THE ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS EXECUTIVES

DIPLOMA – PART 2
SA

Systems Analysis

afternoon 28 May 2004

1 Time allowed: 3 hours.

2 Answer any FOUR questions.

3 All questions carry 25 marks. Marks for subdivisions of questions are

shown in brackets.

4 No books, dictionaries, notes or any other written materials are

allowed in this examination.

5 Calculators are allowed providing they are not programmable and

cannot store or recall information. Electronic dictionaries and
personal organisers are NOT allowed.

6 Candidates who break ABE regulations, or commit any misconduct, will

be disqualified from the examinations.
 Answer any FOUR questions

Q1 Read through the following narrative carefully and then

create a single-level Logical DFD. Use and clearly define the
symbols that you were taught on your course. You should
state any assumptions that you make. Marks will be awarded
for tidy diagrams. (25 marks)

N.E.O.N., the newly privatised electricity company which

covers the bulk of the county of Northmoor, has a number of
important services to provide to the community as well as
accrue profits for shareholders. Its duty is to provide
electricity to householders and businesses within a region of
several thousand square miles, and this involves the
following responsibilities:

Firstly it must maintain all its existing equipment within the

area. This includes electricity substations at a number of
large sites, pole-mounted transformers, assorted switching
gear, and a large quantity of other electrical equipment at
various locations throughout the area. All this equipment
must be regularly tested, some of it requires regular
replacement of parts etc. To be able to carry out all these
tasks, data and information must be stored on the grid
structure, concerning stocks of equipment, including costs
and availability, and the status of the maintenance schedule.

Every year the organisation produces a full maintenance

schedule whereby, during the course of the year,
maintenance engineers will visit all the sites, and carry out
the required preventive maintenance. Admin. staff in the
Maintenance Department then organise the work and
distribute it to the engineers, who carry out all the necessary
work.

There is also the responsibility to provide electricity to new

properties being built in the area. A team from the Planning
Department within the company examines all new building
plans and proposals for domestic or industrial developments,
and they devise ways in which the electricity network can be
extended to cater for this extra need. Requests for new
electricity supplies come from both local authorities planning
new large scale housing and factory developments, or new
customers, both possibly requiring extension to the existing
grid.
 The Construction Department will then schedule the
necessary work of laying cables, setting up new sub-stations,
extending existing circuits, etc. Some of this work is done by
company engineers, but more and more of it is being put out
to relatively small local private electrical contracting firms.

The Planning Department is also responsible for the gradual

replacement of large and expensive pieces of equipment
which have come to the end of their natural life, or which
have been superseded by advances in technology. The
department is obviously required to integrate this with the
provision of extra capacity for the new developments.

A large part of the work of the company involves the

calculation of the electricity used by each customer, the
collection of payments for this provision, and emergency
services. However, these are considered to be outside the
scope of the study you have been required to carry out.

Q2 Since the beginnings of computer-based systems analysis

developed in the middle of the last century, there has been a
major change from the original ‘traditional’ approach to the
‘structured approach’.

(a) Outline the major problems which were identified with

the ‘traditional’ approach and which led to the
development of the ‘structured approach’. (12 marks)

(b) Describe the major features that are common to all

structured methods and structured approaches. (13 marks)
(Total 25 marks)
Q3 Considering the concept of the ‘Ideal Analyst’, the following
key attributes are regarded as ideals to which all analysts
should aspire:

(a) Problem evaluation ability;

(b) Planning skills;
(c) Perceptive of situations;
(d) Flexible in outlook;
(e) Good social skills;
(f) Stamina.

You are required to give outline examples of practical

applications of five of the key attributes above in the
day-to-day work of a systems analyst.
(5 marks for each of the five attributes)
(Total 25 marks)

Q4 Study carefully on page 5 the Entity Life History (ELH)

showing the life of a cheque account from initiation to
deletion.

(a) This simple ELH was created by you following a fact

finding interview. You now have to describe to the
original user what your diagram means so that the user
can agree with it (or not), that the procedure you have
portrayed is correct.

Your answer should take the form of an outline narrative

with emphasis on clear detailed descriptions of all the
various constructs that are shown on the diagram.
(Higher marks will be awarded for clear construct descriptions.)
(23 marks)

(b) What construct is missing from the ELH? (2 marks)

(Total 25 marks)
 Bank Account

Account Opened Account Life Account Closure

Transferred Changes to Changes to Cus- Old Account

New Account Account Closed Transferred
Account Account Details tomer Details

×
+ ×
+
Customer
Account Details Details

Account
Credited Account Debited Address Change Name Change

R1

Customer Death
QUIT FROM ANYWHERE TO R1
Q5 In the context of Entity Relationship Modelling:

(a) Why is its use so very important in the analysis stage of

any computer project? (6 marks)

(b) Describe the major elements of an Entity Model. (11 marks)

(c) Outline the process of Normalisation, clearly indicating

its purpose. (8 marks)
(Total 25 marks)

Q6 Systems analysts require three views of any system that they

are developing. These cover the way data flows, the entities
involved and the timing of the events and their effects that
occur in the processing involved.

