CHAPTER 4

System Analysis
.
and
Development
System development
• It implies redesign of the existing information
system so as to achieve current and future
information and technological needs
• It end up with development of new artifact that can
solve current problems and utilize new
technological opportunities

2
Information System Development as a Project

“Unique process consisting of a set of coordinated and

controlled activities with start and finish dates, undertaken
to achieve an objective conforming to specific requirements,
including constraints of time, cost, quality and resources”

• A Project is a planned set of activities Scope

• A Project has a scope
Quality
• A Project’s three triangle

Cost Time
3
What is Project Management?

• The art of organising, leading, reporting and

completing a project through people

4
Project management cycles

• Planning the project

• Executing the project/plan
• Controlling execution of the project/plan
• Closing the project

5
Project planning
• The main purpose is to plan time, cost and
resources adequately to estimate the work needed
and to effectively manage risk during project
execution.
• Failure to adequately plan greatly reduces the
project's chances of successfully accomplishing its
goals.

6
Main activities of Planning
Create Project Management Plan (PMP)
Be clear of scope and objectives
Establish clear statement of what is to be done
(WBS)
Establish Risks to be Managed
Establish Costs and Durations
Establish Resources Required

7
Project control
• Typical control Activities
• regular reviews of progress against schedule using WBS
as basis (Plan against Baseline)
• regular review of actual costs (O/P from SAP) against
budgeted costs and Earned Value at WBS level
• regular review of resource loading
• regular progress meetings with project team
• regular meetings with contractors
• production of periodic progress reports
• risk reviews
• inspections/ audits

8
Project Control
• Typical Control Activities
• assign responsibilities at Work Package level
• staged authorisation of work to be done
• staged release of budgets (staged release of WBS(e)
numbers)
• ensure PM has a ‘Management Reserve’ under his
control
• seek corrective action reports when WPs go ‘off track’
(overrunning or overspending)
• release Management Reserve carefully

9
Project Control
• Typical Control Activities
• assign responsibilities at Work Package level
• staged authorisation of work to be done
• staged release of budgets (staged release of WBS(e)
numbers)
• ensure PM has a ‘Management Reserve’ under his
control
• seek corrective action reports when WPs go ‘off track’
(overrunning or overspending)
• release Management Reserve carefully

10
Project Management Tools

11
Network Diagram

Task 2

Task 1 Task 4 Task 5

Task 3

12
System Development cycles
1. Feasibility study
2. Current system analysis
3. Design of new system
4. System development
5. System Implementation
6. System maintenance

13
Feasibility Study
Feasibility study is a preliminary study where the
information needs of prospective users and the resource
requirements, costs, benefits, and viability of a proposed
project are determined.
A team of business professionals and IS specialists might
then formalize the findings of this study in a written report
that includes a developmental plan for a proposed business
application.
The purpose of feasibility is to decide whether to continue
with the system study or stop doing it.

14
Cont….
The feasibility of a proposed business system can
be evaluated in terms of five major categories
Economic,
Organizational,
Political,
Technical,
Operational feasibilities.

15
1. Feasibility study …

1. Economic feasibility - cost savings and other

benefits of the proposed system.
 Does the project make financial sense?
The purpose of the economic feasibility
assessment is to determine the extent to which
the proposed system will provide positive
economic benefits to the organization.
The system has tangible and intangible economic
benefits
16
Tangible vs. Intangible costs/benefits

Tangible:
 costs and benefits that can be quantified with a high degree of
certainty.
 E.g. reducing paper works
Intangible:
 costs and benefits that cannot be quantified with a high
degree of certainty.
E.g. Customer good will
17
3. Organizational feasibility
• Assess how well a proposed information system can be
implemented by the target organization
• It also checks alignment of information system objectives with
the objectives of the organization’s strategic plan.
• It involves assessment of organizational capability to
implement the new system
• For example,
• can it have adequate finance and manpower to implement the new
system
• Small organization cannot afford to buy ERP system

18
3. Technical feasibility -

• assessing the ability of the organization to acquire reliable

hardware and software that are capable of meeting the
proposed system.
The degree to which the current technical resources,
including hardware, software, and operating environments,
can be upgraded or added to the proposed system
It answers questions
are existing technologies are adequate or do we need to acquire
new technologies?

