TheApply Your Knowledge section contains three mini$-$cases. Each case describes a situation, explains your role, and asks you to respond to questions by applying what you learned in the chapter.

Last Chance Securities

The IT director opened the department staff meeting today by saying, "I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that management approved the payroll system project this morning. The new system will reduce clerical time and errors, improve morale in the payroll department, and avoid possible fines and penalties for noncompliance. The bad news is that the system must be installed by January $1$st in order to meet new federal reporting rules, all expenses from now on must be approved in advance, the system should have a modular design if possible, and the vice president of finance would like to announce the new system in a year$-$end report if it is ready by mid$-$December."

Tasks

Why is it important to define the project scope? How would you define the scope of the payroll project in thiscase?

Review each constraintand identify itscharacteristics: present versus future, internal versus external, and mandatory versus desirable.

What questions would you ask to determine the feasibility of this project?

Given the time constraints, could you shorten any of the typical steps in the preliminary investigation? Which ones? Explain your answer.