Term
| systems development process |
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Definition
| a set of activities, methods, best practices, deliverables, and automated tools that stakeholders (from Chapter 1) use to develop and continuously improve information systems and software (from Chapters 1 and 2). |
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Term
| Capability Maturity Model (CMM) |
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Definition
| organization's information systems development and management processes and products. It consists of five levels of maturity. |
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Term
| System development methodology |
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Definition
| a formalized approach to the systems development process; a standardized process that includes the activities, methods, best practices, deliverables, and automated tools to be used for information systems development. |
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Term
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Definition
| the factoring of the lifetime of an information system into two stages, (1) systems development and (2) systems operation and the maintenance - first you build it, then you use and maintain it. Eventually, you cycle back to redevelopment of a new system |
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Term
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Definition
| a hypothetical methodology used throughout this book to demonstrate a representative systems development process. The acronym's letters stand for Framework for the Application of Systems Thinking. |
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Term
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Definition
| "Process") for systems development. Process management is concerned with phases, activities, deliverables, and quality standards that should be consistently applied to all projects. |
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Term
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Definition
| the process of scoping, planning, staffing, organizing, directing, and controlling a project to develop an information system at minimum costs, within a specified time frame, and with acceptable quality. |
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Term
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Definition
| the result obtained by striking a balance between the lifetime costs of developing, maintaining, and operating an information system and the benefits derived from that system Cost-effectiveness is measured by cost-benefit analysis. |
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Term
| strategic information systems plan |
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Definition
| a formal strategic plan (3 to 5 years) for building and improving an information technology infrastructure and the information system applications that use that infrastructure. |
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Term
| strategic enterprise plan |
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Definition
| a formal strategic plan (3 to 5 years) for an entire business that defines its mission, vision, goals, strategies, benchmarks, and measures of progress and achievement. Usually the strategic enterprise plan is complemented by strategic business unit plans that define how each business unit will contribute to the enterprise plan. The information systems plan(above)is one of those unit-level plans. |
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Term
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Definition
| a strategy in which feasibility and risks are continuously reevaluated throughout a project. Project budgets and deadlines are adjusted accordingly. |
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Term
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Definition
| the process of identifying, or evaluating, and controlling what might go wrong in a project before it becomes a threat to the successful completion of the project or implementation of the information system. Risk management is driven by risk analysis or assessment. |
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Term
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Definition
| an undesirable situation that prevents the organization from fully achieving its mission, vision, goals, and/or objectives. |
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Term
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Definition
| a chance to improve the organization even in the absence of an identified problem. |
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Term
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Definition
| a new requirement that's imposed by management, government, or some external influence. |
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Term
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Definition
| an administrative body of system owners and information technology executives that prioritize and approves candidate system development projects. |
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Term
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Definition
| a repository of project proposals that cannot be funded or staffed because they are a lower priority than those that have been approved for system development. Note that priorities change over time; therefore, a backlogged project might be approved at some future date. |
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Term
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Definition
| a statement and categorization of problems, opportunities, and directives, may also include constraints and an initial vision for the solution. Synonyms include preliminary study and feasibility assessment. |
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Term
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Definition
| any factor, limitation, or restraint that may limit a solution or the problem-solving process. |
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Term
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Definition
| a common phenomenon wherein the requirements and expectations of a project increase, often without regard to the impact on budget and schedule. |
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Term
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Definition
| a contract with management and the user community to develop or enhance an information system; defines vision, scope, constraints, high level user requirements, schedule, and budget. Synonyms include project charter, project plan, and service-level agreement. |
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Term
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Definition
| a picture of a system that represents reality or a desired reality. System models facilitate improved communication between system users, system analysts, system designers, and system builders. |
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Term
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Definition
| the translation of business user requirements into a system model that depicts only the business requirements and not any possible technical design or implementation of those requirements. Common synonyms include conceptual design and essential design, the latter of which refers to modeling the "essence" of a system, or the essential requirements" independent of any technology. The antonym of logical design is physical design (defined later in this chapter) |
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Term
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Definition
| a satirical term coined to describe a common project condition in which excessive system modeling dramatically slows progress toward implementation of the intended system solution |
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Term
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Definition
| the translation of business user requirements into a system model that depicts a technical implementation of the users business requirements. Common synonyms include technical design or, in describing the output, implementation model. The synonym of physical design is logical design (defined earlier in this chapter) |
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Term
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Definition
| the ongoing technical support for users of a system, as well as the maintenance required to deal with any errors, omissions, or new requirements that may arise. |
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Term
| cross life-cycle activity |
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Definition
