Name: ______________________________ ID# ____________________

IS323 Information Systems Analysis and Design

Mid Semester Test

Solution .

Semester 1 2010

Time allowed: 2 hours

Total Scores: 75 marks
Total Pages: 14 pages
Total Questions : 18
Weight: 20%

INSTRUCTIONS:
• This exam is worth 20% of your course work.
• Each multiple choice question has only ONE correct answer
• Answer ALL questions in this paper.
• Write your id # on all sheets in this booklet

Multiple Choice (5 marks) – Circle the BEST answer.

1 A B C D

2 A B C D

3 A B C D

4 A B C D

5 A B C D

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[BLANK PAGE]

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 Section A: Multiple Choice Questions (5 Marks) (Each question has only one answer)

1. CASE stands for ____.

a. computer application system environment
b. computer-aided system engineering
c. computer application system engineering
d. computer-aided system environment

2. Which of the following is the analyst’s approach to problem solving?

a. Verify that the benefits of solving the problem outweigh the costs, then research and
understand the problem.
b. Develop a set of possible solutions, then verify that the benefits of solving the problem
outweigh the costs.
c. Verify that the benefits of solving the problem outweigh the costs, then define the
requirements for solving the problem.
d. Implement the solution, then define the details of the chosen solution.

3. Usually, the longest phase for any information system is the ____ phase.
a. analysis
b. implementation
c. design
d. support

4. Questionnaires can be useful in information gathering when users ____.

a. are widely distributed geographically
b. need prompting to respond to questions
c. are not well-informed
d. do not have time for interviews

5. ____ architecture refers to a group of computers of the same type that share
processing load and act as a single, large computer system.
a. Multitier
b. Multicomputer
c. Clustered
d. Single-computer

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Section B: Short Answer Questions (15 Marks)

6. Given the following network diagram in Figure 1 and the number of days to complete
each task, find the critical path? (3 marks)

A F
C D E H
B Figure 1
G

Time taken to complete each task in days: A = 1, B =4, C =2, D = 4, E = 4, F = 4, G =

2, and H = 3.

Working space:

A C D E F H = 18
A C D E G H = 16
B C D E F H = 21
B C D E G H = 19

Answer: _______ B C D E F H = 21____________________

7. Given your critical path, give an example of a non-critical activity, and the slack time
associated with that activity (2 marks).

A=3
G=2

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8. Given below are some software development scenarios. You are required to indicate
whether you are going to use a predictive or adaptive approach for each scenario.
Circle the most appropriate option. (4 marks)

Scenario Answer
1. I have developed a similar system recently, and
the new system has features similar to the Adaptive Predictive
system I had developed.
2. The management was not able to clearly
Adaptive Predictive
identify the reason for starting the project.
3. The team has to secure the services of an
Adaptive Predictive
oversea based programmer.
4. The team has some doubts about the design of
Adaptive Predictive
the software.

9. In Cost/Benefit Analysis, what is Payback Period? (2 marks)

Time period in which the dollar benefits offset the dollar cost.

10. State an advantage of Thin Client over a Fat Client in a Client/Server Architecture
and briefly explain your answer? (3 marks)

Flexibility in terms of deployment

Each of maintenance

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Section C: Case Studies (55 marks)

Refer to the following case study to answer questions 11 – 15.

The IT Manager of an organization is proposing a web based system to track complaints

received by the IT Department. A complaint is called a fault by the IT Department.

This is how the current system works. If any employee finds a fault in any of the
computers, printers, etc, then he/she fills in a Fault Report Form. The basic information
needed on this form is the date, name of person who is filling this form, name of
department in which the employee is working, when was fault caused (time), description
of the problem, and finally the seriousness of the problem. There is a section on this form
used by the IT Department. The IT Department upon receipt of the complaint assigns it a
reference number, which is a unique number assigned to each fault. There is a section for
the IT Staff to fill in the name, start date and time, end date and time, and the steps that
were taken to solve the fault. So the IT staff attends the fault, fills in their section and
files the report.

The new system should allow the employees to submit fault report forms online. These
would reduce printing costs and time to personally come to the IT department. When a
staff submits a Fault Report Form using the system, the system should automatically
notify the IT Manager, and the IT Staff. The IT Manager will normally assign the IT Staff
responsible for the attending to the fault using the system. The assigned IT staff has to
complete the work and use the system to fill in the relevant details that is the steps the IT
staff took to solve the fault, and the start and end dates and times (when the IT Staff
started and finished). After the IT Staff submits the completed details, the system will
send an email to the employee informing the fault was solved. The system should
produce a report detailing the times it took to solve problems when requested by the IT
Manager or the IT Staff.

