INSY55 – System Analysis and Design Preparing for a Career as Systems Analyst

System Analyst – facilitates the study of the  Problem-Solving Skills

problems and needs of a business.
Systems that solve Business Problems:
- Transaction Processing System (TPS)
captures and records information about the
transactions.
- Management Information System (MIS)
takes information captured by transaction processing
systems and produces reports that management
needs for planning and control.
- Decision Support System (DSS)
supports systems that allow a user to explore the
impact of available options or decisions.
- Expert Systems (ES)
extension of DSS. expertise of an expert problem
solver or decision maker and then simulates the
“thinking” or “actions” of that expert.
- Office Automation (OA) System
supports systems that help employees create and
share documents,
- Communication Support System (CSS)
allow employees to communicate with each other and
with customers and suppliers.
Role of system analyst in two distinct positions:
business analyst - is a systems analyst that specializes in
business problem analysis and technology-independent
requirements analysis.
application analyst - specializes in application design and
technology-dependent aspects of development. A synonym is
system or application architect.
System analysts are responsible for other aspects of a
system including:
PEOPLE - including managers, users, and other developers –
and including the organizational behaviors
 Interpersonal Communication Skills
 Interpersonal Relations Skills
 Flexibility and Adaptability
 Character and Ethics
Vocabulary
Data – consists of basic facts that are the system’s raw
materials.
Database – a centrally managed collection of data
Information – is the data that has been transformed into
output that is valuable/useful to users.
Information System (IS) – the arrangement of technology,
people and data to provide support for business functions such
as order processing, inventory control, human resources,
accounting, and others.
Information Technology (IT) – the combination of hardware,
software, and services that people use to manage,
communicate, and share information.
Subsystem – a system that is part of a larger system.
System – a set of related components that produces specific
results.’
System analysis – the process of understanding and
specifying in detail what the information system should
accomplish.
Systems analyst – a business professional who uses analysis
and design techniques to solve business problems by using
information technology.
System design – the process of specifying in detail how the
many components of the information system should be
physically implemented.

DATA - including capture, validation, organization, storage,

and usage.

PROCESSES - both automated and manual, that combine to

process data and produce information.

INTERFACES - both to other systems and applications, as well

to the actual users (e.g., reports and display screens).

NETWORKS - which effectively distribute data, processes, and

information to the people.

