DC2004 Chapter 12 Checkpoint Solution

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1. (b) data store
2. (c) process
3. (a) data flow
4. (d) source

1. (b) The steering committee is a decision making body in a company.
2. (c) A deliverable is any tangible item such as a chart, diagram, report, or program file.
3. (d) Economic feasibility, also called cost-benefit feasibility, addresses the funding of a proposed information system.
4. (b) A joint application design (JAD) session is a lengthy, structured, group meeting in which users and IT professionals work together to design or develop an application.
5. (a) During the planning phase, the projects that receive the highest priority are those mandated by management or some other governing body.
6. (d) Detailed analysis involves all of the following major activities, except convert to the new system.
   1. study how the current system works
   2. determine the users' wants, needs, and requirements
   3. recommend a solution
7. (c) The top level data flow diagram (DFD), known as a context diagram, identifies only the major process.
8. (a) In object modeling, each element is called an attribute or property.
9. (d) The purpose of the system proposal is to assess the feasibility of each alternative solution and then recommend the most feasible solution.
10. (d) Word processing, spreadsheet, database, and Web page authoring  are examples of horizontal market, packaged software.
11. (a) Some value added resellers (VARs) provide a complete system, also known as a turnkey solution.
12. (b) During program design, the systems analyst identifies the processing requirements, or the logic, for each program in the system.
13. (c) With a pilot conversion, only one location in the company uses the new system - so it can be tested.
14. (c) The prupose of performance monitoring is to determine whether a system is inefficient at any point.

1. (f) project team: Users and IT professionals who work on a project from beginning to end.
2. (i) Gannt chart: Bar chart that shows project phases or activities.
3. (e) request for system services: Becomes the first item in the project notebook and triggers the planning phase.
4. (a) project dictionary: Contains all the documentation and deliverables of a project.
5. (b) data dictionary: Stores a name, description, and other details for each data item.
6. (g) trade publication: Specific business or industry magazine.
7. (d) value added reseller (VAR): Purchases products and then resells them along with additional services.
8. (j) benchmark test: Measures the performance of hardware or software.

1a. What is a project leader?

    The project leader is the person who manages and controls the budget and schedule of the project.

1b. Why should a project leader have good change-management skills?

    A project leader should have good change-management skills to recognize when a change in the project has occurred, take actions to react to the change, and plan for opportunities because of the change.

2a. What is feasibility?

    Feasibility is a measure of how suitable the development of a system will be to the company.

2b. How are operational feasibility, schedule feasibility, technical feasibility, and economic feasibility different?

3a. How is a decision table similar to, and different from, a decision tree?

3b. What is structured English?

    Structured English is a style of writing, like an outline, that describes the steps in a process.

4a. How is horizontal market software different from vertical market software?

4b. What is the advantage and disadvantage of custom software?

5a. How is a request for quotation (RFQ) different from a request for proposal (RFP)?

The Commerce Business Daily (CBD) is a daily publication announcing business opportunities with the federal government.  It includes announcing RFPs and awards of contracts.  This is a major source of information for government contractors.  Major government contractors anticipate projects through daily contact with government agencies they already do work for, and have proposals almost in a final stage by the time an RFP is announced.  If you want to be competitive, you must actively seek out who you want to work for, and get to know your intended customer in advance.  The response time for RFPs is often very short. You can search the CBD at http://www.gpo.ucop.edu/search/cbd.html .

5b. What is a request for information?

1a.  What is a project plan?

1b.  How is a Gantt chart used within a project plan?

    A Gantt chart is used as a planning and management tool to permit managers maintain a big picture of project progress as a function of schedule.  Such charts are often overlaid with a plot of project funds budgeted and expended.

    Caution: Managers need to compare the current Gantt chart to the chart that reflected the assumptions which formed the basis for authorizing the project initially, and at key change points.  This is particularly true if managers are changed during project execution.

3a.  What is JAD? (Page 14.8)

    "JAD session" is a buzzword that is not in common use.  Even so, large scale projects that are well run do have group working sessions periodically that discuss all aspects of a project.  These meetings do not usually carry a buzzword title, but the meetings do occur.  Good large scale projects begin these meetings early in the product concept phase.  Development of the operating system for the IBM System 360 used such an approach.

