Critical Success Factor (CSF analysis) - IT pRoject Management

Welingkarrsquos Distance Learning Division

IT for Management

CHAPTER-6

Determining Information Need

We Learn ndash A Continuous Learning Forum



Critical Success Factor(Overview) CSF analysis isbull A method developed at MITrsquos Sloan school by John

Rockart to guide businesses in creating and measuring success

bull Widely used for technology and architectural planning in enterprise IT

bull A top-down methodology that is especially suitable for designing systems as opposed to applications

bull A reductionist method for going from an abstract vision to concrete requirements Conthellip




What is Critical Success Factorbull A key area where satisfactory performance is

required for the organization to achieve its goalsbull A means of identifying the tasks and

requirements needed for successbull At the lowest level CSFs become concrete

requirements bull A means to prioritize requirements

ConthellipWe Learn ndash A Continuous Learning Forum



What is Critical Success Factorbull Start with a vision mission statementbull Develop 5-6 high level goalsbull Develop hierarchy of goals and their success factorsbull Leads to concrete requirements at the lowest level of

decomposition (a single implementable idea)bull Along the way identify the problems being solved

and the assumptions being madebull Cross-reference usage scenarios and problems with

requirements Conthellip




Start with a vision mission statementbull Develop 5-6 high level goalsbull Develop hierarchy of goals and their success factorsbull Leads to concrete requirements at the lowest

level of decomposition (a single implementable idea)

bull Along the way identify the problems being solved and the assumptions being made

bull Cross-reference usage scenarios and problems with requirements Conthellip




What is analysisAnalysis is process of successively decomposing a system into its constituent subsystemResults of the Analysisbull Mission statementbull Hierarchy of goals and CSFsbull Lists of requirements problems and assumptionsbull Analysis matrices1048723Problems vs Requirements matrixbull Usage scenarios vs Requirements matrixbull Solid usage scenarios

Conthellip We Learn ndash A Continuous Learning Forum



Three prominent methods of analysis of information system are

bull Data flow methodbull Decision Analysisbull Object Analysis

System studyThe system study is a formal process of gathering every thing relevant from standpoint of gathering clarity about the purpose amp functioning of a system




The System study can be conducted by gathering followingThe user requirement document which outlines the basic scope purposeAny audit reports which can throw light on short comings on present systemTracing the workflow involves walking through the system to understand how the physical work or service is being delivered amp how the associated information flow is happeningOne to one interview could be part of same experience for tracking workflow hellipCont




Interviews have to be however to be planned well getting time from busy executivesbull Structured Questionnaires Usually in the context of ERP systems and other products organization builds standard checklist bull Inspecting Transaction document and other reports browsing through an entire years transaction document such as invoices purchase orders amp relevant documents provide a good insight into what could happen at an operational level Conthellip




bull Many a times mangers amp department heads tend to describe a system from there past experience amp as such they may not be aware of the details of operational aspects of the system

bull It could also happen that even operational staff may be new amp there description may be inaccurate

bull It could so happen that the person concerned may tend to describe situations which are far from near past amp therefore tend to forget some significant situations which may have happened in past but may occur any time in the future Conthellip




It is therefore always better to insist on a formal review of old transactions documents and reports This would give insight on followingbull The purpose of documentbull Transaction volume amp frequencybull Content of documentbull Codificationbull Redundant data elementsbull Matching of output to inputbull Redundancybull Study of decision processesbull Modelingprototypingbull Business events and business use cases Conthellip




Documenting the facts gathering thru the system studyMany a times an analyst may have done a great job in collecting large amount of data about systembull Some tools used for documenting data are

Flow ChartsGrid chartsAnalysis of QuestionnairesDecision TreesTableData flow diagram(DFD)




Data Flow Diagram(DFD)Data flow diagrams illustrate how data is processed by a system in terms of inputs and outputsbull Each process has a input (ie dataflow) amp a output

(dataflow)bull The process transforms from input to output bull The input may come from another process a store of

data or from external entitybull The output could go to another process to an

external entity or get stored in a data storeWe Learn ndash A Continuous Learning Forum



Data Flow Diagram(DFD)Symbols used are very simple amp illustrated below




The System Requirement Specification(SRS)A more formal document covering all the above along with a description of the overall purpose of the system and functionality expected the Technology considerations the acceptance criteria is usually prepared Such document is called System Requirement Specification (SRS)There is IEEE standard for preparing SRS documentIt provides template outlining the various aspect of a system The SRS is reviewed jointly with the user




End of Chapter 6


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Critical Success Factor(Overview) CSF analysis isbull A method developed at MITrsquos Sloan school by John

Rockart to guide businesses in creating and measuring success

bull Widely used for technology and architectural planning in enterprise IT

bull A top-down methodology that is especially suitable for designing systems as opposed to applications

bull A reductionist method for going from an abstract vision to concrete requirements Conthellip








































































End of Chapter 6


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Critical Success Factor (CSF analysis) - IT pRoject Management

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Transcript of Critical Success Factor (CSF analysis) - IT pRoject Management