(a) Briefly outline each of the three major tools that the
systems analyst will use. (9 marks)

(b) Once developed, what joint value do these tools have to

the systems analyst? (9 marks)

(c) Why is all this effort required at the analysis stage of a

computer project? (7 marks)
(Total 25 marks)
Q7 As a Business Systems Analyst you have to give a
presentation to the organisation which has contracted you to
improve their existing computer system.

(a) Using only main headings, create an agenda for your

presentation to the senior management of the
organisation of your proposals for updating their
computer system. (10 marks)

(b) List the key tasks in the planning and preparation that
you would have done prior to the presentation in order to
ensure success. (8 marks)

(c) List the possible visual aids you would use, outlining
their individual advantages and disadvantages. (7 marks)
(Total 25 marks)

Q8 Write short notes on five of the following topics:

(a) Case tool

(b) 1:M relationship
(c) Level 2 DFD
(d) Events and Effects
(e) Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
(f) User involvement (5 marks for each of five topics)
(Total 25 marks)
 D1 Grid Structure
Question 1

Equipment
D2
stock

Maintenance
D3
Schedule
D1
D4 Equipment Information
D5 Electricity
Grid
See the N.E.O.N. Logical DFD below:
Diploma – Part 2

Systems Analysis

D6 New Extension
Required
Examiner’s Suggested Answers
Question 2

Traditional vs Structured approach to systems development.

(a) Problems with the traditional approach:

(i) Large amounts of narrative documentation which acted as a barrier

between the users and the developers;

(ii) No ability to check whether the analysis and design tasks were
complete as cross-checking was difficult between analysis and design;

(iii) Due to a lack of continuity between various stages of analysis, and

between analysis and design, the original requirements could get lost
in the process;

(iv) Lack of flexibility of design so making maintenance and adaptability

very difficult;

(v) Traditional designs tend to regard H/W/S/W platforms as fixed,

whereas in practice they might change due to organisational changes
during systems development.

(b) Features of the structured approach:

(i) As data is more stable than process, there is a great emphasis on

getting the data structure correct;

(ii) A correct data structure can be modified to meet future requirements

more easily and is therefore more flexible;

(iii) Considerable use of diagrams which are more easily understood by

users and can quickly be modified by the use of CASE tools once they
have been created;

(iv) Diagrams reduce the risk of errors or omissions as errors on diagrams

are easier to spot than in narrative;

(v) By modelling process, data structures and behaviour, it is possible to

use these models to cross-check whether the design is complete;

(vi) Concentration on the business requirements not technological

innovation;

(vii) The use of 'structured English' to reduce the complexity of language;

(viii) Considerable user involvement;

(ix) Possible to define the training requirement for analysts and designers
giving both specialist and clients confidence in their ability and that
the work to be carried out will be done professionally.
Question 3

Ideal Analyst’s attributes.

(a) Problem evaluation: Have the ability to identify the reasons for a problem
and not the symptoms, ranging from interpersonal relationships,
bottlenecks in business systems, human interfaces with computer systems
or H/W or S/W problems.

(b) Planning skills: The ability to create sound plans and methods of
monitoring them, the use of estimation and planning techniques such as
Gantt and CPA; be sensitive to the ways-of-the-world and the problems that
they may bring.

(c) Perceptive of situations: Be aware of the undercurrents of interpersonal

relationships, organisational cultures and take these into account when
estimating, planning and making changes. Also the natural reluctance of
humans to any changes.

(d) Flexible in outlook: Be able to see and appreciate other people’s points of
view and respect them; accept that there are many ways of solving a
problem and evaluate problems carefully before making any decisions.

(e) Good social skills: Be able to meet the highest and lowest personnel in an
organisation, be able to communicate with them, orally, by diagrams or in
writing, at their level of comprehension; ability to work with others at the
business or technical level; be able to express thoughts, ideas, suggestions
and proposals clearly at the appropriate level.

(f) Have stamina: Have the strength of character to be able to work without
supervision for long periods of time, have great enthusiasm for your work,
keep up to date in your area of specialisation, be persistent in purpose and
be professional in all aspects of your behaviour.

