Information System Solutions:

A Project Approach

Eight
 8-3

Systems Development Life Cycle

(Figure 3.1)

Project and Team

R Organization
e
v Project Definition
i
s
i Proposed System
o
n

System Delivery

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 8-4

Proposed System Questions

• What functions or processes should

the system include to provide the
features that the client wants?

• What data are required to support or

operate the included functions?

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 8-5

The Proposed System Phase

Focuses on:
• Problem-solving – to go from client
requirements to a solution
• Synthesis – combining separate pieces
to form a coherent proposed system
whole
• Conceptual specifications – separate
from sourcing and infrastructure

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 8-6

Possible Tools for Developing Proposed

System Specifications

• A complete and careful project

definition
• Problem-solving methods
• A narrative statement or model
• Graphical process and data models
and/or graphical object models

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Problem-Solving Methods

• Experience-based methods use prior

experience to derive solutions
• Trial and error methods try out different
solutions
• Heuristic methods follow rules that “work
well” but do not guarantee a best solution
• Difference reduction methods identify and try
to reduce the differences between the
current state and the desired state
• Calculation and optimization methods use
mathematical procedures to find a solution
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Difference Reduction Operators

• Automate – replace work currently done

manually with work performed by a
computer-based solution
• Inform – provide information upward to
senior management or provide information to
the organization’s workers or customers
• Transform – change the way the organization
operates
• Discover – learn something for which the
current system does not allow discovery

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Difference Reduction Table based on

Problems (Table 8-1)
Problems in the Current Reduction Action or
Operation Operation to arrive at a problem-
free system
Manual system leads to high cost Physical design issue - automate

Long lines, slow checkout Physical design issue - automate

Accessing manual files causes Physical design issue - automate

delays

Incorrect rental charges Include a better calculation function

False or missing member # Access rental only member function

Non-timely overdue notices Include a better overdue notice function

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 8 - 10

Difference Reduction Table based on

Features (Table 8-2)
Current Operation Client-desired Features Reduction Action
Member, rental and Faster, simpler, member, Redesign rental, return
return functions rental & return functions and member functions
All manual data entry Automate data entry Physical design issue

A lot of clerk time Less clerk time Physical design issue

Duplicate data Reduce cost and errors Single point entry/storage

Data to accounting Eliminate manual transfer Access data stores

Separate credit card Save the cost of separate Integrate credit card
and rental processing processing processing into rental
System contains two No reporting functions Transfer reporting to
reporting functions accounting
Manual overdue Automated overdue Physical design issue

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 8 - 11

The Value Chain Model

(Figure 8-1)

The Primary Activities Value Chain

Value,
Inbound Operations Outbound Marketing Service
Logistics Logistics and Sales
Net
Benefits,
or Profits

Support Activities

Administration – accounting, finance, strategic planning, etc.

Human Resource Management – payroll, personnel, etc.
Technology Development – R&D, IT, improvement
Procurement – purchasing, contracts, RFPs

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 8 - 12

Design Approaches (I)

Modify the current system or procure a

new system that closely resembles the
current system
• Advantage – a low risk approach. The
team can modify and extend the
current operation materials to
incorporate the features of the new
system
• Disadvantage – the team may miss or
ignore changes that could improve
greatly the value of the system
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 8 - 13

Design Approaches (II)

The team constructs a new design from:

(1) strategic goals and objectives
(2) desired features and operation
• Advantage – avoids the design bias
from the current operation models
• Disadvantages – may incur higher
costs and risks; may take longer

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 8 - 14

Proposed System Narrative Model

• Introduction
• Problem solving methods/rationale
used to determine specifications
• Proposed system process and data
specifications or OOD specifications
• Organizational changes required to
use the proposed system

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 8 - 15

Graphical Data and Process Models

• Must match exactly to the narrative

• Provide a more structured format for
specifying data and process
• Possible choices:
– Modified Data Flow Diagrams
(MDFDs)
– Conceptual Data Model (CDM)
– Complete metadata
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 8 - 16

Modified Data Flow Diagrams

• Standard DFD rules apply

• DFD/ERD integration – entities on an
ERD define the MDFD data stores
• Triggers - every MDFD process must
have a trigger to initiate it
• Time is a dimension of a MDFD. A data
flow from process A to process B
means that B starts immediately after A
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 8 - 17

Process Triggers

A process begins when and only when

triggered
• A data flow from an external may
trigger a process. An * in front of the
flow name indicates a trigger
• A data flow from another process
always serves as a trigger
• A control flow may serve as a trigger
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 8 - 18

Context Level MDFD for the GB Video Proposed System

(Figure 8.3)

Member Data
Customer
*Customer and
Request Data

Video and Title –

Payment Title Data.... External
Information 0 Datastore

Proposed
Rental/Return
Receipt Data System Video Data....

