Systems Analysis & Design - Ch 1 - Project Initation

hello everyone in this video we'll be talking about project initiation or in other words how projects get started the learning objective for this video is as follows after watching students should be able to understand how systems

projects start and the terms associated with business Process Management let's talk about where is projects come from is projects should be started to fulfill a business need this

means it could enable a new business initiative or strategy support a merger or acquisition or fix a point of pain it could also utilize a new technology although invention of a new technology

is not a reason in and of itself to start an is Project is projects can also come as an outgrowth of business process management or

BPM business Process Management is a methodology used by organizations to continuously improve endtoend business processes sometimes this is formal and sometimes people do it informally

business Process Management can apply to either internal processes or or or processes that cross organizations benefits of business Process Management include enhanced process agility or in

other words being able to adapt to changes in customer demands process alignment with industry best practices and increase process efficiencies in other words the point of

business Process Management is to look at a process and the way your organization is carrying it out and see if there are ways that it can be improved business Process Management

includes a four step cycle first you define and map out or diagram the steps in your business process then you think about ways that you can improve on the steps that you've mapped out you can

also think about ways to eliminate or consolidate steps in that process that don't add value and finally you can create or adjust electronic workflows to match the improved process

Maps here's an example of a business process map there are many different diagrams tools and techniques for mapping out business processes but no matter how you map them out looking at

them visually can help you see more clearly where improvements can be made in your business processes let's use the example of a customer ordering process in talking about three different kinds of business

process management techniques the first is business process Automation in business process automation you create or adjust electronic workflows to match the improved process Maps or in other words

after you've mapped out your process and decided on ways to improve it you now use electronic means and tools to automate the process for example let's say that your organization used paper

forms when customers wanted to order a new product if you're changing your process so that customers now use electronic means you're doing business process Automation in business process

Improvement you study out your business process such as your customer ordering process and then you create new or redesigned processes to improve it this may or may not involve using new

technologies that enable the new process structures for example maybe in your old process customers would call into a customer service line to start their ordering process and then a sales rep

would later get in touch with them one Improvement might be having the customers contact the sales rep directly if this is a change that your organization sees as being more efficient then making that change in the

process is known as business process Improvement the third way to use business Process Management to improve your business processes is business process re-engineering this means that

you do a total overhaul of work processes for example let's say that your organization has customers facing many different departments for different customer service needs they call a help

desk for their technical issues they call a sales rep for their sales needs they call a marketing rep about a promotion let's say you decide to have your customers call one central place and store all of your customer

information in one centralized database system you completely reorganize the way that you interact with customers this is business process re-engineering any of these three tools business process

automation Improvement or re-engineering could lead to significant is projects being started once you see a strong business need or a requirement that you want to

be filled which may or may not be based in business Process Management you need someone to step up as a project sponsor the project sponsor is the driving force behind a project they

specify the overall business requirements they determine the overall business value and they formally request the project via a document called the system request the project sponsor might

be the person requesting a change or in some cases it might not don't get confused the project sponsor is not the systems analyst nor the project manager the project sponsor is not the one who

is in charge of the project just the one who sees the business need and is heavily involved to make sure that the project succeeds take a moment to pause the video and think about this question why

is the IT department or a person within the IT department Department often not the project sponsor of a systems development project again projects to develop new

system should be based on a business need not just on a technology often times the IT department is not aware of all the needs or processes that are going on in other departments let's sum up we've talked

about how systems projects start from a business need we've talked about business Process Management and we talked about a project sponsor being necessary in order for a project to succeed