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Choices and Tools of the SDLC March 20 – March 24
Selfsourcing:
o Selfsourcing is the development and support of IT systems by knowledge
workers with little or no help from IT specialists (p. 288).
o Issues in Selfsourcing (p. 289):
Make sure that the system fits in within the overall organizational objectives. Determining what help you will need from IT specialists within the organization. Document the system for those who follow you. Provide support.
o Advantages of Selfsourcing (p. 290):
Knowledge workers are capable of building for him or herself exactly what they want. Increase the participation of the knowledge workers and their sense of ownership. Selfsourcing can speed up the development of some systems.
o Disadvantages of Selfsourcing (p. 290):
Knowledge workers who develop these systems may lack the expertise to do so. Because the selfsourced projects are done outside the IT plans for the organization, the system may not interface with the other systems in your organization. Because selfsourcing is done outside the SDLC, it may not undergo insufficient analysis and documentation.
Prototyping:
o Prototyping is the process of building a model that demonstrates the features of a
proposed product, service, or system. A prototype is simply a model of a proposed, product, service, or system (p. 291).
o You build a prototype from the basic business requirements, have workers review the prototype and suggest changes, and then refine the prototype based on their suggestions (p. 291).
o Advantages of Prototyping (p. 293):
Because knowledge workers get the opportunity to review the prototype, it encourages their active participation. Discrepancies in the system can be worked out because so many different workers review the prototype. If the workers use the system during the prototype process, they will be more familiar with the system when it is actually implemented. If the prototype works correctly, then you will assume that the system is technically feasible. You can also use a prototype to sell people within the organization that the prototype is worthwhile.
o Disadvantages of Prototyping (p. 294):
It leads people to balance that the full system will follow shortly. Prototypes cannot fully simulate operational conditions. Sometimes developers skip testing steps when prototyping.
Outsourcing:
o Outsourcing is the delegation of specific work to a third party for a specific
length of time, at a specific cost, and at a specific level of service (p. 295). o Outsourcing presents the opportunity for your organization to capitalize on the know-how of other organizations by having them perform certain business functions for you (p. 295). o For example, outsourcing software development might include the following (p. 295): Purchasing existing software. Purchasing software and paying publisher to make certain modifications. Purchasing existing software and paying the publisher for the right to make modifications yourself.
o Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) charts are network diagrams
representing the sequence and logical precedence relationships of tasks. A PERT network shows all of the overall task sequences, or paths through a project. The Critical Path Method (CPM) is a way of calculating the minimum overall duration of a project by adding up the durations of all the activities along the critical path. You can identify the critical path by adding up the durations along all the possible paths and comparing them. The critical path is the longest of the paths through the network.
