Instructor
Unit 3 Discussion Post
An essential component of this unit’s reading was the discussion of feasibility analyses. Feasibility analyses, when conducted correctly, save enterprises time, money, and resources by determining if a solution is both practical and capable of being achieved within certain budget and schedule requirements. These studies include the following six elements: project scope, current analysis, requirements, approach, evaluation, and review. One extremely important component of this study is the current analysis. The current analysis defines the current system using strengths and weaknesses, and determines whether the current system is working correctly, needs minor modifications, or should be completely upgraded or replaced. This is essential when deciding to proceed with a project or not, as it may be cheaper and easier to modify a current system rather than introduce an entirely new one. This can often be lost among project managers and IT personnel who are exploring new projects, as it is easy to lose sight of the present as you look to the future. Therefore, it is important for those handling projects to conduct quality feasibility studies to ensure the enterprise is optimizing its time and resources when analyzing projects. I think this is a great way to add perspective in project selection by forcing personnel to ask the question, “Do we really need this?”.
Unit 4 Discussion Post
An important component of this unit’s reading that stood out to me was the process in which the requirements definition is to be curated. By definition, the requirements definition identifies the business requirements of the system in development. This includes what the system is to do, how users will interact with it, the conditions in which the system is to operate, and any criteria the system should meet. CISA outlines the methodology for completing the requirements definition phase. This includes consulting stakeholders to gage their requirements, analyzing requirements against expectations, converting user requirements into system requirements, and resolving any conflicts that present themselves. The process also includes instructions on documentation. I found it interesting how interactive this process is with various stakeholders and steps involved. User management, system developers, user departments, and other management personnel are involved in this process. This is essential to ensure the requirements definition is as comprehensive and thought-out as possible. I believe this is an important component in the development phase that needs to be as interactive as possible. If this were to be one-sided, or if certain stakeholder groups were excluded, the business requirements would be severely incomplete, which would damage the entire development process.
Assignment 1 Instructions
Week 3 Presentation and Spreadsheet
Unit 2 Reading – Mettus
What is obvious from Chapter 3 of the textbook is how critical the role of project manager is. Project managers may be the most vital part of the project considering the decisions they have to make in regard to planning and budgeting, as well as keeping the project on track. The project management process is broken down into four phases: initiation, planning, execution, and closeout. A surprise for me is that in the example given in the book, creating the scope and budget doesn’t happen until the end of the planning phase. I expected at least preliminary versions of each to be created during the initiation phase to give the approval and steering committees information to decide whether or not the project should be approved and go forward.
To me, planning might be the most important phase. If mistakes are made in terms of creating the project plan, developing the budget, scheduling the tasks and allocating resources, the project can be doomed before it ever even begins. Especially since a lot of that has to do with estimation, it probably is a big challenge for new project managers if there isn’t similar historical data from the company to reference.
Closing down the project is the phase I’ve seen most neglected in my experience. Specifically, in my experience, the post project reviews aren’t always done. The reviews are important as a way to generate feedback and understand lessons learned from the project to improve futures ones.
Week 2 – Project Management Discussion Post
During this week’s reading we discussed the project management process. The project manager, or system analyst, has many duties and should have many skills. They are required to be a leader, manager, have good customer relations, be a good technical problem solver, and can be called on to help resolve conflict.
The four parts of a project are:
Initiating
Planning
Executing
Closing
During the initiating process there are many meetings where the objectives and required resources are identified. During the planning of the project, the estimates are created for budgets and schedules. Gannt charts and critical paths are used and identified. Organizations can use the PERT technique to identify the critical path. Once the plan is created, the execution of the plan occurs. During this phase, metrics are taken to keep track of the progress. The oversight during this stage can help manage risk, resources, and ensure the scope changes are necessary, should they occur. Finally, the project is closed. Any outstanding issues are assigned and the hand-off to the maintenance team or post-implementation team occurs.
During this process, the IS auditor will want to make sure all the controls are in place and are being followed. They can evaluate the effectiveness of the controls and identify if there an any inadequacies. They can also be part of the post-implementation team to makes sure the appropriate steps are being followed. Finally, the IS auditor will want to make sure the entire process is documented correctly. If any of the processes are found to be inadequate, they will bring this to the attention of the process owner so it can be addressed.
In my opinion, the planning portion of the project management is the most important. During this portion of the process estimates are created, the dependencies are discovered, and the critical path is identified. During this process, the steps are created which will set the tone for the entire project.
IN THE NEWS
https://www.atlassian.com/project-management
This link isn’t exactly a news article. It is a link to Atlassian, who creates project management and other software. Atlassian is known for having very good documentation. I found this site to contain very detailed information about project management and what is expected in today’s business.
At the end of the documentation are templates which can be used by end users when looking to conduct projects. I find Atlassian is very good with this and incident response.
Week 1 Discussion Post- SDLC V model
In this week’s reading, one of the topics that caught my attention is the V-Shaped model of Software Development Lifecycle. This model is referred to as verification and validation model. This model emphasizes and leverages the relationship between the development phases and the testing levels. In this model the most granular unit testing occurs right after the programs have been written. Following this model testing, happens to validate the detailed design. System testing relates to the architectural specification of the system.
The V-model lifecycle and phases has many advantages for the IT auditors. It significantly increases the IT auditors influence with formal procedures and guidelines that identify each phase of the business application life cycle and helps increases the IT auditors involvement. This model eases the reporting aspect of the IT auditor. All of the phases in the model can be reviewed and independently report to the management about the desired objectives. Based on the IT auditors skills sets the auditors can identify selected parts of the system and get more involved in the technical aspects of the system. The auditors can provide evaluation of the methods and techniques utilized throughout the development phrases of the business application lifecycle from beginning to the end.
Week 2 Presentation
Unit 1 Reading – Mettus
It’s easy to think of the Systems Development Lifecycle as a circular, sequential series of steps that repeats. That’s what I would think of when I first saw any graphics or pictures representing the SDLC. One thing I took away from Chapter 1 of Modern Systems Analysis and Design is that that isn’t really the case. As the book states, “the specific steps and their sequence are meant to be adapted as required for a project, consistent with management approaches.” At any point you can go back to the previous phase. Or activities from different phases can be completed at the same time. I thought the figure that shows a spiral, representing how a project keeps going back into each phase in increasing levels of detail was a better representation than just a circle. I wonder if this makes for a more adaptable project than a structured approach going through the phases in order. I also think it’s important to note that each phase (Planning, Analysis, Design, Implementation, and Maintainance) has deliverables and milestones. It’s not just about delivering a final product at the end of implementation.