    The formal, documented, extensive planning approach is appropriate for large, expensive projects.  Small projects do not warrant wasting the time of many people, and a committee approach is sometimes the cause of unnecessary schedule delays due to seeking consensus.  Sometimes, the right answer is "Just Do It".

    Corporate management must be careful not to abdicate leadership to a systems analyst.  Stay engaged.  Ensure that technology is being used to serve the corporation, and not the other way around.  This was a problem in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

    Beware of bureaucracy.  There is a tension between leadership and consensus building.  Doing something new is best done by innovative and visionary leadership willing to go where no committee would dare.  Consensus is a good approach if the goal is to make incremental improvements in an existing product or way of doing something.  The Total Quality Management (TQM) movement is basically a consensus approach.  Entrepreneurship is better for new concepts.  Leadership is for revolution; consensus is for evolution.

3b.  How would a system analyst use JAD?

    The system analyst uses a JAD session to get agreement on project issues.  In the best sense, the JAD session helps identify potential opportunities and avoid pitfalls that otherwise might escape notice by the project leader.  In the worst sense, the JAD session diffuses responsibility and weakens the project.

4a.  What are the two structured analysis graphical design tools? (Page 14.15 - 14.17)

    The two structured analysis graphical design tools are the entity-relationship diagram and the data flow diagram.

4b.  How are they different?

    An entity is an object in a system that has data.  An entity-relationship diagram shows the relationships between entities in a system.  Nodes in the diagram are holders or producers of data, called entities.  The branches between nodes are labeled with the relationship between the nodes.  The junction of a branch and a node has a symbol to identify how many entities from that node are related to the entity at the node on the other end of the branch.

    A data flow diagram shows the flow of data in a system.  Nodes of a data flow diagram are data producers, processors, or holders.  The branches of a data flow diagram represent the invoking condition, decision, or action that causes a transition or transfer of data from one node to another.

5a.  What is a data dictionary? (Page 14.19 and 13.14)

    A data dictionary stores a data item's name, description, and other details about each data item.

5b.  How does a systems analyst use a data dictionary?

    A data dictionary can be used by a systems analyst to document details of each data item, its source, range of values, and relationships with other data items.  The collective inventory of data can then be used to plan the system design.  This includes database structure, input forms, reports, queries, storage location and requirements, language selection, processor requirements, input and output hardware needs, and communications requirements.

1. Feasibility: (f) A measure of how suitable the development of a system will be to the organization.
2. Operational feasibility: (g) Measures how well the proposed information system will work in the organization.
3. Schedule feasibility: (e) Measures whether the established deadlines for the project are reasonable.
4. Technical feasibility: (d) Measures whether the organization has or can obtain the hardware, software, networks, and people needed to deliver and support the proposed information system.
5. Economic feasibility: (c) Measures whether the lifetime benefits of the proposed information system will exceed its lifetime costs.

1a.    What is project management?

    Project management is the process of planning, scheduling, and then controlling the activities during the system development life cycle.

1b.    To plan and schedule a project effectively, what components of the project must the project leader identify?

2a.    How is an unstructured interview different from a structured interview?

3a.    How is horizontal application software different from vertical application software?

3b.    What are trade publications?

4b.    What is a benchmark test?

    Benchmarks are important tools for evaluating computer hardware and software systems.  A combination of hardware and software may be ideal for one application, yet a poor performer for another application.

    Structuring a benchmark carefully is a critical step in obtaining the best long-term resources your company needs.  Once the benchmark is defined, it is best to supply the benchmark to vendors so that the vendors can piece together the best solution they can provide.  Benchmarks should be flexible enough to permit vendors to propose changes to the way of doing things which could result in an increase of your own effectiveness and efficiency. (Remember that effectiveness and efficiency are often not identical.)

5a.    What are computer-aided software engineering (CASE) products?

5b.    What capabilities do I-CASE products include?

    Integrated computer-aided software engineering (I-CASE) products include the following capabilities: