Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.
Information Flow from Analysis to Design Phase in Sure Step
Sure Step was not designed to support the development of service-oriented sys-
tems. It is a document-oriented process which separates requirements elicitation
workshops, investigation in gap resolutions and solution design. With a growing
number of services, it is getting harder for consultants to identify suitable services.
These circumstances lead to the following limitations of Sure Step in practice:
Services are not identified
. Although existing services could provide a solution and
fulfill a customer's request, a consultant might not be able to identify a suitable ser-
vice solution due to the high number of services available. As a result, new services
are developed instead of reusing existing services.
Inadequate services are selected
. While the number of available services is in-
creasing, the functionality provided by existing services changes. Consultants there-
fore cannot keep an overview on all existing services and the provided functionality
of their current and depreciated versions. As a result, consultants select services they
are familiar with although other services would provide more accurate functionality.
Late service discovery
. In a later design phase, developers might identify services
more accurate than those specified in the Fit-Gap Worksheet. This causes renegotia-
tion of customer requirements. However, in most cases it is too late to change the
planned solution as development has already started.
Inaccurate estimates
. Time and cost estimations are based on the Fit-Gap Work-
sheet. Due to the inadequate selection of services, the Fit-Gap Worksheet may be
incorrect. This results in inaccurate time and cost estimates.
Insufficient information for customers.
Consultants do not have a deep knowledge
of particular service functionality. Therefore, in Sure Step, consultants and customers
usually do not discuss the functionality provided by selected services. However, con-
sultants have found that such discussions provide an important input for customers;
they even help triggering new customer requirements.
Time consuming approach.
After defining the To-Be business process and gather-
ing customers' requirements within an initial workshop, consultants have to conduct a
Fit-Gap Analysis. As this task is very time consuming it is done after the workshop.
However, consultants need to approach customers again to agree on gap resolutions.
The discussed limitations delay the completion of projects. Furthermore, these
limitations lead to an unnecessary increase of costs to realize ERP systems.
