SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND ACQUISITION

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Chapter 15

• SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND ACQUISITION

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Learning Objectives

• Understand the basic concepts of systems
  development
• Discuss the major steps in developing a decision
  support system (DSS) and management support
  system (MSS) application
• Describe the major MSS applications and list
  their major functionalities
• List the major MSS application development
  options, along with their benefits and limitations

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Learning Objectives

• Describe the four phases of the system
  development life cycle planning, analysis,
  development, and implementation (PADI)
• Understand prototyping and throwaway prototyping
  and why MSS are typically developed using these
  methods
• Discuss various MSS application outsourcing
  options, including the use of an application
  service provider (ASP) and utility computing

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Learning Objectives

• Describe some major MSS software packages and MSS
  application suites
• Describe various methods for connecting an MSS
  application to back-end systems and databases
• Discuss the value and technical foundation of Web
  services in integrated applications
• Understand the service-oriented architecture
  (SOA) and its relationship to MSS

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Learning Objectives

• Describe the criteria used in selecting an
  outsourcing vendor and package
• Describe the factors that lead to MSS success or
  failure
• Discuss the importance of project management and
  the skills a good project manager needs to have
• Understand the learning process that occurs
  during MSS development

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What Types of Support Systems Should You Build?

• Introduction to MSS development
• Types of Support Systems
• Infrastructure
• Data warehouses and business intelligence systems
• Knowledge management systems
• Enterprise information systems
• Portals
• The gateways to Web sites they can be public
  (like Yahoo!), or private (corporate portals)

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What Types of Support Systems Should You Build?

• Introduction to MSS development
• Types of Support Systems
• Specific applications
• Tools and tool kits
• Platforms

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The Landscape and Framework of MSS Application
Development
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The Landscape and Framework of MSS Application
Development

• Step 1 Planning, identifying, and justifying MSS
  
• Step 2 Creating an MSS architecture
• MSS architecture
• A plan for organizing the underlying
  infrastructure and applications of the MSS
  project

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The Landscape and Framework of MSS Application
Development

• Step 3 Selecting a development option
• Build the system in house
• Have a vendor build a custom-made system
• Buy an existing application and install it, with
  or without modifications, by yourself or through
  a vendor
• Lease standard software from an ASP, utility
  computing, or set up a software-as-a-service
  arrangement
• Enter into a partnership or an alliance that will
  enable the company to use someone else's
  application
• Use a combination of these approaches

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The Landscape and Framework of MSS Application
Development

• Step 4 Installing, testing, connecting, and
  deploying MSS applications
• Step 5 Operations, maintenance, and updating

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The Landscape and Framework of MSS Application
Development

• Managing the development process
• The development process can be fairly complex and
  must be managed properly
• For medium to large applications, a project team
  is usually created to manage the process and the
  vendors
• Project management software

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Development Options for MSS Applications

• In-house development Insourcing
• Development options for in-house development
• Building from scratch
• Building from components
• Integrating applications

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Development Options for MSS Applications

• Methods used in in-house development
• System development life cycle (SDLC)  
• A systematic process for the effective
  construction of large information systems

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Development Options for MSS Applications
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Development Options for MSS Applications

• Rapid application development (RAD)  
• A development methodology that adjusts a system
  development life-cycle so that parts of the
  system can be developed quickly, thereby enabling
  users to obtain some functionality as soon as
  possible. It includes methods of
  phased development, prototyping, and throwaway
  prototyping

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Development Options for MSS Applications

• Prototyping
• In system development, a strategy in which a
  scaled-down system or portion of a system is
  constructed in a short time, tested, and improved
  in several iterations

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Development Options for MSS Applications

• Buying applications
• Leasing applications
• Lease from an outsourcer and then install it on
  the companys premises
• Lease from an ASP that hosts the application at
  its data center

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Development Options for MSS Applications

• Methods used in in-house development
• Software-as-a-service (SaaS)
• Software that is rented instead of sold
• Factors driving the switch to software-as-a-servic
  e
• Reducing the risks involved in acquiring new
  software
• Influencing product and service quality via an
  ongoing relationship with vendors
• Changing usage commitments as business
  circumstances change
• Preparing financially justifiable business cases
• More accurately predicting ongoing expenses

