Systems Analysis & Design Introduction

1. Systems Analysis & DesignIntroduction Karolina Muszyńska Based on http://www.csun.edu/~dn58412/IS431/IS431_SP13.html

2. System Development Environment: Participants and Context Information system applications - WHAT Information systems and their stakeholders – WHO Definition of a system Role of systems analysts Knowledge and skill set for system analysts IS Building Blocks Business modeling – why, what, how?

3. Information Systems vs. Information Technology Information System (IS): People, data, processes, and information technology that interact to collect, process, store, and provide as output the information needed to support and improve operational, tactical, and strategic activities of an organization (business). Information Technology (IT): A combination of computer technology (hardware and software) with telecommunications technology (data, image, and voice networks)

4. From Facts to Knowledge Data – raw facts about people, places, events, and things that are of importance in an organization. Information – data that has been processed or reorganized into a more meaningful form for someone. Knowledge – data and information that is further refined based on the facts, truths, beliefs, judgments, experiences, and expertise of the recipient. Wisdom – when to apply a certain knowledge

5. Decision-Making in an Organization

6. Decision-Making Levels of an Organization • Executive Level • Long-term decisions (Strategies) • Unstructured decisions (Competitions) • Managerial Level • Decisions covering weeks and months (Tactics) • Semi-structured decisions (Effectiveness) • Operational Level • Day-to-day decisions (Operations) • Structured decisions (Efficiency)

7. Information Systems in Organization EXECUTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS TACTICAL TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL ACCOUNT I N G F I NANCE HUMAN RE S PRODUCT ION SALES OTHERS VALUE CHAIN

8. Information System in Context

9. Types of Information Systems Transaction Processing Systems Management Information Systems Executive Information Systems Decision Support Systems Expert Systems Functional Area Information Systems (Accounting, HR, Sales, Production …) Office Automation Systems (Personal Productivity Software) Collaboration Systems (Groupware) Enterprise Systems

10. Front- and Back-Office Information Systems • Front-officeinformation systems support business functions that extend out to the organization’s customers (or constituents). • Marketing • Sales • Customer management • Back-officeinformation systems support internal business operations of an organization, as well as reach out to suppliers (of materials, equipment, supplies, and services). • Human resources • Financial management • Manufacturing • Inventory control

11. A Federation of Information Systems

12. Stakeholders of a System Stakeholder: any person who has an interest in an existing or proposed information system. Stakeholders can be technical or nontechnical workers. They may also include both internal and external workers. Information workers are those workers whose jobs involve the creation, collection, processing, distribution, and use of information. Knowledge workers are a subset of information workers whose responsibilities are based on a specialized body of knowledge.

13. Perspectives on an Information System

14. System Owners • System owners – an information system’s sponsors and executives advocate, usually responsible for funding the project of developing, operating, and maintaining the information system. They define the SCOPE of a system: what business problem is to be solved • They view the system in terms of cost/benefit to solve business problem

15. System Users • System users – use or are affected by an information system on a regular basis – capturing, validating, entering, responding to, storing, and exchanging data and information. They define the REQUIREMENTS of the system. • Internal users • Clerical and service workers • Technical and professional staff • Supervisors, middle managers, and executive managers • Remote and mobile users (internal but disconnected) • External users

16. System Designers and System Builders System designers translate system users’ business requirements and constraints into technical solution: computer databases, inputs, outputs,networks, and software meeting the system users’ requirements. Their activities relate to the DESIGN of a system System builders construct information systems based on the design specifications from the system designers. Their activities relate to building the COMPONENTS of the system.

17. Systems Analysts • Systems analysts study the problems and needs of an organization to determine how people, data, processes, and information technology can best accomplish improvements for the business. They are FACILITATORS of the system development project. • A programmer/analyst (or analyst/programmer) includes the responsibilities of both the computer programmer and the systems analyst. • A business analyst focuses on only the nontechnical aspects of systems analysis and design.

