System Analysis and Design

System Design
 learning Objectives

 Discuss guidelines and objectives

for systems design

System Analysis and Design

System Design 2
 Introduction
 If management decides to develop the system in-house, then the transition
to the systems design phase begins
 In a smaller company, you will assigned full responsibility for the design
task
 In larger company you will be a member of the design team
 System design is the first phase of the system development life cycle in
which you and the user develop a concrete understanding of how the
system will operate
 Design phase
 Decide how to build the system
 Create system requirements that describe technical details for building
the system

System Analysis and Design

System Design 3
 Systems Design Guidelines
 Preparing for Systems Design Tasks
 It is essential to have an accurate and understandable system
requirements document
 System requirements document is the starting point for the system
design phase
 Errors, omissions, ambiguities, and other problems will affect the
quality of the finished product
 Before proceeding to the design phase, you must be certain that you
performed a complete and accurate system analysis and communicated
the results in your system requirements document

System Analysis and Design

System Design 4
 Systems Design Guidelines

 The Relationship between Logical and Physical

Design
 The logical design defines the functions and features of the system and
the relationships among its components
 Logical design done during the system analysis phase
 Logical design includes
 Output that must be produced by the system

 Input needed by the system

 Process that must be performed by the system, without regard

to how tasks will be accomplished physically

System Analysis and Design

System Design 5
 Systems Design Guidelines
 The Relationship between Logical and Physical Design
 The physical design of an information system is a plan for the actual
implementation of the system
 The physical design is built on the system’s logical design and describes a
specific implementation
 System design usually begins after completing system analysis phase

 Some overlap is possible, you might return to fact-finding if you discover

that you overlooked an important issue, if user have significant new needs,
or if legal or governmental requirements change
 Physical design describes
 Input design
 Output design
 Interface design
 Report design
 Actual processes of entering, verifying, and storing data
 Physical layout of data files
 Sorting procedures
System Analysis and Design
System Design 6
 Systems Design Guidelines [1]
 The systems analyst must understand the logical design of the system before
beginning the physical design of any one component

System Analysis and Design

System Design 7
 Systems Design Guidelines

 Design phase is not a series of clearly defined steps because the

components of the system are interdependent
 You might start with one component, or you can work on several
components at the same time

System Analysis and Design

System Design 8
 System Design Objectives
 The goal of systems design is to build a system
that is effective, reliable, and maintainable
 A system is effective if it defined requirements and constraints, accepted
by users, and support the organization’s business objectives
 A system is reliable if it adequately handles errors, input errors,
processing errors, hardware failures, and human mistakes.
 An approach to building a reliable system is to plan errors, detect
them as early as possible, allow for their correction, and prevent them
from damaging the system
 A system is maintainable if it is well designed, flexible, and developed
with future modifications in mind
 Modification necessary to correct problems, to adapt to changing user
requirements, to enhance the system, and to take advantage of
changing technology

System Analysis and Design

System Design 9
 System Design Objectives
System design considerations
 User Considerations
 System must be user friendly
 Carefully consider any point where users receive output from, or
provide input to, the system
 The user interface must be easy to learn and use

 Input processes should be well documented, easy to follow,

intuitive, and forgiving of errors
 Output should be attractive and easy to understand

 Anticipate future needs of the users, the system, and the

organization
 hard-coded solution is straightforward, but its not a good
choice when the organization want to add anther rules
 Provide flexibility

 there are many issues to take into consideration to make the

system more flexible
System Analysis and Design
System Design 10
 System Design Objectives
System design considerations
 Data Considerations
 Data should be entered into the system where and when it occurs
because delays cause data errors
 Data should be verified when entered to catch errors immediately
 The system also should allow corrections at any time

 Automated methods of data entry should be used whenever possible

 Automated data entry methods reduce input errors and improve
employee productivity

System Analysis and Design

System Design 11
 System Design Objectives
System design considerations
 Data Considerations
 Access for data entry should be controlled and all entries or changes to
critical data values should be reported
 Dollar fields and many volume fields are considered critical data
fields
 Critical data volume include the number of checks processed, the
number of insurance premium payments received
 Report that trace the entry of and changes to critical data values are
called audit trails and are essential in every system
 Every instance of entry and change to data should be logged

System Analysis and Design

System Design 12
 System Design Objectives
System design considerations
 Data Considerations
 Data should be entered into a system only once
 If there are some data needed by two systems, you should design
program interface between the systems so data can transfer
automatically
 Data duplication should be avoided
 In some cases we need to store the same data with different records,
those data must stored once, so if we need to update the data we
will update it once

System Analysis and Design

System Design 13
 System Design Objectives
System design considerations
Architecture considerations
 Use a modular design
 In a modular design, you create individual processing component,
called modules, which connect to a higher level program or process
 In structural design each module represents a specific process or sub
process shown in a DFD and documented in a process description
 In object-oriented design, object classes are represented by code
modules
 Design modules that perform a single function are easier to understand,
implement, and maintain
 Independent modules provide greater flexibility because they can be
developed and tested individually
 Modular design is helpful especially when developing large scale-
systems

System Analysis and Design

System Design 14
 System Design Objectives
 Design Trade-Offs
 Design goals often conflict with each other
 In the system design phase, you must analyze alternatives and weight
trade-offs
 Most design trade-off decisions that you will face come down to the
basic conflict of quality versus cost
 Avoid decisions that achieve short-term savings but might mean higher
costs later
 Each trade-off must be considered individually, and the final result
must be acceptable to users, the systems staff, and company
management

System Analysis and Design

System Design 15
 Sequence Summary
 System design is the first phase of the system development life
cycle in which you and the user develop a concrete
understanding of how the system will operate
 System requirements document is the starting point for the
system design phase
 The logical design defines the functions and features of the
system and the relationships among its components
 The physical design of an information system is a plan for the
actual implementation of the system
 The goal of systems design is to build a system that is
effective, reliable, and maintainable
 Systems design guidelines and suggestions, including user
considerations, data considerations, and processing
considerations

System Analysis and Design

System Design 16
 Sequence Summary
 In this Sequence we have
 Described the tasks needed to prepare for system design
phase
 Explained the Relationship between Logical and Physical
Design
 Explained the system design objectives
 Explained the systems design guidelines and suggestions,
including user considerations, data considerations, and
architecture considerations
 Described the design trade-offs

System Analysis and Design

System Design 17
 Reference

[1] System Analysis and Design, Sixth

Edition
Authors: Gary B. Shelly, Thomas J.
Cashman and Harry J. Rosenblatt
Publisher: SHELLY CASHMAN SEWIES.

System Analysis and Design

System Design 18
System Analysis and Design
System Design 19