Systems Analysis and Design - Essay Example

Systems Analysis and Design Contents Introduction 3 Task 4 Task 2: 11 Task 3: 15 Task 4: 20 Conclusion 22 References/ Bibliography 23 Introduction This paper reflects the understanding of the systems analysis and design methods for getting the case scenario solved. The various models of discussion and their comparison is done for the purpose of getting the right amount of knowledge for making the right decision for getting hold of the concepts and techniques. The various aspects of systems analysis and design are integrated into this paper for in-depth understanding of the case and its appropriate analysis. Task 1: The problems in the software industry range from various directions such as management, technical and operational reasons. The following could be attributed for the following reasons: Discipline to perfect the systems development and maintenance for customers is lacking to a great extent Lack of various components for planning and research activities to make systems model better Requirements determination, feasibility study and user or customer survey not completed successfully Data capturing models are inefficient Design and development is expensive and time consuming Expertise and skill is quite lacking Infrastructure is average The systems development life cycle is directly responsible for the development and construction of the software. The each stage of the system development life cycle makes sure that the product travels through the process for getting the right requirements implemented. The process life cycle and the various steps are as follows: Feasibility analysis: The new proposed system and the present working system are analyzed so that the ROI (Return On Investment) is obtained. The proposed system is further analyzed for economical, technical, schedule and other feasibilities so that it stands in front of all difficulties in the development of the project. System investigation: The primary analysis of the system is essential for enveloping all the business data and information requirements to map all processes in the organization (Hoffer, 2002). It is done so that no data is left out and there is 100% coverage of the business requirements. The requirements of this stage demand enough expertise and skill to effectively understand and capitalize on information so that information is captured to its full swing. Systems analysis and Design: Once all the requirements are collected successfully they are analyzed to their importance and framed into defined design models such as DFD, E-R diagram and others so that their modeling is successfully transformed into a working system (Navathe, 2004). The entire design reflects the working of the organizational processes and their penetrations with external forces. The capabilities of this stage demands business modeling methods and strategies for developing a suitable data flow diagram to correctly figure out the process. Systems coding: This is the actual step where the business requirements are actually implemented and taken care to be given a representation. The impact of this stage would result in greater understanding of the business methods and good communication skills with the client. This stage creates an impact to make a difference to code the system to exact requirements mapped in the planning stages. Systems implementation: Successful implementation of the system is essential for the system to facilitate working and for the users to take full advantage of the system. The impact of this stage is quite large as improper implementation strategies may affect the working of the organization and processing capabilities. System maintenance: The maintenance of the system must be done perfectly so that the system functioning and periodic changes are able to be tracked. The above four stages impact the working of the organization as they are directly related to create a system to map the organizational processes. The points of difference between waterfall, evolutionary and spiral method is as follows: Development Life cycle Strengths Challenges Traditional Systems Development Life Cycle (Waterfall) Follows a planned approach. It takes into account all the stages required to develop the project. The advantage of waterfall development is that it allows for departmentalization and managerial control. A schedule can be set with deadlines for each stage of development and a product can proceed through the development process in periodic manner, and theoretically, be delivered on time. Development moves from concept, through design, implementation, testing, installation, troubleshooting, and ends up at operation and maintenance. Each phase of development proceeds in strict order, without any overlapping. The challenges of waterfall development are that it does not allow for much reflection or revision. Once an application is in the testing stage, it is very difficult to go back and change something that was not well-thought out in the concept stage. It cannot satisfactorily handle the different types of risks that a real life software project is subjected to. To achieve better efficiency and higher productivity, most real life projects cannot follow the rigid phase sequence imposed by the waterfall model. Spiral Model The spiral model is a realistic approach to the development of large-scale software products because the software evolves as the process progresses. In addition, the developer and the client better understand and react to risks at each evolutionary level. The model uses prototyping as a risk reduction mechanism and allows for the development of prototypes at any stage of the evolutionary development. It maintains a systematic stepwise approach, like the classic life cycle model, but incorporates it into an iterative framework that more reflect the real world. If employed correctly, this model should reduce risks before they become problematic, as consideration of technical risks are considered at all stages. Redundant nature of development would make sure that development time is quite wasted in practice. Effort and time determination is eroded to great extent as mentioned in Sommerville (2005). Design may not be stable even after several prototypes. It has not been employed as much proven models (e.g. the WF model) and hence may prove difficult to ‘sell’ to the client (esp. where a contract is involved) that this model is controllable and efficient. Evolutionary Reusability factor is the biggest strength. Pressman (2005) mentions that the use of tools like database programming language, interface generator, links to office application and report generators make sure that time and effort investment is utilized in a quality