Analyzing System Challenges in Business Intelligence: Case Studies and Team Dynamics

1. INFO 380Information Systems Analysis and Management Instructor: Greg Hay TA: Yuan Lin

2. Agenda: Session 11 • Announcements • Case Study 1: Chicago Public Schools • Case Study 2: Flexcar • Project Teams\Scrum

3. Announcements • Extra Credit Write-up: Due Thursday Feb 17 • Business Intelligence (BI) is an emerging component of IT industry; what are some challenges of this segment? • Why do a higher percentage of BI projects fail over other IT projects?* • Same drill: ~700 words, cite sources • Value is .5% of final grade * Instructors opinion

4. Announcements • Weekly write-up #7 • Dilemma on release of Pentagon Papers • Many issues regarding systems and information • Security, fraud, ethics, propaganda, ‘Group Think’, freedom of press, failure of systems and others • Discussion on Thursday February 24 • Be familiar with the events outlined in podcast • http://www.bobedwards.info/ftopic980.html

5. Announcements • Use Case Analysis Report: Due February 22 • Describes the client business work processes • Intended to focus teams on user requirements • Identify the following: • Actors • Stakeholders • Precondition • Typical course of events

6. Announcements • Quiz: Tuesday February 22 • Case study about a non-profit organization • Quiz: work systems analysis process as a team • Who are the stakeholders? • What questions need to be asked? • What are some of the constraints? • What are the development priorities? Why? • Where is the complexity?

7. Announcements • Guest Speaker: Thursday February 17 • Shawn Plaster, Owner of Plaster Group

8. Questions?

9. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Consider the following: • Preliminary Problem Statement • 3 System Improvement Objectives

10. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Customer Profile • Third largest school district in US • 407,000 students • 665 schools • 22,000 classrooms

11. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Problem Profile • State Legislature mandated attendance keeping • Every hour • AWOL students identified • Parents and central office notified within 15 minutes

12. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Project Profile • Three vendors working the solution • Hardware • Large well-respected ‘big iron’ provider • Application • Focused on education suite • Platform • Well-known O/S + database

13. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Project Profile • Centralized Database • Server in each building • PC in every classroom

14. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Project Status • Symptoms • System overwhelmed • Hardware ‘locks-up’ • Teachers cannot always connect • When they can, attendance takes 5 minutes

15. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Customer Unhappy • Vendors blaming each other • Hardware vendor • “we host applications much more complex than this” • must be application

16. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Customer Unhappy • Vendors blaming each other • Application vendor • “we’ve never seen this problem before” • must be the database

17. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Customer Unhappy • Vendors blaming each other • Platform vendor • “we can write millions of transactions a minute” • must be hardware

18. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Perfect opportunity for a ‘great’ project • Absolutely messed up situation • Customer ready to throw away solution and sue • First time large district placed PCs in all classrooms • Project had ‘failed’

19. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Task: ‘Fix it’ • Six weeks until kids show up again • Thoughts • Who are stakeholders? • What are their motivations? • Who has the most to lose?

20. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Problem, Opportunity or Directive? • Why?

21. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Scope • Questions to ask?

22. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Scope • Questions to ask: • What kind of time, money and resources are available to reach a solution? • How will we know we have a successful project? • What has been done so far (‘gimme some history’)?

23. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Problem Analysis • What to do here?

24. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Problem Analysis • Determine • What are the symptoms the system is overwhelmed? • What are potential causes? • What is the root cause? • What are customer’s improvements objectives?

25. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Problem Revisited • Attendance-taking is a bottleneck • Taking way too long or not being done • Users frustrated • Central system often busy\unavailable • Process takes 5 minutes or more • School board and legislature applying pressure • 15 million dollars spent already…make it work

26. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Requirements Analysis • Determine • What does the system have to provide?

27. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Requirements Analysis • Determine • What does the system have to provide? Collect attendance hourly to identify AWOL students

28. How do we improve our odds of success?

29. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Solution Review • Issues • Application architected for 10-15 simultaneous users • Did not scale to 22,000 users

30. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Solution Review • WHY? • Too much simultaneous work • Poor design of application wasted ‘trips’ to database • Loading class roster (every hour) • Updating Central database (every hour) • Looking at individual student trends (every hour) • Loading a charts/graphs

31. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Solution Review • Other Issues that were resolved • Application updating individual records immediately • Application had business rules on the database • Did not direct traffic in middle-tier

32. Case Study: Chicago Public Schools • Solution Review • Fixes • Application re-architected: 1 trip to central server • Roster cached on classroom PCs • Updates queued at central server (asynchronous) • Attendance trends not sent back automatically • Notification sent to local school office first • Student updates • Better management of individual transaction locking

33. Questions?

34. Case Study: Flexcar • Profile • Car-sharing co-op (back in the day) • Now merged with Zip Car • Founded in Seattle 1998

35. Case Study: Flexcar • Profile • Membership structure • $40 annual fee • $7 - $10 and hour • Cost efficiencies! ‘Free’ perks are attractive • Gas • Insurance • Vehicle maintenance • Prime parking spaces

36. Case Study: Flexcar • Problem • Reservations are a bottle-neck • taken over automated phone • Users frustrated • Phone system often busy\unavailable • Process takes 5 minutes and cumbersome • Cars are not always where they are supposed to be • Miscommunication over billing • Other people exceed rental times, impact others

37. Case Study: Flexcar • Problem, Opportunity or Directive? • Why?

38. Case Study: Flexcar • Scope • Questions to ask?

39. Case Study: Flexcar • Scope • Questions to ask: • What kind of time, money and resources are available to reach a solution? • How will we know we have a successful project? • What has been done so far (‘gimme some history’)?

40. Case Study: Flexcar • Scope • More questions to ask: • “Phone system seems to be a problem; what is the impact of the system busy\unavailable?” • “What is the definition to the customer of the registration process being cumbersome?”

41. Case Study: Flexcar • Scope • More questions to ask: • “Why are cars are not always where they are supposed to be?” • “What are the common issues regarding the miscommunication over billing”

42. Case Study: Flexcar • Problem Analysis • Determine • What are the symptoms the system is overwhelmed? • What are potential causes? • What is the root cause? • What are customer’s improvements objectives?

43. Case Study: Flexcar • Requirements Analysis • Determine • What does the system have to provide?

44. Case Study: Flexcar • Requirements Analysis • Determine • What does the system have to provide? Provide reservations over Internet Track location of vehicles Remote entry

45. How do we improve our odds of success?

46. Case Study: Flexcar • Scope • Questions to ask: • Who are stakeholders? • What are their motivations? • Constraints: What kind of time, money and resources are available to reach a solution? • How will we know we have a successful project? • What has been done so far (‘gimme some history’)?

47. Case Study: Flexcar • Problem Analysis • Determine • What are symptoms system is overwhelmed? • Evidence that there is a demand for this opportunity? • What are the alternatives? • What is the expected ROI? • What is the ‘BANG!’?

48. Project Teams • Identifying Use Cases • SCRUM meeting at end of class • Focus on use cases • Information Gaps?

49. Where We Are Heading • Proposal • Table of Contents • Executive Summary • Introduction • Client Overview • Problem Statement • Methodology • Analysis and Findings • Opportunities • Proposal • Recommendations and Conclusions • Appendix (exhibits) Presentation