The Systems Proposal

1
The Systems Proposal

• What the book calls the Updated Baseline Project
  Plan - no standard name for it
• Presents the different options to the customer
  along with all the information they will need to
  make a decision
• Deliverable 3 - must present at least three
  significantly different alternatives, one of
  which is the recommended solution

2
The Systems Proposal (cont.)

• Introduction
• Project Overview - updated, summarized version of
  the organizational description, the problem
  statement, and the scope statement
• Recommendation - brief description of the
  recommended solution and why it is more feasible
  than the alternatives (summary of feasibility
  analysis)

3
The Systems Proposal (cont.)

• System Description
• Major requirements and constraints - a
  prioritized list of 6-10 high-level requirements
  and constraints (distinguish between the two)
  that will be used as a basis of comparison among
  alternatives
• Brief technical descriptions of the three
  alternatives
• Proposed DFDs for all three alternatives
• Comparison of alternatives in terms of
  requirements and constraints

4
The Systems Proposal (cont.)

• Feasibility assessment
• Address each of the six types of feasibility for
  each alternative solution
• For some feasibility types, the analysis may be
  the same for all three alternatives
• Some analyses may be repeated from Deliverable 1
• Economic feasibility analysis must be much more
  detailed than in Deliverable 1

5
Generating Alternatives

• Must have three significantly different
  alternative solutions
• All 3 must involve some change from the current
  situation
• Consider
• non-technical solutions
• partial solutions
• low-end and high-end solutions

6
Requirements Document

• An idea from software engineering
• Another way to structure requirements
• A statement specifying what a proposed system is
  required to do
• Often structured as a list of numbered
  requirements, in textual form
• Details the what, not the how

7
Requirements Documents (cont.)

• What makes a good requirements document?
• completeness
• consistency
• clarity
• correctness
• level of detail
• testability
• understandability

8
Purposes

• Contract between system vendor and customer
• Communication with customer
• Starting point for design
• Guide for testing
• Comparing alternatives

9
Types of requirements

• Functional Requirements
• Data Requirements
• Look and Feel requirements
• Usability requirements
• Performance Requirements
• Operational requirements
• Maintainability requirements
• Security requirements

10
Examples of requirements

• Functional requirements
• When a customer applies for a video rental card
  by providing customer information and a means of
  verifying their identity, the system issues a
  video rental card.
• When a customer rents videos by providing their
  video rental card and the videocassettes they are
  renting, the system calculates the amount due
  from the customer (including late fees), record
  receipt of the amount, print a customer receipt,
  and make a record of each item rented.
• When a customer returns a video, the system
  records the return and notes any late fees on the
  customer record.
• If a customer returns a movie 1-5 days late, the
  late charge is equal to an additional rental for
  each day it is late.
• If the customer has outstanding late fees, they
  are not permitted to rent another video until the
  late fees are paid.

11
Examples of requirements

• Data requirements
• The information maintained about customers
  includes customer id number, customer last name,
  address, telephone number, major credit card
  number and expiration date, and information on
  outstanding late fees
• The information maintained about videos includes
  a video id number, title, year, class (which
  determines rental rate) and copy number
• The information maintained about rentals includes
  the customer id, the video id, the date rented,
  the date returned, and the amount charged

12
Examples of requirements

• Look and Feel requirements
• The user interface must conform to the
  conventions of the Microsoft Office products
  interface.
• The XYZ company logo must appear in the upper
  right corner of each screen.
• The fonts used on all printed output must be at
  least 14 points.
• The color purple must not be used in any screen
  output.

13
Examples of requirements

• Usability requirements
• User training for video store clerks must not
  exceed 30 minutes.
• User training for video store managers must not
  exceed 2 hours.
• Error rates among trained users must not exceed 1
  data entry error in 4 hours.
• On-line help must be provided and must be able to
  answer any questions a user has during use after
  training.

14
Examples of requirements

• Performance requirements
• Average time to complete a customer application
  process must not exceed 10 minutes.
• Average time to complete a video rental
  transaction must not exceed 3 minutes.
• The system must be able to handle at least 2000
  customers, 5000 video rental items, and 300 video
  rentals per day with no noticeable degradation in
  performance.

15
Examples of requirements

• Operational requirements
• The system must run using PC-compatible hardware
  running the Windows 95 operating system.
• The system must successfully network up to 8 PCs
  with full data-sharing capabilities.

16
Examples of requirements

• Maintainability requirements
• A trained video store manager, with no additional
  training or background, must be able to change
  the rental rates used for different classes of
  videos.
• An enhancement to the system to allow it to
  handle more than one type of rental item (e.g.
  DVD) should cost (in terms of both time and
  money) no more than 10 of the original system
  development cost.

17
Examples of requirements

• Security requirements
• The system must be password protected, allowing
  only video store employees to access any part of
  the system, and only managers to modify video
  information.

