MODULE 2

Systems Analysis and Design

Introduction
Systems Analysis and Design is an active field in which analysts repetitively
learn new approaches and different techniques for building the system more
effectively and efficiently. The primary objective of systems analysis and
design is to improve organizational systems. This course provides a basic
understanding of system characteristics, system design, and its development
processes. It is a good introductory guide that provides an overview of all
the concepts necessary to build a system. Here in this lesson will primarily
focus on System Analysis, which it conducts studying a system or its parts in
order to identify its objectives and System Design which focuses on how to
accomplish the objective of a system.

Course Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students are able to:

Contents of the Module

This module contains the following lesson/s:

 Lesson 3: System Planning

 Lesson 4: Structured Analysis

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Directions On How To Use The
Module Properly

1. In order to benefit profoundly from this module, please be guided by all

the key points presented below:
2. This module contains two (2) lessons. Each lesson is explained
substantively. Read the explanations thoroughly so that you could
understand the lesson fully.
3. On the first page of each lesson, you will find the specific learning
outcomes (SLOs) of each lesson. SLOs are knowledge and skills you are
expected to acquire at the end of the lesson. Read them carefully.
4. You must answer the Learning Activities/Exercises (LAEs). The LAEs
are designed to help you acquire the specific learning outcomes.
5. Feel free to chat, call, text or send an email message to me if you have
questions, reactions, or reflections about the contents or activities in the
module. (You can find my contact details in our group page.)
6. The Practice Task/Assessment and the Assignment shall be checked by
me.

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 Lesson 3: System Planning

Specific Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, the students are able to:
1. (A) Explain what is Requirements Determination
2. (K) Cite the different advantages of each of the Information
Gathering Techniques
3. (K) Identify the the two types of questionnaires
4. (S) Show an example and label the different Systems Models

Discussion

Major Activities In Requirement

Determination
Requirements Anticipation
It predicts the characteristics of system based on previous experience
which include certain problems or features and requirements for a new
system.

Requirements Investigation
It is studying the current system and documenting its features for further
analysis.

Requirements Specifications
It includes the analysis of data which determine the requirement
specification, description of features for new system, and specifying
what information requirements will be provided.

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 Information Gathering
Techniques

The main aim of fact finding techniques is to determine the information

requirements of an organization used by analysts to prepare a precise SRS
understood by user.

Ideal SRS Document should −

 be complete, Unambiguous, and Jargon-free.

 specify operational, tactical, and strategic information requirements.
 solve possible disputes between users and analyst.
 use graphical aids which simplify understanding and design

There are various information gathering techniques −

Interviewing
Systems analyst collects information from individuals or groups by
interviewing. The analyst can be formal, legalistic, play politics, or be
informal; as the success of an interview depends on the skill of analyst as
interviewer.

Questionnaires
This method is used by analyst to gather information about various
issues of system from large number of persons.

Review of Records, Procedures, and Forms

Review of existing records, procedures, and forms helps to seek insight
into a system which describes the current system capabilities, its
operations, or activities.

Observation
This is a method of gathering information by noticing and observing the
people, events, and objects. The analyst visits the organization to observe
the working of current system and understands the requirements of the
system.

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Joint Application Development (JAD)
It is a new technique developed by IBM which brings owners, users,
analysts, designers, and builders to define and design the system using
organized and intensive workshops. JAD trained analyst act as facilitator
for workshop who has some specialized skills.

Secondary Research or Background Reading

This method is widely used for information gathering by accessing the
gleaned information. It includes any previously gathered information
used by the marketer from any internal or external source.

Feasibility Study
Feasibility Study can be considered as preliminary investigation that helps
the management to take decision about whether study of system should be
feasible for development or not.

Steps Involved in Feasibility Analysis

The following steps are to be followed while performing feasibility

analysis:
 Form a project team and appoint a project leader.
 Develop system flowcharts.
 Identify the deficiencies of current system and set goals.
 Enumerate the alternative solution or potential candidate system
to meet goals.
 Determine the feasibility of each alternative such as technical
feasibility, operational feasibility, etc.
 Weight the performance and cost effectiveness of each candidate
system.
 Rank the other alternatives and select the best candidate system.
 Prepare a system proposal of final project directive to
management for approval.

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Learning Activities/Exercises 3
 Develop a questionnaire to gather information about various issues of
any system you can think of.

Example:

Practice Task/Assessment 3
1) Explain what is Requirements Determination
2) Give at least 2 advantages of each of the Information Gathering
Techniques.
3) What are the two types of questionnaires?
4) What are the five types of Feasibilities?

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Teacher Intervention
 To submit your Learning Activities/Exercises and Practice
Task/Assessment, scan the QR Code or click the link below:

READ ME!
Scan the QR Code or click the link below

https://forms.gle/LHxR44YUzzSQVqay8

Feedback To Assessment
Scoring Rubrics
Category 9-10 Points 6-8 Points 0-5 Point/s
Answers Clear, complete Correct yet Incorrect and
and correct incomplete or totally irrelevant
answer/s to the insufficient answer/s to the
question/s asked. answer/s to the question/s asked.
question/s asked.

Assignment

 Study in advance about Structured Analysis

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 Lesson 4: Structured Analysis

Specific Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, the students are able to:

1. (K) Identify the different attributes of Structured Analysis

2. (A) Examine the four components of a Decision Table
3. (S) Design or Draw an example of any of the following system
development tools and techniques and label it

Discussion
Analysts use various tools to understand and describe the information
system. One of the ways is using structured analysis.

