Systems Development: Investigation and Analysis - Principles of Information Systems - page 487

schedule workers, he took a few years to develop his own program. The software he created
became the core of a New York-based company he founded. Corporations and nonprofit
organizations use systems development to achieve their goals. First Health of the Carolinas,
for example, upgraded its old imaging system to slash costs and provide better healthcare for
patients. The nonprofit health organization reduced costs by more than 30 percent and
offered doctors better radiological images to improve patient care. 2
This chapter will also help you avoid systems development failures or projects that go
over budget. In one example, a large $4 billion systems development effort to convert older,
paper-based medical records to electronic records for a large healthcare company ran into
trouble when it exceeded its budget. 3 In some cases, poorly executed systems development
efforts can be costly. A tax system developed for the District of Columbia at a cost of $100
million didn't prevent tax fraud of about $20 million. 4 The fraud involved cashing refund
checks sent to fictitious corporate accounts. In other cases, systems development failures can
be deadly. 5 According to the CIO of Duke University's Health System, “Issues arising from
badly designed and poorly integrated healthcare IT systems harm and kill more patients every
year than do medications and medical devices.”
To stay competitive in today's global economy, some cities and counties, including
Chattanooga, Tennessee, are investing in high-speed fiber-optic cables that have the potential
to deliver greater speed compared to existing cable and phone company offerings. 6 In the
United States, less than 60 percent of the population has broadband Internet access, while
some countries like Denmark and the Netherlands have more than 75 percent of their pop-
ulation with broadband Internet access. South Korea has over 90 percent of its citizens on
broadband Internet.

Participants in Systems Development
Effective systems development requires a team effort. The team usually consists of stake-
holders, users, managers, systems development specialists, and various support personnel.
This team, called the development team , is responsible for determining the objectives of the
information system and delivering a system that meets these objectives. Many development
teams use a project manager to head the systems development effort combined with the
project management approach to help coordinate the systems development process. A
project is a planned collection of activities that achieves a goal, such as constructing a new
manufacturing plant or developing a new decision support system. All projects have a defined
starting point and ending point, normally expressed as dates such as August 4 and December
11. Most have a budget, such as $150,000. A project manager is responsible for coordinating
all people and resources needed to complete a project on time. The project manager can make
the difference between project success and failure. According to Tyrone Howard, founder of
BizNova Consulting, “A project management system is just a tool. It is like this: A carpenter
can buy a hammer, but the hammer won't build a house.... In IT, it's the people who do the
building, not the technology.” 7 In systems development, the project manager can be an IS
person inside the organization or an external consultant hired to complete the project. Project
managers need technical, business, and people skills. In addition to completing the project
on time and within the specified budget, the project manager is usually responsible for con-
trolling project quality, training personnel, facilitating communications, managing risks, and
acquiring any necessary equipment, including office supplies and sophisticated computer
systems. Research studies have shown that project management success factors include good
leadership from executives and project managers, a high level of trust in the project and its
potential benefits, and the commitment of the project team and organization to successfully
complete the project and implement its results. Project escalation, where the size and scope
of a new systems development effort greatly expands over time, is a major problem for project
managers. 8 Project escalation often causes projects to go over budget and behind schedule.
In the context of systems development, stakeholders are people who, either themselves
or through the area of the organization they represent, ultimately benefit from the systems
development project. Users are people who will interact with the system regularly. They can
be employees, managers, or suppliers. For large-scale systems development projects, where
the investment in and value of a system can be high, it is common for senior-level managers,

stakeholders
People who, either themselves or
through the organization they
represent, ultimately benefit from
the systems development project.

users
People who will interact with the
system regularly.