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Development Options for MSS Applications

• Outsourcing development options
• Outsourcing
• Application Service Providers (ASP)
• A software vendor that offers leased software
  applications to organizations
• Utility (on-demand) computing
• Unlimited computing power and storage capacity
  that, like electricity, water, and telephone
  services, can be obtained on demand, used, and
  reallocated for any application, and billed on a
  pay-per-use basis

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Figure 15.3 Tools and Value-Added Services of
Utility Computing
Utility Computing Value
Utility Computing Value
Service-level-managementtools
Resource-managementtools
Virtualized infrastructures
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Development Options for MSS Applications

• Utility computing value proposition consists of
  three layers of tools and two types of
  value-added services
• Tools
• Policy-based service-level-management tools
• Policy-based resource-management tools
• Virtualization tools
• Value-added services
• Multisourcing delivery and framework services
• Customer access and management services

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Development Options for MSS Applications

• A hybrid approach to MSS development
• Hybrid models work best when the outsourced
  partner offers
• A high level of security
• Fast time to market
• Service-level agreements

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Prototyping A Practical MSS Development
Methodology

• Advantages of prototyping
• Short development time
• Short user reaction time (i.e., feedback from
  user)
• Improved user understanding of the system, its
  information needs, and its capabilities
• Low cost

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Prototyping A Practical MSS Development
Methodology

• Limitations of prototyping
• Gains obtained from cautiously stepping through
  each of the systems lifecycle stages might be
  lost including
• A thorough understanding of the information
  systems benefits and costs
• A detailed description of the businesss
  information needs
• An easy-to-maintain information system design
• A well-tested information system
• Well-prepared users

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Prototyping A Practical MSS Development
Methodology

• The prototyping development process
• Users and managers, as well as an executive
  sponsor, must be involved
• The analysis, design, and prototype
  implementation phases are iteratively performed
  until a small prototype is sufficiently developed
  
• The final implementation takes place
• Simultaneously, further iterations occur as other
  subsystems or capabilities are added to the
  deployed system until a fairly stable,
  comprehensive system evolves

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Prototyping A Practical MSS Development
Methodology
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Prototyping A Practical MSS Development
Methodology
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Prototyping A Practical MSS Development
Methodology

• Collaboration in prototyping
• The interaction of user, developer, and
  technology is extremely important in the
  prototyping process
• Evaluation in prototyping
• Iterative design
• A systematic process for system development that
  is used in MSS. To produce a first version of
  MSS, then revise it and produce the second design
  version, and so on is called an iterative design

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Prototyping A Practical MSS Development
Methodology

• Implementing prototyping
• Target small, tactical applications that show
  quick results
• Use software components
• Make application deployment iterative and open to
  customization
• Use commodity hardware
• Use object technology, including tools such as
  Java
• Break major projects into manageable, deliverable
  chunks
• Use packaged applications whenever justifiable
• Consider IT service providers as well as utility
  and grid computing
• Use Web services, if possible

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Prototyping A Practical MSS Development
Methodology

• Successes factors in prototyping
• Users and managers should be involved in every
  phase and iteration
• Learning should be explicitly integrated into the
  design process
• Prototyping should essentially bypass the formal
  information requirement definition in the SDLC
• A key criterion associated with prototyping is
  the short interval between iterations
• The initial prototype must be low cost

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Prototyping A Practical MSS Development
Methodology

• Prototyping failures
• No prelaunch objectives or metrics
• Too many major projects were conducted
  simultaneously
• The CEO set budgets and deadlines before the
  project team was involved
• The budget and deadlines were not realistic
• There was no insider presence on the data
  warehouse project team
• An overburdened project manager was involved
• The availability of source data was unconfirmed
  at the outset
• No user demand for sophisticated data analysis
  was considered
• No routine meetings of executive sponsors and the
  project manager took place
• Business managers were not initially involved

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Prototyping A Practical MSS Development
Methodology

• Lessons learned from prototyping failure
• Executive sponsorship and partnership of the IT
  staff and end users are the most critical success
  factors for developing a data warehouse
• Unclear understanding of the business objectives
  and how they will be measured
• An incremental pilot project should occur to
  determine whether it is possible to obtain the
  projected benefits
• An organization should expect to make a major
  investment in ongoing management of the data
  warehouse
• When all else fails, an organization should cut
  its losses and run

