Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

1. Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, Fourth Edition

2. Learning Objectives • Describe the activities of the systems analysis life cycle phase • Determine system requirements through review of documentation, interviews, observation, prototypes, questionnaires, vendor research, and joint application design sessions • Describe the difference between functional and nonfunctional system requirements

3. Learning Objectives (continued) • Describe the kind of information that is required to develop system requirements • Identify and understand the different types of users who will be involved in investigating system requirements • Discuss the need for validation of system requirements to ensure accuracy and completeness and the use of a structured walkthrough • Explain the effect of business process reengineering on activities of the analysis phase

4. Overview • Analysis phase of SDLC skills needed • Fact finding for investigation of system requirements • Analyst should learn details of business processes and daily operations • Analyst should become as knowledgeable as business domain users to build credibility • Analyst brings fresh perspective to problem • Modeling of business processes based on system requirements

5. The Activities of the Analysis Phase (Figure 4-1)

6. The Analysis Phase in More Detail • Gather information – Fact Finding • Define system requirements • Functional and nonfunctional • Prioritize requirements • Prototype for feasibility and discovery • Generate and evaluate alternatives • Review recommendations with management

7. Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture (Figure 4-3)

8. Fact-Finding Techniques • The Zachman Framework • Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture • Helps managers and users understand the model and assures that overall business goals translate into successful IT projects

9. Activities of the Analysis Phase and Their Key Questions (Figure 4-2)

10. Fact-Finding • Fact-Finding Overview • First, you must identify the information you need • Develop a fact-finding plan • Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why? • Difference between asking what is being done and what could or should be done

11. Themes for Information-Gathering Questions (Figure 4-7)

12. Fact-Finding Techniques • Review existing reports, forms, and procedure descriptions • Interview and discuss processes with users • Observe and document business processes • Build prototypes • Distribute and collect questionnaires • Conduct joint application design (JAD) sessions • Research vendor solutions

13. Review Existing Reports, Forms, and Procedure Descriptions • Source: External industry-wide professional organizations and trade publications • Source: Existing business documents and procedure descriptions within organization • Identify business rules, discrepancies, and redundancies • Be cautious of outdated material • Obtain preliminary understanding of processes • Use as guidelines/visual cues to guide interviews

14. Sample Order Form for RMO

15. Interviews • Step 1: Determine the People to Interview • Informal structures • Step 2: Establish Objectives for the Interview • Determine the general areas to be discussed • List the facts you want to gather

16. Interviews • Step 3: Develop Interview Questions • Creating a standard list of interview questions helps to keep you on track and avoid unnecessary tangents • Avoid leading questions • Open-ended questions • Closed-ended questions • Range-of-response questions

17. Interviews • Step 4: Prepare for the Interview • Careful preparation is essential because an interview is an important meeting and not just a casual chat • Limit the interview to no more than one hour • Send a list of topics • Ask the interviewee to have samples available

18. Interviews • Step 5: Conduct the Interview • Develop a specific plan for the meeting • Begin by introducing yourself, describing the project, and explaining your interview objectives • Engaged listening • Allow the person enough time to think about the question • After an interview, you should summarize the session and seek a confirmation

19. Interviews • Step 6: Document the Interview • Note taking should be kept to a minimum • After conducting the interview, you must record the information quickly • After the interview, send memo to the interviewee expressing your appreciation • Note date, time, location, purpose of the interview, and the main points you discussed so the interviewee has a written summary and can offer additions or corrections

20. Interviews • Step 7: Evaluate the Interview • In addition to recording the facts obtained in an interview, try to identify any possible biases • Unsuccessful Interviews • No matter how well you prepare for interviews, some are not successful

21. Interviewing and Listening (Cont.)

22. Sample Checklist to Prepare for User Interviews (Figure 4-9)

23. A Sample Open-Items List (Figure 4-11)

24. Interviewing Groups • Drawbacks to individual interviews • Contradictions and inconsistencies between interviewees. • Follow-up discussions are time consuming. • New interviews may reveal new questions that require additional interviews with those interviewed earlier.

