Business Process and Information Systems Development Using MIS 4e Chapter 10

Business Process and Information Systems

Development

Using MIS 4e Chapter 10

Study Questions

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q1 Why do organizations need to manage business processes?

Q2 What are the stages of business process management (BPM)?

Q3 How can BPMN process diagrams help identify and solve process problems?

Q4 Which comes first, business processes or information systems?

Q5 What are systems development activities?

Q6 Why are business processes and systems development difficult and risky?

Q7 What are the keys for successful process and systems development projects?

Q8 2021?

10-2

Q1: Why Do Organizations Need to Manage Business Processes?


Activities—

Transform resources

and information of one type into resources

and informatio

n of another

type

Decisions—

A question that can

be answered Yes or No

Roles—

Sets of procedur

es

Resources—

People, or

facilities, or

computer programs that are assigned to roles

Repository—

Collection of

business records

10-3

Business Process

Steps in Processing an Order

10-4Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Processes that don’t work or work well

Change in technologyChange in business fundamentals:

• Market (new customer category), product lines, supply chain, company policy, company organization (merger/acquisition), internationalization, business environmentVideo

Why Does This Process Need Management?


10-5

Video Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice

Hall10-6

•Does not produce desired result, or confusing

•Misaligned with organization’s goals, objectives, or competitive strategy

Processes that don’t

work or work well

•Entire process needs to be evaluated when new technology changes any process activity in a significant way

Change in technology

•Market (new customer category), product lines, supply chain, company policy, company organization (merger/acquisition), internationalization, business environment

Change in business

fundamentals

Why Does This Process Need Management?

Q2 What Are the Stages of Business Process Management (BPM)?


as-is model

Continuous process

improvementnew

model

10-7

Scope of Business Process Management

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 10-8

• Blueprint for new process and system components. If models are incomplete and incorrect, components cannot be created correctly.

Model business

processes

• Created a standard set of terms and graphical notations for documenting business processes called Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), documented at www.bpmn.org.

Object Management Group (OMG)

Q3 How Can BPMN Process Diagrams Help Identify and Solve Process Problems?


Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) Symbols)


Object Management Group (OMG)

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)

10-10

Documenting the As-Is Business Order Process: Existing Ordering Process


Flow of messages and data

Process flow or sequence of activities

10-11

Check Customer Credit Process


• Operations Manager allocates inventory to orders as they are processed

• Credit Manager allocates credit to customer of orders in process.

• Allocations are correct if order is accepted

• If rejected, allocations are not freed, and inventory is allocated that will not be ordered, and credit is extended for orders not processed

• Possible fix: Define an independent process for Reject Order

Figures 10-5 and 10-6

have process problems

Using Process Diagrams to Identify Process Problems


Brute-force approach

•Don’t change process

•Add more people or equipment

Change structure of

process • Without

changing resource allocations

• Add resources

How Can Business Processes Be Improved?


Revised Order Process


Add resources to credit checking and change sequence of inventory and credit checking

10-15

Fox Lake Wedding Planning and Facilities Maintenance Processes


• Information systems and business processes are not same thing

Information system are embedded within business processes,

There are activities in business processes not part of information system

A business process can utilize zero, one, or more information systems

A particular information system may be used by one or more business processes

How Are Business Processes

and Information Systems Related?

Q4: Which Comes First, Business Processes or Information Systems?


Fox Lake Processes Showing IS Components


Many-to-Many Relationship of Business Processes and Information Systems


Business Processes First

Which Comes First?


Identify System Need

Information System First


Classic Five-Step

SystemsDevelopment Life Cycle

10-21

•Better to start with business processes

•More likely to result in processes and systems that are aligned with the organization’s strategy and direction

In theory

•Organizations today take both approaches.In practice

• If organization starts with business processes and selects application that works for those processes, most likely, application has features and functions needed by other business processes to be designed in future

Factor that overtakes all is off-the-shelf software

And the Answer Is . . .


Q5 What Are Systems Development Activities?


SDLC: System Definition Phase


• Purpose: Increase revenue from wedding events

• Goals: Eliminate or at least reveal schedule conflicts and improve maintenance tracking

• Scope: Specify users or business processes that will be involved, or facilities, functions, and events that will be involved

Define scope for new Fox

Lake system

How Is System Definition Accomplished?


