Megan Simpson, manager of western regional sales at the Whitefield Company, requested that the IS department develop a sales force communication and tracking system that would enable her to better keep up with her sales staff. Megan wanted to be able to post messages to her team on many topics, including sales tips and strategies, update them on the firm’s products, and point out changes in the competitive environment. She also wanted her team to be able to post responses to her posts plus their own ideas, update their schedules, and share their sales success stories.

Unfortunately, due to the massive backlog of work facing the Whitefield Company’s IS department, her request was given a low priority. After 6 months of inaction by the IS department, Megan decided to take matters into her own hands. Following the advice of friends, Megan set up a Word Press site to use as a sales force communication and tracking system.

Although it took longer than expected, Megan’s site has been “completed” for about 6 weeks. It still has many features that do not work very well, and some functions lead to dead ends. Members of the sales force initially were quite interested in the system. They quickly discovered, however, that the system was confusing and did not seem to provide many benefits, so their interest quickly waned. Megan’s assistant is so mistrustful of the scheduling information posted on the site that she has secretly gone back to using her old paper-based system of tracking the sales staff’s activities, since it is much more reliable.

Over dinner one evening, Megan complained to a systems analyst friend, “I don’t know what went wrong with this project. It seemed pretty simple to me. The IS guys gave me some suggestions for how I should approach this project, but it seemed like such an elaborate set of steps and tasks. I didn’t think all that really applied to this small system. I just thought I’d set up the basics for the system and then tweak it around until I got what I wanted without all the fuss and bother of the approach the IS guys were pushing. I mean, doesn’t that just apply to their big, expensive system projects?” To understand where Megan went wrong, apply what you know about the SDLC to answer the following questions:

A. Planning:

i. What is the purpose of the Planning Phase for a project such as this?

ii. What are the typical outcomes of the Planning Phase?

iii. How did not doing this step affect Megan’s project outcome?

B. Analysis:
i. What is the purpose of the Analysis Phase?
ii. What is the key outcome produced during the Analysis Phase?
iii. In what ways do you think this project was hurt by not going through a typical Analysis Phase?

C. Design:
i. What is the purpose of the Design Phase?
ii. How do you think this project could have been improved by going through a typical Design Phase?
iii. Do you think Megan’s assistant and sales force members could have helped at all during the design phase?
If so, how?
D. Implementation:
i. What type of work is done in the Implementation Phase for a project like this?
ii. What is usually done during the Implementation Phase to ensure that the users of the system are satisfied with it?
iii. Megan’s approach to “construction” was to throw something together and “tweak it around.” How do you think that approach contributed to the problems she is now experiencing with her project?