WEBSTER MID-TERM EXAM Ch1-6 - Jeannine Strothers, investments

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W E B S T E R U N I V E R S I T Y Center for Graduate and Professional Studies

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MID-TERM EXAM Chapters 1-6

Student Name:_________________________________________________

Open Book Exam

Student Instructions:

Read the following questions carefully, and answer what the question is asking for: "What", "When", "Why", "How Many" and provide examples where required. Use bullet format, short paragraphs (2-3 sentences), diagrams, figures, etc., with explanations to express your knowledge of the topic, concept, or process. Your answer should be no longer than one page for any of the questions.

Each question answered correctly is worth between 10 and 25 points. This exam is worth 30 percent of your overall course grade. Partial credit may be awarded for partial answers, so don't leave any questions blank.

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QUESTIONS

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1. (20) Jeannine Strothers, investments manager, has submitted numerous requests for a new investment tracking system. She needs to make quick decisions regarding possible investments and divestments. One hour can cost her thousands of dollars in profits for her company. She has finally given up on the IT Department for not giving her requests high enough priority to get service. Therefore, she goes to a computer store and buys a microcomputer along with spreadsheet, database, and word processing software. The computer store salesperson suggests that she build a database of her investments and options, subscribe to a computer investment databank (accessed via a modem in the microcomputer), feed data from her database and the bulletin board into the spreadsheet, play "what if" investment games on the spreadsheet, and then update the database to reflect her final decisions. The word processor will draw data from the database for form letters and mailing lists. After discussing her plans with Jeff, a systems analyst at another company, he suggests she take a systems analysis and design course before beginning to use the spreadsheet and database.

Jeannine did not take Jeff's advice. She built a prototype of the new system, but she can't get top management to allow her to use it. And she's run into a number of other problems. First, the financial comptroller has been reevaluating company investment strategies and policies. Jeannine wasn't aware of that. The new system does not account for many of the policies that are being considered.

Her staff has also rejected the investment and divestment orders generated by the system. She used Information Systems' existing file structure to design those orders, only to find out that her clerks had

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recently abandoned those files two because they didn't include the data necessary to execute order transactions. Her staff is also critical of the design, saying that minor mistakes send them off into the "twilight zone" with no easy way to recover.

Additionally, some of her subordinate managers are insisting on graphic reports. Unfortunately, neither her database management nor spreadsheet package supports graphics. She's not sure how to convert the data of either package to a graphic format (assuming that it is even possible).

To top off her problems, she isn't sure that her existing database structure can be modified to meet new requirements without having to rewrite all the programs, even those that appear to be working. And her boss is not sure that he wants to invest the money in a consultant to fix the problems.

a. What system development life cycle phases did Jeannine skip?

b. What were the consequences of her actions to skip these phases?

c. Why do think people today fall prey to the belief that the system development life cycle for an application is somehow different when using microcomputers or an off-the-shelf smart device, such as an iPhone?

d. What conclusions can you draw from Chapter 2 (Analyzing the Business Case) that might help Jeannine learn from her mistakes?

2. (20) Fun & Games, Inc. is a successful developer and manufacturer of board, electronic, and computer games. The company is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Jan Lampert, Applications Development Manager, has requested a meeting with Steven Beltman, Project Manager for a new distribution project recently placed into production.

"Steven, I want to discuss the distribution project your team completed last month.. Now that the system has been operational for a few weeks, we need to evaluate the performance of you and your team. Frankly, Steven, I'm a little disappointed."

"Me too! I don't know what happened! We used the standard methodology and tools, but we still had problems."

"You still have some Steven. The production system isn't exactly getting rave reviews from either users or managers."

Steven replies, " I know."

Jan continues, "Well, I've talked to several of the analysts, programmers, and end users on the project, and I've drawn a few conclusions. Obviously, the end-users are less than satisfied with the system. You took some shortcuts in the methodology, didn't you.

"We had to, Jan! We got behind schedule. We didn't have time to follow the methodology to the letter."

Jan explains, "But now we have to do major parts of the system over. If you didn't have time to do it right, where will you find time to do it over? You see, Steven, systems development is more than tools,

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techniques, and methodologies. It's also a management process. In addition to your missing the boat on end-user requirements, I note two other problems. And both of them are management problems. The system was over budget and late. The projected budget of $35,000 was exceeded by 42 percent. The project was delivered 13 weeks behind schedule. Most of the delays and cost overruns occurred during programming. The programmers tell me that the delays were caused by rework of analysis and design specifications. Is this true?"

