Systems Analysis and

Design
Chapter 1
Introduction to Systems Analysis and Design
Chapter Objectives

• Discuss the impact of information technology

on business strategy and success
• Define an information system and describe its
components
• Explain how profiles and models can represent
business functions and operations
• Identify various types of information systems
and explain who uses them

2
Chapter Objectives

• Apply five basic guidelines for systems

development
• Discuss the role of the information technology
department and the systems analysts who work
there

3
Introduction

• Companies use
information as a weapon
in the battle to increase
productivity, deliver quality
products and services,
maintain customer loyalty,
and make sound
decisions
• Information technology
can mean the difference
between success and
failure
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The Impact of Information Technology

• Information Technology (IT)

• Combination of hardware and software
products and services that companies use to
manage, access, communicate, and share
information
• The Future
• Three issues that will shape the future
• Changes in world
• Changes in technology
• Changes in client demand
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Why Systems Analysis and Design

• System analysis and design deal with

planning the development of information
systems through understanding and specifying
in detail what a system should do and how the
components of the system should be
implemented and work together.
• Systems design is the process of defining the
architecture, components, modules, interfaces,
and data for a system to satisfy specified
requirements.

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The Impact of Information Technology

• Systems Development
• Business information systems are developed
by people who are technically qualified,
business-oriented, and highly motivated
• Must be good communicators with strong
analytical and critical thinking skills

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The Impact of Information Technology

• Systems Analysis and Design

• Systems Analysis and Design
• Step-by-step process for developing high-
quality information systems
• Systems Analyst
• Plan, develop, and maintain information
systems

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The Impact of Information Technology

• Who develops Information Systems?

• In-house applications
• Software packages
• Internet-based application services
• Outsourcing
• Custom solutions
• Enterprise-wide software strategies
• How versus What

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Information System Components

• A system is a set of related components (Hardware,

Software, Data, People and Procedures) that
produces specific results
• A Mission-critical system is one that is vital to a
company’s operations
• Data consists of basic facts that are the system’s
raw material
• Information is data that has been transformed into
output that is valuable to users
• Information systems have five key components:
hardware, software, data, processes, and people
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Information System Components

• Hardware
• Is the physical layer
of the information
system
• Moore’s Law
• Software
• System software
• Application software
• Enterprise
applications
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Information System Components

• Software
• Horizontal system
• Vertical system
• Legacy systems
• Data
• Tables store data
• Linked tables work
together to supply
data

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Information System Components

• Processes
• Describe the tasks
and business
functions that users,
managers, and IT
staff members
perform to achieve
specific results
• People
• Stakeholders
• Users, or end users
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Understanding The Business

• Business Process Modeling

• Business Profile
• Business Models
• Business model
• Business process
• Business process reengineering (BPR)

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Impact of the Internet

• E-Commerce or I-Commerce
• B2C (Business-to-Consumer)
• B2B (Business-to-Business)
• EDI
• Extensible markup language (XML)
• Supply chain management (SCM)
• Supplier relationship management (SRM)

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Business Information Systems

• In the past, IT managers divided systems into

categories based on the user group the system
served
• Office systems
• Operational systems
• Decision support systems
• Executive information systems

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Business Information Systems

• Today, identify a system by its functions and

features, rather than by its users
• Enterprise computing systems
• Transaction processing systems
• Business support systems
• Knowledge management systems
• User productivity systems

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Business Information Systems

• Enterprise computing
systems
–Support company-wide
operations and data
management
requirements
–Enterprise resource
planning (ERP)
–Many hardware and
software vendors
target the enterprise
computing market
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Business Information Systems

• Transaction processing
systems
• Involve large amounts
of data and are
mission-critical
systems
• Efficient because they
process a set of
transaction-related
commands as a group
rather than individually

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Business Information Systems

• Business support systems

• Provide job-related information to users at all
levels of a company
• Management information systems (MIS)
• Radio frequency identification (RFID)

• What-if

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Business Information Systems

• Knowledge management systems

• Called expert systems
• Simulate human reasoning by combining a
knowledge base and inference rules
• Many knowledge management systems use
a technique called fuzzy logic

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Business Information Systems

• User productivity systems

• Technology that improves productivity
• Groupware
• Information systems integration
• Most large companies require systems that
combine transaction processing, business
support, knowledge management, and user
productivity features

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What Information Do Users Need?

23
Systems Development Methods

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 Systems Development Methods

• Structured Analysis
• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
is a process used by the software industry
to design, develop and test high quality
softwares.
• The SDLC aims to produce a high-quality
software that meets or exceeds customer
expectations, reaches completion within
times and cost estimates.

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 Systems Development Methods

• Structured Analysis
• Systems
development life
cycle (SDLC)
• Predictive approach
• Uses a set of
process models to
describe a system
graphically
• Process-centered
technique
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Systems Development Methods

• SDLC is the acronym of Software Development

Life Cycle.
• It is also called as Software Development
Process.
• SDLC is a framework defining tasks performed at
each step in the software development process.
• ISO/IEC 12207 is an international standard for
software life-cycle processes. It aims to be the
standard that defines all the tasks required for
developing and maintaining software.

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What is SDLC?

• a process followed for a software project, within

a software organization.
• It consists of a detailed plan describing how to
develop, maintain, replace and alter or enhance
specific software.
• The life cycle defines a methodology for
improving the quality of software and the
overall development process.

