What are the types of performance measures that could be used for assessing systems development projects?

• Performance
  • This includes how fast the system should be and how much time should the system takes to respond to the user’s query or response.
• Productivity
  • How much users would the system be able to facilitate for instance if a manager says that the productivity of this system is that it would be able to facilitate 15 users in an hour then this is known as productivity of the system.
• Capacity
  • This shows that how much traffic or crowd would the system would be able to handle.
• Scalability
  • This shows that to how much degree the user would be able to expand in order to handle increased throughput.
• Availability
  • This shows that for how much time the system should be made available to the use for instance should it be available 24/7 or it should be available on the weekends or days other than weekends. All such criteria are mentioned here.
• Recoverability
  • This shows that how much time the system would take to become operational like how much quickly should be made operational after an outage.
• Integrity
  • This shows the reliability of the system. Here the project manager or the staff would define that how predictable or reliable the system should be.
• Exception Handling
  • Here it defines all the situations in which exceptions could occur and it also defines that how these exceptions would be handled and how much time would it take to handle such situations.
• Logging
  • This is a very tricky and complex characteristic. Here the user defines that whether they need to carry out audit trails for all the activities under going or not. 

How will the use of outsourcing impact the way in which a project is managed?

Outsourcing means the company handing over some tasks or services to the other company which otherwise would be performed by the in house employees. These tasks could be performed by the company itself and they can easily perform it but the main reason behind outsourcing is the financial advantages. In many cases it is done because of the financial advantages outsourcing could provide the company. Many companies now outsource jobs like call centers, email services and payroll. There are a number of reasons due to which the companies out source.  But the most prominent and the most important factor for out sourcing are to save the company’s money and financial assets. Now the question is how out sourcing saves money. It is because other companies came do the same work in less money. This saves the company’s money and time. They save money by not over heading their workers as they do not perform the work so there is no need to pay them. The tension is released. The company does not need to worry about the work. Depending upon the location in which the company is, it is some times more affordable to outsource the services in the companies located in other countries. (Sourcingmag.com)

·         Out sourcing often helps in lowering the operational as well as labor cost. It can deliver significant benefits but the only condition is that it should be done with proper means and processes then it would be able to give the desired results.

·         It helps in freeing up the resources that can be used by other tasks in the company. This saves the company’s resources and they can perform more work using those resources.

·         Due to outsourcing many companies and organizations have leverage to a global base. They are more recognized to the world’s capabilities. They are well aware and are better able to fulfill their requirements.

During the progress review, how might a project manager assess the contribution of each member of the project team?

At the very beginning of the project role and responsibilities are allocated to each team member and during each deliverable they have to present what each member has done so far. The meetings are held for this purpose in order to the progress from each team member and see what has been done so far and what were the problems faced by the team members and the developers in completing the project. The roles and responsibilities are assigned at the very start during the initiation phase of the project. all these roles are assigned by the project manager and he knows that who is capable of doing what and so these responsibilities are assigned this way.

During the progress review or when the project status is reviewed then the project charter is kept in the meeting in which all the roles and responsibilities are mentioned and team members are asked to submit what they have done so far and what problems are they facing and then the solutions are devised for these problems.

Why is user-centered development critical to successful systems development projects?

It is really important that the system development should be user centered. It is impossible to build a system and also satisfy the users if the system is build according to the basis of technology and user requirements and ease is not kept in mind. It is highly important to gather all the system requirements from the user and then start building the system. All the requirements should be according to the client or the user. The system would only be successful if the system satisfies the needs of the user and fulfils all the requirements mentioned by the user.

While developing the system the developer should not keep the system technology centered. It should be user centered. The users should have full right to change their requirements and attain what they want at the end. That is why it is really important to keep the project or the system user centered and more focus and importance should be given to the user requirements instead of the technology or any other factor. 

What aspects of the workplace might motivate people's acceptance of change?

It is very necessary that the people working in a place get all the necessities they are expecting. This helps in motivating them to work effectively and efficiently for the company or the organization. A safe and healthy workplace should be provided to the employees in order to get better progress and results from them. There are many types of workplace hazards. Large number of stakeholders is affected by the engineering workplace safety and health. Workplace or occupational health and safety are of great importance. Many factors contribute to its importance. Senior management plays an important role in occupational and workplace safety and health. It is very important for the senior managers to focus on the importance of occupational and workplace health and safety. If the managers are not enforcing measures for the safety then other employees would also not pay attention towards the safety and health measures. There should be such programs to provide safety training. Similarly tracking of safety measures, metrics to measure safety, pre and well defined safety goals and objectives, safety responsibility and safety accountability are also some programs that are to be maintained.

How does the IT environment contribute to the success or lack of success in systems development processes?

IT environment helps a lot in contributing towards the success in system development process. Information technology environment is well aware with the most updated technology which is currently used in the world and which has the greatest scope. This helps the processes t deploy the updated technology and thus results in a product with high tech technology and thus helps in gaining more from the project. Information Technology environment is capable of keeping all the requirements in a well defined and systematic database or any centralized system and thus keeps in completely the task of requirement gathering and elicitation effectively and efficiently. In IT environment the most important factor in such project failure includes the “scope creep”. The project manager does not specify the scope of the project at the beginning. During the development of the project more things start to add in the project scope which eventually leads to scope creep.

The information system projects are when way behind the schedule, the project managers leave the testing phase of the project as they think that the project is already behind the schedule and testing of the components will take more time so that skip this task. Due to this at the end the project gives out unexpected results and ultimately fails. All these factors eventually lead to the failure and lack of system development processes.

Tips for presenting

when you planning to present to should have some guide line to present a good presentation.

First of all you need to introduce yourself to to audience. that is important to show the confidence and makes people know you before anything.

Second, stand in good position and try to be formal when you presenting. watch your hand movements and facial expressions.

Third, the most important thing is been prepared, go step by step to each points you want to point. if you have something that you want the audience keep in mind, repeat it in different way to make them understand it well as you wanted to.

besides all of that try to bring some facts to show how knowledge you have.

Faisal,,