Payment Data….
Credit Card
Video –
Company Confirmation….
External
Datastore

Return Receipt
Customer
*Video ID and Payment
Overdue Notice
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 8 - 19
Member Data
1 Member Data
*Customer and Request Data Check and Customer Data
update data
or enroll a Member Data
new member
Customer Video and Payment
Information Title –
Member
Title Data
External
Data Datastore

2
Receipt Data

Payment Data Rental

Process Video –
Video Data External
Confirmation Datastore
Rental
Data
Credit Card
Company Line Data
Confirmation Rental
Member
Data
3
Payment Data Rental Data
Record Line
return of Return Data
videos
Return Receipt Line
Data
Customer *Video ID and Payment
Overdue
Data
Rental Data

Overdue Notice 4
Identify
overdue Video –
videos Video Data External
Payment Data Datastore
Credit Card
Company
Member Title Data
Data

First Explosion MDFD Customer Data Title –

External
(Figure 8.4) Datastore

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 8 - 20
Member
Data Explosion of Process 2
2.1
(Figure 8.5)
Video and Payment
Information

Customer Input the

data for a
rental

Video and
Payment and
Member Data

2.2

Calculate Video –
Credit Card Payment Data cost and External
Company Confirmation process Video Data Datastore
payment

All
Rental
Data

2.3 Rental Data Rental

Create Line Data
rental and
lines Line

All
Rental
Data

2.4

Title –
Customer External
Create a Datastore
Receipt Data receipt Title Data

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Conceptual Data Model (CDM)

(Figure 8.6)

RENTAL LINE
CUSTOMER Rental-No Line-No
Cust-No Requestor of Owner of
Date Due-Date
F-Name l 0 Clerk-No l l Return-Date
L-Name Pay-Type OD-Charge
Ads1 CC-No Pay-Type
Ads2 Expire
City CC-Approval Holder of

0
State

l
Zip
Tel-No TITLE VIDEO
CC-No Title-No Name for Video-No
Expire Name l 0 One-Day-Fee
Vendor-No Extra-Days
Cost Weekend
SERD Format

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 8 - 22

Entity Metadata
(Figure 8.7)

Entity Description
CUSTOMER Contains all the available information about each
customer who has made a transaction in the last year.

LINE Contains the information on each video associated with a

rental transaction
RENTAL Contains the information on each rental transaction

TITLE Contains information on each distinct title of the videos

VIDEO Contains information on each individual video

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Attribute Metadata for RENTAL

(Figure 8.7)

Attribute Description
Rental-No Unique key assigned to each rental

Date Date of the rental

Clerk-No Employee number of the clerk entering the rental

Pay-Type Cash, check or credit card

CC-No Credit card number

Expire Expiration date of the credit card

CC-Approval Credit card approval code

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 8 - 24

Relationship Metadata
(Figure 8.7)

Relationship Description Entity1 with (min, Entity2 with (min,

Name max) cardinality max) cardinality
Requestor of Links each customer CUSTOMER – a RENTAL - a customer
to rentals made by rental must be for may make many
the customer one customer (1, 1) rentals (0, many)
Owner of Links each rental to RENTAL – a line LINE – a rental must
the associative entity Must belong to one contain one or many
rental (1, 1) lines (1, many)
Holder of Links the associative LINE – a video may VIDEO – a line must
entity to a specific be held by many hold one videotape
video lines (0, many) (1, 1)
Name for Links a title to the VIDEO – a title may TITLE – a videotape
video tapes that use name many videos must be named by
the title (0, many) one title (1, 1)

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Object-Oriented Design Specifications

• Specifications are structured around objects

not around processes
• Objects contain the data and processes
required to carry out their desired behavior
• Objects interact by sending and receiving
messages – data and control flows
• The structure of the conceptual-level object
model resembles the structure of the CDM

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 8 - 26

Relationship Use Case Diagram

(Figure 8.8)
Customer Purchasing System
Use Case

Enroll or update Return videos

Rent videos
member
<<Include>>

<<Include>>
<<Include>>

Find overdue
Charge credit videos
card <<Include>>

Actor System
Boundary
Credit Card Company Clerk

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Scenario for the Rent Videos Use Case

(Figure 8-9 )

Precondition: None
Trigger: Customer decides to rent video(s)
Main Success Scenario
• Customer selects the videos to rent.
• Customer goes to checkout and provides member data.
• System confirms that customer is a member and retrieves and
updates member data.
• Customer provides the video number for each video.
• System retrieves charge, due date and title data and creates a rental
with a line entry for each video.
• System calculates the total charge.
• System contacts the credit card company and enters the total
charge.
• System produces a receipt for the customer.

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 8 - 28

Scenario Extensions
(Figure 8-9)

3a. The customer is not a member

1. Sign up the customer as a member
2. Else, terminate rental

7a. Credit card company declines to

authorize purchase
1. Ask customer for an alternate card
2. Else, terminate rental

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Behavior Common to all Objects and not

Shown in the Operations Box

• Create a new object instance

• Update data in an object instance
• Retrieve data from an object instance
• Delete an object instance

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Class Diagram (Figure 8.10)

Customer Rental Object Class

member-no. rental-no. Name
name
1..1 0 ..* date
street employee# Attributes
city Makes pay-type
state total
zip
tel# calculate total Operations
credit-card#
expire-Date 1..1 Contains
Association
1..*
RentalLine
Video id#
video-no.
title due-date
1..1 0..*
rent-charge/day cost
date-acquired Rented return-date
vendor overdue-charge

calculate cost
calculate overdue

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