Flashcards About MIS CHAPTER 13
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(T/F) Systems development is difficult, needing early and frequent input into the development process
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True
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(T/F) IT can't "make or break" a company and doesn't impact your competitive advantage
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False (It can't but does impact your competitive advantage)
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(T/F) Planning and justifying IT applications: Organizations must analyze the need for the IT application
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True
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(T/F)Planning and justifying IT applications: Each IT application doesn't have to be justified in terms of costs and benefits
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False (They must be justified)
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Planning and justifying IT applications: _____ ______ is a prioritized list of both existing and potential IT applications of a company
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Application portfolio
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_____ _____ _____ states the firm's overall mission and vision, the goals that follow that mission, and the broad steps necessary to reach these goals
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Organizational strategic plan
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Delineates the way an organization's information resources should be used to accomplish its mission
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IT architecture
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Is a constraint to the organization but is not absolute
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IT architecture
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A set of long-range goals that describe the IT infrastructure and major IT initiatives needed to achieve the goals of the organization
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IT strategic plan
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(T/F)An objective of the IT strategic plan is it must be aligned with the organization's strategic plan, because it has to support the organization's strategies
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True
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An objective of the IT strategic plan is it must provide for an ____ ____ the seamlessly networks users, applications, and databases
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IT architecture
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An objective of the IT strategic plan is it must efficiently _____ IT development resources among competing projects so that the projects can be completed on time, within budget, and still have the required functionality
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Allocate
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Is comprised of managers and staff representing various organizational units. This committee establishes IT priorities and ensures that the MIS function meets the needs of the enterprise
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IT Steering committee
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Specifically responsible for linking corporate and IT priorities, then establishing performance measures, then holding IT accountable
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IT steering committee
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Consists of a clear set of projects that the IT department and functional area managers will execute in support of the IT strategic plan
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IS operational plan
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Part of the IS operational plan: derived from IT strategy
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Mission
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Part of the IS operational plan: summary of information needs of the functional areas and of the organization as a whole
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IT environment
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Part of the IS operational plan: the best current estimate of the goals
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Objectives of the IT Function
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Part of the IS operational plan: the technological, financial, personnel, and other resource limitations
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Constraints of the IT Function
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Part of the IS operational plan: Prioritized inventory of present applications and a detailed plan of projects to be developed or continued
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Application portfolio
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Part of the IS operational plan: a listing of what is going to who, how, and when
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Resource allocation and project management
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Costs that remain the same regardless of change in activity level
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Fixed Costs
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Formula for calculating cost of acquiring, operating, and controlling an IT system; talking about long-term
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Total cost of ownership (TCO)
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Benefits from IT that may be very desirable but difficult to place an accurate monetary value on
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Intangible benefits
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Method that converts future values of benefits to their present-value equivalent by discounting them at the organization's cost of funds
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Net Present Value (NPV)
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Measures the effectiveness of management in generating profits with its available assets
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Return on investment (ROI)
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Determines the point at which the cumulative dollar value of the benefits from a project equals the investment made in the project
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Breakeven analysis
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A business case is one or more specific applications or projects. Its major emphasis is the justification for a specified, required investment, but it also provides the bridge between the initial plan and its execution
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Business case approach
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How many fundamental business decisions are there to make before choosing a strategy
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4
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(T/F) One of the fundamental business decisions is how much computer code does the company want to write
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True
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(T/F) One of the fundamental business decisions is how will the company pay for the application
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True
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(T/F) One of the fundamental business decisions is the company doesn't have to decide where to run the application
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False (the company must decide)
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(T/F) One of the fundamental business decisions is where will the application originate from
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True
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The 3 ways to acquire a prewritten application ____, ______, _____,
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Buy, customize, lease
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Another way to acquire an application is through an agent or a vendor who assembles the software needed by enterprises and packages the software with services such as development, operations, and management
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Application service provider (ASP)
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Another way to acquire an application is through a method of delivering software in which a vendor hosts the application and provides them as a service to customers over a network, typically the Internet
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Software-as-a-service
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Another way to acquire an application is through ____ ____ software, free from the Internet
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Open-source
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Acquiring IT applications from external contractors or organizations
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Outsourcing
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Using the professional expertise within an organization to develop and maintain its information technology systems
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In-sourcing (in-house development)
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A type of outsourcing: _____ outsourcing is engaging another company within the same country for services
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Onshore
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A type of outsourcing: ____ outsourcing is contracting an outsourcing arrangement with a company in a nearby country
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Nearshore
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A type of outsourcing: _____ outsourcing is using organizations from developing countries to write code and develop systems
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Offshore
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(T/F)Outsourcing results in lower quality and efficiency within the business process
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False (Usually better quality and efficiency)
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(T/F) Outsourcing results in reduced operating costs for head count and exposure to risk for large capital investments
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True
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(T/F) Outsourcing gives access to outsourcing service provider's expertise, economies of scale, best practices, and advanced technology
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True
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(T/F) Outsourcing results in decreased flexibility for slower response to market changes and less time to market for new products or services
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False (Increased flexibility for faster)
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A Challenge with most outsourcing is the ______ _____ ____ spanning several years
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Length of contract
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(T/F) Contracts are not difficult to get out of thus making it a benefit of outsourcing
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False (They are and it's a limitation)