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Criteria For Selecting an MSS Development
Approach
Selection criteria for buy or lease decision

• Flexibility
• Information requirements
• User friendliness
• Hardware and software resources
• Installation
• Maintenance services
• Vendor quality and track record

• Estimating costs
• Personnel
• Technological evolution
• Scalability
• Sizing
• Performance
• Reliability
• Security

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Third-party Providers of MSS Software Packages
and Suites

• Specialized and functional software packages
• MSS suite
• An integrated collection of a large number of
  MSS tools that work together for applications
  development

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Third-party Providers of MSS Software Packages
and Suites
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Third-party Providers of MSS Software Packages
and Suites

• Representative MSS suites
• MicroStrategy 8
• Hyperion System 9 BI
• BusinessObjects XI
• Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004
• Oracles MSS Products
• IBMs WebSphere Commerce Suite

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Connecting to Databases and Other Enterprise
Systems

• Connecting to databases Four tier architecture
• Web browser
• Web server
• Application server
• Database server

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Connecting to Databases and Other Enterprise
Systems
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Connecting to Databases and Other Enterprise
Systems

• Integrating MSS applications and back-end systems
  
• Many commercial MSS suites have built-in
  integration capabilities
• If a company wants to build its own database
  interface
• Web scripting languages
• Specialized application servers

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Connecting to Databases and Other Enterprise
Systems

• Middleware
• Software that links application modules from
  different computer languages and platforms

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The Rise of Web Services, XML, and
Service-Oriented Architecture

• The need for integration
• Platform-specific objects
• Dynamic environment
• Security barriers
• Address these problems with
• Web Services
• An architecture enabling assembly of distributed
  application from software services and tying them
  together

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User-Developed MSS

• End-user computing  
• Developing ones own information system
• User-developed MSS  
• An MSS developed by one user or by a few users
  in one department including decision makers and
  professionals (knowledge workers, like financial
  or tax analysts and engineers) who build or use
  computers to solve problems or enhance their
  productivity

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User-Developed MSS

• User-Developed MSS Advantages
• Delivery time is short
• The prerequisites of extensive and formal user
  requirements specifications are eliminated
• Some MSS implementation problems are reduced
• The cost is usually very low

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User-Developed MSS

• User-Developed MSS Risks
• User-developed MSS can be of poor quality.
• Three categories of potential quality risks
• Substandard or inappropriate tools and facilities
  used in MSS development
• Risks associated with the development process
• Data management risks
• Security risks
• Lack of documentation and maintenance procedures

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User-Developed MSS

• Steps to get users involved in MSS development
• Get management buy-in
• Understand the users business
• Consider the users priorities
• Assign good communicators
• Talk with users all along the business process
• Dont meet at users' offices
• Turn off mobile phones
• Focus on users problems, not on technology
• Listen well
• Use prototypes

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User-Developed MSS

• Reducing the risks of end-user computing
• Factors that contribute to spreadsheet errors
  include
• Developer inexperience
• Poor design approaches
• Application types
• Problem complexity
• Time pressure
• Presence or absence of review procedures
• Team-Developed MSS

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MSS Vendor and Software Selection

• MSS development tool selection
• MSS tools
• Software elements (e.g., languages) that
  facilitate the development of a MSS or a MSS
  generator
• Hardware selection
• Software selection

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MSS Vendor and Software Selection

• Selecting vendors and MSS software packages
• On time
• On budget
• Full functionality

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MSS Vendor and Software Selection

• Six steps in selecting a software vendor and a
  package
• Identify potential vendors.
• Determine the evaluation criteria.
• Evaluate vendors and packages.
• Choose a vendor and package.
• Negotiate a contract.
• Establish a service-level agreement

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Putting Together an MSS

• MSS implementation issues
• Managers are more readily accepting MSS tools,
  techniques, and methods
• AI tools and methods are being embedded in MSS
  and in enterprise applications
• Web technologies continue to enable new
  developments in MSS/BI
• GSS continue to proliferate through collaborative
  computing
• Computer technology continues its fast-paced
  evolution
• Capabilities are increasing and costs are
  decreasing
• ERM/ERP systems, although extremely expensive,
  are proliferating