System

A collection of components that work together to realize some objective forms a system. Basically there are three major components in every system, namely input, processing and output. 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 demands that some output is produced as a result of processing the suitable inputs.

A system is a group of elements working together to achieve a common goal. These elements are related to each other in the work that they carry out. They communicate with each other in order to coordinate and control the delivery of the total work of the system.

Further system is part of large system.

Need of learning systems concepts

To identify the objective of the system - what the system is aimed at achieving To identify the components of the system To identify what are the roles each component is performing in helping the overall system to achieve common goal To identify how these components communicate with each other to work as a team. To relate the knowledge of this system to a similar other system and thereby gain knowledge of that system faster To identify the error in new systems much faster

Characteristic of System
As per the definition of System we have following characteristics: The system works to achieve a common Goal eg. Goal of traffic system is to facilitate road with high safety and speed to all the road users equally in a fair manner. The system has several components working together to contribute their respective part to meet the overall objective of the system. Together they all, the system is said to be working. Eg. Traffic system has the vehicle driver signals, traffic police etc as element of system. If any of the components is missing or not working as desired, it affects the performance of the system as a whole. Thus one can identify all the necessary tasks that all the components together are required to perform, so that entire system meet its goal. The system components communicate with each other and you will be able to identify what they communicate with each other (DATA), when (EVENT), and what is purpose of the communication , such as co-ordinate the work or control the work etc.

Elements of sytem
the role of system analyst is to design a system. To construct a system, following key elements must be considered Output & inputs Processor Control Feedback Environment Boundaries and interface

Classification of System
There are various types of system. To have a good understanding of these systems, these can be categorized in many ways. Some of the categories are open or closed, physical or abstract and natural or man-made information systems, which are explained next. Classification of systems can be done in many ways.

Physical or Abstract System

Physical systems are tangible entities that we can feel and touch. These may be static or dynamic in nature. For example, take a computer center. Desks and chairs are the static parts, which assist in the working of the center. Static parts don't change. The dynamic systems are constantly changing. Computer systems are dynamic system. Programs, data, and applications can change according to the user's needs. Abstract systems are conceptual. These are not physical entities. They may be formulas, representation or model of a real system.

Open Closed System

Systems interact with their environment to achieve their targets. Things that are not part of the system are environmental elements for the system. Depending upon the interaction with the environment, systems can be divided into two categories, open and closed. Open systems: Systems that interact with their environment. Practically most of the systems are open systems. An open system has many interfaces with its environment. It can also adapt to changing environmental conditions. It can receive inputs from, and delivers output to the outside of system. An information system is an example of this category. Closed systems: Systems that don't interact with their environment. Closed systems exist in concept only.

Man made Information System

The main purpose of information systems is to manage data for a particular organization. Maintaining files, producing information and reports are few functions. An information system produces customized information depending upon the needs of the organization. These are usually formal, informal, and computer based. Formal Information Systems: It deals with the flow of information from top management to lower management. Information flows in the form of memos, instructions, etc. But feedback can be given from lower authorities to top management. Informal Information systems: Informal systems are employee based. These are made to solve the day to day work related problems. Computer-Based Information Systems: This class of systems depends on the use of computer for managing business applications.

Information System
In business we mainly deal with information systems we'll further explore these systems. We will be talking about different types of information systems prevalent in the industry. Information system deals with data of the organizations. The purposes of Information system are to process input, maintain data, produce reports, handle queries, handle on line transactions, generate reports, and other output. These maintain huge databases, handle hundreds of queries etc. The transformation of data into information is primary function of information system. These types of systems depend upon computers for performing their objectives. A computer based business system involves six interdependent elements. These are hardware (machines), software, people (programmers, managers or users), procedures, data, and information (processed data). All six elements interact to convert data into information. System analysis relies heavily upon computers to solve problems. For these types of systems, analyst should have a sound understanding of computer technologies.

Types of Information System

The information system aims at providing detailed information on a timely basis throughout the organization so that the top management can take proper and effective decisions. The information system cuts across departmental lines and help achieving overall optimization for the organisation. The organisation is viewed as a network of inter-related sub-systems rather than as a hierarchy of manager-subordinate relationship. The information system can be of two types:

Integrated information system Distributed information system

(a) Integrated Information System

The integrated information system is based on the presumption that the data and information are used by more than one system in the organization and accordingly, the data and information are channeled into a reservoir or database. All the data processing and provision of information is derived and taken from this common database. The development of an integrated information system requires a long-term overall plan, commitment from management at all levels, highly technical personnel, availability of sufficient fund, and sophisticated technology. It also requires adequate standby facilities, without which the system is doomed to failure. Because of its integrated component, the modification to the system is quite difficult and the system development takes a fairly long time.

