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Project Management

List the project evaluation criteria

Ans: The project evaluation criteria are:

  1. Value chain analysis
  2. Stragetic alignment
  3. Potential benefits analysis
  4. Resource availability
  5. Project size/duration
  6. Technical difficulties and risks

List techniques for collecting requirement, information during analysis.

Ans: Techniques for collecting information during analysis are:

  1. Traditional requirements determination methods like
    1. Interviewing
    2. Observing users in their work environment
    3. collecting procedure and written documents
  2. New methods: like
    1. Joint application development (JAD)
    2. Using CASE tools
    3. Prototyping.

Describe how interview should be conducted

Ans: System analyst will gather facts, opinions from users of organization, s/he will try to understand body language, emotions of the users to know what the users want and how they use current system.

Guidelines for effective interview:

  1. Prepare agenda, questions, checklists for interview
  2. Take appointment with the users to be interviewed
  3. Put your questions sensibility with the users
  4. Listen to the users carefully, record or take notes of answers provided
  5. Review the answers within 48 hours of interview
  6. Be neutral.

Describe how prototyping can be used for requirement determination.

Ans: Prototyping is an iterative process in which system analyst and users are actively involved to build information system. Steps taken during requirement determination using prototypes are:

  1. First conduct interview to find out user\’ rough, not detailed requirements
  2. Built a prototype based on understanding about the initial rough requirements
  3. Ask users to review and test the prototype and provide feedbacks
  4. Consider users\’ feedbacks as input and rebuilt the prototype incorporating users feedbacks
  5. Ask user to review, test and provide feedback.
Repeat these steps until the complete system is built.

Explain the guidelines for decomposing a DFD.

Ans: Functional decomposition of a DFD is a method of breaking down processes of DFD into sub-processes. Guidelines for decomposing a DFD.

  1. First check if a process can have sub processes, if yes decompose that process.
  2. check if those sub processes can further be decomposed as they server specific tasks, have their own inputs and outputs.
Repeat decomposing sub processes until a point is reached in which no further decomposition of sub process is possible.

What is value chain analysis? How value chain analysis can be used for evaluating and compare projects?

Ans: Value chain is collection of components or functional units to perform some tasks and activities. Value chain analysis is the process of understanding working of each and every component or functional unit of the value chain and see if value can be added to those components, functional units.

In order to use value chain analysis to compare projects,

  1. First consider organization as a process with input and output. Raw materials from suppliers will be input, that input will be processed inside organization to produce finished project or service which is output. That output will be marketed and sold to the customers.

    In the value chain analysis each and every component of the chain will be understood wherever possible value will be added. The cost of adding value will be evaluated. The added value and incurred cost will be compared with other organizations to know if the cost expended on value creation was cost effective or not. On the basis of that result system analyst will be able to decide if information system project should be undertaken or not.