fashion. It easily develops the system into components which are focused for a particular objective. Quite challenging to coordinate team based development. No explicit system architecture followed in practice. The tools make sure that ultimate product is derived at the least amount of time without much of development cost and effort. The parts of the software are into complex dependencies which ultimately causes maintainability. Task 2: The investigative methods to be used are the various techniques to gather data collection methods for capturing the requirements the system is to be built with and can be termed as follows: Interviews: The interviewing method is quite essential in identifying the various entities of a system. Early in the project the analyst spends a large amount of time in gathering information about the work environment of the client and the types of processing which requires to be done within the business for the successful envelopment of the businesses workflow process and their understanding. The guidelines for effective interviewing are as follows: Prepare interviewee, appointments, priming questions Prepare checklist, agenda and questions Listening carefully and take notes Review notes within 48 hours of interview Be neutral to seek diverse views Questionnaires: This form of requirements gathering is best suitable for a large number of people in a relatively short period of time and can be less biased in the interpretation of results. There could be various sections of people, arranged in groups and they can be catered with different set of questionnaires to exactly match their information gathering platform. It would focus on specific direction so as to fetch the information rich in content and exact content can be analyzed. The information richness is medium to low. Observations: It is another way for collecting data where the software vendor visits the clients working environment to have an insight of the business processes. A walkthrough of the business process is quite efficient in nature to understand the working processes and their behavior with time. The exact actions taken in times of stress and problems are worth a view to depict the same in the system. Use of existing document: This form of requirements gathering takes place when the information is quite large for simple gathering methods. : It is precisely used in cases where a lot of information is desirable to make an ultimate decision. The information richness and time is quite low. The chances for follow-up and probing are quite low and saves a lot of time as the document is in depth. The structured interview plan is as follows: Interview Outline Interviewee: Interviewer: Name of person being interviewed Name of the person leading Location /Medium: Appointment Date: Office, conference room or phone number Start Time: End Time: Objectives Reminders: What data is to be collected? Background of the interviewee On what to gain agreement? Known options What areas to explore? Agenda Approximate Time Introduction on project 1 min Background on project 2 min Overview of interview 1 min Topic 1 questions…………. 5 min ---------------------------------------------Break--------------------------------------------------- Topic 2 questions…………. 5 min Summary of Major points 2 min Questions from Interview 5 min Closing 1 min General observations Unresolved issues, topics not covered Task 3: The following are the tasks carried for the sake of the scenario: Feasibility study: The system is feasible with respect to time, schedule, economical and from operational point of view. System/User requirements: Functional requirements are statement of services the system should provide. It tells the systems behavior towards particular inputs and situations. It sometimes states what the system should not do. For this scenario, the functional requirements are to suggest and record the vacancy and affordability of the rooms and the staffs associated. It also prepares a list of the various allocations that were made and must reveal the very availability of the room statuses. The non functional requirements offer the constraints on the services offered by the system. They include timing constraints, development process and standards constraint. It applies to the system on the whole. Data flow diagram: Figure 1 : Context 0 DFD Level 1 DFD: Figure 2 : Level 1 DFD Entity descriptions: Figure 3 : ERD The tables are normalized up to 3 NF and the following are results to it: Table 1: Rooms Attributes Data Type Description Rid Number (10) Unique primary key. Name Char (30) Name of the room Purpose Char (200) Complete details for the booking Status Char (20) Booking status Table 2: Staff Attributes Data Type Description Sid Number (10) Unique primary key. Name Char (30) Name of the staff Address Char (200) Complete details Phone Numeric (20) Phone number of the staff Subject Char (200) Subject of the staff Table 3: Students Attributes Data Type Description Suid Number (10) Unique primary key. Name Char (30) Name of the student Address Char (200) Complete details Major Char (20) Major of the student Table 4: Classes Attributes Data Type Description Cid Number (10) Unique primary key. Name Char (30) Name of the dealer Strength Numeric (4) Complete details Subject Char (20) Subject of the classes Coordinator Char (200) Coordinator Table 5: accommodate Attributes Data Type Description Cid Number (10) Unique primary key. Suid Number (10) Unique primary key. Table 6: have Attributes Data Type Description Cid Number (10) Unique primary key. Rid Number (10) Unique primary key. Task 4: The primary method for doing this assignment is as follows: The systems concepts were revised and checked with the various books The case scenario was studied carefully Entities were noted secondly Association between the entities were taken care to map the relationships Cardinality among the entities were taken care according to the assumptions DFD was constructed up to first level ERD was constructed and revised by cross checking the ERD and the case scenario Data dictionary was successfully developed form the attached files Systems concepts were extensively used for making the entire task successful. Conclusion The systems development and analysis was performed evenly with all the concepts and theories learnt in class and in practice. References/ Bibliography Hoffer (2002). Modern systems analysis and Design (pp 241-263).Singapore: Pearson Education. Navathe, Elmasri (2004). Fundamentals of Database systems (pp 49-70).Singapore: Pearson Education. Pressman, Roger (2005). Software Engineering, 3rd Edition. Sommerville, I. (2005), Software Engineering, Fifth Edition, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. Read More