| any activity that overlaps multiple phases of the system development process, Examples include fact-finding, documentation, presentation, estimation, feasibility analysis, project and process management, change management, and quality management. |
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Term
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Definition
| the formal process of using research, interviews, meetings, questionnaires, sampling, and other techniques to collect information about system problems, requirements, and preferences. It is also called information gathering or data collection. |
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Term
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Definition
| the ongoing activity of recording facts and specifications for a system for current and future reference. |
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Term
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Definition
| the ongoing activity of communicating findings, recommendations, and documentation for review by interested users and managers. Presentations may be either written or verbal. |
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Term
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Definition
| a database and/or file directory where system developers store all documentation, knowledge, and artifacts for one or more information systems or projects. A repository is usually automated for easy information storage, retrieval, and sharing. |
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Term
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Definition
| is the activity by which feasibility is measured and assessed. |
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Term
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Definition
| the calculated prediction of the costs and effort required for system development. A somewhat facetious synonym is guesstimation, usually meaning that the estimation is based on experience or empirical evidence but is lacking in rigor-in other words, a guess. |
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Term
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Definition
| the ("process") for systems development. Process management is concerned with phases, activities, deliverables, and quality standards that should be consistently applied to all projects. |
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Term
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Definition
| and controlling a project to develop an information system at minimum cost, within a specified time frame, and with acceptable quality. |
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Term
| waterfall development approach |
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Definition
| an approach to systems analysis and design that completes each phase one after another and only once. |
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Term
| iterative development approach |
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Definition
| an approach to systems analysis and design that completes that entire information system in successive iterations. Each iterations does some analysis, some design, and some construction. Synonyms include incremental and spiral |
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Term
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Definition
| a system development strategy that emphases the drawing of system models to help visualize and analyze problems, define business requirements, and design information systems. |
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Term
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Definition
| a pictorial representation that depicts what a system is or does. Synonyms include essential model, conceptual model, and business model. |
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Term
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Definition
| a technical pictorial representation that depicts what a system is or does and how the system is implemented. Synonyms include implementation model and technical model. |
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Term
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Definition
| a process centered technique popularized by the structured analysis and design methodology that used models of business process requirements to derive effective software designs for a system. Structured analysis introduced a modeling tool called the data flow diagram to illustrate the flow of data through a series of business processes. Structured design converted data flow diagrams into a process model called structure charts to illustrate a top-down software structure that fulfills the business requirements. |
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Term
| rapid application development (RAD) |
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Definition
| a system development strategy that emphasizes speed of development through extensive user involvement in the rapid. iterative, and incremental construction of a series of functional prototypes of a system that eventually evolves into the final system (or a version). |
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Term
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Definition
| a small scale, representative, or working model of the users' requirements of a proposed design for an information system. Any given prototype may omit certain functions or features until such time as the prototype has sufficiently evolved into an acceptable implementation of requirements. |
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Term
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Definition
| the imposition of a nonexpendable period of time, usually 60 to 90 days, by which the first (or next) version of a system must be delivered into operation. |
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Term
| commercial application package |
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Definition
| a software applicat0ion that can be purchased and customized (within limits) to meet the business requirements of a large number of organizations or a specific industry. A synonym is commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)system. |
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Term
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Definition
| a comparison of business and technical requirements for a commercial application package against the capabilities and features of a specific commercial application package for the purpose of defining the requirements that cannot be met. |
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Term
| computer-assisted software engineering (Case) |
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Definition
| the use of automated software tools that support drawing and analysis of system models and associated specifications. Some CASE tools also provide prototyping and code generation capabilities. |
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Term
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Definition
| a system developers' database where developers can store system models, detailed descriptions and specifications, and other products of systems development. Synonyms data include data dictionary and encyclopedia. |
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Term
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Definition
| a CASE tool capability that can generate initial software or database code directly from system models. |
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Term
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Definition
| a CASE tool capability that can automatically generate initial system models from software or database code. |
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Term
| application development environment (ADE) |
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Definition
| an integrated software development tool that provides all the facilities necessary to develop new application software with maximum speed and quality. A common synonym is integrated development environment (IDE). |
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Term
| process manager application |
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Definition
| an automated tool that helps to document and manage a methodology and routes, its deliverable, and quality management standards. An emerging synonym is methodware. |
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Term
| project manager application |
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Definition
| activities and resources, monitor process against schedule and budget, control and modify schedule and resources, and support project progress. |
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