19
4. Operational feasibility

• the willingness and ability of the management,

employees, customers, suppliers and so on to
operate, use, and support a proposed system.
• Functional fitness of the new system to solve the problem of
the organization
• Can it be put in to action
• How well a proposed system solves the problems

20
 Schedule feasibility:
assessment of implementing the proposed system

within a reasonable time period.

Schedule may be delayed due to lack of finance,

skills and other factors.

Schedule feasibility assess this issues and proposes

acceptable time to implement the new system

21
 5. Legal Feasibility
Analysis of any potential legal ramifications resulting from
the construction and implementation of the new system
(legal)
Such legal issues include copyright or patent infringements,
violation of existing antitrust laws
Systems that are against to the government law will not be
implemented
Example – online purchase is not supported by Ethiopian
financial law

22
Political Feasibility
Understanding who the key stakeholders within
the organization are and the degree to which the
proposed system may positively or negatively
affect the distribution of power (political).
Such distribution can have major political effect
and may cause disruption or failure of an
otherwise relevant development effort.

23
Stage 2: Current System analysis

• Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or

substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better
understanding of it. 
• System analysis in general answers the question ‘what’
• Determine the information gap to be filled by the new
system
• Identifying tasks to be performed by the new system or
new system requirements,
• The end result of system analysis is documenting new system
requirements.
• System requirements are different types
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Stage 2: – System analysis …
• A requirement is simply a statement of what the
system must do or what characteristics it needs to
have
• During system study, we identify different
requirements
1. business requirements - what the business needs
2. functional requirements -what the software should
do
3. non-functional requirements - characteristics the
system should have

25
Stage 2: – System analysis …
Business requirements
• help to define the overall goals of the system
• Clarifies the contributions of the system to the
organization’s success.
• Examples of business requirements include:
• Increase market share
• Shorten order processing time
• Reduce customer service costs
• Lower inventory spoilage
• Used to evaluate system success
26
Stage 2: – System analysis …
Functional requirements
• Describes what the system should do to achieve
business objectives
• Describes how the system will support the user in
completing a task.
• Examples
• For Schedule a client appointment user task.
• The functional requirements will be
• Determine client availability,
• Find available openings matching client availability,
• Select desired appointment,
• Record appointment, and
• Confirm appointment.

27
Stage 2: – System analysis …
• Non functional requirements
• These are requirements to increase usability of the
system
• The requirements include ease of use, performance,
learnability of the system, etc
• They are primarily used in the design phase
• Examples
• System should have graphical interface
• System should be installed on web servicer to provide 24 hours
services
• They system answer queries within 1 minute for 95% of the
transactions

28
Stage 2: – System analysis …
Techniques for requirement elicitation
• Interviewing – discussion with one to one interaction
• Questionnaires: Asking the end user a list of pre-selected
questions
• Task Analysis: Observing end users in their operational
environment
• Joint Application Development (JAD)
• Scenarios: Describe the use of the system as a series of
interactions between a concrete end user and the system
• Use cases: Abstractions that describe a class of scenarios.

29
Stage 2: – System analysis …
• Interview is common requirement collection
method
• It allows to get deeper information with two way
interaction
• Should have interview checklist before you conduct
the interview
• Focus on eliciting on user functions and problems
• Include both managers and people who actually
perform the task

30
Type of Interview Questions

31
Stage 2: – System analysis …
Observation
• the act of watching processes being performed,
• Used to validate information gathered by other
methods
• Do not try to observe the normal day-to-day
routine as people may not behave naturally
• Observing the location of a person’s office,
available resources, volume of information flow, etc
• May or may not be guided by observation checklist

32
Stage 2: – System analysis …
Document Analysis
• Document analysis is used to understand the as-is
system
• Start by examining existing system documentation
• When existing system documentation is not
available, use documents like
• paper reports, memorandums, policy manuals,
user training manuals, organization charts, and
forms.
• Documents provide a historical and “formal” view of
system requirements
33
Stage 2: – System analysis …
• Useful document: Business form
• Used for all types of business functions
• Explicitly indicate what data flow in and out of a system and
data necessary for the system to function
• Gives crucial information about the nature of the organization
• Useful document: Report
• Primary output of current system
• Enables you to work backwards from the report to the data
needed to generate it
• Useful document: Description of current information
system