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Assessing Feasibility

• Technical is technology available or are we
  able to develop it?
• Economic do we have the time and money?
• Operational - will it work?
• Schedule can it be done in the given time?
• Legal and contractual - are we allowed to do
  this?
• Political is anyone trying to undermine this
  project?

19
Operational Feasibility

• Will it work with current systems?
• Will it be accepted by users?
• Will it solve real problems?

20
Work Breakdown - level 1
Analysis
Information Gathering Data, Logic, and Process
Modeling Systems Proposal Preparation
Design
Data Entry Design Screen and Report Design Data
Organization Process Design
Implementation
Integration Testing
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Work Breakdown - level 2
Information Gathering
Conduct Interviews Administer Questionnaires Intro
duce Prototype Observe Reactions to Prototype
Data, Logic, and Process Modeling
Data Modeling Logic Modeling Process Modeling
Systems Proposal Preparation
Perform Cost/Benefit Analysis Prepare
Proposal Present Proposal
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Work Breakdown - level 3
Days Required
Detailed Activity
Choose interviewees 1 Develop interview
guide 2 Schedule interviews 3 Conduct
interviews 10 Transcribe notes 5
Conduct Interviews
Design questionnaire 5 Review questionnaire 5 Di
stribute questionnaire 1 Wait for
responses 10 Compile responses 5
Administer Questionnaires
Build prototype 5 Install prototype 2
Introduce Prototype
Observe prototype use 5 Summarize
recommendations 2
Observe Reactions to Prototype
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Gantt Chart
Activity
Choose interviewees Develop interview
guide Schedule interviews Conduct
interviews Transcribe notes Design
questionnaire Review questionnaire Distribute
questionnaire Wait for responses Compile
responses Build prototype Install
prototype Observe prototype use Summarize
recommendations
40
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Days
24
PERT Chart
25
Critical Path

• The shortest possible amount of time in which a
  project can be completed
• Represented by the longest path on a PERT chart
• If any activity along the critical path is
  delayed, then the entire project is delayed.

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PERT Chart
Choose
Schedule
Interviewees
Interviews
1
A
3
C
Develop
Conduct
Interview Guide
Interviews
Transcribe Notes
2
B
10
D
5
E
Design
Questionnaire
5
F
Build Prototype
Review
5
K
Questionnaire
5
G
Distribute
Install Prototype
Questionnaire
2
L
1
H
Observe
Prototype Use
5
M
Wait for
Compile
Responses
Responses
Summarize
10
I
5
J
Recommendations
2
N
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Economic Feasibility Analysis

• For each alternative
• identify tangible, intangible, one-time and
  recurring costs and benefits
• present and explain estimates for all tangible
  costs and benefits
• use risk reduction and present value calculations
  if appropriate
• compare costs and benefits using break-even
  analysis

28
Cost/Benefit Analysis

• Risk reduction
• use when one of the major benefits of the new
  system is to reduce the chance of some risk event
  or to reduce the loss from such an event
• Cash-flow analysis
• use when justifying a large up-front cost that
  will be paid out of operating funds
• Present value
• use when considering long-term costs and/or
  benefits
• Break-even analysis
• use when there are significant tangible benefits
  expected from the new system

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Quantifying Risk Reduction

• Risk reduction is often hard to quantify
• Customer needs to know how much theyre paying
  for risk reduction
• Can use the concept of utility loss to quantify
  the concept
• Utility loss is the product of
• the probability of the risk event occurring
• the cost to the organization of the risk event
  occurring

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Quantifying Risk ReductionExample

• Suppose
• The major benefit of the new system is that it
  reduces the risk from some event (e.g. a lawsuit)
  occurring
• If this event happens, it will cost the
  organization about 2,000,000 (this is an
  estimate)
• The probability that this event will occur is
  currently 5, reduced to 1 with the new system
  (another estimate)
• Compare utility losses
• Currently (.05)(2,000,000) 100,000
• New system (.01)(2,000,000) 20,000
• Savings 80,000

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Time Value of Money

• Basic idea the value of a dollar cost (or
  benefit) depends on when that dollar is spent (or
  received)
• After calculating the dollar amounts of all
  tangible costs and benefits for each year, you
  must adjust the totals to calculate the NPV (net
  present value) of each years costs and benefits

32
Net Present Value (NPV)

• To calculate NPV, need
• total tangible costs and total tangible benefits
  for each year
• discount rate
• Calculate PV for costs and for benefits for each
  year
• Add up PVs to get NPV of costs and NPV of
  benefits
• Overall NPV (NPV of benefits) - (NPV of costs)

33
Break-even Scenario

• Suppose
• initial tangible costs, including new equipment,
  analysis, development, and training, are
  estimated to be 75,000.
• Recurring operational costs, including system
  maintenance and training for new users, is
  estimated at 5000 per year.
• Tangible benefits, in the form of decreased
  costs, are estimated to be 25,000 per year.

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Break-even Scenario (cont.)
Benefits
100,000
Costs

75,000
50,000
25,000
Break-even point
2
4
1
3
Years