DE LA SALLE JOHN BOSCO

COLLEGE
B.Sc. (Information Technology)

2nd Semester

SYSTEM ANALYSIS
AND DESIGN
Course References:
1. System Analysis and Design (10 th edition Global)
by: Kenneth E. Kendall & Julie E. Kendall ; ISBN: 1-292-28415
2. System Analysis and Design in a changing world (7 th edition)
by: Satzinger & Jackson & Burd ; ISBN: 978-305-11720-4
3. System Analysis and Design (12 th edition)
by: Shelly Cashman ; ISBN: 978-357-1178-1
4. System Analysis and Design (2022 series)
by: Prof. Dr. Girish Kathuria Amity Global Business School University
Vikas Publishing 2021 original published
 BLOCK II: SYSTEM ANALYSIS
UNIT 4 SYSTEM ANALYSIS

4.1 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you will be able to:

 Explain about the preliminary investigation

 Elaborate on the user’s information requirements
 Understand about the background analysis
 4.2 SYSTEM ANALYSIS

 It is the process of colleting and interpreting facts, identifying the problems, and decomposition of a system into its
components.

 It is conducted for the purposes of studying a systems or its parts in order to identify its objectives.
 It is a problem solving technique that improves the system and ensures that all the components of the system work
efficiently to accomplish its purpose.
 It is usually begins with a formal request known as system request.
4.2.1 Preliminary Investigation

- is the first phase of the systems development life cycle. The goal is to simply to identify and select a
project for development among all the proposals that are under consideration.

Objectives: is to answer the following questions:

1. What is business problem?
2. What are the major causes of the problem?
3. Is a new information system needed?
4. Is it a problem or an opportunity?
5. Is this a feasible system solution to this problem?
6. Can the problem be solved by improving the current information systems?
• The preliminary investigation phase sets the gathering information about the problem and the existing information system.

• This information is then used in studying the feasibility of the possible information systems solutions.

• The system analyst together with the stakeholder of the proposed projects will collect information about the project.

• The collected information has a wide scope and helps understand the size of the project, cost involved, and the intended
benefits. After the information is analyzed, a report is prepared to compare and review all the proposed projects. All the
proposed projects are analyzed and assessed on various criteria and feasibility studies carried out.

The activities involved in preliminary investigation are as follows:

1. Authorization to proceed: Proper authorization is taken from the relevant authorities to go ahead and investigate as the
results will highlight all the details of the organization.
2. Understanding the objectives of the request: It is essential for the analyst conducting the investigation to clearly
understand the objectives of the project, the benefit of the project, its future
scope and its importance to the organization.
3. Investigation: It is searching for information and analyzing the collected information keeping the obejctives of the
organization and the aims of the request in mind.

It entails the following procedure:

A. Review current system: The current system needs to be studied, the benefits and flaws are to
be clearly understood and analysed.
B. Identify needed information: The analyst needs to identify the information required for the
investigation and for doing so the following activities will be carried out:

 Organization charts and documents will be obtain and created, based on which the
analyst will study the following:
o Policy manuals
o User manuals o Organization charts
o Data input forms o System documentation
o Accounts information
o System audit and review
o System reports
o Reports and documentation of the current system
  The analyst will conduct interviews with all the people involved in the project, the senior managerial level as well as
the users. The interview process will help to bring out those issues which may not be available in documents and forms.
By conducting interviews the analyst will be able to explore and identify the exact problems in the systems, the new
requirements of the system and the expectations, opinions and insecurities will also surface during the process.
 Observing the current system in operation is the best way to fact finding. The analyst will be able to observe the
procedures, workload on the current system, actual gravity of the problems arising while in operation and the
environment in which the system is operating. The information gathered by the analyst by this method will allow for
better understanding

4. Project feasibility analysis: It is an important outcome of the preliminary investigation which determines
whether the system, for which the request has been made, is feasible or not. Feasibility study has three aspects
as follows:

a. Technical feasibility: This is related to the technicality of the project. e.g. Can it be done with existing equipment, the
current software package and the available human resources.

In case a new technology is required, it is possible to develop it further, it points out:

a. availability of necessary technology
b. technical capability
c. possibility of future upgradation if developed
d. technical guarantees for accuracy and reliability
5. Economic feasibility analysis: It is a kind of system to develop that gives some benefit in terms of financial return and a reasonable cost.
So, the E.F.
- address issues related to the creation of the system to make the cost affordable and acceptable.
- Financial benefits should be equal to or more than the cost of the system,
- The analyst should estimate the following:
- Cost of the full system investigation
- Cost of the hardware and software
- Benefits in the form of reduced costs of operation or fewer costly errors
- Cost if the proposed system is not developed.

6. Operation feasibility : This is related to its operational aspect wherein the working of the hardware, the software and the human resource is
to be taken into account.
Question is: will the system will work if it is developed and implemented.
another aspect is the human resource is whether there will be resistance from users who may
not agree to accept the changes.
Preliminary Investigation Report contains the ff:

• Introduction: Here the request and the report are introduced.

• Summary of request: The original system request is summarized so that there is an understanding of the reason why the investigation is
being carried out.

• Findings of the investigation: The findings will include a description of the real nature of problem(s), scope and constraints of the proposed
project.

• Recommendations: It will include what and why further action is required. Senior executives will make final decisions keeping in mind the
recommendations.

• Cost and time estimates: Further action includes an estimate of cost and time. The management should be aware of all costs whenever a new
system is installed or changes are made to the existing system.

• Expected benefits: The benefits of implementing the new system are highlighted.