Question 4

Narrative description of the ELH

(a) Entity Name shown at top of ELH:- Bank Account

(i) First line is a Sequence of structure boxes showing possible ways of

opening a bank account, its normal life and how it may be closed.

(ii) Below the Opening and Closing structure boxes are shown the two
selections/options events that are possible.

(iii) A parallel structure is used below the account’s life structure box
indicating that changes can occur at any time during the life of the
entity.
The star indicates iteration either zero or many times.
 (iv) The bottom row shows the events that can happen to the account or
the customer’s details.

(v) Quit from anywhere can be used to jump to another separate ELH. In
this case there is the possibility that a customer can die at an
unscheduled time! A separate ELH can be built to cover all the legal
aspects of a customer’s death whilst still holding a bank account.

(vi) Note how each construct, sequence, selection and iteration must
always be shown on a separate level within a given tree structure.

(b) State Indicators are missing.

Question 5

(a) ERM is very important as the final model will establish the base of data to
be used in an organisation for the future. As data is more stable than
process, it is more likely that this model will only require modification to
meet an organisation’s changing data needs. For this reason considerable
effort is used to ensure that the structure is correct. The use of
Normalisation techniques may also be used as a means of cross-checking
the validity of the ERM.

(b) Major elements are:

(i) The Entities, usually denoted by a rectangle with the singular name of
the entity inside;

(ii) The relationship between entities; the simplest is a line joining the
appropriate entities with symbols (‘crow’s feet’) at one or both ends of
the line denoting 1:M or M:N relationships. No ‘crow’s feet’ indicate a
simple 1:1 relationship.
There are a number of other symbols that might appear along the
connecting line depending on the symbol system in use. One system
uses a continuous or broken line, indicating some form of ‘optionality’
such as ‘must’ and ‘may’.
Exclusive and recursive relationships may also be marked by an arc
drawn across the relevant relationships or a loop when the entity is
related to itself. This relationship is often referred to as the ‘pig’s ear’.

(c) Normalisation is often carried out in vertical tabular form with four
columns.
Column 1: List all the attributes of a form or file under consideration;
Identify the keys;
Column 2: First Normal form: FNF/1NF: Remove repeating groups;
Column 3: Second Normal form: SNF/2NF: Separate out data that is not
dependent on the entire primary key;
Column 4: Third Normal form: TNF/3NF: Remove interdependence within
the key or data fields.
Question 6

Three models

(a) DFDs show flows of data between processes. Initial DFDs are physical
portraying the existing system. In the design stage, DFDs model the logical
model showing which processes and data stores must exist for the new
system to function.
ERD/LDSs show the entities that are necessary for the system to function.
Access paths between the entities are checked to establish whether the
data required by the functions are available. They can also be used to
establish the volumes of data involved.
They form the basis for the design of the database.
ELHs are developed to show how the functions behave over time as data is
changed by the various functional elements.

(b) These three models can be used to cross-check each other.

Data stores in the logical DFDs should correspond with the list of entities
shown on the ERD.
There should be correspondence between ELHs and the ERD.
ELHs should be checked against appropriate logical DFDs (probability
level 2 DFDs) for processing functionality.

(c) Studies have shown that time spent in careful analysis and design is more
likely to produce a successful computer based project. Research into why
systems fail shows that lack of careful analysis and design are the main
contributors.

Question 7

Presentation headings:

(a) Introduction; Background; Possible solution; Alternatives; Justification;

Impact on business; Summary; Questions; Seek commitment.

(b) Background reading; Interviews; Material selection; Canvassing support;

Room preparation; Handouts; Timing; Rehearsal.

(c) Whiteboard; Flipchart; OHP; 35mm slides; Video; PC presentation.

When deciding which media to use when making a presentation, the time
to prepare vs the contribution to the impact of the presentation must be
carefully considered.
Question 8

Short topic notes:

(a) Computer aided software/systems engineering tool. CASE is a software

package that supports the construction and maintenance of logical systems
specification models.

(b) 1:M relationship identifies the relationship between attributes of two

entities where an attribute of one entity relates to two or more attributes of
another entity e.g. one customer may purchase many products etc.

(c) Level 2 DFD displays the detailed processes of a single process displayed in
a Level 1 DFD.

(d) Events are shown in an ELH. For a given event there will be a
corresponding effect e.g., something changes – for example, an entity
attribute is changed.

(e) Traditional waterfall analysis and development model with a number of

clearly defined stages from project inception to completion.

(f) Users should always be involved as they are the customers, and have to
use the system when implemented. It is essential that they play an
important role in the development of their system as they will be the
ultimate user.