Chapter 5 - System Analysis and Design
Chapter 5 - System Analysis and Design
• System Analysis
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What is Systems Analysis ?
Systems analysis – a problem-solving technique that
decomposes a system into its component pieces for the
purpose of studying how well those component parts work
and interact to accomplish their purpose.
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A Simple Object Model
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Accelerated Systems Analysis
• Advantages
• Prototypes cater to the “I’ll know what I want when I see it” way
of thinking that is characteristic of many users and managers.
• Disadvantages
• Can become preoccupied with final “look and feel” prematurely
• Can encourage a premature focus on, and commitment to, design
• Users can be misled to believe that the completed system can be
built rapidly using prototyping tools
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Rapid Architected Analysis
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Requirements Discovery
Methods
• Fact-finding – the process of collecting information
about system problems, opportunities, solution
requirements, and priorities.
• Sampling existing documentation, reports, forms, databases,
etc
• Research of relevant literature
• Observation of the current system
• Questionnaires and surveys
• Interviews
• Joint requirements planning (JRP) –use of facilitated
workshops to bring together all of the system owners,
users, and analysts, and some systems designer and
builders to jointly perform systems analysis.
• Considered a part of a larger method called joint application
development (JAD), a more comprehensive application of the
5-12 JRP techniques to the entire systems development process.
Business Process Redesign
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Agile Methods
Agile method – integration of various
approaches of systems analysis and design for
applications as deemed appropriate to problem
being solved and the system being developed.
• Most commercial methodologies do not impose a
single approach on systems analysts.
• Instead, they integrate all popular approaches into a
collection of agile methods.
• System developers are given the flexibility to select
from a variety of tools and techniques to best
accomplish the tasks at hand,
• Hypothetical FAST methodology operates this way.
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FAST Systems Analysis Phases
• Scope Definition Phase
• Is the project worth looking at?
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Key Terms for Scope Definition
Phase
Steering body – a committee of executive business and
system managers that studies and prioritizes competing
project proposals to determine which projects will return
the most value to the organization and thus should be
approved for continues systems development.
• Also called a steering committee.
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Sample Problem Statements
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Context of Problem Analysis
Phase
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Key Terms of the
Problem Analysis Phase
Cause-and-effect analysis – a technique in which
problems are studied to determine their causes and
effects.
In practice, effects can be symptomatic of more deeply
rooted problems which, in turn, must be analyzed for
causes and effects until the causes and effects do not
yield symptoms of other problems.
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Sample Context Diagram
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Key Terms of the
Problem Analysis Phase (cont.)
Objective – a measure of success. It is something that you
expect to achieve, if given sufficient resources.
• Reduce the number of uncollectible customer
accounts by 50 percent within the next year.
• Increase by 25 percent the number of loan
applications that can be processed during an eight-
hour shift.
• Decrease by 50 percent the time required to
reschedule a production lot when a workstation malfunctions.
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Key Terms of
Requirements Analysis Phase
Functional requirement – a description
of activities and services a system must
provide.
• inputs, outputs, processes, stored data
Nonfunctional requirement – a
description of other features,
characteristics, and constraints that
define a satisfactory system.
• Performance, ease of learning and use, budgets,
deadlines, documentation, security, internal
auditing controls
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Key Terms of Requirements
Analysis Phase (cont.)
Use case – a business scenario or event for
which the system must provide a defined
response. Use cases evolved out of object-
oriented analysis; however, their use has
become common in many other methodologies
for systems analysis and design.
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Key Terms of Requirements
Analysis Phase (cont.)
Timeboxing – a technique that delivers information
systems functionality and requirements through
versioning.
1. The development team selects the smallest subset of the system
that, if fully implemented, will return immediate value to the
systems owners and users.
2. That subset is developed, ideally with a time frame of six to nine
months or less.
3. Subsequently, value-added versions of the system are
developed in similar time frames.