• Appendix: It includes supporting data and information, list of interviews, documents or any other sources of information.
4.2.2 Determining the User’s Information Requirements

Interaction between the analyst and the user usually leads to an agreement about what information will be provided by the candidate system.

There are several reasons why it is difficult to determine user requirements:

1. Systems requirements change and user requirements must be modified to account for those these changes.
2. The articulation of requirements is difficult, except for experienced users. Functions and processes are not easily described.
3. Heavy user involvement and motivation are difficult. Reinforcement for their work is usually not realized until the implementation phase –
too long to wait.
4. The pattern of interaction between users and analysts in designing information requirements is complex.
4.2.3 Problem definition and Initiation

- usually contains some sort of problem statement, summarizes in a paragraph or two. This is
followed by a series of issues, or major, independent pieces of the problem.
- the issues are followed by a series of objectives or goals that match the issues. The objectives may be
specific or worded.
for example:
 What are the purpose of the business?
 Is the business profit or non-profit
 Does the company plan to grow or expand?
 What is the business’s attitude (culture) about technology?
 What is the business’s budget for IT?
 Does the business’s staff have the expertise?

- produced after completing interviews, observations, and document analysis with the users. (wealth of
facts)
- first step in producing a problem definition is to find a number of points that may be included.
 Major points can be identified in the interview in a number of ways:

1. Users may identify an issue, topic, or theme that is repeated several times, sometimes by different people in several interviews.
2. Users may communicate the same metaphors, such as saying the business is a journey, war, game, organism, machine, and so on.
3. Users may speak at length on a topic.
4. Users may tell you outright that “This is a major problem.”
5. Users may communicate importance by body language or may speak emphatically on an issue.
6. The problem may be the first thing mentioned by the user

4.2.4 Background Analysis

- It is imperative to select suitable and sustainable methods of work.

- Necessary before entering into the planning stage of a project.

- It is a process of gathering necessary information in a specific environment.

- When an idea is found, it is time for a proper background analysis.

 4.3 SUMMARY

• The system planning phase usually begins with a formal request known as system request which describes problems or desired
changes in an information system or a business process.
• A system request comes from a top manager, a planning team or a department head.
• Preliminary investigation is the first phase of the systems development life cycle.
• Organizations may differ in how they identify and select projects for development. Many organizations have special committees to
handle the task of preliminary investigation.
• The preliminary investigation phase sets the stage for gathering information about the current problem and the existing information
system.
• Many different criteria can be used within an organization for classifying and ranking potential projects.
• The systems analyst—with the help of the stakeholders of the proposed project—collects information about the project. The collected
information has a wide scope and helps understand the size of the project, cost involved and the intended benefits. After the
information is analysed, a report is prepared to compare and review all the proposed projects.
• Proper authorization is taken from the relevant authorities to go ahead and investigate as the results will highlight all the details of the
organization.
• It is essential for the analyst conducting the investigation to clearly understand the objectives of the project, the benefit of the project, its
future scope and its importance to the organization.
• The current system needs to be studied, the benefits and flaws are to be clearly understood and analysed.
• The analyst will conduct interviews with all the people involved in the project, the senior managerial level as well as the users.
• Observing the current system in operation is the best way to fact finding.
• Every organization wants to develop a system that gives it some benefit in terms of financial return and that too at a reasonable cost.

• Another important question is whether the cost of not creating the system is so great that it is advisable to undertake the project.
• A system developed technically and installed properly must be profitable for the organization.
• Financial benefits should be equal to or more than the cost of the system.
• Proposed projects can be beneficial if turned into information systems meeting the requirements of operation for the organization.

• Enough support for the project from the management as well as users. There may be resistance if people are accustomed to the present
system and are not ready to think of any alternative system and resist a change.

• If an existing business methodology does not suit the users, a change takes place. This brings about a better and useful system in operation
• Feasibility studies are carried out by a selected group of people having expertise in IT techniques.
• To be judged feasible, a proposal for the specific project must pass all these tests.
• Shared, complete and accurate information requirements are essential in building computer – based information systems.
• The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Curriculum Committee on Computing Education for Management recognized this by
suggesting two distinct job titles for systems developments.

• Users and analysts traditionally do not share a common orientation toward problem definition.
• System specifications must change with their needs, as must the system after implementation
• A problem definition usually contains some sort of problem statement, summarized in a paragraph or two. This is followed by a series of
issues, or major, independent pieces of the problem. The issues are followed by a series of objectives, or goals that match the issues point by
point. Issues are the current situation; objectives are the desired situation. The objectives may be very specific or worded using a general
statement.

• The problem definition is produced after completing interviews, observations, and document analysis with the users. The result of gathering
this information is a wealth of facts and important opinions in need of summary.
• An analysis of the working environment reveals what questions, factors, problems and solutions to focus upon.
• Background analysis that clarifies the elements of the working environment is necessary before entering into the planning stage of a project.
• When a preliminary project idea is found, it is normally time for a proper background analysis
 4.4 KEYWORDS
• Preliminary investigation: It is the first phase of the systems development life cycle that identifies and selects a project for development
among all the proposals that are under consideration.
• Kitchen sink strategy: In the kitchen sink strategy the user throws everything into the –requirement definition- overstatement of needs,
such as an overabundance of reports, exception processing and the like. This approach usually reflects the user’s lack of experience in
the area.
• Smoking strategy: The smoking strategy sets up a smoke screen by requesting several system features when only one or two are needed.
The extra requests are used as bargaining power. This strategy usually reflects the user’s experience in knowing what he/ she wants.
Requests have to be reduced to one that is realistic, manageable, and achievable.
• Problem definition: A problem definition usually contains some sort of problem statement, summarized in a paragraph or two
Thank you!..