18. The Systems Analyst as a Problem-Solver • What “problems” to solve: (Project Definition) • True problem situations, either real or anticipated, that require corrective action • Opportunities to improve a situation despite the absence of complaints • Directives to change a situation regardless of whether anyone has complained about the current situation • Why: (Project Justification) • Effective: Do right thing • Efficient: Do thing right • Competitive: Do thing differently

19. Systems Analysts At Work • In traditional businesses • Working in traditional information services organizations(permanent project teams) • Working in contemporary information services organizations (dynamic project teams) • In outsourcing businesses • Contracted to traditional businesses • In consulting businesses • Contracted to traditional businesses • In application software businesses • Building software products for traditional businesses

20. Systems Analyst as a Facilitator

21. Skills Needed by the Systems Analyst Working knowledge of information technology Computer programming experience and expertise General business knowledge General problem-solving skills Good interpersonal communication skills Good interpersonal relations skills Flexibility and adaptability Character and ethics Systems Analysis and Design Skills

22. Information Systems Architecture Information systems architecture - a unifying framework into which various stakeholders with different perspectives can organize and view the fundamental building blocks of information systems.

23. Focuses for Information Systems KNOWLEDGE (Data) — the raw material used to create useful information. PROCESSES— the activities (including management) that carry out the mission of the business. COMMUNICATION (Interfaces)— how the system interfaces with its users and other information systems.

25. KNOWLEDGE Focus • System owners’ view • Interested not in raw data but in information that adds new business knowledge and information that help managers make intelligent decisions. • Data entities and business rules. • System users’ view • Something recorded on forms, stored in file cabinets, recorded in books and binders, organized into spreadsheets, or stored in computer files and databases. • Focus on the business issues as they pertain to the data. • Data requirement – a representation of users’ data in terms of entities, attributes, relationships, and rules independent of data technology.

26. KNOWLEDGE Focus … • System designers’ view • Data structures, database schemas, fields, indexes, and constraints of particular database management system (DBMS). • System builders’ view • SQL • DBMS or other data technologies

27. PROCESS Focus • System owners’ view • Concerned with high-level process called business functions • Business function – a group of related processes that support the business. Functions can be decomposed into other subfunctions and eventually into processes that do specific tasks. (e.g. Sales Function) • A cross-functionalinformation system – a system that supports relevant business processes from several business functions without regard to traditional organizational boundaries such as divisions, departments, centers, and offices. (e.g. Production Function)

28. PROCESS Focus … • System users’ view • Concerned with work that must be performed to provide the appropriate responses to business events. • Business processes – activities that respond to business events. • Process requirements – a user’s expectation of the processing requirements for a business process and its information systems. • Policy – a set of rules that govern a business process. • Procedure – a step-by-step set of instructions and logic for accomplishing a business process. • Work flow – the flow of transactions through business processes to ensure appropriate checks and approvals are implemented.

29. PROCESS Focus … • System designers’ view • Concerned with - which processes to automate and how to automate them • Constrained by limitations of application development technologies being used • Software specifications – the technical design of business processes to be automated or supported by computer programs (off-shelf, in-house) to be written by system builders.

30. PROCESS Focus … • System builders’ view • Concerned with programming logic that implements automated processes • Application program – a language-based, machine-readable representation of what a software process is supposed to do, or how a software process is supposed to accomplish its task. • Prototyping – a technique for quickly building a functioning, but incomplete model of the information system using rapid application development tools.

31. COMMUNICATION Focus • System owners’ view • Concerned with communications scope of an information system. • Who (which business units, employees, customers, and partners) must interact with the system? • Where are these business units, employees, customers, and partners located? • What other information systems will the system have to interface with? • System users’ view • Concerned with the information system’s inputs and outputs (Interface Requirements).

32. COMMUNICATION Focus … • System designers’ view • Concerned with the technical design of both the user and the system-to-system communication interfaces. • Interface specifications – technical designs that document how system users are to interact with a system and how a system interacts with other systems. • User dialogue – a specification of how the user moves from window to window or page to page, interacting with the application programs to perform useful work. • System builders’ view • Concerned with the construction, installation, testing and implementation of user and system-to-system interface solutions. • Middleware – utility software that allows application software and systems software that utilize differing technologies to interoperate.

33. System Development Process Overview System initiation – the initial planning for a project to define initial business scope, goals, schedule, and budget. System analysis – the study of a business problem domain to recommend improvements and specify the business requirements and priorities for the solution. System design – the specification or construction of a technical, computer-based solution for the business requirements identified in a system analysis. System implementation – the construction, installation, testing, and delivery of a system into production.