Steven answers, "Yes, for the most part."

Jan continues, "Once again, those delays were probably caused by the shortcuts taken earlier. The shortcuts you took during analysis and design were intended to get you back on schedule. Instead, they got you further behind schedule when you got into the programming phase."

"Not all the problems were due to shortcuts," says Steven. "The users' expectations of the system changed over the course of the project."

"What do you mean?" asks Jan.

Steven answers, "The initial list of general requirements was one page long. Many of those requirements were expanded and supplemented by the users during the analysis and design phases."

Jan interrupts, "The old 'creeping requirements syndrome'. How did you manage that problem?"

Steven replies, "Manage it? Aren't we supposed to simply give in? If they want it, you give it to them."

"Yes," answers Jan, "but were the implications of the creeping requirements discussed with project's management sponsor?"

Steven answers, "Not really! I don't recall any schedule or budget adjustments. We should explain that to them now."

"An excuse?" inquires Jan.

Steven replies, "I guess that's not such a good idea. But the project grew. How would you have dealt with the schedule slippage during analysis?"

Jan answers, "See question 2c below."

Jan concludes meeting with this statement, "Don't be so glum! We all make mistakes. I had this very conversation with my boss seven years ago. You're going to be a good project manager. That's why I've decided to send you to this project management course and workshop."

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a. What did Steven do wrong?

b. Would it be a mistake to use creeping requirements as an excuse for the project mismanagement? Explain your answer.

c. Based on the concepts discussed in Chapter 3 (Managing Systems Projects), how would you respond to Steven's question about schedule slippage during analysis?

d. Should Jan share any fault for the problems encountered in this project? Explain your answer.

3. (10) Mr. Art Pang is the Accounts Receivables manager. You have been assigned to do a study of Mr. Pang's current billing system, and you need to solicit facts from his subordinates. Mr. Pang has expressed his concern that, although he wishes to support you in your fact-finding efforts, his people are extremely busy and must get their jobs done. Based on techniques discussed in Chapter 4 (Requirements Modeling) describe a fact-finding strategy, to include the rationale, that you could follow to maximize your fact-finding while minimizing the time required from his subordinates.

4. (15) The Claremont University course catalog reads as follows: “To enroll in CIS 588, which is an advanced course, a student must be a graduate student and complete two prerequisites — CIS 510 and CIS

586. A graduate student who completes either one of these prerequisites and obtains the instructor’s permission, however, will be allowed to take CIS 588.”

a. Draw a decision table that describes the Claremont course catalog rules regarding eligibility for CIS 588.

b. Draw a simplified decision tree to represent the Claremont CIS 588 course catalog rules.

c. Why might you use a decision tree rather than a decision table?

5. (10) You have a user who has a history of impatience – encouraging shortcuts through the systems development process and then blaming the analysts for systems that fail to fulfill expectations. Based on your knowledge of the activities for the analysis and design phases of the system development lifecycle, identify possible consequences if the user suggests a shortcut through or around a planned activity.

6. (25) Given the following narrative description of a new Production Scheduling System:

The purpose of the new system is to respond to a production order (submitted by the Sales Department) by generating a daily production schedule (sent to the Shop Floor Supervisor), generating raw material requisitions (sent to the Materials Management Department) for all production orders scheduled for the next day, and generating job tickets (sent to the Shop Floor Supervisor) for the work to be completed at each workstation during the next day.

The production scheduling problem can be conveniently broken down into three functions: routing, loading and generating a production schedule. In order to route an order, we need to know which workstations are needed, in what sequence the work must be done, and how much time should be necessary at each workstation to

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complete the work. This data is available from production route sheets. This process, which is referred to as routing the order, results in a route ticket. A route ticket is used in the load the request process. This process also requires workstations reservations that have already been made which are available from workstation load sheets. The result of the load the request process is a new workstation reservation, which is also stored in workstation load sheets. At the end of each day, the workstation reservations stored in the workstation load sheets are used to generate a production schedule. The results of this process are job tickets and a production schedule. The materials needed are available from a separate bill of materials system, and material requests are generated for appropriate quantities.

a. Draw a Context Diagram (similar to Figure 5-13 in textbook).

b. Identify the primary actors and use cases and draw a Use Case diagram showing the actors, use cases, and relationships (similar to Figure 6-27 in textbook).

c. Develop a Use Case description (similar to Figure 6-25 in textbook) for at least one of the use cases in question 6b.

d. Draw a Sequence diagram (similar to Figure 6-32 in textbook) from the use case description in question 6c.

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