Chapter 3 [ System Analysis And Design] SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

Concept System Analysis: System analysis may be understood as a process of collecting and interpreting facts, identifying problems and using the information to recommend improvements in the system In other word system analysis means identification, understanding and examining the system for achieving pre-determined goals/objectives of the system. The examination of a system or problem with the goal of either improving an existing system or designing and implementing a new one. As a science, systems analysis is related to cybernetics, a branch of engineering that studies the behavior of systems. System analysis is a detailed study of all important business aspects under consideration and the existing system and thus the study becomes a basis for the proposed system (may be a modified or an altogether new system). Objectives of the system analysis are to know how a system currently operates, and to identify the users requirements in the proposed system.

System development life cycle An information system's useful life, after which it is not feasible to repair or expand it and so it must be replaced. Planning Analysis Design Implementation Evaluation

Feasibility Study ( Planning): The first phase of the systems development life cycle is the planning phase, sometimes called the investigation phase. During the planning phase the goals and objectives of the new system are clearly defined. A feasibility study is conducted focusing on the technical, organizational, and economical aspects of the new system. The feasibility study should answer the question "Can the problem be solved?" Once the project is believed feasible, a project plan is developed. The project plan includes: Project team: This is a list of all the people who will participate in the project. This list should include managers, analysts, programmers, and every person who will be involved in developing the new system. A preliminary budget: Creating a budget at the beginning of the project can be a daunting task. It is important to try to gather accurate numbers in order to create realistic expectations. Step by step schedule: Each step of the development cycle should be detailed in a project timeline. The feasibility study looks at three main areas of feasibility: 1. Economic feasibility: Is building the new system cost effective? 2. Operational feasibility: Will the new system be used by people in the organization? 3. Technical feasibility: Is it technically possible to create the new system? Although this topic discusses the planning phase as part of the general systems development life cycle, this phase can be applied to developing an e-business solution for an organization. Some authors refer to this step as Systems Investigation.

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Analys is: The role of the analysis phase is to identify the business requirements for the information system. What needs will it fill? What outputs does it need to generate? Who will use it? How many users will need to use it at the same time? What is an appropriate schedule and budget? Considering all constraints, what is the best solution? There are three crucial steps in the analysis phase: Understand the old system Identify how the old system can be improved Develop specifications for the new system

It is important for the members of the development team to understand the organization-its people, activities, and current information systems. By having a clear understanding of the organization as a whole, the development team will recognize who will be affected by the new system, and how the new system will affect the people in the organization. Three crucial steps in the analysis phase: Understand the old system Identify how the old system can be improved Develop specifications for the new system

Some authors include a feasibility review in this phase, where alternate solutions are analyzed and the best solution is chosen. Although this topic discusses the analysis phase as part of the general systems development life cycle, this phase can be applied to developing an e-business solution for an organization. Design: Once a feasible solution has been selected, the design phase determines system will work. During the design phase, each portion of the designed in detail, including: User interface Data structure Program design

Often, the design phase includes a detailed examination of how accomplishes the goals outlined in the analysis phase. The design with a prototype a working model of the system. The four parts of the design phase: User interface Data structure Program design Prototype a working model of the system.

Some authors include a feasibility review in this phase, alternate solutions are analyzed and the best solution. Although this topic discusses the design phase as general systems development life cycle, this phase to developing an e-business solution for an organization.

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Implementation Implementation phase is to actually create the components of the system and to convert from the old system to the new system. The implementation phase consists of the following steps: Acquire the appropriate hardware and software Develop software Test the system Testing should be an integral part of this phase, ensuring that each component works as it should and that the design plan is being followed. Write documentation Training Conversion when development is complete, it's time to put the system in place.