34
Stage 2: – System analysis …
Joint Application Design (JAD)
• JAD is an information gathering technique that allows
the project team, users, and management to work
together to identify requirements for the system
• Structured process in which 10 to 20 users meet under
the direction of a facilitator skilled in JAD techniques.
• Participants are managers, system developers,
programmers, end users and other stakeholders
• Resource intensive

35
JAD ROOM

36
Stage 2: – System analysis …
Analysis outputs
1) Requirement specification
• Description of the current system strength
• Description of the current system limitation
• Functions the new system should perform to solve the
business problem
• User information requirements for the new system
• Proposed system architecture,
• Prototype of the new system such as human-computer
interface
37
Stage 2: – System analysis …

2) Technical specification
• The analyst generates the required technical specification that
includes
• the hardware architectures
• the software to be used
• the cost of the implementation
• the staffing required
• the physical limitations such as a space occupied by the
system
• the distribution including any networks which that may
require
• the overall format of the human computer interface
38
Stage 2: – System analysis …
Documentation of analysis results
• System Data flow is represented with data flow diagrams (DFDs),
• Term description with data dictionary,
• Process description with logical data modeling such as structured
English, decision tree, decision table
• Entity Life-Histories (ELHs) which describe all events through the
life of an entity,
• System data base with entity relationship diagram (ERD)
• It includes planning for the new system, system constraints,
functions and proposed system architecture, prototype of the
new system

39
Stage 3- Systems Design
Determination of how the system will accomplish its
objectives.
This is where issues related to hardware, software,
networking, data storage, security, and many others
will be discussed and determined.
Systems design consists of design activities that
ultimately produce physical system specifications
satisfying the functional requirements that were
developed in the systems analysis process.

40
Stage 3- Systems Design …
• System design has two components
1. Logical Design: gives a detailed logical
definition of the required system.

2. Physical Design: takes the products of the

logical design and produces specifications for
the target hardware and software.

41
Stage 3- Systems Design …
• Logical Design - blueprint is the delivered
product of the required system.
• It includes the following:
• Requirements Catalogue
• Required system DFDs
• Required system LDS
• Relational Data Analysis (normalised set
of tables and rationalised set of tables)
42
Stage 3- Systems Design …
• Physical Design:
• Logical design translated into a physical design
based on the technical environment selected, e.g.
platform, programming language, database etc.
• Produces program specifications, physical files or
database definitions and user interfaces for a
selected target hardware & software.

43
Stage 3- Systems Design …
• Physical design includes contents of the following
components;

• Outputs design - (reports, displays)

• Inputs design - (forms, screens, dialogues)
• Programs design - (structure of programs to
collect, transform & output data)
• Data design - (requirements for data to be
stored in a database)

44
User Interface Design
The goal of user interface design is to make the user's interaction as
simple and efficient as possible
It focuses on supporting the interactions between end users and their
computer-based applications.
Designers concentrate on the design of attractive and efficient forms of user
input and output, such as easy-to-use internet or intranet web pages.
The user interface design process produces detailed design specifications for
information products such as
display screens, interactive user/computer dialogues, audio
responses, forms, documents, and reports.
It will be improved through iterative revision as a result of comment from
potential end users, who are part of the system.

45
Design forms for input and reports
for output
◦ Use meaningful titles
◦ Include meaningful information, meta data
◦ Balance the layout
◦ Design an easy navigation system
◦ Case
◦ Spacing
◦ Justification
◦ Hyphenation
◦ Abbreviations

46
Guidelines to Design tables and Lists

• Use meaningful labels

• All columns and rows should have meaningful labels
• Labels should be separated from other information by
using highlighting
• Redisplay labels when the data extend beyond a single
screen or page
• Formatting columns, rows and text
• Avoid overly fancy fonts
• Place a blank line between every five rows in long
columns
• Columns should have at least two spaces between them
47
Sample Form Design

48
Sample Report

49
Program Design
• It is written to the level that can be converted into target
Language software such as C++ or Vb.net
• One of the tool is a flowchart which is a graphic
representation to show the flow of data and the
information processing procedures.
• Basic Symbols Processing Input/ Manual
Operati-
Stored
Data
output on