An employee should be able to check the status of his or her report. This should display
the fault details, whether the fault is assigned to a employee or not, and whether the fault
is pending or completed.

The IT Manager will use the system to view a report showing faults that were reported
within a week, which of those were solved and what were the actions taken.

Since this system will contain important information, only authorized staff should be
given access, and the status of the staff will govern the access level. That is a non-IT
employee will not be given access to reports, and so on.

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11. Create an Event Table for the case study using the columns Event, Trigger, Source,
Use Case, Response, and Destination. (12 marks)

Event Trigger Source Use Case Response Destination

An Fault/ Employee Submit Fault New Fault IT Manager
employee Fault Form Notification & IT Staff
submits a Details/
Fault Report New Fault
Form
Employee Fault Employee View Fault Fault Status/ Employee
wants to
reference Status Fault Details
view the
number/
fault status Fault
IT Staff
Updated IT Staff Update Fault Fault Employee
enters fault Fault Completion
completion Details/ Notification
details Fault
Completion
details
IT Manager Fault Time IT Manager Generate Fault time IT Manager
or the IT Report or IT Staff Fault Time report or IT Staff
Staff wants Request Report
to view the
Fault Time
Report
IT Manager Fault IT Manager Assign Fault
assigns a assignment Employee
fault to the details
IT Staff
IT Manager Fault report IT Manager Generate Fault Details IT Manager
wants to request Fault Details Report
view details Report
of faults

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12. Create a Context Diagram for the case study (8 marks).

Fault Status
Employee New Fault IT Manager
Notification
Fault Fault Time
Completion Report
Notification

Fault Fault Details

Fault Reporting System Report

Fault Completion Fault Assignment

Details Details

New Fault
IT Staff
Notification

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13. Use the following description to create a Level-1 DFD for the process “Update
Fault”, which will be used by the IT Staff to entered details after they finish attending
to a fault (8 marks).

IT Staff searches for a fault submitted by an employee using the fault reference
number. The system displays the fault details. The IT Staff fills in the date and time
when s/he started solving the problem, and the date and time when s/he finished.
Then the IT Staff fills in all the steps that were taken to solve the problem. Each step
is a brief description of a task. Therefore, in order to solve a fault, the IT Staff can
take a number of steps, and each will be entered. After entering all the required data,
the IT Staff saves the record. Following this the system sends an email to the
employee informing the employee that the fault has been solved.

Fault Reference Number

3.1
Search Fault

IT Staff
3.2
Display Fault

Fault

3.3
Record Fault
Completion details
Update Fault Steps
Details

Employee 3.4
Save Fault
Updates

3.5
Fault
Send
Completion
Notification Completion
Notification

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14. Create a structure chart showing the all required modules using your Level-1 DFD
drawn in previous question (7 marks).

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15. Create an ERD showing a possible database design (10 marks).

Employee Fault

Department PK Emp_Num PK Fault_RefNum

submits
PK Dept_Num Emp_LName Fault_Date
Emp_FName Fault_Time
Dept_Desc Emp_Initial attends Fault_Desc
Emp_Username Fault_Seriousness
Emp_Password Fault_StartDate
FK1 Dept_Num Fault_StartTime
FK2 Job_Num Fault_EndDate
Fault_EndTime
Job FK2 Fault_ITStaff
FK1 Emp_Num
PK Job_Num FaultStep
Job_Desc PK FS_StepNum
PK,FK1 Fault_RefNum

FS_Desc

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Use the following scenario to answer questions 16 to 18.

Suppose your team is developing a patient appointment system for a small hospital. Your
team has decided to interview the staff of the hospital.

16. What are some things that your team has to decide about the interview? Please briefly
explain (3 marks).

Objective – what do you want to accomplish from the interview.

Identify Participants – these are interview participants

Find out the Date, Time and venue of the interview.

17. After the interview, the team may end up creating an open items list. What is the
purpose of such a list? (2 marks)

This lists any issue that was not discussed during the interview, or new issues that
resulted directly from the interview.

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18. Create a sample interview plan showing how you would start and go through the
interview session. Assume you have 30 minutes (5 marks).

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