IS 274

OBJECT ORIENTED ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

Lecture 1
Introduction to Computer Systems

2 December 2019 Dr. E. A. Kalinga - CoICT|UDSM 1

What are to be Covered
• What is a system
• Types of systems
—Automated systems
• Participants to system development
• System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
What is a System?
• General definition:
—A system is a collection of components that
work together to realize some objective
forms of a system
—A system may include software,
mechanical, electrical and electronic
hardware and be operated by people.
• Basically there are three major components
in every system, namely input,
processing and output.
 What is a System?
• In a system the different components are connected
with each other and they are interdependent.
—For example, human body represents a complete
natural system
—We are also bound by many national systems such as
political system, economic system, educational
system and so forth
• The objective of the system demand that some
output is produced as a result of processing the
suitable inputs.
• There are many types of systems that we come into
contact with everyday
• The one we are interested with is an automated,
computerized information systems
Types of Systems
• There are many different types of systems, two
main categories are:
1. Natural systems, are not made by people, they
exist in nature
a. Physical systems; e.g. solar system, rivers
b. Living systems; encompass all of the animals, plants
as well as own human race.
2. Man-made Systems, e.g.
− transportation systems; networks of highways, canals,
airlines
− Communication systems: telephone, telex
− Financial systems: accounting, inventory, general
ledger
− Learning Systems: Learning Management Systems
 Automated systems
• Most of man-made systems include computers today
• Automated systems are the man-made systems that
interact with or are controlled by one or more computers
• The one we are interested with is an automated,
computerized information systems
• We can distinguish many different kinds of automated
systems, but they all tend to have five basic components:
1. Infrastructure: The physical and hardware system
components, e.g. servers, computer hardware: CPUs,
disks, terminals, etc
2. Computer software: The programs and operating
software of a system, including operating systems,
database systems, utilities, and applications (financial
systems)
Automated systems
• Common components of automated systems cont…:
3. People: to operate the system, to provide its inputs and
consume its outputs, and to provide manual processing
activities in a system. E.g. programmers, operators, users
of the systems and management
4. Data: The information captured, used, and supported by
a system, including files and databases. The information
that the system remembers over a period of time.
5. Procedures: The programmed and manual guidelines,
instructions, and steps involved in operating systems,
including information technology (IT) procedures for
backup and maintenance. Formal policies and instructions
for operating the system.
• Business systems use these system components to
transform data inputs into information outputs.
 Participants to System Development
• In a typical systems development project, there are
the following major categories of players:
1. User
2. Management
3. Systems analysts
4. Systems designers
5. Programmers
6. Operations personnel
 The User
• The most important player in the systems is the person (or
group of people) for whom the system is being built
• He or she is the person whom will be interviewed, often in
great detail, to learn what features the new system must
have to be successful
• The user is the “owner” in the sense that he or she receives,
or inherits-and thus owns- the system when it is finally built
• The user is also the “customer” in at least two important
respects:
1. As in so many other professions, “the customer is always
right”, regardless of how demanding, unpleasant, or
irrational he or she may seem.
2. The customer is ultimately the person paying for the system
and usually has the right and/or the ability to refuse to pay if
he or she is unhappy with the product received.
 The User
• Users can be as per the job category:
—Operational users: people most likely to have
the most day-to-day contact with the new system
—Supervisory users are employed in a
supervisory capacity: they usually manage a
group of operational users and are responsible
for their performance.
—Executive-level users: are generally not
directly involved in a systems development
project, unless the project is so large and so
important that it has a major impact on the
organization.
 Management
• Management is a rather loose term. There are several different
kinds of managers:
• User managers: managers in charge of several people in the
operational area where the new system will be used. These are
usually middle-level managers who want systems that will
produce a variety of internal reports and short-term trend
analyses.
• Executive development project (EDP)/MIS managers: the
person in charge of the systems development project itself, and
the higher-level managers who are concerned with the overall
management and allocation of resources of all the technical staff
in the systems development organization.
• General management: top-level managers who are not
directly involved in the EDP organization or in the user
organization. This might include the president and/ or chairman
of the organization
 Systems Analysts
• The system analyst is a key member of any systems
development project
• In a boarder sense, the systems analyst plays several
roles:
1. Archaeologist and scribe: As a systems analyst, one
of the main jobs is to uncover detail and to document
business policy that may exist only as “tribal tradition”,
passed down from generation to generation of users.
2. Innovator: The systems analyst must separate the
symptoms of the user’s problem from the true causes.
With his or her knowledge of computer technology, the
analyst must help the user explore useful, new
applications of computers.
 Systems Analysts
3. Mediator: The systems analyst who often finds
himself in the middle of users, managers,
programmers, auditors, and various other players,
all of whom frequently disagree with one another.