25. Interviewing Groups (Cont.) • Interview several key people together • Advantages • More effective use of time. • Can hear agreements and disagreements at once. • Opportunity for synergies. • Disadvantages • More difficult to schedule than individual interviews.

26. Nominal Group Technique (NGT) • A facilitated process that supports idea generation by groups. • Process • Members come together as a group, but initially work separately. • Each person writes ideas. • Facilitator reads ideas out loud, and they are written on a blackboard or flipchart.

27. Nominal Group Technique (NGT) • Group openly discusses the ideas for clarification. • Ideas are prioritized, combined, selected, reduced. • NGT exercise used to complement group meetings or as part of JAD effort.

28. Other Fact-Finding Techniques • Observation • Seeing the system in action gives you additional perspective and a better understanding of the system procedures • Plan your observations in advance • Hawthorne Effect

29. Directly Observing Users • DirectObservation • Watching users do their jobs • Obtaining more firsthand and objective measures of employee interaction with information systems. • Can cause people to change their normal operating behavior. • Time-consuming and limited time to observe.

30. Other Fact-Finding Techniques • Questionnaires and Surveys • When designing a questionnaire, the most important rule of all is to make sure that your questions collect the right data in a form that you can use to further your fact-finding • Fill-in form

31. Other Fact-Finding Techniques • Interviews versus Questionnaires • Interview is more familiar and personal • Questionnaire gives many people the opportunity to provide input and suggestions • Brainstorming • Structured brainstorming • Unstructured brainstorming

32. Other Fact-Finding Techniques • Sampling • Systematic sample • Stratified sample • Random sample • Main objective of a sample is to ensure that it represents the overall population accurately

33. Other Fact-Finding Techniques • Research • Can include the Internet, IT magazines, and books to obtain background information, technical material, and news about industry trends and developments • Site visit

34. Documentation • The Need for Recording the Facts • Record information as soon as you obtain it • Use the simplest recording method • Record your findings in such a way that they can be understood by someone else • Organize your documentation so related material is located easily

35. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents • Document Analysis • Review of existing business documents • Can give a historical and “formal” view of system requirements • Types of information to be discovered: • Problems with existing system • Opportunity to meet new need • Organizational direction

36. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) • Names of key individuals • Values of organization • Special information processing circumstances • Reasons for current system design • Rules for processing data

37. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) • Useful document: Written work procedure • For an individual or work group. • Describes how a particular job or task is performed. • Includes data and information used and created in the process.

38. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.)

39. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) • Potential Problems with Procedure Documents: • May involve duplication of effort. • May have missing procedures. • May be out of date. • May contradict information obtained through interviews.

40. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) • 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.

41. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.)

42. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) • 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

43. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.)

44. Documentation • Software Tools • CASE Tools • Productivity Software • Graphics modeling software • Personal information managers • Wireless communication devices

45. System Requirements Checklist • Outputs • The Web site must report online volume statistics every four hours, and hourly during peak periods • The inventory system must produce a daily report showing the part number, description, quantity on hand, quantity allocated, quantity available, and unit cost of all sorted by part number

46. System Requirements Checklist • Inputs • Manufacturing employees must swipe their ID cards into online data collection terminals that record labor costs and calculate production efficiency • The department head must enter overtime hours on a separate screen

47. System Requirements Checklist • Processes • The student records system must calculate the GPA at the end of each semester • As the final step in year-end processing, the payroll system must update employee salaries, bonuses, and benefits and produce tax data required by the IRS

48. System Requirements Checklist • Performance • The system must support 25 users online simultaneously • Response time must not exceed four seconds

49. System Requirements Checklist • Controls • The system must provide logon security at the operating system level and at the application level • An employee record must be added, changed, or deleted only by a member of the human resources department

50. Define System Requirements Are all of the capabilities and constraints that the new system must meet or Define the functions to be provided by a system. • Analyst divide system requirements into two categories: • Functional requirements: that describes an: • Activities system must perform (use cases) (e.g. Calculate commission amount, calculate payroll tax…etc.) • Based on procedures and business functions • Documented in analysis models (e.g. all new employee must fill out a W-4 form) • Other business rules more difficult to find like an additional 2 percent commission rate is paid to order takers on telephone sales for special promotions