Form a Project Team


Determine Requirements


Design System Components


Implementation Activities


Conversion types1.Pilot2.Phased3.Parallel4.Plunge

10-29

System Conversion Choices


Pilot

•Implement entire system in limited portion of business

•Advantage—limits exposure to business if system fails

Phased•System installed in phases or modules•Each piece is installed and tested

Parallel•Complete new and old systems run simultaneously

•Very safe, but expensive

Plunge•High risk if new system fails, no fall back

system•Only used if new system not vital to

company operation

Design and Implementation for the Five Components


System Maintenance Phase


Many projects are never finished. Those that finish often 200–300% over budget.

Some projects finish within budget and on schedule, but never satisfactorily accomplish their goals.

Q6:Why Are Business Processes andSystems Development Difficult & Risky?


Five Major Challenges to Systems Development


• What specifically is system to do? • How does wedding planner use new

system to reserve a room or building? • What does data entry screen look like? • How does planner add/reduce facilities

once wedding scheduled? • What should system do when a wedding

cancelled? • Facility schedule system interface with

accounting systems? How? • Does system need to reserve floor or

refrigerator space in restaurant kitchen?

Difficulty of

requirements

determination

Must create environment where difficult questions are asked and answered.

Five Major Challenges to Systems Development (cont’d)


Changing requirements• Large, long projects aim at moving

targetScheduling and budgeting difficulties• How long to build it?• How long to create data model?• How long to build database applications?• How long to do testing?• How long to develop and document

procedures?• How long for training?• How many labor hours? Labor cost?• What’s the rate of return on investment?



Changing Technology



Do you want to stop your development to switch to the new technology? Would it be better to finish developing according to the existing plan? Why build an out-of-date system?

Can you afford to keep changing the project?

10-37

Diseconomies of scale• Brooks’ Law

“Adding more people to a project makes the project later.”



New staff must be trained by productive members who lose productivity while training new members.

10-38

• Create a work-breakdown structure

• Estimate time and costs

• Create a project plan

• Adjust the plan via trade-offs

• Manage development challenges

Q7: What Are the Keys for SuccessfulProcess and Systems Development Projects?


Create a Work-Breakdown Structure (WBS)


WBS for Definition Phase of Order-Entry System

• Hierarchy of tasks required to complete a project

• Each task ends with deliverables

• Documents, designs, prototypes, data models, database designs, working data entry screens, etc.

• Identifies task dependencies• Estimate task duration,

cost, and labor needed• Created with project

management software, such as Microsoft Project

Work-Breakdown Structure (WBS)

How Does a Work-Breakdown Structure Drive Project Management?


•License packages that include both business processes and information systems components

Avoid major schedule risks and

never develop systems and

software in-house•Only loose commitments made regarding completion date and final system functionality

“We don’t know”

Past projects, if any

•Lines of code and industry or company averages to estimate time required

•http://sunset.usc.edu/csse/research/COCOMOII/cocomo_main.html

Best estimates

Estimate Time and Costs


Gantt Chart of the WBS for the Definition Phase of a Project


Create a Project Plan: Gantt Chart with Resources Assigned


Sequence of activities that determine earliest completion dateLongest path through network of activities

•Tasks dependencies compressed as much as possible•Tasks may be moved to noncritical paths to shorten critical path Tasks on path, if late, will delay project

completionMove critical path tasks to noncritical path to shorten project schedule (sometimes)

Baseline WBS (final WBS)

Critical Path Analysis


Adjust Plan via Trade-offs


•Independent groups might reside in different locationsCoordination

•Adding people leads to exponential interactions, makes project later

Diseconomies of scale

•Set of management policies, practices, tools to maintain control over resources

Configuration control

•Chance of disruption from unanticipated events

Unexpected events

•Pure thought stuff leads to wasted hours, increased costs, poor morale

Maintaining team morale

over time

Manage Development Challenges


Continuing focus on aligning business processes and information systems with business strategy, goals, and objectives

Computer systems will be more easily changed and adapted in the future

Emergence of new software vendor business models

Q8: 2021?


Active Review


Q1: What is systems development?

Q2: Why is systems development difficult and risky?

Q3: What are the five phases of the SDLC?

Q4: How is system definition accomplished?Q5: What is the users’ role in the requirements

phase?Q6: How are the five components designed?

Q7: How is an information system implemented?

Q8: What are the tasks for system maintenance?

Q9: What are some of the problems with the SDLC? How does the knowledge in this chapter help Fox

Lake and you?10-49