MIS 7610 Systems Analysis & Design – Fall 2019

Final Exam (Cumulative)

Name:_____________________________________________________

Please complete all of the questions below. I have mixed a couple of short answer questions
in with the essay question this time. The points associated with each question are indicted
below. The exam is due, in the Elearn Dropbox, no later than 12/10 at 11:59pm.

QUESTIONS:

1. (3 points) What are the three acquisition strategies? Describe them.

2. (10 points) NewTechSystems has contracted some subsystem development to Indian

Technology Group from Bangalore India. Paul is managing the account for
NewTechSystems. When he asks for a status report, he seems to get a vague answer.
When he calls to talk to the manager who was in charge when the contract was
negotiated, that person is ‘always’ out of the office or unavailable and never returns
phone calls. The subsystem is needed next month for incorporation into the updated
system. This situation is representative of some of the difficulties associated with
outsourcing development projects. How would you handle this situation?

a. Describe your short term, or immediate, response.

b. If the situation continued how would you propose the organization handle the
project from this point forward?
i. How, and to whom, would you need to communicate the situation to?
ii. Assuming that you cannot remedy the situation with Indian Technology
Group, develop a plan for the future of the project.

3. (3 Points) Compare and contrast server-based architectures, client-based architectures and

client-server based architectures.

4. (14 points) ComputerBuddies is a group that was formed in the Chicago metro area as an
information exchange and social outlet for people with interests in computers. Members
of ComputerBuddies range from veteran, big-system computer programmers and
operators to young Web-heads. Over the years, members have come to rely on each
other for honest, practical advice on a wide range of computer issues. People with a
passion for computers in the Chicago area know that ComputerBuddies is the source of
reliable answers for just about any type of computer question. Membership has grown,
and the group sponsors an Internet information exchange forum as well as frequent social
gatherings.

At a recent social event, a guest speaker was on the agenda. The speaker was a long time
member of ComputerBuddies, and he asked to be given the chance to speak at a meeting
in order to share a recent experience. The speaker is an IS project manager at a major
Chicago area manufacturer, and was in charge of the firm’s first client-server

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 implementation project. The project involved the development of a 3-tiered client-server
architecture for a major manufacturing application.

As the speaker made his remarks, his disillusionment with client-server was obvious.
“This project has been a nightmare for me and my project team. We went way past our
target date on the project. No one anticipated how difficult it would be to get all the
pieces of this system to work together correctly. We chose this architecture in part
because it seemed to be the least expensive option, but we’ve really blown whatever cost
advantage we thought we’d have from the cheap hardware on labor costs. Now that
we’ve got the system up and running, the users are constantly complaining about how
slow it is. Right now, I wish we’d gone with our tried and true server-based
architecture.” Upon hearing this, some of the younger audience members looked
shocked. Other veteran systems people nodded in agreement with the speaker's words.

a. Why has the speaker experienced problems with the client-server architecture?
b. How could the speaker’s organization have anticipated the problems they did
experience?
c. How could this situation have been avoided?

5. (15 points) John is a systems analyst on the Holiday Travel Vehicle project team. The
team is currently developing the system’s user interface design. John has been given the
task of developing a plan for prototyping the user interface, and he is struggling to
determine the best method of prototyping to use. All of John’s prior experience with user
interface prototyping has used the storyboard technique. John’s project manager
specifically requested that he consider all types of prototyping (storyboarding, HTML
prototypes, and language prototypes) before developing his prototyping plan. The system
under development will be a significant departure from the interface that the users are
accustomed to, and the manager wants to be sure that the interface design is clear and
acceptable to the users before it is implemented.

a. Prepare a summary of the three major types of prototyping that can be

used in a project.
b. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each method.
c. Discuss the criteria that John should use to select a prototyping approach
to use in the project.

6. (15 points) As lead analyst on a new system development project, you have been hard at
work developing the program designs for the new system. Much of your time over the
last three weeks has been devoted to this task, and you are nearing your target deadline.
You have been so immersed in this work that you have decided to ask a team member to
spend some time reviewing the structure charts that you have prepared. Although you
have tried to be very careful in your work, you know that it is easy to overlook some
design problems, and you want to avoid as many nasty surprises later as you can. The
team member you want to help you has had quite a bit of experience reading and
implementing systems from structure charts, but she has not been responsible for their
development yet in her career.

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 a. Describe what your team member should look for with regard to cohesion. What will
signify good cohesion in the design? What should she look for that might signify
poor cohesion in the design?

b. Describe what your team member should look for with regard to coupling. What will
signify good coupling in the design? What should she look for that might signify
poor coupling in the design?

c. Describe what your team member should look for with regard to fan-in and fan-out.
What will signify high fan-in in the design? What should she look for that might
signify low fan-in in the design? What will signify low fan-out in the design? What
should she look for that might signify high fan-out in the design?

7. (15 points) Jones Legal Investigation Services, Inc., is a growing business that performs
legal investigations at the request of attorneys. The company owner, Richard Jones,
offers a wide range of investigative services, including audio interviews, video
interviews, ground accident scene photos, ground accident scene digital videos, and night
vision and electronic surveillance. Using the company’s own plane, aerial accident scene
photos and digital videos are also available. When the company was small, Richard
could rely on manual filing methods for his case materials, using the computer only for
various bookkeeping tasks. However, the company’s primary client, attorney Dan Holm,
has such a burgeoning legal practice that the manual filing methods are becoming
inadequate. Also, the advances in digital technology make it possible for much of the
case material to be stored digitally on computer.

Richard knows that he will need to obtain some expert advice regarding the selection of
the appropriate data storage format for a system that will help him manage his case
materials.

a. What data storage format do you recommend he consider for this

application? Justify your choice.
b. Are there any disadvantages associated with your choice of data
storage format?

8. (15 points) As you have worked on the system development project team at the Wilcon
Company, you have heard the users and project sponsor repeatedly worry about the
performance speed of the new order entry system. There has been so much discussion of
this issue that you decided to do a little investigation. After a few ‘casual’ conversations
around the coffee machine, you’ve learned that a system developed for the Distribution
Department several years ago was a major disappointment in the company. Although the
system had the features that the users had requested, the system actually ran “as slow as
molasses in January” according to one disgusted system user.

Everyone on the team has been concerned about why the users and sponsor were so hung
up on system processing speed. Now, you know the source of their anxiety, and you’ve
shared what you’ve discovered with your project manager. In response, your manager
has asked you to prepare a short memo that discusses, in simple terms, the techniques
your team will use to enhance processing performance in the new system.

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 a. Prepare this memo, explaining the ways in which the project team will try to
speed up data access in the new system.

9. (10 points) Earhart Aviation operates a multi-service aviation business, including fuel,
aircraft maintenance, charter flights, aircraft rentals, and flight instruction. The company
has a major systems development project underway, with a comprehensive system being
developed to permit online entry of all work performed in the maintenance shop, fuel
purchases, online scheduling of charter flights, flight instruction, and aircraft rentals, and
automated billing for the above activities.

Due to the wide range of personnel who will be interacting with the system (from shop
personnel to line personnel to office personnel to flight instructors and students), the
design of the user interface is important. Not only should the user interface be
thoroughly tested, there must be sufficient user documentation available to help the users
work with the system.

a. Given the importance of the user interface to the ultimate success of this system,
develop a plan for user interface testing for this project and provide support for each
step of your plan (why needed and what each step will accomplish).

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