2.2 Planning the system development project

Some other methodologies refer it as preliminary investigation phase, initial study phase, or planning phase. Systems analysts always conduct a preliminary investigation to study the system service request and recommend the specific action base on that. This activity is important to initiate the project. After getting the approval from the management, the analysts interact with the stakeholders involved such as system owner, project managers and system user to gather information shown in the model in Figure 2-3. The analyst responsibility is to gathers the information about the problems or opportunity, project scope and constraints, project benefits, and budget for development time and costs. Then, analyst will prepare a report to the management.

2.2 Overview of System Planning

During the preliminary investigation, a system analyst typically follows a series of steps. System analyst might use tool such as Microsoft Project to plan and manage his/her task in this phase. A proper plan of system development is important to make sure that the system is within the scope, within the budget, and finish at the specific time. Usually, Gantt chart will be used to represent all the activities involved during the system development. Figure 2-4 shows a basic Gantt chart

2.2 Overview of System Planning

	Understanding the problem or opportunity
	From the system service request, we'll know either the project is a new information system development or upgrading the current information system. The important task in this step is establishing an initial problems, opportunities and directives that triggered the project. The team needs to learn about the current system. System owner, system analyst and system user have a different level of understanding from the system. After learning the entire system, the project team will sit together to analyze the problem and opportunities arise. During this session, project team ask the system owner and system users several type of questions to gain more understanding to leads to possible new system. They analyzed the problems based on cause-and-effect analysis.
	Define the project scope and constraints
	Determining the project scope means defining the specific boundaries of the project. It's important to define the project scope because it will limit the project development scope. Scope definition activity is concerned primarily with system owners' view of the existing system and what are the problems or opportunities that come out with the interest of system service request. Scope is the boundaries of a project - the areas of a business that a project may (or may not) address (Bentley et. al., 2007). Along with the project scope, system analyst needs to identify if there is any possible constraints on the system. A constraint is a requirement or condition that the system must satisfy or an outcome that the system must achieve. A constraint can be derived from hardware, software, time, organization policy and others.

2.2 Overview of System Planning

	After defining the project scope, the team can establish the system development objectives. Normally, system objectives can be derived after identifying the problem and scopes. System objectives is important because by the end of the system development, a measurement will be conducted to validate either the project has meets the objectives or not.
	Perform fact-finding
	Fact-finding involves several techniques depends on what types of information will be gathered. It can take several hours or maybe up to several weeks. Examples of fact-finding techniques are interview, telephone call, e-mail, review the document and others. During this activity, fact-finding techniques are required to gather basic information about the future system. In the next lesson, we'll discuss various techniques on fact-finding.
	Evaluate feasibility
	We have analyzed the problem and opportunity, define the system scope, and perform the fact-finding to gather useful information. Now, after completing the entire task, system analyst must assess the project. The assessment covers on the feasibility study on operational, technical, economic and schedule. A system service request must succeed several feasibility study before continue the project. A feasibility study is a preliminary study undertaken to determine a project's viability. Most system development project should be developed within budget and time constraints defined. This means that assessing the project feasibility is a required activity in all information system development. There are SIX main feasibility that need to be considered :

2.2 Overview of System Planning

Operational Feasibility

The purpose of assessing operational feasibility is to gain an understanding of the degree to which the proposed system will solve the problems. It concerns with how the organizational changes will affect the working lives of those affected by the system. Meaning that a proposed system will be used effectively after it has been developed. If users have difficulty with a new system, it will not produce the expected benefits to its organization operational.

Technical Feasibility

The purpose of assessing technical feasibility is to gain an understanding of the organization's ability to construct and implement the proposed system. This feasibility assesses the details of how we will deliver a product or service for example; materials, labor, transportation, where your business will be located, technology needed, and others.

Economic Feasibility

The purpose of assessing economic feasibility is to identify the financial benefits and costs related with the development project. It's also referring to cost-benefit analysis. In any project, it's important to identify the benefits and cost related a project.

2.2 Overview of System Planning

Schedule Feasibility

The purpose of assessing the schedule feasibility is to gain an understanding of the likelihood that all potential time frames and completion date schedules can be met and that meeting these dates will be sufficient for dealing with the needs of the organization (Hoffer et. al., 2005). This involves questions such as how much time is available to build the new system, when we can build it, type and amount of resources required, and any others related.

Cultural Feasibility

This is related to operational feasibility. Cultural feasibility deals with how the end users feel about the proposed system. In this stage, the project development is evaluated for their impact on the local and general culture.

Legal Feasibility

Legal feasibility determines whether the proposed system conflicts with legal requirements. Possible considerations that need to be considered are about the copyright, labor laws, and disclosing the information. When an organization has either internal or external legal counsel, such reviews are typically standard. However, a project may face legal issues after completion if this factor is not considered at this stage.

2.2 Overview of System Planning

	Estimate project development time and cost
	If the project is worthy to continue, we can now plan the project in more detail. This activities involved estimate the cost of money needed to run the project development. The team also plans a project schedule to make sure that they do the task in time and finish the project within the time given. Gantt Chart and Pert Diagram is an example of techniques that can be used to represent the project schedule with the direction of tasks, and time needed to complete the task and others.
	Present results and recommendation to management
	At the end of this activity, a baseline project plan is prepared and presents it to the management. This task is triggered by the completion of the project plan. The project team will write a report and present the result and recommendation to the management. The decision will be made after this presentation either one from this decision:

authorize the project to be continued

make an adjustment such as the scope, time, budget and schedule

cancel the project.

	After defining the project scope, the team can establish the system development objectives. Normally, system objectives can be derived after identifying the problem and scopes. System objectives is important because by the end of the system development, a measurement will be conducted to validate either the project has meets the objectives or not.