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Systems Development Methods

• Structured Analysis
• The SDLC model usually includes five steps
• Systems Planning
• Systems Analysis
• Systems Design
• Systems Implementation
• Systems support and security

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What is SDLC?
Planning
Implementation

Deployment Defining/Analysis

Testing Designing

Building
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SDLC

•Systems Planning

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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Planning
• Systems request – begins the process &
describes problems or desired changes
• Purpose of this phase is to perform a
preliminary investigation
• Key part of preliminary investigation is a
feasibility study

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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Planning
• most important and fundamental stage in
SDLC
• performed by the senior members of the
team with inputs from the customer, the
sales department, market surveys and
domain experts in the industry. 
• brief investigation of the system under
consideration to get a clear picture of what
actually the physical system is?

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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Planning
• Preliminary system study is the first stage of
system development life cycle.
• In practice, the initial system study involves the
preparation of a ‘System Proposal’ which lists the
Problem Definition, Objectives of the Study, Terms
of reference for Study, Constraints, Expected
benefits of the new system, etc.
• information is then used to plan the basic project
approach and to conduct product feasibility study in
the economical, operational and technical areas.
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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Planning
• Planning for the quality assurance
requirements and identification of the risks
associated with the project is also done in the
planning stage.
• The outcome of the technical feasibility study is
to define the various technical approaches that
can be followed to implement the project
successfully with minimum risks.

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SDLC

•Systems Analysis

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Systems Development Methods

• Structured Analysis
• process of collecting factual data, understand
the processes involved, identifying problems
and recommending feasible suggestions for
improving the system functioning.
• involves studying the business processes,
gathering operational data,
• understanding information flow, finding out
bottlenecks and evolving solutions for
overcoming the weaknesses of the system so
as to achieve the organizational goals.
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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Analysis
• clearly define and document the product
requirements and get them approved from
the customer or the market analysts. 

• Deliverable is the System requirements

Document

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SDLC

•Systems Design

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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Design
• Deliverable is system design specification
• Management and user involvement is critical

• Based on the user requirements and the detailed

analysis of the existing system.

• It is the most crucial phase in the development of

a system. The logical system design arrived at as
a result of systems analysis is converted into
physical system design.
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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Design
• Normally, the design proceeds in two
stages:
• l Preliminary or General Design
• Il Structured or Detailed Design

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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Design
• There are several tools and techniques used
for describing the system design of the
system. These tools and techniques are:
• Flowchart
• Data flow diagram (DFD)
• Data dictionary
• Structured English
• Decision table
• Decision tree
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SDLC

•Systems Implementation

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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Implementation
• New system is constructed
• the actual development starts and the product
is built. The programming code is generated as
per DDS during this stage. If the design is
performed in a detailed and organized manner,
code generation can be accomplished without
much hassle.

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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Implementation
• New system is constructed
• Developers must follow the coding guidelines
defined by their organization and programming
tools like compilers, interpreters, debuggers, etc.
are used to generate the code. Different high
level programming languages such as C, C++,
Pascal, Java and PHP are used for coding. The
programming language is chosen with respect to
the type of software being developed.

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Systems Development Methods

• Systems Implementation
• New system is constructed
• Systems Support and Security
• A well-designed system must be secure,
reliable, maintainable, and scalable
• Most information systems need to be
updated significantly or replaced after
several years of operation

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Systems Development Methods

• Testing the Product

• This stage is usually a subset of all the stages
as in the modern SDLC models, the testing
activities are mostly involved in all the stages of
SDLC.
• testing only stage of the product where product
defects are reported, tracked, fixed and
retested, until the product reaches the quality
standards defined in the SRS.

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Systems Development Methods

• Deployment in the Market and Maintenance

• Once the product is tested and ready to be
deployed it is released formally in the
appropriate market.
• Sometimes product deployment happens in
stages as per the business strategy of that
organization. The product may first be released
in a limited segment and tested in the real
business environment (UAT- User acceptance
testing).

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Systems Development Methods

• Deployment in the Market and Maintenance

• Then based on the feedback, the product may
be released as it is or with suggested
enhancements in the targeting market
segment.
• After the product is released in the market, its
maintenance is done for the existing customer
base.

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SDLC Guidelines (Summary)

• Develop a project plan

• Involve users and listen carefully to them
• Use project management tools to identify tasks
and milestones
• Develop accurate cost and benefit information
• Remain flexible

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Information Technology Department

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The Systems Analyst

• Responsibilities
–Translate business requirements into IT
projects
• Knowledge, Skills, and Education
• Needs technical knowledge, strong oral and
written communication skills and analytic
ability, an understanding of business
operations, and critical thinking skills
• Certification
–Important credential
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The Systems Analyst

• Career Opportunities
• Job titles
• Company organization
• Company size
• Corporate culture
• Salary, location, and future growth

53
Chapter Summary

• IT refers to the combination of hardware and

software resources that companies use to
manage, access, communicate, and share
information
• The essential components of an information
system are hardware, software, data,
processes, and people
• Successful companies offer a mix of products,
technical and financial services, consulting, and
customer support

54
Chapter Summary

• Information systems are identified as enterprise

computing systems, transaction processing
systems, business support systems, knowledge
management systems, or user productivity
systems
• Organization structure includes top managers,
middle managers and knowledge workers,
supervisors and team leaders

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Chapter Summary

• The IT department develops, maintains and

operates a company’s information systems
• Systems analysts need a combination of
technical and business knowledge, analytical
ability, and communication skills
• Systems analysts need to consider salary,
location, and future growth potential when
making a career decision

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Chapter Summary

• Chapter 1 complete

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