1. What are four types of feasibility? Which type focuses on total cost of ownership? Which type is influenced primarily by users?
Answer:
* Operational feasibility: Operational feasibility means that the proposed system will be used effectively after it has been developed. If the users have difficulty with a new system, it will not produce the expected benefits. * Technical feasibility: Technical feasibility refers to the technical resources neede to develop, purchase, install, or operate the system. * Economic feasibility: Economic feasibility means that the projected benefits of the proposed system outweigh the estimated costs usually considered the total cost of ownership as well as the acquisition costs. * Schedule feasibility: Schedule feasibility means that a project can be implemented in an acceptable time frame. When accessing the schedule feasibility the analyst must consider the interaction between the stakeholders, time and costs.
Economic feasibility is the measure of the costeffectiveness of an information system solution. Also it includes the cost estimate for the project development team will be built into a project management plan. Thus the economic feasibility focuses on total cost of ownership.
Schedule feasibility is primarily influenced by users. 2. Describe the six steps in a typical preliminary investigation. Why should an analyst be careful when using the word problem?
Answer:
The six steps in a typical preliminary investigation are as follows * Understand the problem or opportunity: in many cases, the systems request does not reveal the underlying problem, but only the symptom. The popular technique for investigating the causes and effects is the fishbone diagram. * Define the project scope and constraints: Determining the project scope means defining the specific boundaries, or extent, of the project. Projects with very general scope are at the risk of expanding gradually, in a process called project creep. To avoid this along with the scope of the project you need to identify any constraints on the system. * Perform fact finding: Fact finding involves various techniques depending on what information is needed to investigate. * Analyze organization charts * Review documentation * Observe operations * Conduct a user survey * Study usability, cost, benefit and schedule data: Before you can evaluate feasibility the data must be analyzed carefully.

* Evaluate feasibility: Start by reviewing the answers to the questions * Operational * Technical * Economic * Present recommendations to management: The final task is to prepare a report to management. The format of the preliminary investigation report varies from one company to another.
Obviously, a set of problem-solving talents are essential for analysts. Since the other side may be hiding their intention, the analyst must be tolerant of ambiguity, of false leads. Analysts need to be comfortable with challenge, refinement, and challenge. To go back to linchpin analysis, the boundary conditions give places to challenge and test, reducing ambiguity. 3. Identify and briefly describe five common fact-finding methods.
Answer:
Specific methods for finding information of the system are termed as fact finding methods. They are as follows: * Background reading * Interview * Questionnaire * Record View * Observations
Background reading: Background reading helps the analyst to get an understanding of the organization before meeting the people who work there.It also allows the analyst to prepare for other types of fact finding, for example, by being aware of the business objectives of the organization.
Interview: This method is used to collect the information from groups or individuals. Analyst selects the people who are related with the system for the interview. The information collected is quite accurate and reliable as the interviewer can clear and cross check the doubts there itself. It again has two categories * Structured: Structured interview is more formal interview where fixed questions are asked and specific information is collected * Unstructured: Unstructured interview is more or less like a casual conversation where in-depth areas topics are covered and other information apart from the topic may also be obtained.
Questionnaire: It is the technique used to extract information from number of people. This method can be adopted and used only by an skillful analyst. The Questionnaire consists of series of questions framed together in logical manner. This method is very useful for attaining information from people who are concerned with the usage of the system and who are living in different countries.
Record view: The information related to the system is published in the sources like newspapers, magazines, journals, documents etc. This record review helps the analyst to get valuable information about the system and the organization.
Observations: In this method the analyst himself visits the organization and observes and understands the flow of documents, working of the existing system, the users of the system etc. For this method to be adopted it takes an analyst to perform this job as he knows which points should be noticed and highlighted. In analyst may observe the unwanted things as well and simply cause delay in the development of the new system. 4. What is a fishbone diagram, and why would you use one? Think of a problem you have experienced at school or work, and draw a sample fishbone diagram with at least two levels.
Answer: A fishbone diagram, also called a cause and effect diagram or Ishikawa diagram, is a visualization tool for categorizing the potential causes of a problem in order to identify its root causes. A fishbone diagram is useful in brainstorming sessions to focus conversation.
Fishbone diagram for login problems in myleo:
Login problem for myleo
Login problem for myleo
Incomplete registration
Incomplete registration
Incorrect username or password
Incorrect username or password
Less net speed
Less net speed
Database not updated
Database not updated
At the beginning of the classes I used to have a problem with myleo account.

5. Many articles have been written on how to develop, understand, and evaluate a business case. Visit the Web sites for TechRepublic, CIO, or another IT magazine, and find an article that discusses business cases. Describe the article and what you learned from it.
Answer: This is an article on “The Strategy To Improve Application Development” by Mary Shacklett (TechRepublic)
Application development is rapidly changing so that mobile and Web-facing apps can meet the needs of outside customers. This means that IT has to adjust how it develops apps and also how it measures them for performance and for delivery of value to the end business. Here are 10 things IT should be doing NOW to make sure that its apps continue to deliver value in contexts. * Incorporate application development into business strategic planning * Change the scope of responsibilities for application developers * Think about apps as business services and not as coding projects * Use outside end user experience tools in testing * Stick with vendor best practices * Be judicious in how you employ "custom" code * Document * Standardize mobile devices * Learn from your help desk * Evaluate application utility
The article is about improving the process of application development. A clear stepwise procedure is briefed as to how to develop a good application, what are the considerations to be taken etc. IT identifies application development projects within the overall framework of its own strategic plan. The end user experience (EUE) is becoming so important that many shops are already expanding the responsibilities of application developers to include active testing for how end users experience the application. If your application is intended to deliver a suite of real-time financial analytics to finance, it should be considered as a "service" that finance ultimately assesses for completeness, accuracy, and timeliness. With many businesses now using bring your own device policies, it is imperative for corporate IT to standardize the list of mobile devices that employees can use within the enterprise. IT regularly assesses hardware utilization (e.g., only 20 percent of a particular server is being used on a daily basis). It should extend this utilization analysis to applications.