There are four main conversion methods parallel, pilot, phased, and plunge. Four types of conversion: 1. Parallel conversion: Both the old and new system are used, while the new system is being tested. When the new system is working, the organization stops using the old system. 2. Pilot conversion: A small group of people uses the new system while the rest of the organization continues to use the old system. When the new system is working, the entire organization switches over. 3. Phased conversion: Switching from the old system to the new system one component at a time. 4. Plunge conversion: Switching the entire organization from the old system to the new system at one time. The organization stops using the old system and starts using the new one. Some authors refer to phased conversion as piecemeal conversion. Although this topic discusses the implementation phase as part of the general systems development life cycle, this phase can be applied to developing an e-business solution for an organization. Mainten ance: The work doesn't end with implementation. Ideally, the maintenance until the system is no longer in use. During the maintenance phase, the monitored to ensure that it continues to work properly and meets expectations. Any errors (or "bugs") are found, they are fixed. Also, as requests from Come in, they are analyzed and the system is modified to accommodate needs which may arise. If the new needs cannot be met by the original system, the cycle starts design a significant modification to the system or to implement a new. The first step of the new Systems Development Life Cycle is the Planning which focuses on the overall system changes that need to be made. The continues through each phase until a new system is in place that meets of its users. The Maintenance Phase: 1. Monitor the new system to ensure it is working as expected
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2. Fix an errors (or "bugs") which may be found 3. Modify the system to accommodate any new needs which arise Some authors may refer to this step of the systems development life cycle as the Support Phase, but it is essentially the same phase. Although this topic discusses the maintenance phase as general systems development life cycle, this phase can be to developing an e-business solution for an organization. System Selection Process: Problem identification Performance definition Feasibility study/ analysis System recommendation

Problem Identification: The problem identification is the first stage the system selection process. In this process system analyst is to prepare a written statement of the objectives and scope of the problem. Based on the information gathered from the users, the analyst writes a brief description of his/her understanding of the problem. Proper understanding and definition of a problem is essential to discover the cause of the problem and to plan a proper system to solve the problem. Problem can be about costs, accuracy and reliability, security and so on. Performance definition: performance definition is another important stage of the system selection process. It involves in prediction & expected evaluation in the proposed system. In include the study of the system reliability, system availability and the system security. Feasibility study: The literal meaning of feasibility is validity. Feasibility study is a preliminary study whether the information of prospective user and the resources requirements costs, benefits and feasibility of a proper project are determined. It is basically a high level capsule version of the entire process, intending to answer a number of questions like what is the problem. Is the problem even worth solving? However, as the name indicates in preliminary investigation, feasibility study should be relatively brief, as the objectives at this stage are only to get an idea to the scope. The aim of the feasibility study is to asses alternative systems and to propose the most feasible and desirable system for development. Thus feasibility study provides an overview of the problem and acts as an important checkpoint that should be completed before committing more resources. There are different types of the feasibility study. They are;
i. O r g an iz a ti o n al f e as i b i li ty :

It is (how0 a proposed information system supports the objectives of the organizations strategic plan for information systems determines the organizational feasibility of the system project.
i i. E co no m ic F e a s i bi l it y :

In this study, cost and returns are evaluated to know whether returns justify the investment in the system project. In other word it studies whether the cost saving increased revenue, increased profit, improved the customer service, improved resources utilization, reduction in required investments exceed the cost of developing and operating of different organization.
i ii . T ec hn i c al Fe a s ib i l it y :

It studies whether reliable hardware and software are capable of meeting the needs of a proposed system can be acquired of developed by an organization in the required time is a major concern of the technical feasibility. It include the questions like Does the necessary technology exist to do what is suggested and can it be acquired? Does the proposed equipment have the technical capacity to hold the data required to use the new system?
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Will the proposed system provide adequate responses to inquires, regardless of the number of locations and users? Can the system be expanded? Is there any technical security of accuracy, reliability, ease of access and data security?

iv . O p e r at io n a l F e a s ib i l it y:

It is the study of the willingness and ability of management employee, customer, and suppliers to operate, use support a proposed system. The following are the questions are asked in operational feasibility; Is there sufficient support from the management? From employees? From customers? From suppliers? Are current business methods acceptable to the users? Have the users been involved in the planning and development of the system project? Examples of how a feasibility study might measure the feasibility of a proposed ecommerce system. Organizational Feasibility How well a proposed e-commerce system fits the companys plans for developing sales, marketing, and financial e-business system.

