Information Systems Project Management INF6001 Coursework

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Introduction:
Dynamic Systems Development Methodology is an agile software methodology which is iterative and incremental approach that involves continuous user involvement and it is originated from Rapid Application Development Methodology. Stapleton (1997) states that DSDM describes project management, estimating, prototyping, time boxing, configuration management, testing, quality assurance, roles and responsibilities (of both users and IT staff), team structures, tool environments, risk management, building for maintainability, reuse and vendor/purchaser relationships all in RAD environment. It is based on the nine principles and considered as one of the agile project management techniques that deliver the software systems on time and within the budget. The above methodology is applied to the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd. in order to prepare the customer-order system which covers the customer details, order details and stock control details within the allotted budget and time. At present only a limited part of the company operations are computerized and the remaining is done in the traditional way using the paper work ever since the company has started. After carrying out the brief analysis, the proposed system must be implemented with a centralized database over a local area network. The personnel involved will be a Project Manager, Programmers, System analyst and Facilitator. Enlisted below is the project plan that involves different phases and stages of DSDM in accordance with the case-study.

Fig: DSDM Life Cycle [source: http://www.dsdm.org/version4/2/public/Lifecycle_Overview.asp]

Phases of DSDM:
Feasibility Study Business Study Functional Model Iteration System Design and Build Iteration Implementation

Feasibility Study: This is about whether the proposed method can be applied or not. Thorough research is done to find out the existing problems. Feasibility study has already been carried out for the Yojimbo Company with the interview transcripts provided and it shows that there is no software which is integrated together and hence the need to produce a system that is efficient to use. Business Study: It is about acquiring a clear understanding of the business flow and how the processes are related to each other. It involves recognizing the requirements of the stakeholders and those who are involved in the project. The outcome of this phase is to produce a project plan based on the requirements of the company. In the case of Yojimbo Company the analysis of the Database Design that to be setup is carried out. There are two stages involved in this phase. .

Arranging JAD workshop It involves meeting the stakeholders by making special arrangements for time and location. The activities involved in the JAD workshop are discussing the requirements with the Managing Director, Financial Director, Sales Manager and Warehouse Manager of the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd. It is better to analyse the requirements by using the Soft Systems Analysis and Design Methodology even though it is not part of the DSDM to get the clear picture of the company where the system boundaries and sub-systems are produced by the requirements identification to produce the final rich picture and CATWOE which is done by the system analyst. Yojimbo Supplies Ltd. is divided into three sub-systems. They are Buying and Importing, Stock and Delivery, and Selling and Marketing. The final activity is to produce a complete project plan by identifying the resources and creating a timeframe.

Produce a Business Study Report In this phase the first activity is to identify the business processes and to produce data flow diagram which involves context diagram, document flow diagram, physical and logical diagram and finally producing the entity relationship model that is implemented in the logical design of the database. The next activity is Systems architecture definition that describes the development of the target platform and to identify the major system components and finally prioritizing the requirements of the system using the MoSCoW (Must to be done, Should have it worked but not completely depend on it, Could be left out if necessary, Would have it in the future) principle. The final activity involved in the Business study is to outline the prototyping plan i.e. to define the prototyping strategy to be used in subsequent phase and the configuration management plan.

Functional Model Iteration: It works on refining high level business information requirements and functions of systems that are identified during the business study of the methodology. In this phase risk factors has to be identified and a plan is to be made on how to deal with risk for future developments. In the case of Yojimbo Ltd. there might be risks while creating a database as it is centralized but the risks can be averted by giving special permissions to access the database based on the employee roles and backing up the database regularly in case of any event failure. The outcome of the functional model iteration is standard analysis model of the software. Five stages are involved in this phase.

 

Rectify Business aspects In this phase the high-level functional and high-level information requirements are refined Identify functional prototype The first activity is to analyse the requirements based on the data flow diagrams and list the requirements of the current iteration. To identify the non-functional requirements recognized during the previous stages and create the functional model that identity the major functionality of the system components. Agree Plan To determine the time for the design development of the system and finally agree the prototype that is finalized with the clients. Create functional prototype It is an iterative process until the desired result is obtained. At first the plan is implemented by creating the functional prototype that represents the functionality of the system and then individually the created functional prototypes are merged together to refine it according to the feedback given by the users and if any changes are required it can to be done in the next iteration.

 

Review Prototype Testing the produced functions of the system and reviewing the functional model based on the user comments and the final functional model is delivered

System Design and Build: In this phase the actual system is built based on the non-functional requirements carried out in the previous phase and the built-in system is implemented in the next phase once the testing is done.

  

Identify Design Prototypes The main activity involved in this task is to identify non-functional requirements and implement the plan. Agree on Prototype Design Agreeing the prototype Design by prioritising the design requirements of the system. Create Design Prototype Here the prototyping of design takes place where the main components of the system is built and the produced components are reviewed and the final task is to test the designed prototype before it is handed over to the users. Review Design Prototype The last activity in System Design and Build phase is to test the system as a whole rather than unit testing and check the performance and also to deal with system in case of a failure.

Implementation: This is the final phase in the methodology where the built-in system is moved into the production from the developing zone. In context to the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd. the created centralized database package is installed on the server and to make sure that each and every system can access the customer details and all the systems are interconnected with each other through the local area network.

   

System Implementation Implement the hardware and software of the system on site and handing over the system to the company. Review Business The project Review Document reviews the achievements during the development process in relation to the requirements. User approval and guidelines The system will be approved by the end users and user manual is produced where the precise details of the implemented system is given so that the end-users can use it for reference. User Training Training the users on how to interact with the new system at the location.

Advantages:
User involvement will be continuous from the beginning to the end of the project which ensures that project goes in the right pace. Time and budget constraints are strictly maintained. It is independent driven methodology that is flexible to use own practical methods and packages depending on the requirements. Even the end users are involved in the development so that they expect all the requirements are fulfilled at each and every stage before it is finally delivered. Higher importance is given to testing and there will be at least one tester in the team. It is iterative where the processes are reviewed often.

Disadvantages:
As it is inherited from RAD, requires full attention to DSDM rather than focusing on the RAD. Requires highly competent people in technical and non-technical fields. It is not suitable for long duration projects as DSDM is agile methodology. It involves continuous development by the users where the parts of the development are combined together as a whole. The documentation starts from the beginning of the project to the end which makes it bulkier.

Conclusion:
After making a comparative study of advantages and disadvantages, DSDM proves to be highly beneficial to Yojimbo Supplies Ltd. in terms of time and iteration as it is a small company with only 16 people and looking for the change in terms of accessing database and combining the accounts package to the centralized database for the robust operation but the only disadvantage is the budget might be high as it requires highly skilled professionals.

References: DSDM Consortium: Enabling Business Agility. [Online] http://www.dsdm.org/ [Accessed 24 May 2010] Jan de Wit, Anita, B. DSDM: Whats the Use of It? [Online] http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc05/papers/pap1128.pdf [Accessed 01 June 2010] Stapleton, J. (1997) DSDM, dynamic systems development method: the method in practice. Harlow: Addison-Wesley. Stapleton, J. (2002) DSDM: business focused development / the DSDM Consortium. Harlow: Addison-Wesley. Tudor.D, Walter.G.A. (2006). Using an agile approach in a large, traditional organization. Agile Conference (23), 373-379. Weaver, P. et al. (2002). Practical Business Systems Development Using SSADM: A Complete Tutorial Guide, 3rd ed. London: Prentice Hall. Word count - 1552