CSF analysis is a method developed to guide businesses in creating and measuring success. It is widely used for technology and architectural planning in enterprise IT. Critical success factors are those factors which the management of organizations must focus and manage effectively. For more such innovative content on management studies, join WeSchool PGDM-DLP Program: http://bit.ly/ZEcPAc

1. I.T. for Management
Section2
Chapter 6
Determining Information Need

2. Determining Information Need
Critical Success Factor (Overview)
CSF analysis is:
A method developed at MIT’s Sloan school
by John Rockart to guide businesses in
creating and measuring success
Widely used for technology and
architectural planning in enterprise I/T
A top-down methodology that is especially
suitable for designing systems as opposed to
applications
A reductionist method for going from an
abstract vision to concrete requirements
Cont….

3. Determining Information Need
What is Critical Success Factor
A key area where satisfactory performance is
required for the organization to achieve its goals
A means of identifying the tasks and requirements
needed for success
At the lowest level, CSFs become concrete
requirements
A means to prioritize requirements
Cont….

4. Determining Information Need
What is Critical Success Factor
Start with a vision: mission statement
Develop 5-6 high level goals
Develop hierarchy of goals and their success
factors
Leads to concrete requirements at the lowest level of
decomposition (a single, implementable idea)
Along the way, identify the problems being solved and
the assumptions being made
Cross-reference usage scenarios and problems
with requirements
Cont….

5. Determining Information Need
Start with a vision: mission statement
Develop 5-6 high level goals
Develop hierarchy of goals and their success
factors
Leads to concrete requirements at the lowest
level of decomposition (a single, implementable
idea)
Along the way, identify the problems being
solved and the assumptions being made
Cross-reference usage scenarios and problems
with requirements
Cont….

6. Determining Information Need
What is analysis?
Analysis is process of successively decomposing a
system into its constituent subsystem
Results of the Analysis
Mission statement
Hierarchy of goals and CSFs
Lists of requirements, problems, and assumptions
Analysis matrices
Problems vs. Requirements matrix
Usage scenarios vs. Requirements matrix
Solid usage scenarios Cont….

7. Determining Information Need
Three prominent methods of analysis of
information system are:
•Data flow method
•Decision Analysis
•Object Analysis
System study:
The system study is a formal process of
gathering every thing relevant from standpoint
of gathering clarity about the purpose &
functioning of a system

8. Determining Information Need
The System study can be conducted by
gathering following:
The user requirement document which outlines
the basic scope,purpose.
Any audit reports which can throw light on short
comings on present system
Tracing the workflow involves walking through
the system to understand how the physical work
or service is being delivered & how the
associated information flow is happening
One to one interview could be part of same
experience for tracking workflow ……Cont

9. Determining Information Need
Interviews have to be however to be planned
well getting time from busy executives
•Structured Questionnaires
Usually in the context of ERP systems and
other products organization builds standard
checklist
•Inspecting Transaction document and other
reports
browsing through an entire years transaction
document such as invoices ,purchase orders &
relevant documents provide a good insight into
what could happen at an operational level
Cont…..

10. Determining Information Need
•Many a times mangers & department heads
tend to describe a system from there past
experience & as such they may not be aware of
the details of operational aspects of the system
•It could also happen that even operational staff
may be new & there description may be
inaccurate
•It could so happen that the person concerned
may tend to describe situations which are far
from near past & therefore tend to forget some
significant situations which may have happened
in past ,but may occur any time in the future.
Cont…..

11. Determining Information Need
It is therefore always better to insist on a formal
review of old transactions documents and
reports.This would give insight on following
• The purpose of document
• Transaction volume & frequency
• Content of document
• Codification
• Redundant data elements
•Matching of output to input
•Redundancy
•Study of decision processes
•Modeling/prototyping
•Business events and business use cases
Cont…..

12. Determining Information Need
Documenting the facts gathering thru the system
study
Many a times an analyst may have done a great job
in collecting large amount of data about system
• Some tools used for documenting data are
Flow Charts
Grid charts
Analysis of Questionnaires
Decision Trees/Table
Data flow diagram(DFD)

13. Determining Information Need
Data Flow Diagram(DFD)
Data flow diagrams illustrate how data is processed
by a system in terms of inputs and outputs.
•Each process has a input(i.e dataflow)& a
output(dataflow)
•The process transforms from input to output
•The input may come from another process a store
of data or from external entity
•The output could go to another process,to an
external entity or get stored in a data store
Cont…..

14. Determining Information Need
Data Flow Diagram(DFD)
Symbols used are very simple & illustrated below

15. Determining Information Need
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 document
It provides template outlining the various aspect of a
system.The SRS is reviewed jointly with the user

16. Determining Information Need
End of Chapter 6