What is Structured Analysis?

Structured Analysis is a development method that allows the analyst to
understand the system and its activities in a logical way.
It is a systematic approach, which uses graphical tools that analyze and
refine the objectives of an existing system and develop a new system
specification which can be easily understandable by user.

Structured Analysis Tools

During Structured Analysis, various tools and techniques are used for
system development. They are −

 Data Flow Diagrams

 Data Dictionary
 Decision Trees
 Decision Tables
 Structured English

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  Pseudocode

Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) or

Bubble Chart
It is a technique developed by Larry Constantine to express the requirements
of system in a graphical form.

 It shows the flow of data between various functions of system and

specifies how the current system is implemented.
 It is an initial stage of design phase that functionally divides the
requirement specifications down to the lowest level of detail.
 Its graphical nature makes it a good communication tool between
user and analyst or analyst and system designer.
 It gives an overview of what data a system processes, what
transformations are performed, what data are stored, what results are
produced and where they flow.

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Basic Elements of DFD
DFD is easy to understand and quite effective when the required design
is not clear and the user wants a notational language for communication.
However, it requires a large number of iterations for obtaining the most
accurate and complete solution.
The following table shows the symbols used in designing a DFD and
their significance −
Symbol Name Symbol Meaning

Square Source or Destination of Data

Arrow Data flow

Circle Process transforming data flow

Open Rectangle Data Store

Types of DFD

DFDs are of two types: Physical DFD and Logical DFD. The following table
lists the points that differentiate a physical DFD from a logical DFD.

Physical DFD Logical DFD

It is implementation dependent. It shows It is implementation independent. It focuses

which functions are performed. only on the flow of data between processes.

It provides low level details of hardware, It explains events of systems and data
software, files, and people. required by each event.

It depicts how the current system operates It shows how business operates; not how the
and how a system will be implemented. system can be implemented.

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Context Diagram
A context diagram helps in understanding the entire system by one DFD
which gives the overview of a system. It starts with mentioning major
processes with little details and then goes onto giving more details of the
processes with the top-down approach.
The context diagram of mess management is shown below.

Data Dictionary

A data dictionary is a structured repository of data elements in the

system. It stores the descriptions of all DFD data elements that is, details
and definitions of data flows, data stores, data stored in data stores, and
the processes.
A data dictionary improves the communication between the analyst and
the user. It plays an important role in building a database. Most DBMSs
have a data dictionary as a standard feature.

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Decision Trees
Decision trees are a method for defining complex relationships by
describing decisions and avoiding the problems in communication. A
decision tree is a diagram that shows alternative actions and conditions
within horizontal tree framework.
Decision trees depict the relationship of each condition and their
permissible actions.

Decision Tables

Decision tables are a method of describing the complex logical relationship

in a precise manner which is easily understandable.

 It is useful in situations where the resulting actions depend on the

occurrence of one or several combinations of independent
conditions.
 It is a matrix containing row or columns for defining a problem and
the actions

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Structured English

Structure English is derived from structured programming language which

gives more understandable and precise description of process. It is based on
procedural logic that uses construction and imperative sentences designed
to perform operation for action.
 It is best used when sequences and loops in a program must be
considered and the problem needs sequences of actions with
decisions.
 It does not have strict syntax rule. It expresses all logic in terms
of sequential decision structures and iterations.
For example, see the following sequence of actions −
if customer pays advance
then
Give 5% Discount
else
if purchase amount >=10,000
then
if the customer is a regular customer
then Give 5% Discount
else No Discount
end if
else No Discount
end if end if

Pseudocode

A pseudocode does not conform to any programming language and

expresses logic in plain English.
 It may specify the physical programming logic without actual
coding during and after the physical design.
 It is used in conjunction with structured programming.
 It replaces the flowcharts of a program.

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 Guidelines for Selecting
Appropriate Tools
Use the following guidelines for selecting the most appropriate tool that
would suit your requirements −

 Use DFD at high or low level analysis for providing good system
documentations.
 Use data dictionary to simplify the structure for meeting the data
requirement of the system.
 Use structured English if there are many loops and actions are
complex.
 Use decision tables when there are a large number of conditions
to check and logic is complex.
 Use decision trees when sequencing of conditions is important
and if there are few conditions to be tested.

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Learning Activities/Exercises 4
1) Design or Draw an example of any of the following system development
tools and techniques and label it;

 Data Flow Diagrams

 Data Dictionary
 Decision Trees
 Decision Tables
 Structured English
 Pseudocode

Practice Task/Assessment 4
1) Give at least two attributes of Structured Analysis?
2) What are the four components of a Decision Table?

Teacher Intervention
 To submit your Learning Activities/Exercises and Practice
Task/Assessment, scan the QR Code or click the link below:

READ ME!
Scan the QR Code or click the link below

https://forms.gle/Fn2QfFrqw2DRPtbJ7

16
Feedback To Assessment
Scoring Rubrics
Category 9-10 Points 6-8 Points 0-5 Point/s
Answers Clear, complete Correct yet Incorrect and
and correct incomplete or totally irrelevant
answer/s to the insufficient answer/s to the
question/s asked. answer/s to the question/s asked.
question/s asked.

Assignment

 Study in advance about System Design

REFERENCE

Tutorials Point. (n.d.). System Analysis and Design Tutorial. www.Tutorialspoint.Com.

Retrieved October 7, 2021, from

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/system_analysis_and_design/index.htm

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