4. Project leader: Because the systems analyst is

usually more experienced than the programmers
on the project, and since he is assigned to the
project before the programmers begin working,
there is a natural tendency to assign project
management responsibilities to the analyst.
 Systems designers
• The systems designer is the person (or group of
people) who will receive the output of the systems
analysis work
• His or her job is to transform a technology-free
statement of user requirements into a high-level
architectural design that will provide the framework
within which the programmer can work
• In many case, the systems analyst and the systems
designer are the same person, or member of the
same unified group of people
• It is important for the systems analyst and systems
designer to stay in close touch throughout the
project.
 Programmers
• Particularly on large systems development projects, the
systems designers are likely to be a “buffer” between
the systems analysts and the programmers
• The systems analysts deliver their product to the system
designers, and the system designers deliver their
product to the programmer
• There is another reason why the systems analyst and
the programmer may have little or no contact with each
other:
—work is often performed in a strictly serial sequence in
many systems development projects
• The work of systems analysis takes place first and is
completely finished before the work of programming
begins.
Operations personnel
• The operations personnel are responsible for the
computer center, telecommunications network,
security of the computer hardware and data, as
well as the actual running of computer programs,
mounting of disk packs, and handling of output
from computer printers
• All this happens after a new system has not only
been analyzed and designed, but has also been
programmed and tested.
 System Development Life-Cycle (SDLC)
• System life cycle is an organizational process of
developing and maintaining systems
• System life cycle helps in establishing a system project
plan, because it gives overall list of processes and sub-
processes required for developing a system.
• System development life cycle (SDLC) means
combination of various activities
• In other words we can say that various activities put
together are referred as system development life cycle
• In the System Analysis and Design (Software
Engineering) terminology, the system development life
cycle reffers to software development life cycle
(SDLC) .
 System Development Life-Cycle (SDLC)
• The phases in the system development life cycle can be
identified by different names.
• Also, there are no definite rules regarding what must be
included
1. System study
2. Feasibility study
3. System analysis
4. System design
5. Coding
6. Testing
7. Implementation
8. Maintenance
 1. System Study
• System study is the first stage of system development life cycle
• It gives a clear picture of what actually the physical system is?
• In practice, the system study is done in two phases:
a. The preliminary survey of the system which helps in
identifying the scope of the system.
b. The more detailed and in-depth study in which the
identification of user’s requirement and the limitations and
problems of the present system are studied
• After completing the system study, a system proposal is
prepared and placed before the user
• The proposed system contains the findings of the present
system and recommendations to overcome the limitations and
problems of the present system in the light of the user’s
requirements.
System Study

• To describe the system study phase more

analytically, we would say that system study
phase passes through the following steps:
1. Problem identification and project
initiation
2. Background analysis
3. Suggestion or findings
System Study
• This phase also introduces
—The objectives of the initial investigation,
—The steps required to initiate an
investigation; the tasks involved in the initial
investigation, and the data gathering and
interviewing techniques
• It also includes information and exhibits that
should be in the initial investigation report, with
regard to "How the standards manual might be
used ?" and "why to do this after reading this
section.”
 2. Feasibility Study
• On the basis of result of the system study,
feasibility study takes place
• The feasibility study is basically the test of the
proposed system in the light of its workability,
meeting user’s requirements, effective use of
resources and the cost effectiveness
• The main goal of feasibility study is not to solve
the problem but to achieve the scope
• In the process of feasibility study, the cost and
benefits are estimated with greater accuracy
 Feasibility Study
• This phase may include some related sub-phases:
—Current physical model: The description of the
system as it is now, including the mechanisms used
to accomplish tasks (e.g., people, devices)

—Current logical model: The system description in

term of functions, processes, and data with the
mechanisms removed
—New Logical Model: The Current Logical Model
with new features added