Paper
Document Manual/online
input Magnetic Magnetic
Tape Disk

Display
Communication
Link Off-page On page
connector connector

Start/End
Decision

50
Example 1

Start

Store Registered
Student fills
Registration Students
Slip

Registration Slip
Sort Registration by
Program

Secretary Keys in
registration

List of Registered
Registration Edit students for a program
Program

Is registration Invalid
No
Valid? registration
End

Yes

1
51
Database Design
Data Design is the design of the logical structure of
databases and files to be used by a proposed information
system (developing the data structure for the system)
This design produces detailed descriptions of the
entities, relationships, data elements, and integrity rules
for system files and databases.
During design, entities are converted into data base
tables and attributes into data base fields
You should also specify data type and foreign keys to
show relationship between tables

52
Data base design
Customer table

Id Text 6 Primary key

Name Text 50

Telephone Number 10

E-mail Text 20

Location Text 50

53
Stage 5 - System Implementation

involves hardware & software acquisition, software

development,
testing of programs & procedures;

educating and training of management, end users,

and operating personnel who will use the new system.

54
The Implementation Process
Implementation
Implementation
Activities
Activities

Development
Development
Acquisition
Acquisition System
System End
End User
User
Of
Of SW
SW and
and
Of
Of HW
HW Testing
Testing Training
Training
procedures
procedures

System
System Conversion
Conversion
Documentation
Documentation

55
Cont…
Acquisition of hardware & software
Consists of considering the strategies of acquiring the necessary
hardware and software resources.
Ex: buy or lease computer system, or to use service centers for
computer time.
For software: buy from external developers or develop it in-house.

Consideration of cloud computing solutions

56
Hardware Evaluation Factors:

 Performance - speed, capacity, throughput (the total amount of work

performed by a data processing system over some period of time).
 Cost - comparing prices of lease or purchase, costs of operation and
maintenance.
 Reliability - the risk of frequent malfunction & maintenance
requirement of the hardware.
 Technology - year of its product life cycle, risk of obsolescence.
 Ergonomics – is the science & technology (some times called human
factors engineering) of ensuring that computers & other technologies
are “user friendly”, safe, comfortable and easy to use.
 Environmental requirements- the electrical power, air conditioning
and others.

57
Software Evaluation Factors

• Efficiency - how much does the software require memory

capacity and CPU time.
• Flexibility - the ability of the software to handle processing
assignments without major modifications.
• Security- The ability of the software to provide control
procedures for errors, malfunction & improper use.
• Language - the extent to which computer programmers &
users use the new programming language.
• Documentation - the documentation of the software & the
availability of helpful user instructions.

58
Vendors evaluating factors
• Past performance in terms of their past promises
• Staffing: availability of system analysts and programming
consultants and the quality & costs of their services.
• Support: quality, cost of maintenance and training provision
• The availability of computer facilities for emergency backup
purposes.
• Accessibility - the availability of branch office (local or regional
office) to offer sales, systems development, & hardware
maintenance services.
• Business position - financial strength, prospects of industry
market.

59
 2. System testing
• involves testing hardware devices usually done by
specialists from the supplier whether they function
properly to accept or reject the system.
• Testing of software using test data to simulate all
conditions that may affect during processing.
• White box testing – checking if the system is executed
without error for the given sample data
• Black box testing – checking if the system generates the
expected reports with the given data
• User acceptance testing for its usefulness and ease of use

60
3. System Documentation

explains the technical characteristics & operation of a system.

• Advantages:
• allows management to monitor the progress of a system
development project.
• for proper implementation & maintenance.
• for diagnosing system errors, and making system
changes especially if the end users or systems analysts
who developed the system are no longer available
within the organization.
• helps to train users how to interact with the system &
operators how to run it.