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(T/F) A challenge with outsourcing, is trouble foreseeing future needs
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True
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(T/F) A challenge with outsourcing, is it is hard to reform an IT department after a contract is reached
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True
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Effective and innovative use of IT can be lost when using an outsourcing service provider
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Threat to competitive advantage
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Confidential information can be breached by an outsourcing service provider, especially one that provides services to competitors
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Loss of confidentiality
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Scope definition- ____ _____ is a common problem with outsourcing agreements
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Scope creep
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The traditional system development method that organizations use for large-scale IT projects
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Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
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The ______ ______ is the main task of the systems Investigation phase
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Feasibility study
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The feasibility study helps the organization choose between 3 options; do _____ and use the old system, _____ the old system, or ______ a new system
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nothing modify develop
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A type of feasibility test: Assessment of whether hardware, software, and communication components can be developed or acquired to solve a business problem
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Technical feasibility
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A type of feasibility test: Assessment of whether a project is an acceptable financial risk and if the organization can afford the expense and time needed to complete it
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Economic feasibility
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A type of feasibility test: Assessment of the human issues involved in a proposed project, including resistance to change and skill and training needs
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Behavioral feasibility
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The examination of the business problems that the organization plans to solve with an information system
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Systems analysis
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The main purpose of ____ ____ is to gather information about existing systems to determine requirements for the new or improved system
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Systems analysis
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A part of systems analysis: _____ is a set of system requirements also called user requirements
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Deliverable
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Describes how the system will accomplish the task
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Systems design
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A part of the systems design; _____ is the technical design that specifies: System outputs, inputs, user interfaces; hardware, software, databases, telecommunications personnel and procedures; blueprints and how the new components fit in
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Deliverable
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Involves the translation of a system's design specifications into a computer code
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Programming
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Checks to see if the computer code will produce the expected and desired results under certain conditions
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Testing
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_____ is designed to delete errors (bugs) in the computer code
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Testing
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A type of testing: Testing each program
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Unit testing
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A type of testing: Testing the entire system of programs
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System testing
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A type of testing: Testing with a large amount of data
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Volume testing
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A type of testing: Testing all related systems together
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Integration testing
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A type of testing: User testing
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Acceptance Testing
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_____ is the process of converting from the old system to the new system
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Implementation (Deployment)
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A type of conversion: Implementation process in which the old system and the new system operate simultaneously for a period of time, rarely used today
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Parallel conversion
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A type of conversion: Implementation process in which the old system is cut off and the new system is turned on at a certain point in time
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Direct conversion
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A type of conversion: Implementation process that introduces parts of the new system in stages, until the entire new system is operational
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Phased conversion
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A type of conversion: Implementation process that introduces the new system in one part of the organization on a trial basis, when the new system is working properly, it is introduced in other parts of the organization
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Pilot conversion
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Performed to assess the system's capabilities and to determine if it is being used correctly
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Audit
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A type of maintenance: A process that continues throughout the life of the system
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Debugging
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A type of maintenance: _____ the system to accommodate changes in business conditions
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Updating
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A type of maintenance: _____ adds functionality to the system-adding new features to the existing system without disturbing its operation
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Maintenance
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IS professionals who specialize in analyzing and designing information systems
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Systems analysts
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IS professionals who either modify the existing programs or write new ones to satisfy user requirements
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Programmers
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Experts on a specific type of technology such as databases or telecommunications
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Technical specialists
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Everyone who is affected by changes in a company's information system
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Systems stakeholders
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Name the 3 advantages of SDLC
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Control, accountability, error detection
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Name the 3 disadvantages of SDLC
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Inflexible, time consuming, expensive
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A group based tool for collecting user requirements and creating systems designs
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Joint application design (JAD)
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A development method that uses special tools and an iterative approach to rapidly produce a high-quality system *Like prototyping but produces parts of the final system
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Rapid application development (RAD)
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Development method that delivers functionality in rapid iterations requiring frequent communication, development, testing, and delivery
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Agile development
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Acknowledges the development problem cannot be fully understood or defined from the start so it focuses on maximizing the development team's ability to deliver iterations quickly and respond effectively to additional user requirements as they emerge
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Scrum approach
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A role in the scrum approach: maintains the process (replacing a project manager)
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Scrum master
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A role in the scrum approach: represents the business owners and any other stake holder in the project
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Product owner
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A role in the scrum approach: Cross-functional group of about 7 people who perform the actual analysis, design, coding, implementation, testing, etc...
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Team
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A development method that has the actual user develop their own applications for use
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End user development
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Approach that defines an initial list of user requirements, builds a prototype system and then improves the system in several iterations based on users' feedback
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Prototyping
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Case tools that provide a link between the upper CASE and lower CASE tools
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Integrated computer assisted software engineering (ICASE)
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Uses standard components to build applications
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Component-based development
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Does not begin with the task to be performed, but with aspects of the real world that must be modeled to perform that task
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Object oriented development
