Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Establishing Objectives for Systems Development
The overall objective of systems development is to achieve business goals, not technical goals,
by delivering the right information to the right person at the right time. The impact a par-
ticular system has on an organization's ability to meet its goals determines the true value of
that system to the organization. Southern States, which sells farm equipment in over 20 states
and is owned by about 300,000 farmers, decided to use Skyway Software, Inc.'s Visual
service-oriented architecture (SOA) tool allowed Southern States to generate $1.4 million
more in revenue the year after it was placed into operation.
Although all systems should support business goals, some systems are more pivotal in
continued operations and goal attainment than others. These systems are called
mission-
critical systems
. An order processing system, for example, is usually considered mission-
critical. Without it, few organizations could continue daily activities, and they clearly would
not meet set goals.
The goals defined for an organization also define the objectives that are set for a system.
A manufacturing plant, for example, might determine that minimizing the total cost of
owning and operating its equipment is critical to meet production and profit goals.
Critical
success factors (CSFs)
are factors that are essential to the success of certain functional areas
of an organization. The CSF for manufacturing—minimizing equipment maintenance and
operating costs—would be converted into specific objectives for a proposed system. One
specific objective might be to alert maintenance planners when a piece of equipment is due
for routine preventative maintenance (e.g., cleaning and lubrication). Another objective
might be to alert the maintenance planners when the necessary cleaning materials, lubrication
oils, or spare parts inventory levels are below specified limits. These objectives could be
accomplished either through automatic stock replenishment via electronic data interchange
or through the use of exception reports.
Regardless of the particular systems development effort, the development process should
define a system with specific performance and cost objectives. The success or failure of the
systems development effort will be measured against these objectives.
mission-critical systems
Systems that play a pivotal role in an
organization's continued operations
and goal attainment.
critical success factors (CSFs)
Factors that are essential to the
success of a functional area of an
organization.
Performance Objectives
The extent to which a system performs as desired can be measured through its performance
objectives. System performance is usually determined by factors such as the following:
•
The quality or usefulness of the output.
Is the system generating the right information
for a value-added business process or by a goal-oriented decision maker?
•
The accuracy of the output.
Is the output accurate and does it reflect the true situation?
As a result of the accounting scandals of the early 2000s, when some companies over-
stated revenues or understated expenses, accuracy is becoming more important, and top
corporate officers are being held responsible for the accuracy of all corporate reports.
•
The speed at which output is generated.
Is the system generating output in time to meet
organizational goals and operational objectives? Objectives such as customer response
time, the time to determine product availability, and throughput time are examples. For
everything.”
•
The scalability of the resulting system.
As mentioned in Chapter 4, s
calability
allows
an information system to handle business growth and increased business volume. For
example, if a midsized business realizes an annual 10 percent growth in sales for several
years, an information system that is scalable will be able to efficiently handle the increase
by adding processing, storage, software, database, telecommunications, and other infor-
mation systems resources to handle the growth.
•
The risk of the system.
One important objective of many systems development projects
systems development to create a model-based DSS to analyze and reduce loan risk and a
variety of related risks associated with bank transactions. The project uses a mathematical
algorithm, called FIRST (Financial Institutions Risk Scenario Trends), to reduce risk.