(b) Distributed Information System

There are opinion that development of an integrated information system is embodied with several practical problems and therefore, not feasible. This view has been reinforced by the failure of integrated systems in various large organizations. The concept of a distributed information system has emerged as an alternative to the integrated information system. In the distributed information system, there are information sub-systems that form islands of information systems. The distributed information system aims at establishing relatively independent sub-systems, which are, however, connected through communication interfaces. Following are the advantages of the distributed information system: The processing equipment as well as database are dispersed, bringing them closer to the users. It does not involve huge initial investment as is required in an integrated system. It is more flexible and changes can be easily taken care of as per users requirements. The problem of data security and control can be handled more easily than in an integrated system. There is no need of standby facilities because equipment breakdowns are not as severe as in an integrated system.

The drawbacks of the distributed system are: It does not eliminate duplication of activities and redundancy in maintaining files. Coordination of activities becomes a problem. It needs more channels of communication than in an integrated system.

It is possible to consider several alternative approaches, which fall between the two extremes - a completely integrated information system and a totally independent sub-system. It is to be studied carefully what degree of integration is required for developing an information system. It depends on how the management wants to manage the organization, and the level of diversity within the organization.

System Development Life Cycle

The system development life cycle is a structured sequence of phases for implementing a system. The process of reaching the state of computerization is called systems development. Systems development process consists of 7 steps called phases. These phases are collectively known as SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE (SDLC). Systems development process should be: Cost effective (economical) Efficient Controllable Flexible Universally applicable Correctable mid-course.

PHASES IN SDLC:
1. INITIAL INVESTIGATION: a system is made to solve a problem. The process therefore has to start with recognition of the need. This step is called problem definition. In this phase the key question is to be answered is what is the problem that the system has to solve?. This phase involves initial investigation, survey and should result in a clear statement of the scope & objective of the system. It should give a clear idea of what is expected from the system in terms of performance criteria. 2. FEASIBILITY STUDY: It is concerned with the question: The requirement from the proposed system. The resource that proposed system will requires Whether the proposed system meet the requirement Whether the proposed system will be implemented Whether the cost of creating and operating the proposed system is justified by the benefits. The feasibility study is basically the test of the proposed system in the light of its workability, meeting users requirements, effective use of resources and of course, the cost effectiveness. These are categorized as technical, operational, economic and schedule feasibility.

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 to find the Return on Investment (ROI). This also defines the resources needed to complete the detailed investigation. The result is a feasibility report submitted to the management. This may be accepted or accepted with modifications or rejected. The system cycle proceeds only if the management accepts it. 3.ANALYSIS: Systems analysis is a process of collecting actual data, understand the processes involved, identifying problems and recommending feasible suggestions for improving the system functioning. This involves studying the business processes, gathering operational data, understand the information flow, finding out bottlenecks and evolving solutions for overcoming the weaknesses of the system so as to achieve the organizational goals. System Analysis also includes subdividing of complex process involving the entire system, identification of data store and manual processes. The major objectives of systems analysis are to find answers for each business process: What is being done How is it being done, who is doing it, When is he doing it, Why is it being done and How can it be improved? It is more of a thinking process and involves the creative skills of the System Analyst. It attempts to give birth to a new efficient system that satisfies the current needs of the user and has scope for future growth within the organizational constraints. The result of this process is a logical system design. Systems analysis is an iterative process that continues until a preferred and acceptable solution emerges. Prepare a detailed Analysis Phase Report, the contents of which are: a) Objectives definition b) Definition of constraints c) Names of inputs, outputs and procedures d) Storage requirements e) Controls, checks, and security procedures f) Plan for design, development and implementation phases g) Definitions of responsibilities for data entry, data updation, error control, etc. h) Definitions of time constraints.. 4. DESIGN PHASE: 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 a most crucial phase in the development of a system. Normally, the design proceeds in two stages:

preliminary or general design Structure or detailed design

Preliminary or general design: In the 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. If the project is still considered to be feasible, we move to the detailed design stage. Structure or Detailed design: In the detailed design stage, computer oriented work begins in earnest. 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. There are several tools and techniques used for designing. These tools and techniques are:

Flowchart Data flow diagram (DFDs) Data dictionary Structured English Decision table Decision tree

5. DEVELOPMENT PHASE: The objective of this phase is to obtain an operational system, fully documented. The main activities in this phase are: i. Coding the programs - i.e. writing programs based on user specifications in the design phase. ii. Test programs for errors - individually. iii. Debug the programs - identify errors and correct them. iv. Test the system as a whole unit. v. Test with historical data. vi. Document the system. Documents are in the form of three manuals: a. User manual for user Dept. b. System manual for Analyst/Programmers c. Operations manual for operations 6. IMPLEMENTATION PHASE: In this phase, the old system is replaced by the new system. The activities required are: training the users and operators, and conversion from old system to new system. User training involves Document preparation - training how to prepare documents Training on data correction - what sort of errors can come up and how to correct them. Interpretation of output

Operator's training involves Data entry Installation of a new computer system, terminals, and data entry equipment Using the equipment Training on data handling Training on common malfunctions Training on systems maintenance like formatting disks, equipment cleaning, etc.

7. MAINTENANCE PHASE: Maintenance is necessary to eliminate errors in the system during its working life and to tune the system to any variations in its working environments. It has been seen that there are always some errors found in the systems 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. 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