasted. If the customer has requested special terms that are not normally approved, it might make sense to obtain approval of special terms before checking 2

Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 availability or credit. However, your boss might not appreciate being asked to consider special terms for orders in which the items are not available or for customers with bad credit. As you can see, it’s not easy to determine what process structure is best. The need to monitor process quality and adjust process design, as appropriate, is one reason that processes need to be managed. Change in Technology Changing technology is a second reason for managing processes. For example, suppose the equipment supplier who uses the business process in Figure 12-1 invests in a new information system that enables it to track the location of trucks in real-time. Suppose that with this capability the company can provide next-day availability of goods to customers. That capability will be of limited value, however, if the existing credit-checking process requires 2 days. “I can get the goods to you tomorrow, but I can’t verify your credit until next Monday” will not be satisfying to either customers or salespeople. Thus, when new technology changes any of a process’s activities in a significant way, the entire process needs to be evaluated. That evaluation is another reason for managing processes. Change in Business Fundamentals A third reason for managing business processes is a change in business fundamentals. A substantial change in any of the following factors might result in the need to modify business processes:  Market (e.g., new customer category, change in customer characteristics)  Product lines  Supply chain  Company policy  Company organization (e.g., merger, acquisition)  Internationalization  Business environment Describe the need for BPM and explain why it is a cycle. Name the four stages of the BPM process and summarize the activities in each. Effective BPM enables organizations to attain continuous process improvement. Like quality improvement, process improvement is never finished. Process effectiveness is constantly monitored, and processes are adjusted as and when required. 3

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Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 By the way, do not assume that business process management applies only to commercial, profit-making organizations. Nonprofit and government organizations have business processes just as commercial ones do, but most of these processes are service-oriented rather than revenue-oriented. Your state’s Department of Labor, for example, has a need to manage its processes, as does the Girl Scouts of America. BPM applies to all types of organizations. Define the as-is model . the basic activities in business process management (BPM) , a cyclical process for systematically creating, assessing, and altering business processes. This cycle begins by creating a model of the existing business process, called an as-is model . Then bus ness users who are involved in the process (this could be you!) and business and systems analysts evaluate that model and make improvements. Explain the role of COBIT. The Information Systems Audit and Control Association has created a set of standard practices called COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and related Technology) that are often used in the assessment stage of the BPM cycle. Explaining these standards is beyond the scope of this discussion, but you should know that they exist. Q12-3 How is business process modeling notation (BPMN) used to model processes? Explain the need for a process documentation standard. Describe swim-lane layout. Explain each of the symbols in Figures 12-7 and 12-8 and describe the relationship of these two diagrams. Describe the problems in the process in Figure 12-7 and suggest one solution. Swim-lane layout simplifies the process diagram and draws attention to interactions among components of the diagram. Two kinds of arrows are shown. Dotted arrows depict the flow of messages and data flows. Solid arrows depict the flow or sequence of the activities in the process. Some sequence flows have data associated with them as well. According to Figure 12-7, the customer sends an RFQ (request for quotation) to a salesperson (dotted arrow). That salesperson prepares a quotation in the first activity and then (solid arrow) submits the quotation back to the customer. You can follow the rest of the process in Figure 12-7. Allocate inventory means that if the items are available, they are allocated to the customer so that they will not be sold to someone else. Diamonds represent decisions and usually contain a question that can be answered with yes or no. Process arrows labeled Yes and No exit two of the points of the diamond. Three of the activities in the as-is diagram contain a square with a plus (+) sign. This notation means that the activity is considered to be a subprocess of this process and that it is defined in greater detail in another diagram. 4

Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 One of these three subprocesses, the Check Customer Credit subprocess, is shown in Figure 12-8. Note the role named Customer Credit IS in this subprocess. In fact, this role is performed entirely by an information system, although we cannot determine that fact from this diagram. Again, each role is fulfilled by some set of resources, either people or information systems or both. Once the as-is model has been documented, that model can then be analyzed for problems or for improvement opportunities. For example, the process shown in Figure 12-7 has a serious problem. Before you continue, examine this figure and see if you can determine what the problem is. Name three uses for BPMN diagrams. BPMN diagrams are used to define process alternatives for discussion and evaluation. Another use is to document processes for employee training, and yet another use is to provide process requirements documentation for systems and application development. As a business professional, you may be asked to interpret and approve BPMN diagrams for any of these purposes. Q12-4 What are the phases in the systems development life cycle (SDLC)? Describe the origins of the SDLC and how it came to prominence. The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is the traditional process used to develop information systems and applications. The IT industry developed the SDLC in the “school of hard knocks.” Many early projects met with disaster, and companies and systems developers sifted through the ashes of those disasters to determine what went wrong. By the 1970s, most seasoned project managers agreed on the basic tasks that needed to be performed to successfully build and maintain information systems. These basic tasks are combined into phases of systems development. As stated, SDLC rose to prominence when the U.S. Department of Defense required it on government contracts. Name five basic systems development activities. Different authors and organizations package the tasks into different numbers of phases. Some organizations use an eight-phase process, others use a seven-phase process, and still others use a five-phase process. In this book, we will use the following five-phase process: 1. Define System 2. Determine Requirements 3. Design System Components 4. Implement System 5. Maintain System Describe tasks required for the definition, requirements, and design steps. 5

Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 In response to the need for the new system, the organization will assign a few employees, possibly on a part-time basis, to define the new system, assess its feasibility, and plan the project. In a large organization, someone from the IS department leads the initial team, but the members of that initial team are both users and IS professionals. For small organizations, and for startups like ARES, the team will be led by IS-savvy managers like Henri. Determining the system’s requirements is the most important phase in the SDLC process. If the requirements are wrong, the system will be wrong. If the requirements are determined completely and correctly, then design and implementation will be easier and more likely to result in success. Each of the five components is designed in this stage. Typically, the team designs each component by developing alternatives, evaluating each of those alternatives against the requirements, and then selecting from among those alternatives. Accurate requirements are critical here; if they are incomplete or wrong, then they will be poor guides for evaluation. Explain the tasks required to implement a system and describe four types of system conversion. State-specific activities for each of the five components during the design and implementation stages. The term implementation has two meanings for us. It could mean to implement the information systems components only, or it could mean to implement the information system and the business processes that use the system. As you read the following task descriptions, keep in mind that the tasks can apply to both interpretations of implementation. Tasks in the implementation phase are to build and test system components and to convert users to the new system and possibly new business processes. The five components during the design and implementation stages. • Build system components. • Conduct unit test. • Integrate components.  Conduct integrated test.  Convert to new system. Explain why the term maintenance is a misnomer when applied to information systems; state tasks performed during systems maintenance. Maintenance is a misnomer; the work done during this phase is either to fix the system so that it works correctly or to adapt it to changes in requirements. First, there needs to be a means for tracking both failures 3 and requests for enhancements to meet new requirements. For small systems, organizations can track failures and enhancements using word- processing documents. Q12-5 What are the keys to successful SDLC projects? 6

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Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 Name five keys for successful development projects. SDLC projects are difficult to manage. In this question we will consider five keys to success:  Create a work breakdown structure.  Estimate time and costs.  Create a project plan.  Adjust the plan via trade-offs.  Manage development challenges. Explain the purpose of a work breakdown structure. Tasks are interrelated, and to prevent them from becoming confusing morass, project teams create a work breakdown structure (WBS) , which is a hierarchy of the tasks required to complete a project. The WBS for a large project is huge; it might entail hundreds or even thousands of tasks. Summarize the difficulties of development estimation and describe three ways of addressing it. It is exceedingly difficult to determine the duration and labor requirements for many development tasks. Fred Brooks 4 defined software as “logical poetry.” Like poetry, software is not made of wood or metal or plastic; it is pure thought stuff. Some years ago, when a seasoned software developer was pressed for a schedule, he responded by asking, “What would Shakespeare have said if someone asked him how long it would take him to write Hamlet ?” Another popular rejoinder is, “What would a fisherman say if you ask him how long it will take to catch three fish? He doesn’t know, and neither do I.” Organizations take a variety of approaches to this challenge. One is to avoid scheduling problems altogether and never develop systems and software in-house. Instead, they license packages, such as ERP systems, that include both business processes and information systems components. But what if no suitable package exists? In this case, companies can admit the impossibility of scheduling a date for the completion of the entire system and take the best result they can get. Only the loosest commitments are made regarding the date of complete and final system functionality. The third approach is to attempt to schedule the development project in spite of all the difficulties. Several different estimation techniques can be used. If the project is similar to a past project, the schedule data from that past project can be used for planning. When such similar past projects exist, this technique can produce quality schedule estimates. If there is no such past project, managers must make the best estimates they can. For computer coding, some managers estimate the number of lines of code that will need to be written and apply industry or company averages to estimate the time required. 7

Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 Explain the elements in the Gantt chart in Figure 12-17. Given dependencies, estimates for task duration and resource requirements are then applied to the WBS to form a project plan. Figure 12-17 shows the WBS as input to Microsoft Project, with task dependencies and durations defined. The display, called a Gantt chart , shows tasks, dates, and dependencies. The user has entered all of the tasks from the WBS and has assigned each task a duration. She has also specified task dependencies, although the means she used are beyond our discussion. The two red arrows emerging from task 4, Define system boundaries , indicate that neither the Review results task nor the Assess feasibility task can begin until Define system boundaries is completed. Other task dependencies are also shown; you can learn about them in a project management class. Define critical path and explain critical path analysis. The critical path is the sequence of activities that determine the earliest date by which the project can be completed. Reflect for a moment on that statement: The earliest date is the date deter- mined by considering the longest path through the network of activities. Paying attention to task dependencies, the planner will compress the tasks as much as possible. Summarize requirements, cost, and schedule trade-offs. The first response to a project plan is to attempt to reduce time and costs. Reductions can be made, but not out of thin air. An old adage in planning development projects is “Believe your first number.” Believe what you have estimated before your desires and wishes cloud your judgment. A trade-off is a balancing of three critical factors: requirements, cost, and time. To understand this balancing challenge, consider the construction of something relatively simple—say, a piece of jewelry, such as a necklace, or the deck on the side of a house. The more elaborate the necklace or the deck, the more time it will take. The less elaborate, the less time it will take. Further, if we embellish the necklace with diamonds and precious gems, it will cost more. Similarly, if we construct the deck from old crates, it will be cheaper than if we construct it of clear-grained, prime Port Orford cedar. List and explain four critical factors for development project management. 1. Coordination The coordination problem is increased because software, as stated, is just a thought- stuff. When constructing a new house, electricians install wiring in the walls as they exist; it is impossible to do otherwise. No electrician can install wiring in the wall as designed 6 months ago, before a change. In software, such physical constraints do not exist. It is entirely possible for a team to develop a set of application programs to process a database using an obsolete database design. When the database design was changed, all involved parties should have been notified, but this may not have occurred. Wasted hours, increased costs, and poor morale are the result. 2. Diseconomies of scale 8

Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 The number of possible interactions among team members rises exponentially with the number of team members. Ultimately, no matter how well-managed a project is, diseconomies of scale will set in. As the project proceeds, controlling the configuration of the work product becomes difficult. Consider requirements, for example. The development team produces an initial statement of requirements. Meetings with users produce an adjusted set of requirements. Suppose an event then occurs that necessitates another version of requirements. After deliberation, assume the development team decides to ignore a large portion of the requirements changes resulting from the event. At this point, there are four different versions of the requirements. If the changes to requirements are not carefully managed, changes from the four versions will be mixed up, and confusion and disorder will result. No one will know which requirements are the correct, current ones. 3. Configuration control The term configuration control refers to a set of management policies, practices, and tools that developers use to maintain control over the project’s resources. Such resources include documents, schedules, designs, program code, test suites, and any other shared resources needed to complete the project. Configuration control is vital; a loss of control over a project’s configuration is so expensive and disruptive that it can result in termination for senior project managers. 4. Unexpected events The larger and longer the project, the greater the chance of disruption due to an unanticipated event. Critical people can change companies; even whole teams have been known to pack up and join a competitor. A hurricane may destroy an office; the company may have a bad quarter and freeze hiring just as the project is staffing up; technology will change; competitors may do something that makes the project more (or less) important; or the company may be sold and new management may change requirements and priorities. Q12-6 How can Scrum overcome the problems of the SDLC? Explain two reasons that the SDLC is falling out of favor. First, the nature of the SDLC denies what every experienced developer knows to be true: systems requirements are fuzzy and always changing. They change because they need to be corrected, or more is known, or users change their minds about what they want after they use part of the system, or business needs change, or technology offers other possibilities. The second reason that the SDLC is falling out of favor is that it is very risky. The people for whom the system is being constructed cannot see what they have until the very end. At that point, if something is wrong, all the money and time has already been spent. Furthermore, what if, as frequently happens, the project runs out of money or time before it is completed? The result is a form of management blackmail in which the developers say, “Well, it’s not done yet, but give us another $100,000 and another 6 months, and then we’ll have it done.” If management declines, which it might because at that point, the time and money are sunk, 9

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Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 it is left not only with the loss but also with the unmet need that caused it to start the SDLC in the first place. In your own words, explain the meaning and importance of each of the principles in Figure 12-20.  Expect, even welcome, changes in requirements.  Frequently deliver working version of the product.  Work closely with customer for the duration.  Design as you go.  Test as you go.  Team knows best how it’s doing/how to change.  Can be used for business processes, information systems, and applications development. The first way in which scrum and the other agile techniques differ from the SDLC is that they expect and even welcome change. Given the nature of social systems, expect is not a surprise, but why welcome ? Isn’t welcoming requirements change a bit like welcoming a good case of the flu? No, because systems are created to help organizations and people achieve their strategies, and the more the requirements change, the closer they come to facilitating strategies. The result is better and more satisfying for both the users and the development team. Second, scrum and other agile development processes are designed to frequently deliver a working version of some part of the product. Frequently means 1 to 8 weeks, not longer. This frequency means that management is at risk only for whatever costs and time have been consumed in that period. And, at the end of the period, they will have some usable product piece that has at least some value to the business. Thus, unlike the SDLC, agile techniques deliver benefits early and often. The initial benefits might be small, but they are positive and increase throughout the process. With the SDLC, no value is generated until the very end. Considering the time value of money, this characteristic alone makes agile techniques more desirable. The third principle in Figure 12-20 is that the development team will work closely with the customer until the project ends. Someone who knows the business requirements must be available to the development team and must be able and willing to clearly express, clarify, and elaborate on requirements. Also, customers need to be available to test the evolving work product and provide guidance on how well new features work. The fourth principle is a tough one for many developers to accept. Rather than design the complete, overall system at the beginning, only those portions of the design that are needed to complete the current work are done. Sometimes this is called just-in-time design . Designing in this way means that the design is constantly changing, and existing designs may need to be revised, along with substantial revision to the work product produced so far. On the surface, it is inefficient. However, experience has shown that far too many teams 10

Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 have constructed elaborate, fanciful, and complete designs that turned out to be glamorous fiction as the requirements changed. Test as you go, the next principle, is obvious if the team is going to be delivering working versions. Testing is initially conducted among members of the team but involves the business customer as well. Development teams know how well they’re doing. You could go into any development environment today and ask the team how it’s doing and, once team members understood you were not about to inflict a new management program on them, you would find they know their strengths, weaknesses, bottlenecks, and process problems quite well. That principle is part of agile development methodologies. At the end of every deliverable or some other (short) milestone, the team meets to assess how it’s doing and how it can improve. Finally, agile development methodologies are generic. They can be applied to the creation of business processes, information systems, and applications. They are applicable to other team projects as well, but that subject is beyond the scope of this text. Explain how each of the scrum essential items in Figure 12-23 is implemented in the scrum process shown in Figure 12-24. The working version of the product is delivered to the customer, who can, if desired, put it to use at that time, even in its not-fully-finished state. After the product is delivered, the team meets to evaluate its own process and to make changes as needed. Team members are given an opportunity to express thanks and receive recognition for superior work at these meetings. (Review the criteria for team success in Chapter 7, and you will see how scrum adheres to the principles of a successful team.) Name three elements in a scrum requirement. Work continues in a repeating cycle of scrum periods until one of three conditions is met:  The customer is satisfied with the product created and decides to accept the work product, even if some requirements are left unsatisfied.  The project runs out of time.  The project runs out of money. Describe what is unique about the way that scrum determines the time required to accomplish a task. Scrum methodology recognizes that developers are terrible, even wretched, at determining how long a task will take. However, developers are quite good at determining how long something will take in comparison to something else. So, while a developer may be poor at estimating the time required to do, say, Task 2 in Figure 12-25, he or she will likely be accurate when saying that Task 2 will take twice as long as Task 1, or some other ratio. Define velocity and explain how it is used in scheduling. As teams work together, they will learn the total number of points of work they can accomplish each scrum period. That term is called the team’s velocity . 11

Chapter 12 Name: Januka Dahal Pandey Date: Nov 24, 2023 The team uses its velocity to determine how many requirements it can commit to accomplishing in the next scrum period. Of course, during the first period, the team will not know its velocity. In that case, senior members will need to make a guess. That guess may be far off, but it will get better as the team gains experience. Unlike the SDLC, there is at least well-founded hope that, over time, estimating will improve. Explain how scrum provides a framework for process learning. Scrum provides a framework for process learning. As a team works more and more scrum periods together, it learns better and better how to assign points, and it learns more and more what its true velocity is. Q12-7 2029? Describe how machine learning will change systems development projects. Machine learning, and deep neural networks are reshaping the way enterprise systems are developed. From a user’s perspective, it will appear that information systems are being “trained” rather than “created. It’s because machines are faster and more accurate than humans when it comes to certain tasks. Writing code for a calculator that does basic addition and subtraction is easy. The mathematical rules are straightforward. Write several lines of code and you’re done. Developers who make this type of software create it line by line. Using Microsoft Fetch! as an example, explain why “training” will be an integral part of systems development. Microsoft developers used machine learning to train Fetch! to identify the correct dog breed. Developers kept giving Fetch! images of different dogs and told it when it correctly identified the correct dog breed. And Fetch! learned. It created the complex algorithms that it uses to analyze images. If the developers open up the application, they see an indecipherable set of mathematical equations that are constantly changing. They can’t understand the code because it’s not code in the traditional sense. Explain why you will be involved in systems development projects during your professional career. Systems will depend on users to train them. Users will know how to create successful user interfaces. And users will be the ones to solve previously unknown problems. You as a business user will be the one to make a difference. How does the knowledge of your generation of businesspeople influence systems development? Explain why systems will be more easily adapted. Business professionals have a key role in solving those coping problems. New systems will come online fast, and the limiting factor will be humans’ ability to cope. 12

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