Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
same organization, even if it is in another department. An outsourced project is one
in which the end product would be used in an organization other than the one in
which it was developed. In outsourced projects, the organization that develops the
product would normally be specializing in software development for other orga-
nizations. In both scenarios, the business analysts would interact with the end users
performing business processes, to elicit, gather and finalize requirements. The
evolution of requirements in these two scenarios is discussed below.
In-house project—new project—The evolution of requirements in in-house
new project would take this course:
1. Proposal by a functional department—A department responsible for a set of
business processes proposes computerization of the processes with a view,
perhaps to increase efficiency, reduce turnaround time or improve quality and
initiates the process. The first step in the process is the definition of the scope of
work and defining the boundaries of the application that is proposed for
computerization. This is the initial requirement. This scope would then be
forwarded to the IS (Information Systems) department to come up with a
budget. The department obtains financial approval for the budget requested by
the IS department and requests the IS department to carry out all necessary
activities
to
computerize
the
selected
set
of
business
processes.
The
IS
department may be called by different names in different organizations.
2. User Requirements definition—Business Analysts from the IS department
would elicit/gather requirements from the end users. Elicitation and gathering
of requirements is described in
Chap. 3
of this topic. The principal methods
used in this scenario are personal interviews and study of procedure manuals,
forms and templates used in the performance of the processes as well as per-
sonal observation to collate the user requirements. All the requirements collated
are analyzed to finalize requirements for the proposed system. Requirements
Analysis is described in
Chap. 4
of this topic.
3. Finalization of the requirements—The requirements allocated to the pro-
posed system are then documented conforming to the organizational standards.
This document is internally reviewed and approved within the IS department
and is then forwarded to the functional department for review and approval.
The functional department reviews the document and requests clarifications, if
necessary. Normally a meeting takes place between the executives of the
functional department and the IS department, in which the document contents
are discussed and clarifications from both sides are provided. The IS depart-
ment implements any feedback received from the functional department and
obtains the approval from the functional department. This document acts as the
reference between the IS department and the functional department during the
course of the software development. This document would be subjected to the
rigor of the configuration and change management.
In-house project—upgrade—Usually, the software products being developed
and used inside an organization are maintained regularly as needed. The strict
meaning of ''maintenance'' is to restore/keep an artifact/product to its working
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