—New Physical Mode: The Current Logical Model

with the various processes allocated to automation,
manual procedures, other mechanisms.
 3. System Analysis
• Analysis involved a detailed study of the current
system, leading to specifications of a new system.
• Analysis is a detailed study of various operations
performed by a system and their relationships
within and outside the system
• During analysis, data are collected on the
available files, decision points and
transactions handled by the present system.
• Interviews, on-site observation and
questionnaire are the tools used for system
analysis. More are meetings or during Joint
Application Design (JAD) sessions with a number
of people present.
 System Analysis
• The systems analysis phase is undertaken by one
or more systems analysts and
• Is used to identify the detailed system
requirements in order to produce a requirement
specification
• Requirement specification specifies what needs to
be included in the new system to meet the
system users’ requirements
• In order to develop the requirement specification,
requirement capture and modelling
activities are undertaken
 System Analysis
• System Analysis involve identifying what data
is needed by the system (inputs/outputs) and
the processes (business rules) which are
needed to process the data and produce the
required information outputs.
• Additionally, any performance and security
requirements will also be identified
• The main points to be discussed in system
analysis are:
—Specification of what the new system is to
accomplish based on the user requirements.
 System Analysis
• The main points to be discussed in system
analysis are cont.…:
—Functional hierarchy showing the functions
to be performed by the new system and their
relationship with each other.
—Function network, which are similar to
function hierarchy but they highlight the
functions which are common to more than one
procedure.
—List of attributes of the entities - these are
the data items which need to be held about
each entity (record)
 4. System Design
• Based on the user requirements and the detailed
analysis of a new system, the new system must be
designed.
• This is the phase of system designing. It is the most
crucial phase in the development of a system.
Normally, the design proceeds in two stages:
—Preliminary or general design
—Structure or detailed design
a. Preliminary or general design:
—The features of the new system are specified
—The costs of implementing these features and the
benefits to be derived are estimated
System Design
b. Structure or Detailed design:
— In the detailed design stage, computer oriented work
begins in deep
— At this stage, the design of the system becomes more
structured
— Structure design is a blue print of a computer system
solution to a given problem having the same
components and inter-relationship among the same
components as the original problem
— Input, output and processing specifications are drawn
up in detail
— In the design stage, the programming language and the
platform in which the new system will run are also
decided
 5. Coding
• After designing the system, the whole system is
required to be converted into computer
understanding language
• Coding the new system into computer
programming language does this
• It is an important stage where the defined
procedures are transformed into control
specifications by the help of a computer
language
Coding
• This is also called the programming phase in
which the programmer converts the program
specifications into computer instructions, which
we refer as programs.
• The programs coordinate the data movements
and control the entire process in a system.
• It is generally felt that the programs must be
modular in nature. This helps in fast
development, maintenance and future change,
if required.
 6. Testing
• Before actually implementing the new system
into operations, a test run of the system is done
removing all the bugs, if any

• It is an important phase of a successful system

• After codifying the whole programs of the

system, a test plan should be developed and
run on a given set of test data

• The output of the test run should match the

expected results.
Testing
• Using the test data following test run are carried
out:
a. Unit test
—When the programs have been coded and compiled
and brought to working conditions, they must be
individually tested with the prepared test data.
—Any undesirable happening must be noted and
debugged (error corrections).
b. System test
—After carrying out the unit test for each of the
programs of the system and when errors are
removed, then system test is done.
—At this stage the test is done on actual data.
 7. Implementation
• After having the user acceptance of the new system
developed, the implementation phase begins.
• Implementation is the stage of a project during
which theory is turned into practice
• During this phase, all the programs of the system
are loaded onto the user’s computer
• After loading the system, training of the user
starts. Main topics of such type of training are:
—How to execute the package
—How to enter the data
—How to process the data (processing details)
—How to take out the reports
 8. Maintenance
• Maintenance is necessary to eliminate errors in the
system during its working life and to tune the
system to any variations in its working environment
• It has been seen that there are always some errors
found in the system that must be noted and
corrected
• It also means the review of the system from time
to time. The review of the system is done for:
—knowing the full capabilities of the system
—knowing the required changes or the additional
requirements
—studying the performance
8. Maintenance
• In due course, when the system reaches a
point at which it is again no longer meeting
the needs of the organization, it may be
discarded and if new system is needed to
replace it the SDLC will be restarted

• i.e. If a major change to a system is needed, a

new project may have to be set up to carry
out the change. The new project will then
proceed through all the above life cycle
phases.
 Review Questions
1. What is system, give some definitions of
system
2. How do you distinguish natural systems and
man-made systems
3. List some automated systems and the rules to
build them up
4. Who participate in system development? Tell
the role of each of them
5. List general phases of the System
Development Life Cycle
6. Describe general phases of SDLC
 Review Questions
7. What is system development life cycle? What
are its components?
8. Describe means used to collect data for
software development
9. Describe the role of “testing” phase in the
SDLC