Database Reference
In-Depth Information
retraining may delay the project. Planners ought to be aware of the special prob-
lems and challenges related to large projects and indicate methods to address and
contain the problems. They may also suggest how the project may be divided into
manageable parts in each phase of DDLC.
FEASIBILITY STUDY
The database project has been initiated, the database plan has been completed, and
the plan report has been issued. Are you then ready to jump into the requirements
and design phases? Should you simply proceed into each phase? Are there any more
essential activities before going ahead full steam?
The project initiation denotes the formal beginning of the project—an announce-
ment of the intention for a database system. The planning phase defines the scope
of such a database system and lays down the planning issues. However, your orga-
nization does not yet know how ready it is for a database system.
Before proceeding with the project, you need to assess this readiness. No orga-
nization is completely ready for a new database system—the hardware and software
platform may need revisions and enhancements, sometimes very extensive ones.
People would need to be trained in specialized skills. Therefore, between the plan-
ning phase and the other design and development phases, there must be definitive
activities to assess readiness. This set of intervening activities makes up the feasi-
bility study phase of DDLC.
Purpose and Extent
What happens during the feasibility phase of a database project? Usually, business
analysts with assistance from database administrators conduct the feasibility study
phase. Sometimes, the responsibility for the phase is assigned to the project manager
who runs the database project with a few IT professionals assisting him or her. As
the name of the phase indicates, this is a study phase. They look at the organization
as a whole, the IT resources, and user readiness to assess what more has to be done
before a database system could be implemented in the organization. This phase is
critical because getting immersed in a database project without proper readiness
assessment may result in project failures. Some organizations may even decide to
put off implementing a database system until they are ready for it.
We will now walk through the objectives, activities, and crucial issues of the fea-
sibility study phase.
Objectives
Assessment of readiness for a database system implies taking inven-
tory of the resources already available in the organization. The business analysts
must evaluate each resource and determine whether it is adequate for the proposed
database system. If the resource is lacking in functions and features, then the analyst
must estimate what it will take to enhance the resource. For example, if the server
hardware needs upgrades, the types of upgrades must be estimated and specified.
When an organization implements a database system, many new types of
resources become necessary. The feasibility study phase reviews the available
resources and lists the new types of resources the organization will have to procure.
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