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Unit 2: Managing Application Development Portfolio and Project Review & Selection

(AI), in particular, have dealt with planning as state transition. The Plan and Act steps deal Notes
with the transition from the current state to a desired state.
For example, in the new product development process, the current state of the process
could be a cycle time of 130 days. The desired state could be a cycle time of 80 days. The
Plan step, using the knowledge repository and inference mechanisms of EPS, would
generate alternatives for transitioning from the current state (cycle time of 130 days) to the
desired state (cycle time of 80 days).

These alternatives are implemented in the form of business transactions by Enterprise
Applications (in this case, perhaps a PLM application). The Check step determines whether
the desired state (actual cycle time of 80 days) was achieved. If not, the Act step, enabled by
appropriate EPS components, generates a set of alternatives to close the gap. At the heart
of EPS would be knowledge representation schemes, inference mechanisms, search
strategies and heuristic reasoning mechanisms.
The need for EMS is now being filled by manual, cumbersome and unreliable methods.
Most often the success of reasoning is dependent on a few experts and intuition. Some
smart companies have written bespoke applications that perform the function of EMS, but
are finding such applications incredibly difficult to maintain and grow.
The EMS architecture and EPS in specific will draw significantly on techniques of AI and
computational sciences. There has been some disappointment in the industry with the use
of these techniques in the not-too-distant past. With Enterprise Applications acting as a
solid bedrock of data, elegant user interfaces, and the dramatic reduction in the cost of
computing with an equally dramatic rise in computing power, there is a strong case for
revisiting extant assumptions and feelings about intelligent search and planning techniques.
Knowledge Management
Clearly data management now is a victim of the law of diminishing returns. New
incremental investments in data management are returning less and less. The competitive
differentiation offered to early adopters of Enterprise Applications has been all but
eliminated. True competitive advantage consists in the intelligent management of a
corporation’s specific problem-solving knowledge that gives it an edge. The manufacturing
efficiencies of Dell, the management of cost per seat-mile of Southwest and Wal-Mart’s
supply chain management knowledge, empowered by technology, give them their
competitive advantage — not run-of-the-mill Enterprise Applications.
Knowledge Management, which is the orderly encapsulation, perpetuation and deployment
of such critical knowledge, is vital to foster a firm’s competitiveness. Enterprise
Management Systems (EMS) provide a management and technology framework for
superior Knowledge Management.

(The author is Founder and CEO of Anantara Solutions Private Limited. TM Enterprise
Management Systems (EMS) and Enterprise Planning Systems (EPS) are trademarks under
application by Anantara Solutions Private Limited.)

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2007/06/19/stories/2007061900710900.htm
2.3 Project Selection

System analysts do not start working on any projects they desire. They receive a lot of request
from the management for starting different type of the projects. When projects are formally
requested, the systems analysts, under the managements direction, conduct a preliminary

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