Economic Feasibility Saving in labor costs Increased sales revenue Decrease investment in inventory Increased profits

Technical Feasibility Capability, reliability and availability of e-commerce hardware, software, and website management services.

Operational Feasibility Acceptance of employees Management support Customer and supplier acceptance

System Design: It is one of the most important aspects of the system development process, where it deciding how a proposed information system will meet the information needs of end users. Include logical and physical design activities, and user interface, data, process design activities that produce system specifications that satisfy the system requirements developed in the system analysis stage. A system is designed with the following main objectives; Practicality: The system should be in such a way that it may be learnt and operated with ease by the users. Thus the design should be user-oriented. Flexibility: The business organizations are dynamic in nature. Therefore, a system must be responsible to the change inevitably requested by its users. Efficiency: a system must efficient, i.e. it should perform jobs within their specific time. The efficiency of a system may be measured in terms of throughput (ability to handle a specific number of jobs per unit of time.), response time (ability to respond to a request made by the user within a given tome limit), and the run time (ability to undertake the complete job within a given time limit). Security: this aspect relates to hardware reliability, physically security of the data and the detection and prevention of fraud and abuse of data. .
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What prompts a new system? The development of a new information system is a major undertaking and not one to be undertaken light1y. Businesses must adapt new system to remain competitive. Some of the reasons for introducing a new system may be: The current systern may be no longer suitable for its purpose. Changes in work processes, expansion of the business, changes in business requirements or the environment in which the organisation operates may all lead to a reassessment of information system requirements. Technological developments may have made the current system redundant or outdated. Advances in hardware, software and telecommunications bring new opportunities, which an organisation cannot ignore if it is to keep ahead of its rivals. The current system may be too inflexible or expensive to maintain, or may reduce the organisation's ability to respond quickly enough to customer's demands.

At the end of the millennium, many businesses with old systems that were susceptible to the 'millennium bug' took the opportunity to install new systems, which would provide better information, rather than spend money on having external consultants patch up their old system. System Development Life Cycle The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in an information system development project from an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application. Various SDLC methodologies have been developed to guide the processes involved including the waterfall model (the original SDLC method), rapid application development (RAD), joint application development (JAD), the fountain model and the spiral model. Mostly, several models are combined into some sort of hybrid methodology. Documentation is crucial regardless of the type of model chosen or devised for any application, and is usually done in parallel with the development process. Some methods work better for specific types of projects, but in the final analysis, the most important factor for the success of a project may be how closely particular plan was followed. Feasibility Study Documentation System Analysis

Debugging and Testing

System Design

Compilation and Execution

Coding

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Feasibility study Once a problem has been recognized and identified, the feasibility study is the first stage of the systems life cycle. The scope and objectives of the proposed system must be written down. The aim of the feasibility study is to understand the problem and to determine whether it is worth proceeding. There are five main factors to be considered: Technical feasibility means investigating whether the technology exists to implement the proposed system, or whether this is a practical proposition Economic feasibility has to do with establishing the cost-effectiveness of the proposed system - if the benefits do not outweigh the costs, then it is not worth going ahead. Legal feasibility determines whether there is any conflict between the proposed system and legal requirements - for example, will the system contravene the Data Protection act? Operational feasibility is concerned with whether the current work practices and procedures are adequate to support the new system. It is also concerned with social factors - how the organisational change will affect the working lives of those affected by the system. Schedule feasibility looks at how long the system will take to develop, or whether it can be done in a desired time-frame.

The completion of this stage is marked by the production of a feasibility report produced by the systems analyst. If the report concludes that the project should go ahead, and this is agreed by senior managers, detailed requirements analysis will proceed. Analys is/Requir ements an alys is The second phase of systems analysis is a more detailed investigation into the current system and the requirements of the new system. It is the job of the systems analyst to find out what the user's requirements are, to find out about current methods and to assess the feasibility of the new proposed system. Gathering details about the current system may involve: interviewing staff at different levels of the organisation from the end-users to senior management. examining current business and systems documents and output. These may include current order documents, computer systems procedures and reports used by operations and senior management. sending out questionnaires and analysing responses. The questions have to be carefully constructed to elicit unambiguous answers. observation of current procedures, by spending time in various departments. A time and motion study can be carried out to see where procedures could be made more efficient, or to detect where bottlenecks occur.

