EXXON'S EXPERIENCE WITH THE MICHAEL JACKSON DESIGN METHOD - Essay Example

This case involved a top-down decomposition designed to breakdown program functions into simpler data structures (Menard, 1980). Essentially, the data is reviewed by programming professionals to determine a more streamlined method of ensuring that all divisional data is incorporated into the new software design. This IS project also identified areas requiring adjustment or redevelopment which were not congruent with the interface between departments or which were not functional for business needs.

This was part of a walk-through solution which, when scrutinised, identify any problems with how the information systems have been designed. Eventually, this project ran through test scenarios to determine whether the development of the software packages were congruent with business needs. The outcomes to this new structured approach to changing software packages improved productivity in this work group by allowing for detailed coding to be assessed and tested in specific units and helped to improve budget guidelines with the establishment of meaningful checkpoints so as to assess the vulnerability of the new Exxon systems.

The new model also seems to have established a set of standardised criteria for assessing data systems. For example, the top-down decomposition improved the viability of the new information systems prior to testing, thus ensuring that the systems had been developed properly. The testing procedures used in the Exxon case did not act as tools to measure success. Instead, this project’s success could be measured by the ability of work teams to act autonomously during the project’s development, testing, and launch phases.

It does not appear that a great deal of management or lower-level personnel intervention was required of this IS project, thus some measure of success could be based on the development of skilled cross-functional teams with a clear vision of strategic goals and their