34. System Development as Problem Solving

35. Business Modeling: Why, What , How ? • An IS professional can add value in helping an organization to define and improve its business processes and design appropriate IS. • What are business processesand how can they be designed to support an organization’s objectives? • How do we design information systemsthat collect, maintain, and process the data needed to generate the outputs required by management to effectively manage business processes in the information age? • REAL BusinessProcess Modeling

36. Business Processes Acquisition/Payment Business Process Conversion Business Process Sales/CollectionBusiness Process Human Resources Financial Resources Supplies Inventories Property, Plant and Equipment New Ideas (R & D) Miscellaneous services Operations (Varies widely depending upon the industry) Marketing and Sales Service Promotion Outbound logistics Collection and Credit E-Commerce ACTIVITIES

37. Acquisition/Payment Process • Regardless of the type of good or service being acquired, the following are typical operating events in the acquisition/payment business process: • Request goods or services. • Order goods or services. • Receive and inspect goods or services. • Store and/or maintain goods. • Pay for goods or services. • Return goods. • Specifics may vary

38. Sales/Collection Process • Although there is some diversity across the types of goods and services sold, the sales/collection process typically includes the following events: • Receive an order for goods or services. • Select and inspect goods or services to be delivered. • Prepare goods or services for delivery. • Deliver goods or services. • Receive payment for goods or services. • Accept customer returns of goods. • Specifics may vary

39. Conversion Process • General activities in the conversion process include: • Assembling. • Growing. • Excavating. • Harvesting. • Basic manufacturing (e.g., metals, woods, and chemicals). • Finished manufacturing (e.g., tools, instruments, components). • Cleaning. • Transporting. • Distributing. • Providing (e.g., power, water, protection, communication). • Training. • Discovering (e.g., research and development).

40. Business Process Events • A business process is “a series of activities intended to accomplish the strategic objectives of an organization.” • Operating Events are the operating activities performed within a business process to provide goods and services to customers. • Information Events include three activities: recording data about operating events, maintaining reference data that are important to the organization, and reporting useful information to management and other decision makers. • Decision/Management Events are activities where management and other people make decisions about planning, controlling, and evaluating business processes.

41. Event 1: Marketing Event 2: Take Customer Order Event 3: Ship the Goods Event 4: Collect Payment Business Process and Business Events Business Process: Delivering Goods and Collecting Payment

42. Business Process Activities (Events) Decision/ management events Define &Trigger Operating events Trigger Trigger Information events

43. Processes that Trigger Information System Responses Record(event data) Maintain (agent, resource, location data) Business events Information processes Trigger Information Needs of Decision Makers Information processes Report (in many formats) Trigger

44. Process Analysis: Golden Pizza Decision/Management Operating Events Information Events • Analyzing the market, competitors, and customers. • Deciding what pizzas to place on Golden’s menu. • Determine if the cooked pizza is correct for presenting order form. • Receive customer pizza order. • Receive customer payment. • Make pizza. • Deliver pizza to customer. • Generate a customer analysis report. • Generate a report of sales by pizza type. • Generate a gross margin analysis. • Generate a report of lost sales (due to the 20 minutes guarantee.) Trigger Trigger

45. Developing a REAL Business Process Model • REAL Business Process Modeling is a formal method of identifying and representing the essential characteristics that collectively describe business processes and events. • REAL = Resources, Events, Agents, and Locations. • Preparing a REAL Business Process Model requires the identification of strategically significantbusiness activities and essential characteristics about these business activities.

46. Developing a REAL Business Process Model … • Step 1: Understand the organization’s Environment and Objectives • Step 2: Review the business process and identify the strategically significant operating events • Step 3: Analyze each event list in #2 to identify Resources, Events, Agents, and Locations • Step 4: Identify the relevant behaviors, characteristics, and attributes of REAL • Step 5: Identify and document direct relationships within REAL

47. Step 1: Understand The Organization’s Environment and Objectives • REAL modeling is an aid in analyzingan organization and its activities. • Collect data and insights about the organization’s objectives, industry, value chain, strategies, product lines, and customers. • Pay attention to the organization’s people, structure, technologies, and measurements. • A better understanding of these factors will enhance the evaluation of effective and efficient business processes valuable, competitive, meeting the organization’s objectives.

48. Industry The Company Objectives Competitors Strategies Technologies Measurements EconomicForces Value Chain People Capital Technology Products Customers Structure Understanding the Business Environment

49. Step 2: Review the Business Process and Identify the Strategically Significant Operating Events • Begin by dividing the organization into its business processes. “What happened? How and Why? ” • REAL graphical model—include thestrategically significantoperating events that comprise a business process. (The ones that the organization wants to plan, evaluate and execute/or control) • Begin REAL graphical model by representing events with a descriptor.

50. Events Sell merchandise Receive customer payment Step 2 example: MrKool’s Retail Model