The systems analyst's report will examine how data and information flow around the organisation , and may use data flow diagrams to document the flow. It will also establish precisely, and in considerable detail, exactly what the proposed system will do (as opposed to how it will do it).It will include an in-depth anaiysis of the costs and benefits, and outline the process of system implementation, including the organisational change required. It must establish who the end-users are, what information they should get and in what form and how it will be obtained. Alternative options for the implementation of the project will be suggested. These could include suggestions for: whether development should be done in-house or using consultants; what hardware configurations could be considered; what the software options are.

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Systems design In this second step in programming process in which, we start designing a problem. This process may involve preparing algorithms, drawing flowcharts and constructing pseudo codes. Database design, normalization process, decision table and decision table is also prepared in this part of system development.
Sy st em s fl o wc h a rt s

When a systems analyst is developing a new computer system, his or her ideas need to be written down. Frequently a pictured representation of how the system will work is easier to understand and take in than a lengthy text. A systems flowchart is a diagram showing an overview of a complete system. It will show: the tasks to be carried out in the new system, whether manual or by the computer; the devices (disk drives, tape drives, terminals etc.) that are to be used in the system; the media used for input, storage and output; The files used by the system.

You should be familiar with the standard symbols used in systems flowcharts.
Pr og r a m d es i g n

This involves drawing hierarchy charts and structure charts and writing detailed program specifications. This is followed by algorithm design and pseudo code before the program is coded in the chosen programming language. Coding The coding is the process of transforming the program logic design into a computer language format. This stage translates the program design into computer instructions using some programming languages like C, C++, JAVA, .NET, etc. It can be said that coding is the act of transforming operations in each box of the flowchart in terms of the statement of the programming. The knowledge of computer programming language is necessary to write coding. The code written using programming language is also known as source code. During coding of program, the programmer should eliminate all syntax and format errors from the program and all logical errors are detected and resolved during this process. The task of coding is only 20-30% of total task to be done to solve a problem using computer. Compilation and Execution After the coding of the program, it must be compiled. Compilation process does many important jobs in programming. Some of them are listed below: First job of compilation process is to test the program whether it contains errors or not. Grammatical errors (syntax error) are traced in compilation process. The source code (original program written by programmed in editor) is converted into intermediate also known as object code (machine code not ready to be executed). There is another step called linking, which links with other object code (precompiled code) and library functions with the object code.

The linking process creates final program that is ready to be executed. This executable program is loaded into memory for execution. During the execution the program may ask user for inputs and it generates the output after processing the inputs. Debugging and testing Debugging is the discovery and correction of programming errors. Even after taking full care in program design and coding, some errors may remain in the program because the designer/programmer might have never thought about a particular case. These errors may appear during compilation or linking or execution of the program. When the error is appeared the debugging is necessary. Testing is the process of examining an application to ensure it fulfills the requirements for which it was designed and meets quality expectations. More importantly, testing ensures the application meets customer expectations. The need for testing is the process of running a system with the intention of finding errors.
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Testing enhances the integrity of a system by detecting deviations in design and errors in the system. Testing aims at detecting error-prone areas. This helps in the prevention of errors in a system. Testing also adds value to the product by conforming to the user requirements. Program testing and debugging are closely related. The different tools like simulators, logic analyzers, breakpoints trance routines, software interrupts can be used for effective debugging process. For testing process, test data are supplied to the program and output is observed. If the output is as expected, the program can be considered error free. The sample of real data can also be used for testing the program correctly. Documentation Documentation describes an information system and helps the users, managers, and IT staff who must interact with it. Accurate documentation can reduce system downtime, reduce costs, and speed up maintenance tasks. Documentation is essential for successful system operation and maintenance. In addition to supporting a systems users, accurate documentation is essential for IT staff members who must modify the system, add a new feature, or perform maintenance. Documentation includes program documentation, system documentation, operations documentation, and user documentation.
Pr o g r a m d oc um e n ta ti o n :

