Project Management

Project Management

Exercise 2 Case Study Analysis

Problems often arise because projects get started without knowing who the true customers are and what their needs/requirements are. Brian could have accomplished both by using the needs and requirements definition life cycles and the joint application development (JAD) approach. Needs involve the emergence, recognition and articulation of the needs and well as the establishment of functional requirements and the articulation of technical requirements. The requirements definition life cycle provides the planning, elicitation, analysis, formalization, and verification of the requirements. JAD is a collaborative workshop approach that brings key personnel from the technical as well as the business side of the house together in an off site establishment to brainstorm until a consensus of acceptable requirements is produced. By using these processes/procedures Brian would have kept his problems to a minimum. The one-on-one with the Vice President was definitely the wrong approach. The customer/stakeholder and other key players both business and technical need to be identified and engaged when establishing needs and defining requirements. This could have been done by incorporating the joint application development session (JAD). In project management today the JAD approach has been proven effective in developing requirements and fulfilling the customer’s needs and wants. There has to be a high level of involvement and good communication lines with the customer/stakeholder and other key figures in regards to eliciting requirements so that they all understand the standards that are being laid out.

It was clear that an analysis of the requirements was not completed. The analysis would have given the design team a good measure of cost, schedule and system wide impacts. In addition, the analyses also prioritize requirements to distinguish which ones are necessary compared to requirements that are nonessential. Most of the modification suggestions that the Vice President of New Product Development was making probably were not needed. The Design team lead should have used proper change control procedures for the Vice president’s modification requests.

Upon completion of the requirement analysis the requirements become more formalized and detailed and are considered at this time to be specifications. There was no indication that the requirements were formalized properly and then verified as a last check procedure to see if they are on target with the customer’s needs. Customers/stakeholders should be able to review the requirements to make sure they are in line with their needs and wants.

Another problem to be considered is that once the requirements were validated by all key individuals involved there should have been a formal document signed by the customer accepting the requirements that were presented by the team. This action binds all parties to the requirements being delivered and also reveals that significant discussion has taken place to ensure that requirements are comprehended accurately.

When these procedures are not utilized properly there are a list of problems that will arise including misunderstood requirements and possibly scope creep, incomplete requirements which result in incomplete information about the system, ambiguity regarding the functionality and objectives of certain requirements, unstable requirements or new requirements that are not necessary and, conflicting goals by key players. In any project it is necessary for requirements to have the same level of attention that is given to project implementation. Furthermore, you must have the proper tools to define requirements.

There are quite a few tools that one can use when defining requirements for any given project. Some tools that I would take into consideration are flow charts, data dictionaries, decision table, data flow diagrams, structured English and context diagrams

Flow charts are basic tools used to capture detailed sequential processes. They are graphically represented and depict processes being studied and used to plan stages of a project.

Data dictionaries define the way in which you categorize information that will be stored in the fields of a repository/database. Such characteristics of data include meaning, relationships to other data, origin, usage, format and the type and length of each data element.

Decision table is a matrix representation of the logic of a decision, which specifies the possible conditions for a decision and the resulting actions. They are used to describe the required external behavior of some aspect of a system. Decision tables are good analysis tools for ensuring that all combinations of input conditions have a corresponding action. They allow the technical team to produce significant technical specifications. Data flow diagram (DFD) is a graphical tool that allows the project team to describe the flow of data in an information system. DFD graphically represents the functions, or processes, which capture, manipulate, store and disseminate data between a system and its environment and between different entities within a system.

Structured English is a modified form of the English language used to specify the logic of information system processes. Structured English uses the logical structures of structured coding. It helps customers to think logically about the outcome of their requirements.

The Context diagram is a type of DFD that identifies information that is exchanged between core processes and the entities with which they must operate. All these tools are valuable when defining requirements.

There are some key individuals that Brian should have included in the discussions pertaining to the video toaster. The customer is a key ingredient when defining requirements. Customers comprehend their business and are qualified to conclude what is needed and what is not from a business perspective.

There would be a need for a business analyst to capture business requirements from users and to frame them in such a way that is comprehensible to the technical team. The technical folks understand technical solutions and are savvy enough to identify what works and does not work from a technical stand point. They will use the specified business requirements and transpose them into specifications to address with the members of their team.

System analyst can also be helpful by looking at the application development of the product from a broader perspective and focusing on how everything ties together in the overall system. Programmers are essential since they write the code that makes the system run.

The project manager needs to be around to ensure