Paul H' Rosenthal

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My Primary Concern Lack of training in the
justification of enterprise information systems
for both Users and IS Professionals
Paul H. Rosenthal Professor, Information
Systems California State University, Los Angeles
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Users say its important!

• I conducted an informal survey by asking the
  importance of the following Justification
  questions at a recent Business Forum luncheon
  meeting
• Why does it cost so much?
• Replies Important 100
• Interesting 0
• Not Relevant 0
• Why does it take so long?
• Same results

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Students say its Important!
From a survey of business students in the
Managing Information Systems class during finals
week.
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A Model for Investment Justification of IS/IT
Projects
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• Solving the Justification Problem
• Teach Project Estimating
• It is possible to estimate Software Projects
• accurately.
• Such estimation is useful. Why?
• Once all stakeholders agree on estimation
  procedures, negotiations can involve inputs
  (features and resources) NOT outputs (time and
  dollars).
• Function Point measures are the most popular
• for Information Systems estimation.
• Illustration Follows

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Function Points Methodology
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Analyzing the Information Domain
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SUMMARY STATEMENT

• We need to raise the content level of our courses
  so that our graduates will be able to
• specify, estimate, design, and
• implement high quality and
• successful systems, and
• continue to reduce our industry's
• high project failure rate.
• Note Successful systems are defined as those
  measured and confirmed useful by their end users
  in their operational environment