It describes the inputs, outputs, and processing logic for all program modules. The program documentation process starts in the system analysis phase and continues during system implementation. Systems analysts prepare overall documentation, such as process description and report layouts, early in the SDLC. This documentation guides programmers, who construct modules that are well supported by internal and external comments and descriptions that can be understood and maintained easily. A system analyst usually verifies that program documentation is complete and accurate.
Sy st em do cu m en t at i on :

System documentation describes the systems functions and how they are implemented. System documentation includes data dictionary entries, data flow diagrams, object models, screen layouts, source documents, and the systems request that initiated the project. System documentation is prepared during the systems analysts and system design phase. During the systems implementation phase, an analyst must review prior documentation to verify that it is complete, accurate, and up to date, including any changes made during the implementation process. For example, if a screen or report has been modified, the analyst must update the documentation. Updates to the system documentation should be made in a timely manner to prevent oversights.
U se r do cu me nt a t i on :

User documentation consists of instructions and includes user manuals, Help screen, and tutorials. Programmers or systems analysts usually create program documentation and system documentation. To produce effective and clear user documentation and hence have successful project you need someone with expert skills in this area doing the development, just as you need someone with expert skills developing the software. The skill set required to develop documentation usually is not the same as that to develop a system. System Approach It is a problem solving approach. Analyzing a problem and formulating solutions involves the following interrelated activities: Recognize and define a problem or opportunity using system thinking. Develop and evaluate alternative system solution. Select the system solution that best meets the requirement. Design the selected system solution. Implementation and evaluate the success of the designed system.

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Prototyping Approach Prototyping approach is the rapid development and testing of working model of new application in an interactive, iterative process that can be used by IS specialists and business professionals. It makes the development process faster and easier especially for projects where end user requirements are hard to define. Sometimes it is also called as rapid application design RAD). It is an early, rapidly constructed working version of the proposed information system. User input and approval is essential at every stage of the system development process. Prototyping allows user to examine a model that accurately represents system outputs, inputs, interfaces, and processes. Users can test-drive the model and either approved it or request changes. In some situations, the prototype evolves into the final version of the information system; in order cases, the prototype is intended only to validate user requirements and is discarded afterward. Benefits of prototyping Users and system developers can avoid misunderstandings. System developers can create accurate specification for the finished system based on the prototype. Managers can evaluate a working model more effectively than a paper specification. System analyst can use a prototype to develop testing and training procedures before the finished system is available. Prototyping reduces the risks and potential financial exposure that occur when a finished system fails to support business needs. Ability to try-out ideas without incurring large cost. The ability to get a functioning system into the hands of the user quickly. Reduce application development time to achieve a functioning system. Effective division of labor between the user professional and the MIS professional. Lower overall development costs when requirements change frequently.

Steps in prototyping approach

St ep 1. Id e nt if y t h e b a s ic us e r s i nf o rm a ti o n r e qu i re m e nt

In this stage the user articulate his or her needs in terms of output from the system. The designer responsibility is to technically analyze the needs of user and to estimate the cost of developing the operational prototype. The basic moles are simple. The objective of this stage is to develop functional interactive application system that meets the users basic stated information requirements. The responsibility of the developer is to build the system by using programming language. The initial prototype responds only to users basic requirements, it is understood to be incomplete. The early prototype is delivered to the user. This step allows user to gain hands on experience with the system. It helps user to understand his or her information needs and helps to user to know what the system does and does not meet those needs. The user rather than the designer decides about the changes to be made and thus controls the overall development time. The designer makes requested changes as per the user need.

St ep 2. D e ve l op t h e i n it i a l p r oto ty p e

St ep 3. U se of t h e pr ot ot yp e sy st em to r e fi n e t he u se r s

St ep 4. Re vi s e an d en h a nc e t he p rot o typ e sy st e m.

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