61
Installation Conversion Methods
Old
Old System
System
Parallel
New
New System
System

Old
Old System
System New System Pilot

Old New System

Old System
System Phased

Old
Old System
System New
New System
System Plunge

62
System Development
Tools and Techniques
Tools for system analysis
• Process modelling such as Data flow diagram for
system process
• Logic modelling such as structured English, flow
chart, decision table, etc
• Data modelling such as Entity-relationship diagram

64
Data flow diagram
• Represents flow of information within the system
• It is constructed at different level
• Context diagram to show the system interaction
with external actors
• Level 0 DFD shows high level DFD diagram for the
system
• Level 1 and Level 2 … DFDs are decomposed DFD
diagrams from Level 0 DFD

65
Symbology and Conventions

Entity Flow of Data Process Data Store

(Noun) (Noun) (Name of Whole System (Noun)
Name of Subsystem
Verb-Adjective-Noun)

66
 Context diagram for Food ordering system

8.67
8.67
67
Level-0 DFD for food ordering system

68
DFD Errors
• Data Flows - Omitted/Wrong Direction
• Data Flows and External Entities Connected
• Incorrect Labels - Processes/Data Flows
• Too Many Processes - Limit 9
• Unbalanced Decomposition - Child Diagrams

69
Logic modeling
It is used to document a process design

Process Design is the design of the programs and

procedures needed by a proposed information system,
including detailed program specifications and
procedures.
It is a process to be executed by the computer when it is
converted into a computer language such as Java, VB.net

70
Logic Modeling Tools
• There are different tools for logic models
• Some commonly used tools are
• Structured English
• Decision table
• Decision tree
• Flow chart
• Etc

71
Decision Tables
• Condition stubs: that part of a decision table that lists the
conditions relevant to the decision
• Action stubs: that part of a decision table that lists the actions
that result for a given set of conditions
• Rules for executing actions

• Case study
• If employees work less than 40 hours and salaried employee,
pay base salary. If he/she is hourly worker, calculate hourly
wage. If they work 40 hours, pay the base salary for salaried
worker and hourly wage for hourly workers. If he/she works
more than 40 hours, calculate over time pay.
72
Modeling Logic with Decision
Tables

73
Logic Modelling – Process
Calculate income tax

• If employee salary is less than 600 birr, do

not deduct income tax. But if salary is
between 600 and 1200 birr, deduct 10 % tax.
If salary is greater than 1200 and less than
2500 birr, deduct 15% tax otherwise deduct
20% tax and then calculate the net pay.

74
Solution
• Read name, salary
• If salary < 600 then
• Net pay = salary
• Else If salary < 1200 then
• Net pay = salary –(salary * 0.10)
• Else If salary < 2500 then
• Net pay = salary –(salary * 0.15)
• Else If
• Net pay = salary –(salary * 0.20)
• End if
• Print name, salary, netpay

75
Decision Table
Conditions/course Rules
of actions
< 600 600 - 1200 1200 - >
Condition Salary 2500 2500
Stub X
X
X
No Tax X
Action Deduct 10% X
Stub
Deduct 15% X
Deduct 20% X

76
Decision tree

Pay tax
Yes

Income >
600 birr ?
No

Do not pay tax

77
 Data modeling with Entity Relationship Diagram

• Entity- any thing (object, person, an abstract concept, or event)

about which data is collected. Example:- Student, Course,
Lecturer, etc.
• Attributes:- is a characteristic of interest about an entity; the
values of the attributes describe a particular entity. Example:-
Student ID, Name, Address, Major, etc.,
• Relationship: Is the association between entities. Example: a
student grade associates a student with a course.

78
 ERD: Three types of relationships
 One-to-one relationship: If one element of entity A can be
directly related to only one element of entity B, and vice
versa.
 Example: In monogamy system: a husband and a wife.
 One-to-many relationship: when one element of entity is
related with many instances in another entity.
 Example: the relationship between a biological father/mother and
his/her children.
 Many-to-many relationship: when one or more element(s)
of entity A can be related to one or more element of entity
B, and when one or more elements of entity B can be
related to one or more elements of entity A.
 Example: The relationship between student and course.

79
ER Diagram
belongs
Customer Sales

buys
has

Products

80
 name category
name

price

makes Company
Product

stockprice

buys
employs

Person

address name ssn

81
Can you try developing E-R model
for a college that supports student
information management activity

82
Review Questions
• What system analysis
• What is the purpose of system analysis
• What is system design
• What are the main activities in the system design
• What are the activities during system
implementation

83
Individual Assignment
1. Select your organnization human resource or
finance or marketing department and then do
the following
2. Draw a context diagram for the above system
3. Draw the data flow diagram
4. Draw the Entity Relationship Diagram for the
entities you identified
5. Comment the problems on the existing system

84