Required skills of system analyst

 Technical knowledge and skills

 Business knowledge and skills
 People knowledge and skills
CH2
System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
Project planning – initiates, ensures feasibility, plans,
schedules, and obtains approval for project. It identifies the
scope of the new system, ensure that the project is feasible,
and develop a schedule, resource plan, and budget for the
remainder of the project.
Analysis – understands business needs and processing
requirements of the new system.
Design – defines solution system based on requirements and
analyzed decisions.
Implementation – constructs, tests, and installs a reliable
information system with trained users ready to benefit as
expected from the system.
Support – keeps the system running productively initially and
during the system’s lifetime.
chief variations of SDLC include:
Predictive - assumes project can be planned out in advance.
Adaptive – more flexible, assumes project cannot be planned
out in advance.
Traditional Predictive SDLC Approaches
Pure waterfall Approach - progress is seen as flowing
steadily downwards (like a waterfall).
Modified Waterfall Approach - provides feedback paths from
every phase to its preceding phases.
Newer Adaptive Approaches to the SDLC
Spiral Model - Project cycles through development activities
over and over until project is complete.
Iterative Model - Work activities are repeated.
The Unified Process (UP) Life Cycle
Inception - Develop an approximate vision of the system, and
produce rough estimates for cost and schedule.
Elaboration - Refine the vision, and produce realistic
estimates for cost and schedule.
Construction - Iteratively implement the remaining low-risk,
predictable and easier elements and prepare for deployment.
Transition - Complete the beta test and deployment.
The models that are used to manage development process
are:
 PERT chart
 Gantt chart
 Organizational hierarchy chart
 Financial analysis models (net present value, return
on investment)
Unified Process Disciplines
 Business Modeling
 Requirements
 Design
 Implementation
 Testing
 Deployment
Tools to Support System Development
 CASE (Computer Aided System Engineering)
 Microsoft Visio
 Rational Rose
 Together
 Embarcadero
 Rational XDE Professional
Vocabularies
Computer application (app) – a computer software program
that executes on a computing device to carry out a specific set
of functions.
Discipline – a set of functionally related activities. Information
System (IS) – a set of interrelated components that collects,
processes, stores, and provides as output the information
needed to complete business tasks.
Project – a planned undertaking that has a beginning and end
and that produces some definite result.
Systems analysis – those activities that enable a person to
understand and specify what an information system should
accomplish.
Systems design – those activities that enable a person to
define and describe in detail the system that solves the need.
System development life cycle (SDLC) – the traditional
methodology used to develop, maintain, and replace IS.
Systems development methodology - a standard process
followed in an organization to conduct all the steps necessary
to analyze, design, implement, and maintain information
systems.
System requirement – a characteristics or feature that must
be included in an information system to satisfy business
requirements and be acceptable to users.
Unified Modeling Language (UML) – a widely used method
of visualizing and documenting software system designs.
Use case – the activity or process that the system carries out.
Use case diagram – a visual representation that represents
the interaction between users and the information system in
UML.
CH3
Project manager typically perform four activities or
functions such as:
Project Planning - that includes identifying all project tasks
and estimating the completion time and cost of each.
Project scheduling - involves the creation of a specific
timetable, usually in the form of charts that show task,
Scheduling also involves selecting and staffing the project
team and assigning specific tasks to team members. Project
scheduling uses Gantt charts and PERT/CPM charts.
Project monitoring - requires guiding, supervising, and
coordinating the project team’s workload. The project manager
must monitor the progress, evaluate the results, and take
corrective action when necessary to control the project and
stay on target.
Project reporting - includes regular progress reports to
management, users, and the project team itself. Effective
reporting requires strong communication skills and a sense of
what others want and need to know about the project.
Project Management Knowledge Areas
Project Management Institute (PMI) - is a professional
organization that promotes project management, primarily
within the United States but also throughout the world.
The PMBOK is organized into these nine knowledge areas:
 Project Scope Management - Defining and
controlling the functions
 Project Time Management - Creating a detailed
schedule of all project tasks and then monitoring the
progress
 Project Cost Management - Calculating the initial
cost/benefit analysis and its later updates and
monitoring expenditures
 Project Quality Management - Establishing a
comprehensive plan ensuring quality
 Project Human Resource Management - Recruiting
and hiring project team members, and implementing
related activities to ensure a happy, productive team.
 Project Communications Management - Identifying
all stakeholders and the key communications.
 Project Risk Management - Identifying and
reviewing throughout the project all
 potential risks for failure
 Project Procurement Management - Developing
requests for proposals, then monitoring vendor
 performance.
 Project Integration Management - Integrating all the
other knowledge areas into one seamless whole.
Vocabulary
Deliverable – an end product of an SDLC phase.
Gantt chart – a graphical representation of a project that
shows each task as a horizontal bar whose length is
proportional to its time for completion.
Management – a technique of understanding the problems,
needs, and controlling the use of resources, cost, time, scope
and quality.
Network diagram – depicts project tasks and their
interrelationships.
Evaluation PERT (Program Review Technique) – a
technique that uses optimistic, pessimistic, and realistic time
estimates to calculate the expected time for a particular task.
Project – a planned undertaking of related activities to reach
an objective that has a beginning and an end.
Project management – a controlled process of initiating,
planning, executing, and closing down a project.
Project manager – a system’s analyst who performs project
management.
Resources – any person, group of people, piece of equipment,
or material used in accomplishing an activity.
Work breakdown structure – the process of dividing the
project into manageable tasks and logically ordering them to
ensure a smooth evolution between tasks.
CH4
Unified Modeling Language (UML) - a general-purpose,
developmental, modeling language in the field of software
engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to
visualize the design of a system.
Prototype - an early sample, model, or release of a product
built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety
of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and
software programming.
System requirements - are all of the requirements at the
system level that describe the functions which the system as a
whole should fulfill to satisfy the stakeholder needs and
requirements, and are expressed in an appropriate
combination of textual statements, views, and non functional
requirements; the latter expressing the levels of safety,
security, reliability, etc., that will be necessary.
Descriptive Models - describes logical relationships, such as
the system's whole-part relationship that defines its parts tree,
the interconnection between its parts, the functions that its
components perform, or the test cases that are used to verify
the system requirements.
Analytical Models - describes mathematical relationships,
such as differential equations that support quantifiable analysis
about the system parameters.
CH5
attributes – descriptive pieces of information about things or
objects
identifier or key – an attribute the value of which uniquely
identifies an individual thing or object
compound attribute – an attribute that consists of multiple
pieces of information but is best treated in the aggregate
association – a term, in UML, that describes a naturally
occurring relationship between specific things, sometimes
called a relationship
relationship – a term that describes a naturally occurring
association between specific things, sometimes called an
association
cardinality – a measure of the number of links between one
object and another object in a relationship.
multiplicity – a measure, in UML, of the number of links
between one object and another object in an association
multiplicity constraints – the actual numeric count of the
constraints on objects allowed in an association
binary associations – associations between exactly two
distinct types of things
unary association – an association between two instances of
the same type of thing
ternary association – an association between exactly three
distinct types of things n-ary association – an association
between n distinct types of things
class – a category or classification of a set of objects or things
domain classes – classes that describe objects from the
problem domain
class diagram – a diagram consisting of classes (i.e., sets of
objects) and associations among the classes domain model
class diagram – a class diagram that only includes classes
from the problem domain
camelback notation or camelcase notation – when words
are concatenated to form a single word and the first letter of
each embedded word is capitalized
association class – an association that is also treated as a
class; often required in order to capture attributes for the
association
generalization/specialization relationship – a type of
hierarchical relationship in which subordinate classes are
subsets of objects of the superior classes; an inheritance
hierarchy
superclass – the superior or more general class in a
generalization/specialization relationship
subclass – the subordinate or more specialized class in a
generalization/specialization relationship
inheritance – the concept that specialization classes inherit
the attributes of the generalization class
abstract class – a class that describes a category or set of
objects but that never includes individual objects or instances
concrete class – a class that allows individual objects or
instances to exist
whole-part relationship – a relationship between classes in
which one class is a part or a component portion of another
class
aggregation – a type of whole-part relationship in which the
component parts also exist as individual objects apart from the
aggregate
composition – a type of whole-part relationship in which the
component parts cannot exist as individual objects apart from
the total composition
User Goal Technique - This is an approach for identifying use
cases in which an analyst talks to all users to get them to
describe their goals
Events and Use Case
Types of Events
There are three main types of events in a system:
1. External Event - an event that occurs outside the system,
usually by an external agent or actor.
2. Temporal Event – an event that occurs as a result of
reaching a point in time (time based event)
3. State Event – an event that occurs when something
happens inside the system that triggers the need for
processing
Event table:
• trigger – a signal that tells the system that an event has
occurred, either the arrival of data needing processing or a
point in time.
• source – an external agent or actor that supplies data to the
system
• response – an output, produced by the system, that goes to
a destination
There are three levels of use case descriptions:
• Brief Description
• Intermediate Description
• Fully Developed Description
LOCATIONS AND THE CRUD MATRIX
CRUD is an acronym that refers to the following
actions on an object (typically a data entity):
• Create - to create and store new data.
• Read - to retrieve and read data.
• Update - to change or modify then store the data.
• Delete - to delete or remove the data.